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Itinerary
| Mon, Oct 6 | Gran Hotel La Perla, Plaza del Castillo, La Mandarra de la Ramos |
| Tues, Oct 7 | Walking tour, Ciudadela de Pamplona, Jardines de la Taconera, Corrales de Santo Domingo, Catedral Metropolitana de Santa María la Real de Pamplona and museum |
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| This large sculpture, the Monumento al Encierro, is just a couple blocks from the bullfighting ring. |
We left our wine tasting at Bodegas Valdemar in the early afternoon, making the short drive to Pamplona. Our destination, the Gran Hotel La Perla, was in a restricted pedestrian area. We had to call ahead and register the car and license plate to avoid being ticketed.
It was a bit of an adventure getting there, across the pedestrian Plaza del Castillo then parking in the very tight garage. But we've experienced worse so we felt a little like old pros.
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| La Perla has a couple toreador outfits displayed in the lobby. |
This plaza was apparently a favorite of Ernest Hemingway, who spent time running with the bulls and writing about the people and events in the area. The bull running route of the San Fermín festival includes a street right along the back of La Perla hotel.
Our room was nice, with a comfy bed and a table with two chairs. The window opened to a tiny balcony overlooking the bull running street. The bathroom was modern, with a big tiled shower.
Another Hemingway connection is La Iruña, on the plaza adjacent to the hotel. This was reportedly his favorite watering hole and there is a statue of him at the bar. I wasn't planning to have a drink when I was out taking pictures, thus I didn't go inside to see it in person.
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| Some scenes from my early evening walk. I loved this dense urban forest of magnolia trees. |
On the evening we arrived, I went on a mission to find coughdrops - sadly, my husband was catching a cold.
I want to take this time to point out that during this whole trip I had been having eye trouble, some days better and some days worse. My husband was having to do all the driving on this entire trip, so far. Fortunately, this day was a good vision day and I was able to drive - the only time of the trip.
Observation: Pharmacies often have illuminated green cross signs. Upon first seeing them on our trip last year, we thought they were marijuana dispensaries and were shocked by the number of them.
There was a pharmacy about every other block, so it was easy to find the coughdrops. I also found a little market and picked up an orange and some bread.
I delivered the coughdrops and small grocery purchase to my husband who was resting in the room. The orange was absolutely delicious. The bread is always good.
Observation: I love the "convenience stores" in Spanish cities. I don't know that they call them convenience stores, the small markets that pop up every few blocks. But instead of being full of corporate junk food, they have fresh bread, fruits, and vegetables.
I went back out to the plaza to get a bite to eat. There are multiple restaurants in the Plaza de Castillo that have covered outdoor seating and it was a beautiful, warm afternoon.
I initially sat in the sun but after about 30 minutes I had to move under an umbrella, making sure the waiter saw that I didn't dine and dash. After a bit, my husband felt rested and joined me.
He struck up a conversation, in Spanish, with the man at the next table, because they were wearing the same watch. They had a fun time talking. When my husband apologized for poor Spanish, the man's wife said, in Spanish, that she wished her English were even as bad as his Spanish.
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| Tasty small plates and evening views of City Hall and Iglesia de San Nicolás. | |||
We had some time to kill before the dinner hour. My husband stayed in the room to rest and I went to the hotel gym. It was clean and had a good treadmill. There was also an exercise bike, which I did not try, along with mats, free weights, a few items like a bosu ball and foam roller, as well as a bench and dumbbells.
They even had the less-common barbells and power rack. Oddly, there was no tv, but I used the wifi to listen to a podcast and stave off the boredom, as the room is in the basement with no windows.
I took advantage of the evening sunlight to roam a little farther from the hotel and check out the environs. I walked through treed boulevards and a shopping district, past fountains, public art, and city parks.
For dinner, we walked the narrow streets west of the plaza and found La Mandarra de la Ramos. We sat at the bar and sampled their photogenic dishes, along with beer and cider. We strolled the streets for a bit before calling it a day.
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| Our walking tour, initial plan. |
Today we had a planned walking tour. Fortunately my husband felt recovered well enough from his cold to embark on it.
We started our historic city lap by heading to the bullfighting ring. We did not go inside. Today, Pamplona only has bullfighting during the week of the festival of San Fermín, also known as the running of the bulls, held annually in July.
During the rest of the year, the arena is used for other events and gatherings. One in particular I would like to see is competition of Traditional Basque Rural Sports, but we didn't find any scheduled in any of our stops on this trip.
| Monument a los Fueros. The placard reads, "This monument was erected to symbolize the unity of the Navarrese in the defense of their liberties—liberties even more worthy of love than life itself." |
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| A safe way to run with the bulls. | |
We strode past the Monument a los Fueros, commemorating the contribution of the five districts of Navarre in fighting restrictions imposed by the Spanish government. It honors history, justice, autonomy, peace, and labor.
We followed the tree lined paseo, then found the entrance into the Ciudadela, a 16th-century, star-shaped fortress. Along the way, we noticed what we thought was an unusually high police presence.
Once we entered the fortress, we saw that there was some sort of police field day happening. There were groups of kids in matching t-shirts, clearly from various schools. We saw a robot "dog" and a demonstration of trained real dogs apprehending purse snatchers and robbers.
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| Robot police 'dog'. |
| View of the Arga newer parts of Pamplona from the old city wall. |
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We exited through the same tunnel we had entered and then turned toward the Jardines de la Taconera. Here we picked up the city walls and followed them for vistas along the river.
We went down a series of stairways to reach the Corrales de Santo Domingo, the pen from which the bulls are released. We left, climbing the steep Calle de Santo Domingo, which is reportedly one of the most dangerous stretches of the run. For humans, and probably for the bulls as well.
We rejoined the city walls, heading toward the cathedral. We had a nice view overlooking points of the wall, the Arga river, and the Parque de Aranzadi. The river nearly loops to form a peninsula holding natural areas, historical sites, sporting compounds, and schools.
Here was another case of route planning on a flat map - visiting these featured areas would have required us to surrender and then retake our elevation gain. We were already pushing it a bit, with my husband's cold, so we turned away and headed to the cathedral.
The Catedral Metropolitana de Santa María la Real de Pamplona is a 15th-century Gothic church. It has an impressive silver and gold altar, and the light coming from outside showed off the stained glass.
We also got to walk along a hallway of saints, including a replica of San Fermín of maybe plaster or marble. I don't know if this is the one that is carried out on parade during his festival.
When we entered the cathedral, we did not realize there was also a history museum in the cloister. The church was built on the site of earlier churches, and excavations presented artifacts and streets dating to the 1st century BC.
The museum walks through time in this location, and gives interesting perspectives of that area's culture through Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian, and Germanic dominance and influence. A modern artistic installation questions today's influence of relativism and social media and their impact on living a meaningful life.
We returned to our hotel room to rest for a bit. We heard some noise outside and looked out over the balcony to see what it was. It was a well-attended march showing support for Palestine, coming along the same street as the famous bulls run.
In the US, Pamplona is almost synonymous with the running of the bulls, but for them, it is just one slice of life. Pamplona seems just a great place. Driving in, it felt clean, modern, and energetic. We didn't go too much off the old town area as we walked around, but we saw many public bathrooms and did not encounter any place that seemed remotely sketchy.
| Along the side of a shop, a fun mural and clock counting down until the next running of the bulls. ▴ A march in support of Palestine threading the street behind our hotel. | |
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