Today's weather forecast is for cloudy but dry skies, so it's a bit disconcerting to look outside our window and see that it's pouring out. An hour later it's still coming down, but more as a light mist. We won't be leaving town for another two hours because we have to deal with the suitcases first, so hopefully rains will cease by then.
Bilbao is getting its 10% chance of rain for the day out of the way early, hopefully. It's a bit of a shock - this is the first real rain since we've seen since we were in Minnesota two months ago.
For our friends TJ and Patrick back in the parched Pacific Northwest, who requested that we send some rain from Spain back their way. They're welcome to it.
So our plan for the suitcases was to roll them over to the nearest UPS outlet, which fortunately was only about a half mile away, mostly along the river. It worked out perfectly, and was a good discovery for us. For 44 euros per suitcase, they're wrapped and shipped to our final hotel in France. Very simple. It took us less than fifteen minutes from the time we arrived at the store. If you try this yourself, take your passport.
Our recommendation if you need to ship something forward like we did: the nearest UPS outlet. Very straight-forward, reasonably priced. We just showed up with two unwrapped suitcases, and they did the rest.
That done, we walked next door to stroll around the Guggenheim for a bit, and then headed back to our room to wait out the weather for a bit. It's been gradually improving all morning, so we're feeling optimistic.
We checked out of the room at noon, pleased to see that the rains had passed. After a pleasant half mile on the bike path through the city along the bank of Nevion River we came to a slight rise and discovered our bad news for the day: Rachael's derailleur was broken. This has never happened to us before, and I assume I jammed it in packing or something shifted and broke it during transit. I'll have to give some thought to this when I pack the bikes next time to see how to prevent it.
Fortunately, we're in a city, and the nearest bike shop is only about six blocks away. We're relieved to arrive there by 12:30, before the midday break closes all the shops down. It's a small shop, and the man there confirms it's broken but doesn't have a suitable replacement. He gives us a list of the other three bike stores in town and directs us to the nearest one, only a few blocks away.
This second store is more promising - larger, well stocked, with two employees having virtually no English skills at all. They communicate that they don't really have the right derailleur for us either, but might be able to adapt one and will do what they can. We go outside for a picnic lunch while they install a replacement, and fortunately it is imperfect but functional. It looks like it may only operate on the mallet two chain rings, but that should be sufficient - we aren't racing anyway.
So, at two o'clock we hit the road for real, uncertain and a bit anxious. It's a short ride to Urkiola and there's still enough daylight, but we don't really trust her bike. If things don't work out, we can always stay over in Bilbao a second night and hit up one of the other bike shops tomorrow.
One half mile into the ride, and the BF's decide they want to stop and pose next to the Nevion. Good so far!
A half mile later, and we're eating lunch while we wait to see if the miracle workers inside can install a workable replacement for Rachael's broken derailleur.
We'll, it worked well enough for one day at least. Four hours later we arrive at Urkiola. Most of the ride is uphill, so her bike held up through a pretty reasonable test. It seems pretty questionable to hope for it to hold up for the whole tour though. We have another short day tomorrow, so we'll try our luck again in Vitoria-Gasteiz to see if they can do better for us.
About the ride itself though. The firs seven or eight miles are no worse than I expected as we work our way out of the city and its suburbs. We've mapped what I think must be the quietest route possible, and it's fine except for two miles on narrow, busy BI-625. We're happy to leave that for quiet BI-3524 that takes us through a series of small Basque villages and over a ridge. At its end we find a small bike/walking path that keeps us off of the highway until we come to BI-2543, another lovely cycling road that climbs steadily for the next ten miles, topping out at about 2000'. The last four miles of the day are back on the highway, climbing up to the summit at Urkiola. This is the main road between Vitoria and Durango, so it's pretty busy. I don't think we would want to have come up the other way, from Durango - too far, too steep for such a narrow, busy highway. We've definitely come the best way available.
The Santa Kurtze hermitage. The structure has a plaque presumably giving its history, but since it's written in Basque it was all Greek to me.
I suspect our night in Urkiola is one we'll remember and talk about for a long time. We're staying in a small three room hotel, as the only guests for the night. The hotel is paired with the adjacent Restaurant Bizkarra, and sits on the highway at the summit of the pass, across the road from the access to the Urkiola Sanctuary. Physically it's an evocative setting, surrounded by beech forests and with craggy limestone peaks breaking through the clearings. When you get away from the highway it is very quiet, save for the chiming of sheep bells from off in the distance somewhere.
Our hostess is a wonderful spirit, very warm and energetic, with a pixieish personality. She doesn't speak a word of English that I can tell, but she managed to convey everything we needed to know about using the hotel and fixing our breakfast in the morning, and then retired back to the restaurant. She endeared herself to me immeasurably when she was transcribing information from my passport - when the got to my birthdate her eyes widened, she flashed a bright smile at me and declared 'mud bien'!
Stabled for the night in the small Burdi-Kurutze Hotel. Our hostess cleared a space for them here by the front door since we are the only guests, and then impishly place a small planter next to them for protection.
In the Restaurante Bizkarra. I'm going to have to work on my communications skills a bit if I don't want to keep receiving a whole bottle of wine with dinner (Rachael doesn't drink).
Our delightful hostess at the hotel/restaurant. Very helpful, warm and accommodating. I don't know that she spoke a word of English, but she's a terrific mime. Our interactions with her were the highlight of the day. It's a shame that she's a bit in the shadows here - you'll just have to imagine her bright purple hair.
This wall-sized photo in the dining hall shows Urkiola as it looked sometime in the distant past. The large dark structure in the center is the sanctuary; at the base of the road below it is the restaurant we're dining in; and the peaked structure to its right is our hotel.
