SPAIN
2009
Day
5 May 14
Thursday
From
Vitoria to San
Sebastian - Pamplona
We
were on the bus by 8:00 am to leave Vitoria. It
was cold and rainy. We had our
jackets but our sweaters were packed—another disadvantage of traveling on a
bus rather than in a car. Some
people were less prepared with no jacket or sweater. llll
We arrived in Bilbao at 9:15 AM, and walked around the outside of the
Guggenheim Museum. It was quite different. There were several exhibits
on the outside, the great spider and the huge dog made of flowers. We
went inside when the doors opened at 10: 00 . All of the art is very
modern. I didn't particularly care for it, but my
wife loved it. The 1,260,980 – sq.ft. building is the focal point of a
$1.5 billion redevelopment plan for the city.The internationally
acclaimed Frank Gehry design features a 165 ft atrium. Stretching under
the Puennte de la Salve Bridge and incorporating it in his design, the
Museum has a towering roof reminiscence of a blessing blossoming
metallic flower.
Our next stop was the town of
San Sebastian. We saw a lot of mountains on the way. It was still
raining a little but there were signs of clearing up. San Sebastian is
known as "Pearl of the Cantabri
an
Coast". This was our lunch stop on her own. Everyone went in different
directions. We were walking with a young lady and her mother, and found
a nice café for lunch. The waitress didn't speak or understand English
very well, and we had trouble with Spanish. The young lady was asking
about a particular item on the menu and theiw aitress went
"quack, quack" so she ordered the duck. I had a steak in French fries,
but the steak was very thin and t
ough.
My wife had lasagna and it was better. We didn't have much time to
explore the town or to see the Cathedral. Another disappointment.
Back to the bus to Pamplona. We saw some beautiful
scenery between San Sebastian and Pamplona even though it was very cloudy and
rainy.
Since it was cool and the hotel was a little way from the historic area, Kaye
took us there first. We saw the square and walked the route of the "running of
the bulls ".
We
could only see the outside of the bullring. We had a few minutes to shop. We
checked at the hotel Iruna Park. We had a nice room. We went outside and found
an English pub where we had drinks before dinner. My wife had visited Pamplona
43 years ago during the festival of St. Fermin, as a college adventure
We
had the cathedral on our list as a beautiful example of Spanish architecture,
but unfortunately we did not get to visit it.
There was not enough time after we checked into the hotel to go back into
town before dinner. Since we
had visited the town before arriving at the hotel we couldn’t remain near the
cathedral and then expect to find the hotel on our own.
This was another cathedral disappointment.
So far we are not having much luck visiting the cathedrals that we had
hoped to see on the trip. We have been on the
road two 
days and have only visited one of the four cathedrals we had
anticipated seeing thus far. We were rather discouraged about the trip at
this point.
Ernest
Hemingway's descriptions of the running of the bulls,during the festival of St.
Firmin in his 1927 novel, The Sun
Also Rises, made Pamplona known throughout the world. The riotous festival usually
begins on July 6th and last until July 14- The Feast of St. James.
Pamplona
became the capital of Navarre in the 10th century. Its golden age was during the
reign of Charles III (called "the Noble"), who gave it its cathedral,
where he was eventually buried. Over the years, the city has been the scene of
many battles, with various factions struggling for control. Those who lived in
the Old Quarter, the Navarrería, wanted to be allied with Castile, whereas
those on the outskirts favored a French connection. Castile eventually won out,
although some citizens of Navarre today want Pamplona to be part of a newly
created country of the Basque lands.
We
had a good dinner in the hotel dining room.
There was a pitcher of Sangria on each table.
Our first course was a plate of green beans with ham.
The main course was duck and potatoes.
This was my first experience with duck.
It was delicious. We had a
mousse for dessert.
