My Whirlwind Basque Country Tour

At the end of April, I had a three day weekend because of the “May Day” (Worker’s Day) holiday. A friend and I decided we wanted to see another part of Spain that we had never been to before. We decided to travel up north to the Basque region of Spain. We went to Pamplona, Vitoria, and Logroño. We also made a stop in a small village before heading to Logroño. The Basque region definitely has a different vibe than what I am used to in Catalunya so it was something good to experience.

Pamplona

Pamplona was what I was most excited to see. It’s world famous for the annual Running of the Bulls, or La Corrida (although be careful because I was told corrida also means something else …). It’s quite a small and quiet town when there are no bulls running through the streets, but it’s cool to think of what it must be like in the summer when that happens. You can visit the outside of the bull ring and you can see the area where the bulls are kept before they run to the ring. I’d love to see the bulls run, but I think the whole event is a little sad (which is now a huge debate in Spain over whether to keep the tradition or not).

Pamplona is one of the stops along the route of the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage route that leads to Compostela de Santiago where it is rumored that St. James is buried. For this reason, there are a lot of pilgrims walking around with their huge back packs, walking sticks, and walking gear. There are a lot of hostels and shops made specifically for the pilgrims. There is also a famous cathedral in the city that many pilgrims visit.

The cathedral, personally, was ok. There wasn’t anything too particularly fancy about it and we paid more than it was worth to visit it. There were also parts that were trying to tell the visitors that society has lost its way with religion and we are all basically sinners. But, for an hour or so, it was a good way to kill time.

The city has very beautiful scenery surrounding it. There are lots of mountains and rolling green hills. At four in the afternoon, we stopped a little restaurant. I had a Coke and my friend had a caña, or a beer, while we just enjoyed the nature.

Also surrounding the city is a citadel, a bunch of walls to form a fort to protect the city. You can walk all along the citadel and inside it. There is also a part that has some animals, like peacocks, chickens, and ducks walking around. We watched the peacocks chase the peahens around for a good thirty minutes.

The most famous ex-pat of Pamplona is Ernest Hemingway. He wrote his book The Sun Also Rises in the Café Iruñe, which is where we ate breakfast at in the morning. There are many statues and street names dedicated to the famous American writer. It made me desire to be like him … an ex-pat finding life better in Spain.

Pamplona is a small, yet beautiful city. It is a little sleepy, but it also is full of life when the people finish school and work. I think it can all be seen in a day, so I’m glad we didn’t stay longer. It’s definitely worth a visit to see one of the most famous Spanish cities.

Vitoria-Gasteiz 

The two named city. Vitoria is the Spanish version of the name and Gasteiz is the Basque version. Vitoria is the capital of the País Vasco region. Technically, Pamplona is not part of the official Basque country, but they do have Basque speakers there. Vitoria is officially Basque. There is always Spanish and Basque writing around. Unlike Catalan where I can more of less decipher the meaning, I have no idea what people are saying in Basque.

My first tip for Vitoria is to look around for a good place to eat first. We were hungry, so we just stopped at a restaurant that was themed for the local soccer/football team (which we later watched draw 1-1 against our local team here in Tarragona, Gimnàstic de Tarragona in June). The food was mediocre and I wished we had gone for something better.

The city was incredibly quiet. We arrived in the early afternoon and there was no one walking around the city. During lunch time and then the “siesta” hours, there were practically no people walking around. It was also incredibly cold. It was nearly May, but it was so windy and a little rainy, so we were trying to find places to get warm.

There are two cathedrals that are in the city. One is just outside the main area, but it is a newer cathedral built within the past few centuries, but in the Gothic style to look older. There is another in the main part of the city, but it is undergoing repairs, so it doesn’t look very beautiful. We didn’t go into either cathedral because we didn’t think it was worth it to pay the entrance fee.

We didn’t do much in Vitoria. We walked around, we went into El Corté Inglés, we walked around some more. At night, we decided to check out the pinxos. Everywhere was packed with people. For someone who doesn’t like tight spaces, it was a bit uncomfortable trying to stuff myself in to order the food. I also wasn’t extremely hungry, but my friend at A LOT.

Laguardia and Logroño

On our third and final day in the north of Spain, we first visited a small town called Laguardia and then crossed over to the La Rioja region to go to Logroño. We missed the bus we wanted to take out of Vitoria because we were trying to be clever, so we had to cut part of our day short.

We stopped in the small town of Laguardia, which is one of the most beautiful pueblos in Spain. The thing I liked most about this place was that it was the home to a Spanish writer who shares a surname with my great-grandmother. We don’t know much about her ancestry, so I like to think our family came from this part of Spain. The town is very small, but it was busy and full of people. There was a nice look out point to look over the landscape. For one euro, you can climb to the top of some stairs and look out of the landscape, too. There are a lot of really good restaurants and cafés, as well. We stopped at one place to eat a snack before going to Logroño and it was magnificent!

We then made our way to Logroño. We had a small amount of time there because we had to be sure to make our train. Logroño is mainly known for its food. There isn’t a lot to see around the city, but there are pinxos bars everywhere. I wasn’t feeling very hungry again, but my friend wanted to taste everything the city had to offer. He tried some pretty nasty stuff, but he enjoyed every moment.

There was one part where we crossed the bridge in the city and there was a small little park that was devoted to science for the kids. The best part was on the spinning carousel type thing when my friend nearly fell off trying to get out. I am mad I wasn’t video taping it!

One day I’d like to visit more of the Basque country, like Bilbao and San Sebastian. We visited the smaller cities in the region, but it was still great to experience. Saying that, it was also great to be back in Tarragona again when we went back.