In Vitoria-Gasteiz

September 17, 2023

I’m awakened from a deep sleep by an alarm Rachael set the night before. It’s still dark out, so I’m startled to check the iPad and see it’s 7:30 already. I lie there for a minute trying to get back the details of a bizarre dream I’ve been rescued from by the alarm - something involving my escape from a pursuer by jumping off a pier into a bay and hiding in the pilings before swimming to shore and heading home, where I find a disaster scene. Firemen have been here and broken into the house, leaving it in ruins. They broke in because of gas fumes detected in the neighborhood that were traced back to our kitchen. They tried four times to call us before breaking in, but couldn’t reach us because we’re using our French SIM cards.

Not the best omen to start the day with, but things look up when Rachael prepares me a cup of coffee from our Nespresso machine and then starts scrambling eggs while we discuss plans for the day. She’ll be taking a two-peak walk into the hills south of town, and I’ll ride the Via Verde out east.

It doesn’t work out that way though as we spend the next hour and a half addressing a series of frustrations, starting with Rachael’s inability to extract her video footage to the iPad, as we reported on yesterday’s post. Then, when Rachael’s getting ready to leave she discovers that her Garmin is nearly dead because it’s been charging overnight with the wrong cable. And something else obnoxious held us up too, but I can’t get it back now and don’t really care to.

So this adds up to an issue that changes our plans. She can hardly go off on a hike in the hills without a Garmin, so I tell her to use mine and I’ll wait until hers gets charged enough so that it’s useable for me. And in fact if I wait that long, by then there’s not really time for the ride I’d planned because we’re booked for a late lunch at an Italian restaurant that we have to get back for. So I scrap the plan for a bike ride and decide to stay home long enough to polish off yesterday’s post and then go on another walking tour of this appealing town, seeing parts of it we missed yesterday. And it’s probably not a bad decision anyway, because tomorrow’s ride to Briñas is another of the harder ones of the tour so it wouldn’t hurt me to rest up for it.

Rachael leaves for her walk, but a few minutes later she calls up from down on the street. She’s just realized she’s brought the wrong phone with her. We have the Garmins paired to them, and since she has my Garmin she needs my phone too. I take it down to the street, we swap phones, and finally she’s off for real. I go back to finishing off my post and an hour later I’m off too.

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So after that inauspicious beginning I’m happy to report that the rest of the day went well. Let’s start with arguably the best news: Rachael was able to extract video footage from yesterday’s ride by downloading it directly to her iPad through the camera rather than using the SD card reader. So we have video!

Video sound track: Pavane, by Pablo Segovia Gardel

And as long as we’re starting with Rachael’s stuff, let’s keep going by looking at the photos from her hike. Note that they’re not quite up to the quality she’s come back with recently because they were taken with my older generation phone with its inferior camera. Still, it’s nice to see a bit of what she saw in her 13 mile walkabout:

Looking down on the city. In the far distance is Gorbeia and the other peaks in the natural park we biked past yesterday.

At the summit of Olarizu, the first peak.

Looking back at Oritzu from the summit of Kurutzmendi, the second peak.

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And finally, I get a turn! Here’s some of what I saw. I’m really pleased that the day worked out this way. Vitoria-Gasteiz is well worth a second look.

I started my walk through the newer city, in the flats surrounding the old city that stands on the almond-shaped hill at the center. Many of the buildings are built with bay windows and balconies characteristic of the region.

I was intrigued by the blossoms on this ornamental tree. The appear to start out pink, and then progress to blue as they age.

And to a rich indigo when they drop. It makes me think of the colors of hydrangeas. What is this thing?

Several of the large walls in the old city are covered with monumental murals.

The entryway to the old cathedral, which I still couldn’t enter because there was a service underway. I think the central figure must be the patron saint of bicyclists.

The Portalón, a fifteenth century gothic tower built as lodging for merchants. Now one of the most renowned restaurants in the city.

Another gate into the fortified city walls, erected in the 12th century..

Finally, here is that escalator that I couldn’t find at the lower end. Am I curious enough to walk down so I can see what it looks like riding up?

Yet one more, with a humanistic theme. Note the boy playing with dolls, the girl with a toy race car, and another girl refining a piece of wood.

We’re still seeing these flags around but they’re not nearly as common as they were when we first started coming to the Basque Country over twenty years ago. The map is of Euskadi, the imagined independent Basque Country comprised of the five Basque provinces - three in Spain and two in France. If you’re old enough you’ll remember that for decades the region was tormented by bombings and other terrorist activities by ETA, the Basque separatist organization. ETA didn’t finally disband until just five years ago. The red arrows indicate the return of ETA members imprisoned in far away places such as the Canary Islands, so that they can be imprisoned in their homeland where their families can visit them.

In the old city, more characteristic window boxes.

A mailbox, possibly at the home or office of a biker since there’s a small chainring on it.

There’s a show on, similar to one we watched in the plaza last night.

It looks like it’s a traveling magic show staged by Struc, an organization based in Catalonia.

She’s playing Volare, which really doesn’t come off that well on cello.

The city has many pleasant, open spaces like this to sit and relax.

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Kelly IniguezSpeaking of SIM cards, how does it work, going country to country? Is there such a thing as a universal European SIM card? This summer we paid $50. per phone/per month to TMobile for European service. It worked well and was easy, but wasn't cheap. I just killed my phone today (dropped it just wrong). If I go to TMobile for a replacement, it is locked and I can't use a SIM card. The closest Apple store to me is in Denver, which means I will need to order a phone mail order, if I want to be able to replace a SIM card.

Perhaps that's more back ground that you want, but I am suddenly interested in SIM card use.
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7 months ago

Rachael AndersonTo Kelly IniguezWe used the Tmobile European option for several years but 2 years ago they said we used it too much and wouldn’t let us use it any more. This was because we used it for 9 months. That’s when I went to a European SIM card for the same price. I will send you an email later with more info. The problem you will have using a SIM card is that the phone has to be unlocked. I think you are better off using the Tmobile overseas data.
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7 months ago

Kathleen ClassenTo Kelly IniguezAll phones in Canada are unlocked so I don’t know if this information is helpful or not. We buy e-sim cards (embedded sim) from Airalo. They are a reasonable price, we paid $37 for 10 GB of data for 30 days Europe wide. What I like best is that you just turn off your home sim and turn on the esim on the plane when you land. They are data only so we use WhatsApp.
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7 months ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Kelly IniguezI agree with Kathleen. When you replace your phone, get one that takes an eSim. It’s so much easier! As another Canadian, I can’t speak to the locked/unlocked question in the US but even before the rules changed in Canada, if I bought a phone directly from Apple, it came unlocked. Not sure about other manufacturers as I’ve been an Apple user since I got my first smartphone.
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7 months ago

Gregory GarceauYou mentioned something obnoxious that held you up. I've GOT to know what that obnoxious thing was, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'm guessing most of the others were too polite to ask.
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7 months ago

Janice BranhamHooray for the return of video! My phone doesn't take eSim cards and Barry couldn't connect with Verizon to get his phone unlocked, so we're paying for the exorbitant $100 Verizon travel plan, times two. Definitely something to keep in mind for whenever I replace this phone.
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7 months ago

Rachael AndersonTo Janice BranhamIs the $100 for 1 month?
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7 months ago

Janice BranhamYes, $100 per month for each phone, unlimited data.
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7 months ago

Rachael AndersonTo Janice BranhamYou can get a SIM card for half that price. My phone lets me use an e-sim card but Scott’s phone needs a physical SIM card. Last time when we were in Europe we purchased the SIM card below and recharge it every month online. It also allowed us to keep the same SIM cards and phone number this time and just recharge it, which was possible because we refilled within 6 months of our last refill (aka top off). It was very easy.
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7 months ago