Touring Northern Spain and Portugal along the Camino, Oct.-Nov. 2022

With a Road Trip to Lisbon

Tuesday October 11, 2022; Our hotel in Bilbao, NYX Hotel, is neat and up-to-date but tiny, making me think I am back in Tokyo. However the amenities were minimal and not well thought out. No chair suitable for the tiny desk. On our first morning we are met by cool (cold) rain, which turned out to be a frequent occurrence all across northern Spain. Despite the rain, we toured downtown and drove to a high scenic hilltop, Mount Artxanda, looking down on the city and the Nervión River estuary to the sea a few miles distant. When the Bessemer steel process was discovered, perhaps rediscovered and refined in the 1850s it preferred richer than run-of-the-mill iron ore, plentiful around Bilbao. Extensive ore mining, processing and shipment to England is deep in the history and shaping of prior Bilbao. The Eiffel Tower was a benefactor of this new and cheaper steel process as was many Eiffel bridges we later found across northern Spain and Portugal. In the 21th century Bilbao is transitioning from an industrial mining locale to a tourist centric destination. Auto traffic is restricted, parking even more so, while walking and bike and public trolley is emphasized. Also unusual new municipal and commercial structures down town up on pillars so you can walk around (out of the rain) beneath interspersed with some unusual art. Spain Photo Album

(Photos: A link near the end of a section will take you to the photo album related to the section, while interspersed links take you to photos related to the narrative context. - use Cntl or Shift click to show in new tab or window respectively)

For the past couple decades Bilbao teases the mystique of the famous Guggenheim Museum. It is a very striking work of geometric art from the outside. Inside is a huge exposed framework of steel and almost no art. But outside, hanging on that steel frame is a work of twisted and textured titanium sheeting. One hardly need to go inside to get the most of the museum in the building and some outside décor including a huge flower clad dog statue. The museum did have one technology that I’ve oft wished to be more prevalent. At entry you download a smart phone app. Then as you pass the exhibits, you select the description from the cloud, perhaps by exhibit number, on your phone in your language, and hear it in your own wireless earphones, it didn’t work! Despite lots of ‘help’ from the museum staff. The beautiful curved Zubizuri walking bridge between our hotel and the Guggenheim apparently became somewhat controversial. After construction in 1997 It’s sloped glass floor, becoming slippery when wet, led to some falls and claims against the city. Mitigations to prevent this led to confrontations and sullying the reputation of the bridge.

Thursday we visited Guernica in the heart of Basque country to see Picasso’s famous “Guernica Mural” and see the unusual Guernica oaks and the government hall that survived hours of Luftwaffe bombing that pulverized the remainder of the village. Also we had an hour with an active separatist discussing the Basque separatist view point. On the return trip to Bilbao we took a route to cross an unusual “bridge” constructed over the river in a fashion reminiscent of a ski lift crossing a mountain canyon. A clever scheme to allow for large ship traffic without building the high bridge entry towers.

Friday October 14; Today a few hours stop at San Sebastian on the route to Pamplona. San Sabastian has a nice open beach sheltered by off shore Isla de Santa Clara in the Bay of Biscay – but absent the trees and rock outcropping of Hawaii or Aussie beaches. An architecturally attractive treater and accompanying hotel for the performing companies situated on the river bank, Urumea Itsasadarra, while just around the corner a McDonald’s that might be mistaken for a museum.

Lots of olive orchards on the hills approaching Pamplona – the city of the running of the bulls. On an hour tour with an ex-runner we learned the bulls run about 6 days in early July, the early morning daily run ends in the bull ring where the bulls or the fighters are terminated that evening. Accompanying the bulls are an similar number of oxen, the oxen run again on subsequent days. I asked why the oxen but didn’t grasp the answer. The run is through narrow streets of Pamplona lined with fragile curio, wine, etc. shops, but protected by very strong temporary fence supported by 10 inch square posts, the post holes evident under steel covers in the street. Many runners are international tourists, and most join the run for only a few feet, maybe enough distance to learn their mistake. Years ago while working at Hughes, one of my colleagues went off to Pamplona to run with the bulls – he did return but I didn’t hear about his adventure. Pamplona was pleasant sunny weather and complementary bicycles from the hotel allowed me to explore further. It is an unusually walled city, built high up at the level of the top of the wall rather than the frequent case where a wall rises high above both the outside surrounds and the city inside.

From Pamplona, Saturday morning we went to Roncesvalles, a village near the French border and near the start of the Camino de Santiago. Here we joined that famous trek and walked a token couple miles. This famous trail begins at the French border and extends to the sea in north of Portugal the terminal city Santiago de Compostela. We were to intercept the trail, also called The Way of St. James, at many high points on our following road trip to the coast. There are unending stories and reasons of people, called pilgrims, traveling the Camino, many walking, but some biking parts, or as we were, mostly driving. Is this the Christian’s Mecca! As indicated on a Camino Passport we acquired later there are dozens of trails all over Western Europe that somehow qualify as part of the camino. Also a remarkable coincidence, a few weeks prior the neighbor in the house adjacent mine back in Redondo Beach had been hiking a section of the Camino, and exactly when I was there, the neighbor adjacent on the west was there hiking, all on this trail I’d never heard about until this year.

Sunday October 16; We set out west through the Pyrenees mountains destined for Léon. One stop at Ubidea, one of the smallest villages in Basque country and home of archaeological museum, not very exciting to me. At Léon we had a very nice and interesting hotel Alfonso V Léon, with a central lobby open all the way to the top 8^th floor with a surrounding walkway, more interesting to look down from outside my the 8^th floor room. On a day trip north to the la Maragateria in intermittent rain and cold we visited a remote poor village that the government and locals are trying to bring into the current age with education and commercial stimuli – visited a beekeeper lecture and sampled his designer honey. A great lunch of predominantly mild white fish (cod?), one of the best meals of the trip.

Tuesday October 18; Another large move from Léon to Santiago de Compostela. First pause along the way Villafrancia, a popular resting and resupply destination for Camino pilgrims. The St, James Cathedral side door opens, special for to pilgrims, only on Jacobian Years, when July 25^th fall on Sunday. Lunch at Lugo and an hour to stroll on wall that’s scenic to look at and in good repair. Then on to Compostela,

There’s a lot of lore for the interested on the web about a stone boat, St. James and the cathedral. The short version might be that the body of St. James, apostle of Jesus was brought to the west coast of Spain in a stone boat, maybe a wood boat with stone ballast. When a shepherd claimed to have found St. James burial, King of Spain ordered a cathedral, Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in 1075. The Cathedral is for sure and beautiful inside and outside even at night or a rainy day – as most of ours were while visiting.

All along Northern Spain is close to the sea and seafood is most common in the diet. At Compostela we were treated to a fine seafood lunch sampling many types of creatures from the sea. A favorite of the locals is pulpo, octopus. We also somewhere encountered a shop with nothing but canned sardines – we were told that they are seeing a great revival as a delicacy instead of food in the barrio.

After Compostela we headed southeast to the Douro Valley port wine country. Our hotel at Lamego, seemingly more a place than an identifiable village. One event there was the OAT home hosted meal in Chaves, cross–border in Portugal, where we had an unusually good meal, rapport with the hosts, and Capella by some host family members.

Sunday October 23; Depart the Douro and travel to Porto, pausing briefly at a couple picturesque towns, Allariz and Amarante. Porto is largely built on hills so lots of vigorous walking and heavy construction mid-city created lots of confusion and detours navigating about. The walking the Eiffel bridge across the Douro River provides scenic views and near our hotel, Royal Bridges, is a classic train station with great art. A long time windsurfing and travel buddy of mine had recently immigrated US to Portugal and for the present is in Barga, about 20 miles northeast, came down to Porto for dinner one evening. Michael and I have traveled together several times in Brasil where he live for several years. Portugal is currently reputed to be fairly immigrant friendly with moderate climate, low cost of living and good inexpensive health care. The language is tough, but Michel’s 10 year residence in Brasil prepared him for that. One, crazy to me, observation one afternoon in Porto was block-long crowd of folks outside a bookstore lined up to buy some recent Harry Potter lore, book, CD, tickets? Also at the link, note the orchard on the roof over what was perhaps previously an open market.

Wednesday October 26; The final 6 hour road sprint to Lisbon. At the coastal town of Aveiro we had lunch, visited some Noeirinha sea salt harvesting ponds, and enjoyed the colorful moliceiros, canal boats. Our Hotel Lisboa Plaza was about ½ mile from down town business area, embedded in Prada, Coach, Rolex, Chanel and such stores where you need an appointment and financial statement to go through the front door – like being back in Rome. On a waterfront tour we learned about the Portuguese leadership in early ocean navigation and extensive colonization around the world. Oddly, due to the direction of prevailing winds the Portuguese sailed to Brasil to sail around the Horn of Africa – no doubt explaining that Brasil was long a colony and uses the Portuguese language. Part of our Lisboa touting was a visit to Belém district, location of the Belém Tower from 1500s. Probably this Belém passed it’s name to the other Belém! Another day we went northwest to Sintra to a fairy tale castle and other attractions. I had wished we could visit Nazaré, an hour north just for bragging rights. Nazaré and Pe’ahi (Jaws) on the north coast of Maui are home to the world’s largest surfing waves. This link is a photo taken by a friend at Pe’ahi on a visit in 2009. Sunday October 30: Homeward bound!