First Day in Spain

We left our mountain hotel in Akeretta surrounded by misty mountains, a light drizzle, and a cool temperature. The ride started on the shoulder of the busy road but soon enough we were treated with the Greenway all the way into Pamplona. Pamplona is famous for the bull run through its narrow winding streets. Not everyone’s cup-of-tea.

Our route planner avoided the crowded centre of town, and in return we enjoyed the splendid parks and the magnificent castle. Pamplona is a beautiful city, and is, of course, a mecca for the Camino de Santiago pilgrims. Some of the pilgrims choose to carry everything they have with them, some have porters to pick up their baggage in the hotel in the morning and ferry it to their next accommodations. (See the photo, below.)

We travelled through several small towns, and became lost in almost all of them. The roads are very narrow, unmarked, and are incredibly steep. Our most difficult challenge was a steep descent from a village, over very rough cobblestones, ending in stairs down to an old arched bridge, and stairs up to the adjoining road. Unfortunately our route planning app didn’t flag this as impossible for trikes. A bit of head-scratching and slogging got us through the obstacle. We had a fun conversation with a nephew and his uncle from Trois Rivieres at the end of that adventure. They filmed us grunting and huffing our bikes up those steps. I wish I had a copy of that…. At any rate, 66 hard-won kilometres later we ended the day with a lovely ride through the ancient town of Estella. Our hotel was basic, and full of peregrinos (Camino pilgrims). Patti and I had local Basque dishes in the basic hotel restaurant: Pork Knuckle, and Pork Tripe. They were DELICIOUS. And, obviously, we fell into bed, exhausted.