Ken's 2nd ancestral tour through Spain -
Day Five Bilbao to Iruña

Thursday 13th May 2004 The bill for two for two nights was E299, with breakfasts, parking & telephone calls included, which is reasonable by English standards for a four star business doss-house. It was very easy to get out of town, as I had plotted it carefully. Grey start but it was not & had not been raining. We stayed on the 'old road' (N624) to the turning for Gernika & had to go over a pass to get there. The town was full of interest. We walked up to the Basque Parliament building, the Henry Moore memorial & the mosaic of Picasso's "Guernica". The Basques used to meet under this oak tree but Franco, evil bastard, who revoked all their charters (ferias) cut it down.

Gernika
A street in Gernika	'Guernica' in Gernika	Memorial (who did it?)

The remains of the oak tree Franco cut down

The Basque Parliament building

Henry Moore's memorial

The drive to Leteikio on the coast was very winding but very pretty & so was the village, although it is getting 'development' behind the old shoreline.

Leteikio

Leteikio harbour

It was even more winding to Ondarroa, which was a great surprise. The outer part is a fishing port & with a designer traffic jam built in but this is on a bend in the river & it is only on heading out that this is appreciated & very pretty.

Ondarroa outer harbour

Ondarroa inner harbour

From here to Deba, a grotty place, the road is easier & so on to San Sebastian, where we admired the vast beach but did not stop. We found the motorway to Irunea easily enough & it wa sfree & empty. Just as well, as we were soon in cloud with occasional rain as it climbs like a goat over the mountains. At the top was a service area, where we filled up with salad, escalopes & fuel. There should be good views from this road but not today. On the way down towards Iruña (Pamplona), occasional splashes of sun appeared, in time to photo the villages of Sarasate & Sarasa after coming off the motorway just before one has to pay. Iruña is large & there is a long, grotty modern string of flats & factories on the run in from the North. Finding a hotel is a joke, because the signs peter out & in fact, we later found some on the other side of either pedestrian areas or roadworks. However, we found the charming Hotel Eslava near the Wall, which has its public space fitted out in ethnic style. The landlady spoke French as bad as mine but, apart from being given single beds, we managed ok. It was now time to explore this city thoroughly & we meandered to the main Castle Square (no castle these days), then to the Vauban-style fortifications, which are in very good shape & vast. Back in the old town, we founf coffee with some difficulty, as most bars seemed to be shut. Most buildings on the narrow streets have balconies & there is a great variety. However, there is little trace of anything as early as my ancestors, except bits of the old walls. I foiled an attempt to rob my rucksack & then, we headed to the East Wall, where the old walls sit on top of the Vauban walls (i.e. he built in front) & walked round them back to the hotel (which is by the NW corner).

Castle Square		Cathedral
Buildings on the Wall	Really old wall	Balconies