Ride Day 35: Into Spain, Toward Bilbao, stopping in Donastia

Circumstances being what they are, we had a short ride from Saint-Jean-du_Luz over the nearby border with Spain and into Donastia. Basque country is very beautiful. And very hilly. But the people are very kind and generous.

We had an easy ride into town and stopped by the first beach that you  arrive at to watch the hundreds of surfers trying their luck on the waves.

The first thing you see in Donastia, beaches and surfers

Riding across the bridge into the old part of the city

 

The harbor in Donastia

A street in old town

 

Donastia is one of my favorite cities. It is big, ish, but the old part of town is very compact and can be walked in an hour or so. It is famous for lots of things, but for me, mostly for pintxos and txakoli wine. There are hundreds of little restaurants, typically called "Bars" where you can grab plates full of pintxos for a very modest price.

After getting into the little pension that we'd rented, we dashed to our favorite pintxos joint, Bar Borda Berri. It was early (for the Spanish, at least) -- only 1900, but we had our fill of absolutely delicious pintxos and enjoyed the txakoli.

Poured taditionally, txakoli is poured through a hole in the cork, from high altitude!

That should be enough for us...

The traditional "high altitude pour"

Yummy pintxos (tomato filled with cheese and topped with pesto; entrecote; cod; and risotto)

A cathedral down the street in the old quarter

 

We are still working out what comes next in terms of our itinerary. We know that we will be in Bilbao on Friday, but the weather is on a definite downturn with loads of rain and camping doesn't sound all that exciting to us at this point. The problem is actually getting into Bilbao. Lorie and I did it a few years ago and it was pretty dismal since the roads are built for fast cars and trucks, not bikes. We're working on it and you will be in the loop as soon as we tie it up!

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