The second part of the tour started out with perfect conditions. Bright blue sky, temperatures in the high teens at 9 am, and a nice breeze blowing from the north. We were travelling south :)
Like our ride into San Sebastián, our exit was a winding route through the town as we basically followed the Urumea river south into the Galician mountains, and all of it was on excellent separate bike paths. Since it was a Sunday, the paths were in full use with walkers and families biking. There we also a tonne of roadies but as the name suggests, they stuck to the roads and moved in packs at the same speed as the cars.
After about 25 km’s of more or less flat urban riding on the excellent bike infrastructure we arrived in Tosala and started to gradually climb up the Araxes river gorge on the GL2135 highway. The riding here was superb. It was a relatively narrow winding valley, very picturesque to the eye, but difficult to capture with a camera. I was also conscious that we had a big day in front of us, 94 km’s (without any side excursions) and over 1400 m of climbing, so I kept the camera stowed for the most part as I’m notorious for taking forever to get a picture.
At the 50 km mark we stoped for a great picnic lunch of K’s signature tortilla wraps with avocado and red peppers (which she managed to buy at the only open fruit and veg store we saw today, it was Sunday!). After this, the big climb started. We had about 400 m left to climb and the grades were a very rideable 4-6 % with the odd short stretch of 10 -12% to get the heart rate up. The sun decided to come out in force at this time as well and for the first time in weeks we were both hot and dripping sweat.
We topped out at just over 600 m in the town of Leukerberri where we refilled our water bottles and kept heading south into the now darkening skies!
The country was still remarkably beautiful with green fields and rolling hills and we were riding along the NA 1300 highway. This was a full two lane highway with full shoulders, and at points a separate gravel bake lane beside it. We didn’t use the bike lane because for the 20 km’s or so we were on this road we saw 2 cars, both going the opposite direction to us. It helps that this road parallels the A-15 Autoroute that runs into Pamplona. We could hear the autoroute traffic occasionally,and we caught a few glimpses of it, but for the most part we were oblivious to its existence just tens of meters away from us. The vehicle less NA1300 was a glorious ride.
The only complication we had was the continuing darkening sky to the the south …and the thunder that started to rumble. Our final 20 km’s into Pamplona were a race against the sky and on a busy, but full shoulder highway. We were within 5 km’s of our hotel (the very nice Hotel Pamplona Catedral - you guessed it, right beside the Pamplona Catedral!) when we lost the race.
We were in a ware house district on the north side of Pamplona heading into town on a bike route. The sprinkling rain very quickly was turning to real full on rain when we spotted a bar in one of the warehouses. Was this a chimera? No, it was real thankfully. We stashed the bikes beside the door and ran in as the rain turned from heavy to deluge!
It turned out to be a fairly lively neighbourhood place and we had a coffee and dry refuge for about 20 minutes as the deluge eventually turned back to a light drizzle. The final 5 km’s to the hotel were damp, as were we when we arrived, but we weren’t soaked.
As we dripped into the lobby past the other more refined guests, we were warmly greeted by a young woman at the front desk who remarked that we must be tired after biking all day ‘So I’ve upgraded you to our premium room!’ Thank you very much!
Dried and cleaned up we wandered into the main town and found a great Tapas bar (not a hard achievement in this town) and filled ourselves with a beer and several plates of very tasty Pintxos.
SOTD - Down on the Corner by CCR. As I’ve noted before, most bars and restaurants have been playing classics from the late 60’s, 70’s and some early 80’s. When we were in ‘the deluge’ bar the same general soundtrack was playing. As I ventured out to see if the rain was letting up, this classic was playing, and it just seemed to fit the place. It was a very neighbourhood-bar, and the neighbourhood was warehouses and other light industry. Come as you are and you’ll be welcomed.
The video is even from the Ed Sulllivan show with Ed doing his classic post performance chat. How great is that! I’m drowning in nostalgia :)
Leaving the Axel Hotel in San Sebastián. We stayed here for three nights, and the Tout’s for five! Great location, great staff, modern facilities and a great breakfast .
Now some net downhill into Pamplona! From here on we were riding beside the A-15 autoroute. ALL the vehicle traffic was on the autoroute, leaving this road all to ourselves
This pic doesn’t capture how spectacular this was ‘live’. The sky is getting pretty dark to the south where we are headed. We started to hear the first rumbles of thunder at this point too. Still 30 km’s to go!
