Vitoria-Gasteiz

September 16, 2023

We have a relaxed start to the morning. Rachael’s been up awhile when I finally awaken, surprised to find its after seven already. There’s no rush because breakfast isn’t until 7:30. Breakfast is fine, a bowl of various pastries, fresh fruit, OJ and coffee which we supplement by purchasing a large slice of tortilla.

Rachael’s done first and heads back to the room while I take my time finishing my second coffee and catching up on the latest in the CycleBlaze world. Later back in the room we’re packing up to leave when there’s a knock at the door, with one of the staff asking if I’d like my wallet back or I’d meant to leave it as a tip. Not off to the best start, are we?

Conditions are fine today, but windy. We’d mapped out a fairly direct route to Vitoria-Gasteiz (which we’ll mostly refer to simply as Vitoria from here on out for simplicity), but it’s only another thirteen miles. It seems silly to take such a short ride when we can’t check in until three anyway, so I draw a longer option that circles to the north before doubling back toward town.

Oh. There’s one other thing about the morning to take note of. After breakfast I recheck all of our bookings to see if we have any overlaps, and find one - at our stay in Santo Domingo de la Calzada a few days in the future. In our planning document it’s listed as a two night stay, but we’re booked for three so it overlaps our preceding stay in Briñas. It’s past the cancellation date, but I hopefully submit a date change request and wait to hear back; which happens within the next twenty minutes, and it’s fine. No charge. So that’s good.

The reason I’m rechecking though is because we realized yesterday that we’re booked at two different apartments in Vitoria too, our two night stay that begins tonight. There’s much cursing and scrambling here as we try to avoid throwing away a couple hundred euros on a booking we won’t use. We contact customer service for advice and then submit a request to cancel with waived fees at one place, which is quickly rejected - no surprise, because this is such short notice. We can’t complain about it at all, really. Glumly and with low expectations we send the same request to the other apartment, and are overjoyed when that one’s accepted. Off the hook!

Looking back over our confirmation history, we’re reminded that both of these situations came from last minute changes made just three weeks ago, both on the same day. We’ve been having issues with the Booking app recently, and think that something went wrong with the cancellation requests and we didn’t notice that we hadn’t received a confirmation email.

Enough. I’ve got my wallet again, all our bags are packed, let’s ride.

The day begins with a modest climb - about a mile, about 5%, no big deal. The countryside is beautiful and the road is peaceful, so that is a big deal.

I’m really pleased with the longer alternate route I’ve come up with. With a few exceptions it’s nearly all on very quiet, very attractive farm roads perfect for cycling. And it’s not just us that think so. It’s Saturday, and we regularly see other, faster bikers approaching or overtaking us. It’s a lovely, early autumn morning, weather is mild and comfortable, it feels like an ideal time to be here. Well, if it were really ideal we wouldn’t be experiencing fairly strong headwinds the whole way.

For the first part of the ride we skirt the southern edge of mountainous Gorbeia Natural Park, a large protected area I’d never noticed on the map before. We can see its karstic grey peaks on the horizon, making me wish we’d dedicated more time to stay in this area. The roads through the farmlands offer excellent cycling, and I imagine it must be a wonderful place to hike also.

Toward the middle of the ride we come to the edge of Ullíbarri-Gamboa Reservoir, the largest reservoir in the Basque Country. This part of the ride is a repetition of our last ride into Vitoria, when we stayed the previous night in a village to the north, high in Urkiola Natural Park. I mapped today’s ride here specifically to see it again; and while it is attractive skirting the edge of the reservoir, the previous miles were really better.

At the end of the ride we join an excellent, well-marked bike path that routes us to the center of the city; and once there we find bike lanes branching off in all directions. Vitoria-Gasteiz has a well-deserved reputation as the most cycle-friendly city in Spain.

Oh, and one more thing about the ride: there’s no video - yet. Rachael got to our apartment excited to unload and scroll through what she’d captured, but found nothing. It took awhile to realize that it’s an issue with the SD card, and it won’t unload to the iPad. She can see through the GoPro that the videos are still on the card though, so it’s a recovery question. When we hopefully get them unloaded we’ll let you know.

There’s a lot of up and down, but there’s nothing to work up much of a sweat over.

We’re biking just south of Gorbeia Natural Park, a large protected area that includes some of the highest mountains in the Basque Country.

I think the formation in the distance is Berretin, one of the lower summits in the park.

The Church of San Esteban in Buriaga, one of the small villages we passed by every few miles.

I was curious about this structure, with its open door, empty interior, and broad display table in front.

Approaching Betolaza, another small village. On the horizon is what I think must be Gorbeia, the highest peak in the park.

On the right, the medieval church at Betolaza.

It took awhile to place this church at Betolaza, which is unlabeled on the map and apparently abandoned.

The church at Ciriano, and some spent sunflowers.

Looking across Ullíbarri-Gamboa Reservoir at the church of San Andres.

Our timing is perfect and we arrive at our apartment precisely at three, the earliest check-in time. It’s a modern, high rise apartment building near the center - one of those places with no human contact - we previously registered and submitted our identifying documents through their website, and let ourselves in through a keypad. I know it’s not the sort of place that works well for everyone, but it suits us. We like being able to check ourselves in, and to not have anyone look at our bicycles with raised eyebrows. We just wheel them in the front door and take them up to our fifth floor unit through a fast elevator with enough space for both of us at the same time.

And we like the unit itself, which although not spacious is very intelligently organized with a good use of space - the logical opposite to our stupidly designed apartment we stayed in last month in Portland. It’s got a kitchen area with an induction surface stove top, and an integrated washer-dryer that Rachael quickly puts to use washing her new cycling shorts. She sets it on a high temperature in hopes that it will shrink, since she just realized she accidentally bought a pair in size large and they’ll barely stay up on her size small physique.

Our two night stay in Vitoria is a recent decision, the same one that resulted in the two duplicate billings. In the original plan we weren’t going to stay in Bilbao at all. We were going to catch a bus or taxi directly here from the Bilbao airport and start the tour with a four night stay here. We changed our minds when we researched the taxi and bus options and decided we didn’t like either of them. The taxi was too expensive, and the bus more of a hassle than we wanted to tackle when we first arrived.

Now that we’re here though and are reminded of how appealing this city is, staying here for four nights would have been fine too. There’s plenty to do and see, and the place has a very lively but not overwhelming character. We spend our late afternoon just wandering around enjoying the sights and the crowds, and then find a tapas bar for a light dinner.

Vitoria-Gasteiz has a very warm character, feeling both welcoming and well-loved. It looks like it would be a fine place to live.

These bikes weren’t here the last time we were in town. I’m sure they’re left over from the Tour de France, which began in the Basque Country for the first time this summer.

It’s Saturday night, and there’s a lot going on. This appears to be a sewing competition of some sort.

In the Plaza de la Virgen Blanca. Behind is the Church of San Miguel.

Santa Maria Cathedral. We couldn’t get in this evening, but maybe tomorrow.

Looking down from the top of one of the two modern escalators up to the old town.

I don’t know what this place is. Does anyone read Basque?

Just a nice street scene. We liked the looks of this place and came back later thinking of tapas, but it’s really just a drinks bar.

We ended up here for dinner. Great selection of tapas to choose from. I should have taken a photo.

A note to those who think we never stop in at Michelin-cited eateries. We do, but in general not the elegant ones. Tapas are just right.

The porticoed neoclassical Plaza de España. A dynamic place full of life, excitement, and fun. Positively un-American.

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Ride stats today: 27 miles, 1,500’; for the tour: 62 miles, 3,400’

Today's ride: 27 miles (43 km)
Total: 386 miles (621 km)

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Betsy EvansLooks like a wonderful start to your trip! But you'd better put that spare tile in your wallet :-)
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7 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Betsy EvansWell, there’s a concept. Actually it was there and I’m sure we’d have made use of it if we’d known it was missing.
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7 months ago

Rich FrasierYou need to travel with Robin. She's amazing at scouring the rooms we leave and the places we visit - we never lose anything, despite my best efforts. :)

Of course now that I've written that, something will go wrong! :):)
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7 months ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Scott AndersonMy phone tells me whenever I’ve left my Scout (the device I’ve got on my bike) behind, as in every time I leave the house. Al has his notifications turned off, but I’ll live with the occasional beep instead of forgetting to turn the app’s notifications on.
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7 months ago