We finally made the trip.  What a vacation!  We saw Spain in sunlight and in the rain in the spring.  There was a pleasant surprise around every corner.  If you go there you will leave behind the modern world.  Most of the doors that you pass through were standing centuries before the Declaration of Independence.  We crossed over an ethereal bridge built by the Romans, still standing.  We stayed in a parador which dates back to the 13th century.  We traveled along the route of the pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela, a trail that has been hiked since the 9th century.  The north of Spain was the last holdout of Christianity where the king laid plans to drive the Moors out for good (reconquista).  The following album will give you a good idea of some of the exciting things you can do when you visit the Basque country.

WE April 4-5 (2000) - A 2-hour delay in fielding another Saab to replace the one that had mechanical problems cut into our layover at Heathrow (6 hours).  Don't try to take your luggage on the Saab to JFK since the overhead racks will only take a brief case.  We were fortunate enough to get a sympathetic bus driver to drive us and a Japanese couple to the other end of the terminal at JFK to the international gate in the rain.  Without his help, we wouldn't have made our flight to Heathrow.  Close call that one.

The Guggenheim looms like a battleship at twilight next to the river Nervion.
These 5 flames would scare the pants off you if you weren't ready for them.
The Gugg's doggie has to be watered every morning with a fire hose from a cherry picker.
Jogger passing by the Gugg.

TH 4-6 - Arrived in Bilbao at 2:55PM.  It was a bright, sunny day for our bus ride into the city.  We checked into our hotel and I had plenty of time while Linda napped to walk over the Zubizuri bridge to the Guggenheim at sunset.  It seems that the Gugg in New York City had enough art for them to franchise five new museums around the world.  While filming the architecture of Frank Gehry at twilight, I was startled by one of the special features of the museum's design that you don't read about.  The roar of five man-high gas flames set at the level of the reflecting pond roars at the back of the building every twenty minutes.  An unexpected show.  The next night a designer was using these flames as a backdrop for filming her fashions.

FR 4-7 - Linda and I had plenty of time to take in the Gugg which opened at 10AM.  Though the skin is an undulating battleship of non-vertical titanium panels, it contained an unbelievable number of large galleries and one convention hall.  One of the galleries housed the permanent collection of course including the likes of Miro, Arp and Rothko, another an exhibit of Francesco Clemente, another an exhibit of the works of American David Salle and yet another featured a multimedia extravaganza called "The Tower Wounded by Lightning."  Many of the paintings were 100 inches or more in size.  The convention hall showed an unbelievable collection of motorcycles.  Hell's Angels would be right at home here.

SA 4-8 - Took the Metro Bilbao to the Avis rental agency.  The fare was 140 Pta.  Arrived at Alameda del doctor Arielza at 10AM.  Saturday was a really good time to begin a driving tour in Spain on roads that you are not familiar with.  Every speed demon in Spain is asleep.  The streets were essentially deserted and we were able to go slow enough to read road signs.  We got onto the A68 for Haro flawlessly.  We got to this sleepy town and sought out the i (Tourist Information Office).  Look for these offices when you come into a new town.  Often you will have to look for the signs with the blue P on them for parking first.  The girl there spoke fairly good English and filled us in on the details about the Haro area.  There are 17 Bodegas but only one of them was open for a tour at this time and the tour was about to begin in a few minutes at noon.  We decided to walk the streets instead and found a wine shop where we purchased a bottle of Longrande Rioja 1996, winner of the silver medal in a competition in France in 1999.  I wasn't sure that I liked this wine at first but as the week wore on I really thought it was great.  The girl at the i also recommended a hotel at Logroño, the town that we planned to stay in that night.  She made us a reservation and there was no turning back.

Storks, you see 'em everywhere.
Santa Maria la Redonda

Logroño - We finally found Residencia La Numantina near the old city.  Saturday night had a bonus that I have seen before in Madrid and have come to enjoy, la marcha (nightlife).  It seems that all 130,000 residents turn out for the Saturday night stroll all around the old city.  The focus of all this excitement is the Calle Laurel with the highest concentration of inviting tapas bars and a large but sedate crowd of strollers - a wonderful Spanish tradition.  Next morning we watched the cafe across the street begin to fill up with the remnants of the strollers.  What they say about Madrileños may be true for all Spaniards, they rarely sleep.  At 6AM we joined the crowd at the cafe and had our breakfast.

6-arched Roman bridge
Pilgrim on the trail to Compostela
Sycamores frame Iglesia del Crucifijo
Church of Santiago

SU 4-9 - We drove like the wind along the N111.  I insisted that we stop at Puente La Reina so that we wouldn't miss the six-arched Roman bridge and the twelfth century Church of Saint James.  As we crossed the ethereal bridge along came a number of hikers and bikers for this was the trail of the pilgrimage from Central Europe to Santiago de Compostela hundreds of miles away on the Atlantic coast of Spain.  We began to get the first inkling of the mystical landscapes that we would experience in green Spain.  We peeked in at the door of the Church of Santiago and of course Mass was in full swing.  We wandered along the streets and found a store where we bought some supplies, fruit and wine.  I took a picture of the 12th century Romanesque Iglesia del Crucifijo framed by the ever-present sycamore trees.  In this region, they pollard the trees and weave the branches together until they weld together into a dense tent of foliage over the town squares.  We returned to the Church of Santiago to see the altarpiece and the statue of Santiago as a pilgrim.

Royal Palace in Olite
Linda and armored knight
11th century Church of Santa Maria
Santa Maria at night

SU 4-9 - Driving across country toward Tafalla (pronounced Tah-fah-yah), we arrived at one of my optionals that afternoon.  Linda was insistent that we go to Olite.  Quite a bit out of our way but women's intuition led us to the high point of our trip.  We just walked in to the Parador de Olite (Navarra) and got a room.  In season we would have had to reserve for a minimum of 3 days.  A crowd was bustling around the rest of the 8th century Olite Royal Palace of Carlos III next door.  This 1950s reconstruction had crenellated towers, walls perforated by arches and a garden suspended up higher than I've ever seen.  In the square below, the crowd was enjoying traditional Basque music, the sound of bagpipes wailed up to the highest tower of the palace.  Later we would listen as leaders gave speeches to roil up the locals for an impending strike.  As we wandered around the town, every narrow alley seemed to frame a view of a church or a castle.  These Spanish have style.

Monday 4-10 - Olite was our home base for two days.  Next day we drove cross country again, avoiding the superhighways, and visited Sadaba and Uncastillo across the river Aragon.  It was raining, a perfect day to visit the 12th century castle on a crag which turned out be an archeological site really.  The Spanish government seems to put up powerful spotlights even around ruins.  Linda picked up her polished red stone to add to the pond in our courtyard.  My poncho turned out to be more like a nylon serape and did not hold out water.  We had to find an umbrella.  Stopping at the local bar, full of townspeople doing their morning gossiping, we had some coffee and got directions to the other establishment in town, a general store.  The secret word was paragua and we had a serviceable umbrella which we were to need a lot in the next few days.

Javier
Parador at Sos

  It was on to the fortified church near where St. Francis Xavier, patron saint of Navarre, was born.  I guess every school child in Spain is bussed there along with church groups.  After crossing back into Navarre, at lunchtime we ended up at the Parador at Sos del Rey Catolico.  We had a pleasant lunch of lamb shanks and started home.  Nice view from fortress walls but the Parador was not half as impressive as the one at Olite. Linda drove us into a small village called Leache which was all dead ends that ended up in farm yards.  Finally, I had to get out of the car and walk in the rain to try to find the way out of this maze.  We saw few people in these small villages.  Probably watching TV.  Took a wonderful long nap and went down to dinner.  Later that evening we were to meet Patrick Moran, an Englishman who had worked in Psychological Warfare Department under General Eisenhower, who "loved" Americans.  He gave us a valuable description of St. Jean de Luz, which we were later to include in our plans.

Gate the pilgrims exit through.
River Nive at full force.
Pan of St. Jean

TU 4-11 - Next rainy day, we whizzed along the A15 to just north of Pamplona.  Asking directions twice, we finally found our way along the winding C135 to the small town of Roncesvalles (Rawn-ceh-vah-yeh) in the Pyrenees.  You literati will remember that pass in the mountains where Roland and his army were slain and became immortalized in the Song of Roland.  As we parked, we were to see many rain soaked pilgrims starting down the road.  We went in to the bar there and enjoyed lunch.  I had the jamon plate and vino tinto.  The bar tender lit the fire and along came one of the guardia for a morning snack.  Quite pleasant!  Crossing into France is uneventful.  When we got to St. Jean Pied-de-Port we went to the Office de Touriste.  Very little English was spoken and Linda had a chance to  try her French.  Most hotels were closed but we found La Central Hotel and the innkeeper was somewhat apologetic about the roaring waterfall below our window.  She offered us another room but who would give up a room that Sherlock Holmes would be delighted with.  We had a very expensive lunch at Relais La Nive ($45).  The view is great but the food was not good.  We walked the walled city and bought some linens for our relatives.  Later, we had dinner at our hotel which turned out to be very good.  It was veal with wonderful appetizers.  Our room was decorated in Art Deco and the hotel had a beautiful 18th century staircase.

Cliffs overlook the sea
The Obispo was a beauty.
The fortified walls
Hondarribia's website features my picture of that Spanish town's rooftoops.
France across the harbor

WE 4-12 - Drove the scenic route through Pays Basque along D918 along the River Nive to St-Jean-De-Luz.  The town was blessed with a bay full of lovely blue green water and a white sand beach.  The waves rushed right up to the wall and sent spray way up wetting us up to our necks as we strolled past.  It was lucky for us that we were wearing our rain gear.  Then I wasted some tape trying to capture French people getting wet with the sea water.  We ate the bread we bought in the supermarket, a great crusty bread, topped with Leger Gourmand cheese, and washed down with vino tinto.  The drive was beautiful, with high cliffs facing the sea.  In the lovely seaport town of Hondarribia the Parador was fully booked but they recommended the Hotel Obispo just down the street.  The Obispo was located in another meticulously restored palace within the walled city.  After a nap, we had dinner at 9PM in the Antxing Restaurant across from the Parador.  We both had steaks and french fries.  Fine but we found the restaurant of our dreams nearby on our evening stroll, Restaurant Sebastian.  

TH 4-13 - After a good breakfast at the hotel, we took off to see the town of Hondarribia.  While we were walking along the quay we discovered that a ferry was about to cross the bay to Hendaye, France.  We took the ferry and walked the beaches where surfers were challenging themselves with waves that rolled and rolled.  This place was obviously the choice for surfers in Europe judging from the license plates.  We stopped at the Marco Polo restaurant for some ice cream and a rude waiter made us change tables since our table was set for dinner.  France is very different from Spain, zero hospitality was Linda's interpretation.  Later, after a wonderful nap at our hotel Obispo, we ate at the Restaurant Sebastian which blended cozy Basque ambience with fine cuisine.  They brought us a small bottle of white for Linda and red for Dave so we were quite tipsy when we left (speak for your self Linda) and sang "Singing in the Rain" back to our hotel.  I even spun my umbrella and did a mock Gene Kelly shuffle as we went up the steps to the hotel.

Falls behind Cultural Center
Mungia has Moorish influence

FR 4-14 - We drove along the little yellow line on the map that clung to the cliffs and meandered under tunnels in the mountains with a view of the Bay of Biscay that is unbelievable.  From there we drove along the A8 to just south of Guernica.  We bore left at Mugica to the little town of Mungia and signed in at the Hotel Torrebillela.  This was a nice hotel in a lovely old town on the other side of the airport from Bilbao.  We walked the streets, had a light lunch and took our nap.  Later, at the recommendation of the hotel, we ate at a restaurant called the Caceteria where we did not have enough pesetas to pay, and had to take a few items off of our order.  Good thing too, since all of the items were very large.  Linda ate nearly a whole chicken.

SA 4-15 - Got up early to leave for the airport.  Had a quick breakfast of coffee and rolls.  Finally figured out where to drop off our faithful Chrysler, and waited for our plane.  On our flight from Heathrow to JFK we overlooked the bleak, snow covered landscape of Greenland and northern Canada.  Again the little "American Eagle" to RDU was horrible.  They left luggage in the rain and we were stuck on the bus waiting for people to disembark.  Finally made it home at 1AM Sunday morning.  Mozart was very glad to see us.

The cost for this trip for two, in the final analysis after all the charges cleared, was $1,537.  Very reasonable, I think.  At the time the US dollar was worth 173.144 pesetas.