Getaria

June 13, 2014

Through Tolosa; and one last pass

Getaria is only about 15 miles down the coast from San Sebastián - not much of a cycling day, so we extended it with a long loop inland to Tolosa. The first section generally follows the Oria River upstream for 20 miles as it very slowly gains elevation - easy cycling, but a very confusing route that wanders back and forth across the river and avoids wherever possible the busy main highway A-1.

This was an improvised route - I hadn't mapped it out in advance on our GPS - and we struggled with navigation. We overshot our turnoffs multiple times and spent a lot of time staring blankly at junctions wondering which was the right option. At the first of these points, a cyclist whizzed by and beckoned us to follow him as he disappeared around the bend. He was the first of at least 6 such encounters - we got used to being flagged or whistled down by onlookers correcting us as we were headed off to a dead end or merger with the highway. Leaving Andoain, one of these guys gave us (in Basque and mime) instructions for the way out of time, and then dashed off to his motorcycle so he could guide us through the first stretch. We were amazed and impressed at the helpfulness of these people.

We broke for lunch in Tolosa, a beautiful small town that deserved more time than we had to give it. We were really glad we included it on the itinerary though, and enjoyed milling through its lively and colorful network of very narrow streets lined with tall buildings made colorful by countless loads of drying laundry flapping in the breeze.

From Tolosa we left the river and began a five mile climb up to Iturburu pass - it turns out we were wrong yesterday, and the climb from Honorribia wasn't the final climb of the tour after all. After that, a great, beautiful drop down the other side, following the headwaters of the Errezil through a lush deep valley. I had a bit of fun on the descent, chasing down and pinning to the curb a soccer ball that had flown over a fence and was rolling its way off into the valley.

The ride ended with one last 700' climb over a ridge before steeply dropping to the coast. I'm sure it must be a beautiful view of the Atlantic from the top of this ridge, but not for us - it was foggy at the top and almost all the way down.

We both fell in love with Getaria and thought it might be our favorite destination of the trip. It's a small place, built on and around a large rocky formation. It's small lattice of streets are delightful to walk through, draped across and tunneling through the rock. The harbor is full of fishing boats, including a fleet of immense trawlers that must be the largest fishing vessels I've ever seen. We ate well too, seated outdoors at a table overlooking the harbor, feasting on salads, great servings of dorade, and cheese cake. A perfect place and experience, really.

Net elevation gain: 3,800' today, 101,900' total.

Video clip, descending the Errezil: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=73ED18EEC8BA7424!570&authkey=!ADXBakDRLYTX7f4&ithint=video%2c.mp4