Spanish Basque Country
We have visited San Sebastian on a number of occasions but we had never explored other parts of the Spanish Basque Country. We were not prepared for how beautiful the scenery was and how fantastic the food and wine would be. I love the lively friendly atmosphere of San Sebastien but I must confess although everybody raves about the food I have sometimes found the Pinxtos there slightly disappointing and not very creative. However the creativity and quality of the food we ate on our travels fully restored my faith in Spanish Pintxos!
The places we visited were Pamplona, Logroño, Laguardia and Haro. All of them had historic ancient centres and a vibrant atmosphere especially when everyone comes out at night to eat!
One needs to plan activities around the Spanish day. Basically almost everything shuts between 3pm and 6pm. Eating is also later than most countries I have visited and doesn’t really start until 9pm
Pamplona
Obviously Pamplona is famous for the San Fermin Festival and the running of the bulls and for its association with Ernest Hemingway who loved Pamplona and based his novel The Sun Also Rises around the San Fermin Festival. However, it has far more going for it than that. The ancient streets are lovely to walk around, it has a stunning Cathedral and the food is excellent. I found an excellent blog entitled ‘How to Spend 1 Perfect Day in Pamplona‘ and that did the job perfectly. In terms of accommodation we stayed in the Hotel Yoldi which was an ideally situated 3 star hotel 5 minutes from the old square.
The bullring is definitely worth a visit. I have to say I have no desire to see a bullfight but the audioguide tour of the bullring is fascinating especially the footage of the San Fermin Festival
We started our evening with a beer in the main square and then started our Pintxos crawl – definitely the right way to enjoy the local fare. There are various blogs giving their favourite places but here are my recomendations.
Favourite place Guria – Travesía Espoz y Mina delicious crab dish, oxtail & spinach dish and prawn in a scallop shell, but to be honest we could have eaten the whole bar!
Bodegón Sarría – C. de la Estafeta, 50 another great bar we had foie gras and an aubergine with shredded pork and both were excellent
La Mandarra de la Ramos – C San Nicolás, 9 the food here is enhanced by the sight of numerous hams hanging from the ceiling. The tortilla here was delicious
Lots of blogs talk about Gaucho – C. Espoz y Minan, unfortunately it is closed on Tuesdays which is when we were there but it is next door to Guria so is probably worth a visit as well.
Logroño
The next stop on our road trip was Logroño which is the capital of the Rioja region. It has an historic centre and is also on the French route of the Camino de Santiago. In fact the city only gained importance with rise of the Jacobean route, starting in the 11th century.
The centre is a joy to walk around and there are a number of places that one should definitely see
The Church of San Bartolomé which is the oldest church in Logroño has a beautiful intricately carved facade and is definitely worth a visit.
The Concatedral de Santa Maria de la Redonda de Logroño which sits in the middle of the square is yet another stunning cathedral and
Plaza del Mercado this is the central square beside the cathedral. We found it a great place to have a beer before embarking on our Pintxos crawl, and it was also a lovely spot for an early morning coffee.
There are two ancient bridges across the river Ebro and there is a walk along the riverbank between them. If you want to do a longer walk along the river there is the Vía Verde El Cortijo which is an 8km there and back walk along the Ebro into the vineyards.
Talking of vineyards obviously one of the joys of coming to Rioja is drinking the wine and visiting some wineries or Bodegas as they are known here. There are over 500 Bodegas in Rioja with many open to tourists and wine tours. Therefore, the choice can be rather overwhelming. For our visit to Logrońo we did not want to get back into our car so the choice was easy we went to Bodegas Franco-Españolas which is about a 10 minute walk from the centre. This Bodegas was first established in 1890 and the visit is a good mix of the history of wine making in Rioja as well as modern techniques rounded off with a tasting of a white Rioja and a Gran Reserva red Rioja.
Last but definitely not least is an evening of eating Pintxos. There are two main areas for Pintxos the main one is around C Laurel and the other is C. San Juan. The area around C. Laurel is wonderful the quality of the food was outstanding as was the friendly buzz in all the bars. Like in Pamplona we went from place but modified our buying and asked each place what their speciality was which proved to be a good call as without exception we were not disappointed.
Our favourite places were
Bar Blanco Y Negro – Tr.ª de Laurel, 1 – the specialty here was anchovies and patron pepper – heavenly
Bar Ángel – C. del Laurel the only thing they serve here are mushrooms so easy to guess the specialty – delicious.
We ate well in all the bars. The atmosphere was better in the Laurel area than around San Juan and the food was better so if I was going again I would just go to the Laurel area
Accommodation
We stayed in the Sercotel Calle Mayor which is a lovely hotel in the heart of the old town. They have an underground car park linked to the hotel or you can park in the car park near Paseo del Espolón which is about a 5 minute walk. When we arrived the roads in the old town were closed to traffic due to a procession and we therefore parked in the non hotel carpark which was fine
Laguardia
This little town is 18km north of Logrońo and is just so picturesque. It sits on top of a hill with stunning views of the surrounding vineyards. The streets of the town are tiny and is a place to wander around and have a coffee. Apart from the amazing views the only other sight to see is the little square where they have a lovely clock which on the hour has figures that come out and do a little dance! There are a number of Bodegas around Laguardia one being the Ysios Bodegas which is an extraordinary building. However, the wine tour seemed quite expensive and so we just admired the building from afar. We did do a wine tour and tasting in the Casa Primicia Bodegas. This is the oldest building in Laguardia and even more than the Bodegas Franco-Españolas was a fascinating tour of the history of the area and the interaction between the church and the area. Moreover the wine was excellent and we came away with 3 bottles of delicious Reserva red Rioja
We stopped there for a quick lunch and went to the rather surprisingly named bar called the Irish Tavern. Despite its name it was serving Pintxos which was as good as anything we had on our whole trip. The artichoke and pancetta Pintxos was absolutely delicious.
Haro
This was much smaller than Logroño but is deemed to be the capitol of Rioja wine as lot of Bodegas are located there. The old town is again lovely with a beautiful square but is quite small and in reality only takes about an hour to wander around. We had done a wine tour in Laguardia earlier in the day but with hindsight we should have done another one in one of the local Bodegas in Haro as we were slightly at a loose end by mid afternoon and retired to our hotel to read our books for a few hours before heading out for more wine and food! The old town was again full of life in the evening and although the choice was less than in our two towns we had a great evening eating high quality Pinxtos in the old town.
Accommodation
We stayed in the Eurostars Los Agustino which is a spectacular hotel in the heart of the old town. It used to be a convent and has a beautiful central area whihc presumably were the old courtyard and cloisters – as it turned out it made a perfect spot for a nightcap to end our evening. They also have an underground car park linked to the hotel
