Tour Report: Basque Country of Spain and France, September 22 - 30, 2023

Here’s what I took, including what I wore on the plane:

• three pairs of slacks, including 2 cotton (one black, one light khaki) and one washed denim colored, surprisingly heavy, pair of linen pants.

• Five tops, including one heavy tunic, two long sleeved nice tees, one slightly dressier long sleeved top, and a loose fitting blousey top. Most of these could be layered; each went with all the pants.

• One heavy cotton cardigan, with pockets
• One very light cotton jacket that could look dressy, also with pockets
• One windbreaker
• two bras
• four pair of underpants
• one silk long underwear top
• three pair of socks, two of them lightweight wool, the other heavier to wear with the ankle boots.
• Two pair of shoes, one SAS modified loafer style, the other SAS ankle boots with grippy soles.

• 1 set of “comfy clothes,” including a tee shirt and a pair of light jersey pants. These were my sleep clothes, as well as my lounging-around-the-room clothes.
• One hat, a white fedora I bought in England on a tour years ago
• One cashmere scarf, big but lightweight.

Most of the clothing choices worked as well as I had hoped. The linen pants were a disappointment, though. They were heavier than I wanted, and looser in the legs than I like. I bought them to replace a beloved pair of linen pants that I had traveled with for literal decades, and which finally fell apart on the South Italy tour last year. The former pair was very light, great for warm weather travel. The new ones were actually heavier than the other pants I took.

I bought the ankle boots because we were also taking the Heart of Portugal tour, and I was leery of the infamously slick cobbled streets of Lisbon and Porto. I liked the boots very much, and never slid once, but they weigh twice as much as my other shoes, and are wider in the heel area than usual. I had to wear thicker socks and lace them tight to keep my heel from slipping in them.

My main mistake was packing for Amsterdam and Paris in October, rather than Pamplona in August and September. All my tops were long-sleeved, and there were times when I wished I had packed at least one short sleeved top. And the blousy white top? It didn’t layer as well as I had hoped, and I didn’t really like the way it looked on its own. I ended up wearing it only twice on a 7-week trip.

Also in my bags were toiletries for both of us, our 3-1-1 bag, my supplements, useful odds and ends such as tweezers, safety pins, and a tiny sewing kit, my journal, a small fold-up shopping bag, and all the paperwork we would need. I also carried a number of OTC medications, mostly pain killers (aspirin, acetaminophen) but also some antihistamines and tummy settlers (pepto equivalent.) OTC painkillers are very expensive in much of Europe, and some can only be bought in pharmacies.

I also packed a small cross-body bag, about 6”x9”x2”, with a surprising number of pockets and compartments. This was my regular day bag. I also packed a very small cross-body bag, about 6” x 6.5” and very thin, made of heavy tapestry fabric, with an amazing number of zippered pockets. It's big enough to hold a small wallet, a credit card, and a few tissues. I can just barely squeeze my phone into it, but prefer not to.

I also brought my tablet and a cell phone. My weight splurge was a bluetooth keyboard. I knew I’d be doing a lot of typing on the trip, and am willing to carry the extra pound to have the convenience of a real keyboard. I’m not as cell phone savvy as most folks are, but am trying to get used to carrying it. We did not have cell service, only using the phone when wifi was available. I did use Google maps and CityMapper, with varying degrees of success, as well as WhatsApp, which I used to keep up with friends at home and abroad, and communicate with some hotels and restaurants. I did use the phone to take photos, although I don’t take very many.

Stan carried all his clothes. Including what he wore on the plane, he had

• 3 pairs of slacks (one dark, 2 light,) 4 shirts (3 short sleeved, 1 long,)
• 2 knit shirts which he wore when he needed an extra layer or as his sleep shirt,
• 2 pairs of shoes,
• undies, socks, and comfy lounge pants,
• a hooded jacket
• a windbreaker
• 1 cap

He also carried his supplements, the maps, and the guidebooks. He also carried a small digital camera. The windbreakers had been sprayed with water-proofing, and served as lightweight rain jackets.

Hotels: The hotel styles differed wildly, but all were nice, probably quite a bit nicer than what most people think of as “Rick Steves hotels.” Most (maybe all) had a/c, I think, and most had an elevator. As usual, breakfast was provided at all hotels. The breakfast was usually a buffet with breads, cheeses and meats, cold cereals, pastries, and hot and cold beverages. If a breakfast was particularly noteworthy, I’ll mention it below.

From this point, I’ll switch to day-by-day, but I may throw in a sidebar or two every now and then, as the spirit moves me or a topic seems to raise questions.

Pre-tour, Bayonne: Although we usually arrive in the starting point of any tour 3 days or so before the tour begins, this year we arrived in Bayonne the afternoon before the first tour meeting. And, even more unusually, we stayed in the tour hotel.

We arrived in Bayonne Thursday afternoon, having taken the TGV from Bordeaux. We walked from the train station to our hotel, the Grande Hôtel Mercure. It was a pleasant walk, until the rain started. And intensified. And the wind picked up. As we crossed the bridge over the river Adour, we were getting drenched by what felt like a horizontal waterfall. As soon as we crossed the river, we ducked into a bus stop shelter, and waited out the rain. Luckily the shower was short and the hotel was close.

We checked into the hotel, where we were greeted with a smile and thick packets from our guide, Todd, containing maps, a summary of group activities day by day for the entire tour, and recommendations for restaurants and free time activities. How thoughtful! And very thorough.

Our room was very nice, on the second floor up. A king or queen bed, a desk, night stands, chairs, a mini-fridge, and big windows that let in a lot of light. The floor sloped quite a bit toward the head of the bed, but it felt sturdy, so we didn’t complain or worry about it.

After unpacking, we went out to explore the neighborhood. We found a small grocery store nearby, where we replenished our stock of wine, tissues, and throat lozenges; we had both been a bit under the weather the previous week on our Portugal tour, and were glad to find our favorite brand of throat lozenges here. We had hoped to have an early dinner, but the restaurants didn’t open until 7:00 or 7:30, so we had a drink at Chez Panxo, on the river at the market. (This was one of the places later recommended to us by our guide.)

When it was late enough, we tried a couple of the restaurants on Todd’s list. The first one we checked had no room for us, but the second one, Patxamama at 7 Rue Port de Castets, opened up an annex across the street from the restaurant. The prices were out of our comfort zone, but the food was excellent, as was the service. We had the special of the day, which included foie gras, grilled duck breast, and lots of veggies. We also tried a cheap local red wine that went perfectly with the dinner. Then back to the hotel – it had been a long day, and we were ready for some down time.

Day 1 of the tour, Friday. Breakfast at the hotel was good, with several breads, fruits, cheeses, and meats. Also available were cereals, yogurt, and eggs. Beverages were coffee (from a machine, seemingly ubiquitous on our trip this year,) juices, and water.

After breakfast we found an ATM right by the hotel, then spent more time than we should have on the internet, trying to make dinner reservations for Saturday, as well as looking for a church with Saturday evening Mass. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to ask the hotel desk for help with those things. Maybe someday I’ll learn…

Our first group meeting wasn’t until 5:00, so we headed out to explore and visit a couple of sights we particularly wanted to see. They were sights the group will visit together, but I knew we’d want to spend more time there than would be granted to the group.

Our first stop was the Cathedral, a pleasant stroll from the hotel. The main structure dates from the 13th century, and is on the pilgrimage to Campostela route. When we came out of the building, the rain had started. And continued. And intensified, to the point that we found a store to buy an umbrella. (Later that day we went back and got a second one.) We found lunch at a small place across the river, “A La Cantina,” 13 Rue Des Lisses, where we had heaping plates of noodles with cheese, perfect for a cold, wet day. The clientele seemed to be mostly students, as well as a few bedraggled tourists. With low prices and handwritten menus, this place fits into the “back door” category pretty well.

After lunch, we went to the nearby Museum of Basque History, Musée Basque et de la Histoire de Bayonne. This is definitely a “wow” kind of place, and is well worth spending at least a couple of hours. The museum covers Basque culture, including traditional agriculture and handicrafts. House styles, church relations, and community are well explained. One section of the museum is dedicated to contemporary Basque art. Not all the exhibits are explained in English, but there are handouts available to help you interpret the displays.

There is also an amazing temporary exhibit on the history of color photography. This relates to Baqsque culture because a few pioneers in color photography took hundreds of photos of Basques and their way of life, starting in 1907 and continuing into the 1930s, catching Basque culture as it transitioned into modernity. This exhibit only runs until mid-January 2024, although it is to be hoped that the stay is extended. One of the most fascinating parts of the exhibit dealt with the earliest history of color photography; who knew that there were color photos taken in the mid-19th century? Not I, for sure.

Our first tour group meeting was at the hotel at 5:00. The group was on the small size, with only 24 tour members. After Todd explained the structure of the tour, and we all introduced ourselves, we all went out for a neighborhood orientation walk, followed by a good group dinner. The evening ended early; as usual, a number of people had only arrived in Bayonne that day, and were ready for some rest.

Day 2, Saturday. This morning after breakfast our group went on a longer walking tour with local guide Laura, herself of Basque heritage. We saw the castle, the Cathedral and its Close, the large covered market, and finally the Basque Museum. Laura did an excellent job there, using her background to explain and elaborate on some of the exhibits in the museum. I want to say that I still recommend people visit the museum on their own; Laura’s presentation was wonderful, but extremely limited, skipping over some of the things that Stan and I had found most interesting. We were told that we could come back on our own later that day, and would be granted free access. Several people in our group took advantage of this offer.

After a cheese tasting at the local market, we were set free for the rest of the day. Stan and I found lunch at Le Victor Hugo, 1 Rue Victor Hugo, on the quai overlooking the river. We counted ourself lucky, because most eateries were already shutting down, saying we were too late for lunch. The food was quite good, and even though we stayed past the posted lunch time, the server urged us to stay for coffee and desert. Stan had a cod dish with red bell peppers, and I had chiperons, grilled small squid. The accompanying fries and salad were very good, as well.

After our late lunch, we walked along the river for about a mile or so, then headed back to the hotel. Stan rested, while I figured out the local bus system to get to St Amand church for vigil Mass. Stan met me at the bus stop afterward, and we again ambled around for a bit, then found snacks and drinks at a little Italian place just down the street a few doors from the hotel. Then back to the room to pack; we’re off to Spain in the morning!

Day 3, Sunday. After breakfast, the group gathered to board the bus and meet our driver, Manolo. This, like the Portuguese tour we had just finished, was another tour where we did not have the same bus driver for the entire time. Our first stop was Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, still in France but on the Spanish border. What a lovely village this is! We all hiked up (and up, and up) a very steep road to a lookout point, then clambered back down for free time. I think almost everyone in the group would have liked to have spent more time there, maybe even overnight.

But we were on our way to Spain, where we descended at Roncesvalles, where we walked about 2 miles along the Camino de Santiago. This was not the Camino hike promised in the tour outline, but a bonus that Todd threw in for us, to whet our appetite for more. Speaking of appetites, we then all had lunch at the Hotel Loru in Burguete. This was another huge meal, with white asparagus, salad, sausages, croquettes, duck confit, and lots of wine. And cake. The food was delicious, but there was definitely too much of it. Did I mention free flowing wine, as well?

Onward to Pamplona, where we checked into Hotel Maisonnave. Our room was nice, very clean and modern in décor, with a big solid desk, 2 chairs, plenty of storage space, night stands, and a big window. There was an elevator, as well.

Day 3, continued. We soon rejoined the group for an orientation walk, and were treated to a drink and pintxo (Basque tapas) by our guide Todd. He turned us loose then to fend for ourselves. Stan and I were just wandering the old town, wondering about finding dinner, when we heard music, and saw groups of people heading deeper into the old town. We followed the crowd and saw a parade, or a procession with gigantes, the huge puppets we had met some years ago in Barcelona. There were bands, and hundreds of people marching along, all wearing bandanas. We enjoyed this for quite a while, not knowing what was going on. When we got back to the room I texted Todd, but he didn’t know, either. We finally found out it was the feast of San Fermín Txikito, the “little San Fermín” celebration. The big one, now overwhelmed with tourists, is the famous running of the bulls. This one is for the locals. Tourists like us may happen by accidentally, but the vast majority of people there are local. We had just lucked into the last day of the celebration. Another back door moment?

Day 4, Monday. Breakfast at the hotel had a good variety of items, but I thought the quality was not as good as we had been having. There were two kinds of cheese, some meats, little sausages, tortilla español (eggs with potatoes and onions,) fruit, and bread. Drinks included orange juice and coffee, and there were some pastries available, too.

The group then gathered for a walking tour with local guide (and RSE tour guide) Franciso, known as Fran. This was one of the highlights of the tour. Fran was fantastic. He went to great lengths to explain to us the importance of the San Fermín celebrations, for example. His tour of the Cathedral was a deep dive into the role and development of religion in the local culture. Our last stop with him was at a privately owned collection of bullfighting memorabilia, where Fran said his task was to convince us that bullfighting wasn’t at all what we thought, and that we could learn to appreciate it. I’m not so sure he succeeded in that, but it was all fascinating nonetheless. And at that stop the woman whose house it was provided wine and tasty light snacks, including the highly addictive Basque sausages, chistorras. Highly addictive.

Todd then led us to lunch at a private men’s club. These clubs exist just for men to gather, cook, and eat. Women are allowed as occasional guests, but the men are in charge. We had a lovely lunch, the centerpiece of which was a dish whose name I don’t remember; it was basically a seafood paella, but made with tiny pasta instead of rice. We also had stewed pork, and plenty of side dishes and wine.

By now we were ready for a rest, so headed back to the hotel. I had taken a tumble at the Cathedral, and was limping a bit. Later that evening Stan and I went out for a stoll, and stopped by El Aguila Dorado for beer and pintxos. A great way to end a very good day.

Day 5, Tuesday. Up early, we breakfasted, packed, and headed for the bus with the group. Today’s the day we walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. The bus dropped us off at Uterga, and we walked about 5 miles, through several villages and gorgeous countryside, ending up at Puenta la Reina. We were lucky in the weather; it was warm but not hot, the sky was blue, and there was a light breeze. The walk itself was not strenuous, although there were a couple of hills where our footing was not quite as secure as we would have liked.

I think only 2 people in the group opted out of the walk (which of course is always an option on RSE tours.) The people who did walk had a great time. We didn’t walk as a group, which pleased me; I pretty much kept to myself, enjoying being out in the midst of the landscape. We gathered again at a tiny bar in Puenta la Reina, where we refreshed ourselves with beer and fruit drinks.

Day 5, continued. After everyone had rested, Todd led us on a quick tour of the town, then to the winery Bodegas Lezaun for yet another huge lunch and plenty of local wine. We had a gazpacho-like soup, sesame seed coated tuna, and fresh red peppers stuffed with risotto, served on oxtail sauce. Their wine was a delicious temperanillo blend, and we were free to fill our pitchers from the tapped casks ourselves. There was also a trio of creative desserts, including a mojito slushy, a chocolate truffle, and a tiny portion of chai mousse. Since I don’t eat sweets, I was served a huge slab of watermelon.

I bought a bottle of their wine, €4.70, and it was very good indeed.

After waddling to the bus, we were taken to San Sebastián-Donostia, on the Bay of Biscay. Our first stop was a park overlooking the bay and the town, with beautiful views. Then down into town we went, right into the center, stopping at our hotel, Sercotel Europa San Sebastián. This was another nice hotel. Our room, on the second floor up, had a tiny balcony, chairs, a desk, a small fridge, night stands, and a built-in wardrobe. The bathroom had a tub/shower combo, with a clothes line! We did a quick load of laundry, then met up with the group again for an orientation walk through the center and down the walkway skirting the beautiful beach.
We skipped dinner, still reeling from that huge lunch, and opted instead to just walk along the promenade some more, then go back to the hotel. Another lovely – and tiring - day.

Day 6, Wednesday. As usual, the hotel supplied breakfast. Oddly enough, I didn’t make any notes about it. After breakfast the group met for a walking tour with local guide Ainoa. This was a great walk, with Ainoa giving us lots of information about the city and its history. This was our only group activity that day, so we had plenty of free time. Stan and I, museum junkies that we are, headed for the San Telmo Museum. This is the oldest museum in Basque country, with an eclectic collection. Prehistorical artifacts to modern art – the exhibits cover thousands of years of local history.

We had hoped to have lunch at the museum café, but it was booked for a private event. So we headed down to the oldest part of town. We’re not really tapas people, so we were looking for a full meal. We found one, finally, at Taberna TTUN-TTUN, San Jeronimo 25. I notice the reviews of this place rave about the pintxos, but we ordered the “menú del día;” a bargain at €20. Stan had pasta bolognese, followed by sea bass and a great chocolate dessert. I had fish bisque, sea bream, and coffee in lieu of dessert. A bottle of wine was included. And again, the portions were so large, we couldn’t finish our meals. A great find!

We ended the day with a twilight walk along the promenade, especially enjoying the sand art renewed daily by a local artist. He starts at dawn, making beautiful and timely sketches in the sand. Many of them evidently are political in outlook; some are just intricate geometric designs. And when the tide comes in, the art disappears.

Day 7, Thursday. After breakfast, we met the bus, ready for our next adventure, the Alluitz Natura Farm. This place is hard to describe adequately: it is a sheep farm, but their primary mission is education. It’s nestled in the foothills of a national park, incredibly beautiful. They have an old breed of sheep, prized for their unusual wool. They have cheese making workshops and demonstrations, as well. And that’s what we were there for, although most of our group preferred petting and bottle feeding the sheep, or playing with the owner’s dogs.

We were given a detailed demonstration of the art or craft of cheese making, and indeed, were able to participate in the process. Each of us made a tiny pot of curd, not yet cheese, but warm, creamy, and delicious. After the sheep cuddling and cheese lessons, we were served three kinds of sheeps cheese, washed down with the local wine, txokoli.

Our next stop was lunch in Guernica, at the restaurant Zallo Barri. This is a very large place that seems to cater to groups; we were certainly not the only group there. This was another huge meal. We had codfish in a sauce, steak, a great salad with tuna, and risotto. And of course side dishes, appetizers, and lots of wine. I think this was the one that Todd said used to offer a choice of main course, but the restaurant decided it was easier to just serve all of it at once!

After the meal, we took a walking tour of Gernika (the local spelling.) The town was almost completely destroyed in the bombing in 1937, carried out by Hitler’s armed forces, at the request of Spain’s leader Franco. It was of course a horrendous event, immortalized by Picasso in his work of the same name. Most of the town has been rebuilt, but there are still signs of the destruction, as well as several touching memorials.

We then moved on to Bilbao, the last stop of the tour. Our hotel was the Petit Palace Arana, right in the center of town. Our room, on the 5th floor up, was large and well furnished, with plenty of storage. We don’t normally care whether or not there is an elevator, but this time we were glad of one. Not only was our room on the 5th floor, but the breakfast room was on the 6th. Right over our room, I might add.

After we checked in, Todd took us out for an orientation walk, but by now it was very late, and people were tired. I know Stan and I were. Todd rushed through the walk, pointing out stores, landmarks, and eateries he thought we would find useful to know about, but we were so tired it was pretty much a waste. We do wish he had waited until the next morning for this, but I know he wanted to stick to the schedule, which allowed us a free morning on Friday.

Stan and I made our way back to the main plaça for drinks, then back to the hotel, ready to call it a day.

Day 8, Friday. The last full day of the tour! And we had a rare free morning. After a good breakfast at the hotel, Stan and I visited the nearby St Nicholas Church, then went deeper into the old town to the Cathedral. We wandered down to the river to locate the main market; we knew we didn’t have time to explore it, though. Then back to one of the plaças to El Txoko Berria, Calle Bidebarrieta 14, where we shared good fried calamari, a Russian salad (like potato salad, but with tuna and anchovies, a local specialty,) and of course wine. Stan managed to finish with a brownie topped with ice cream and whipped cream, but I don’t know how.

Our afternoon adventure was a trip with the group to the Guggenheim, on the tram. Once there, we were split into two groups, each with a local guide. Our group’s guide was Iratxe, who was very good. The building itself is wonderful, and the art is interesting when properly interpreted, even to those of us who haven’t learned how to appreciate modern art. Iratxe did a fine job. There were some huge, room sized pieces by Richard Serra that she helped us find our way through, literally, in some cases. And a special exhibit of sculptures by Picasso managed to evoke some of his paintings, but in 3-D form, adding a whole new perspective to cubism. (Pun intended.)

That evening we once again joined the group, this time we walked almost as far as the Guggenheim to the Laryzz Bilbao restaurant for our farewell dinner. The dinner was pretty good; there was a wonderful goat cheese salad, and good vegetable involtini. I had roast lamb, very tender, and Stan chose pork, also good. As I recall, the side dishes were also good, especially the potatoes. The unfortunate part of the evening is how we were seated: at one very long table, stretching far down the room. We had little chance to interact and exchange thoughts and memories with our fellow tour members. But the food was good, and many of us joined up on the walk back to the hotel.

Day 9, Saturday. As most of you probably know, there are no planned group activities on the last day. Breakfast is provided, but that is all. Some of our tour mates had already left for home or their next adventure by the time Stan and I made it to the breakfast room.

This was the end of the tour, but Stan and I stayed on in Bilbao for a few days before flying to Lyon. Rather than post a separate mini-trip report, I’ll go ahead and add our last activities here.

Our first excursion was to the Archaeology museum, at Mallona Calsada 2. This is an excellent museum, although small, with good videos and interpretive exhibits. The explanations are in Spanish and Basque only, though.

After we left, we took some time to find another neighborhood museum that we plan to visit tomorrow, then found lunch at Plaza Iturribede Café, just at the foot of the archaeology museum. We reverted to calamari, fries, and wine, which were all very good. Then it was back to the hotel to rest, and for me to try to catch up on emails.

That evening we went back to the Cathedral, where I attended Mass while Stan searched for good local beer. And as a bonus, that evening after Mass, there was a great Basque dance event in the Cathedral Square. It’s rather hard to describe, but there was a small band playing Basque music, and anybody who wanted was welcome to dance. When it started there was only a handful of people, but more and more drifted in as the evening wore on.

It was obvious that these were set pieces, and almost everyone knew the dances. The only people I saw who seemed to be dancing randomly were children; all the adults know the steps to all the dances, and there were many of them. Even people who didn’t join the group in the square danced their way past, often laughing as they did. It was wonderful, and reminded us of a similar evening of Sardana that we had seen in Barcelona many years previously.

Day 9, continued. We watched for at least an hour, then left for the main square, Plaza Nueva, where we had drinks and a snack, tomato and tuna salad, at Antxoa Taberna.

Tour day +1, Sunday. This day we went to another museum, the Museo Pasos de Semana Santa, Iturribide Kalea 3. You may be familiar with the famous Holy Week processions in Spain; Rick has some videos showing examples. The stars of the parades are enormous floats, so large they are carried by 10, 12, or up to 20 men, perhaps more. The museum we visited has the floats carried in the Bilbao parade, and are amazing. The floats are topped with life sized figures, depicting moments in the life – and death – of Jesus. The detail is astonishing, and the scenes are often very graphic in their brutality.

My favorite part of the museum, though, had tiny dioramas, also depicting Biblical scenes, or imagined scenes from the life of Christ. My favorite showed toddler Jesus learning to walk, with Joseph in the background watching his progress, and a dove keeping guard over the Child. Another favorite shows Joseph trying to find a room at the inn, with a nosy neighbor woman hanging over her balcony to see what was happening.

Afterward, we found lunch at Txapela Taberna, Santa Maria 3, where we enjoyed roast lamb and seafood salad. It wasn’t the best, but we were glad to find a full meal on a Sunday afternoon. All the other customers seemed to be locals, which rather surprised us,

Later that evening we went out again for a beautiful stroll through a city park across from the hotel, then extending our paseo along the river. Another good day.

Tour day +2, Monday. This is our last full day here. We walked to the center of the more modern part of town to find the bus stop for the airport hotel, then on to the Museo de Bellas Artes. Someone had discouraged us from visiting this museum, because it is in the process of being renovated, and much of its collection is unavailable for public viewing. But the building itself is interesting, and we were charmed by how the staff has worked hard to develop very creative displays, often contrasting ultramodern works with works from the 16th century, for example. We were very glad we went. On the way home we stopped for lunch at Plaza Nueva, again having tuna and anchovy salads. Then back to the hotel to pack, and out one last time for a final stroll through the old town, and down to the Cathedral Square.

Tour day +3, Tuesday. Leaving day. After breakfast we checked out and walked down to the airport bus stop, to catch our flight to Lyon, where we would spend the next few days.

I’m going to stop here, but I will come back later for some final thoughts and observations. A quick verdict, however: what a great tour this was. A great group, a good guide, good hotels, great food (although there really was too much of it,) and a splendid itinerary. Recommended.

I am enjoying your report, Jane. What a small world to meet up with a former college friend. We had a similar experience on our tour in Costa Rica. One of the tour members went to medical school with our former brother-in-law and knew my sister-in-law as well. I am looking forward to the rest of your well written report.

I was thrilled to see your post and one of the first things I did was to bookmark it for future reference. We are signed up for this tour next May following the RS My Way Spain. I knew you were doing this tour and had been waiting and hoping for one of your excellent tour reports. I appreciate your details as to not only hotel and restaurant reviews but what you ate as well. Considering we’re almost to Thanksgiving, thanks again for the time and effort.

Patty and Mary, you're welcome. I was determined to get this darned thing done before the holidays. I have of course been meaning to do it for the last couple of weeks, but other things kept popping up to keep me from it.

I do still have some comments to add, but not tonight. And I also have a couple of "mini" reports about our time in Paris and Leiden to do, but those should be easy.

Thanks for the encouragement!

I loved your report Jane! What an interesting part of our world!

Hi Jane, great report! Appreciate all the detailed information and comments. We planned to do this trip (twice) but Covid and other events got in the way. Still on my list!

Great report.

Reading it as I listen to jazz whilst sipping my morning coffee. Lovely way to start the day.

Thank you for sharing!

Thanks for this, Jane, enjoyable to read. I'm thinking about this tour for the future. I hope you'll do a report on your stay in Lyon afterwards.

Another great report Jane, thank you!

What an awesome time you had! I have thought about this tour off and on and it seems very interesting. I love the focus on a different culture.

And am just laughing to myself that you and the tour member worked at the same grocery store in college! Hilarious!

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this up. You know I love to read anything you write! I feel like I am there with you eating calamari and fries and sluicing it down with local wine! (Yes, I know calamari is not vegan, hahaha!!)

Dick, it's short, but here it is:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/three-days-in-lyon-october-2023

Thanks, everyone. I always dread writing the reports, but then I enjoy actually writing them, mostly because doing that reminds me of what a good time we had! I (we?) tend to forget so many details, that it's always a revelation to go back over the trip and tease out more details.

I do have a few more thoughts, as a kind of follow-up.

Favorite hotel? They were all pretty much equivalent; they were nice, well furnished, the staffs were helpful. None of them stands out as either particularly good or bad. I did get friendlier with the staff at the Petit Palace Arana in Bilbao, but at least part of that is because we were there longer. After a couple of days, the staff recognized us, and often had a personal comment. I made a joke to the fellow who was the primary server in the breakfast room, and he singled me out every day after that, with a special comment, following up on the joke.

Favorite meal? Oh my goodness, the food was amazing, and there really was too much of it. I hadn't really thought about that since we've been home, a month now, but writing the trip report definitely brought it all back. I was suprised at how meat heavy the meals were, as on the Portugal tour we had just finished. When we did have seafood it was good, but most meals revolved around meats. Stan and I are not great meat eaters; as I think I mentioned in the Portugal report, I may fix meat at our house once a month or so; ditto for poultry. Our diet comes close to pescatarian, with lots of veggies and legumes added.

But we do eat meat, and we do enjoy it. Just not so much of it!

Camino experience: A number of people have been wanting to know how I felt about walking the Camino, I think expecting it to be a major spiritual event. It wasn't, but I enjoyed it. I think had I been making a pilgrimage, my outlook would have been different. But I was one of a group of tourists, taking two short but beautiful walks along a path that does have spiritual meaning for many.

Favorite town? I loved Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Ports; I think most of us did. But we were only there for a few hours, and were on the pilgrim path while we were there. The part of the path that does run through the town is very commercialized, with stores, eateries, and places for people to sleep. But it was beautifully situated, and oozed with charm.

San Sebastián was another favorite. On our walking tour with the local guide, we got away from the tourist area and away from the beach, meaning we saw a town where real people lived, worked, studied, and played. It reminded me somewhat of Lyon.

We also truly enjoyed our time in Bilbao; again, I suspect this is because we stayed on and were able to enjoy a wider range of activities, and we had the time to just wander around the town, explore the little parks, and find quiet corners.

Languages: as some of you know, I am a language junkie. I love language in the abstract, and languages themselves as well. I do speak some French and Spanish, and I believe that that made some parts of our trip easier and more fulfilling. Communicating with the staff in hotels, restaurants, train stations, and museums added a certain something to the experience, and made for several "back door" moments.

But of course people can get along just fine with English almost anywhere they are likely to go as tourists. I do urge people to learn the courtesy words, and to learn when to use them. Most folks on RSE tours know that, and the guides are savvy enough to make sure people are aware of how to behave appropriately.

Our guide Todd even made sure we knew how to say hello, goodbye, please, and thank you in Basque! One of the receptionists at the Bilbao hotel was Basque, and when I greeted her with one of the very few words I knew, her face lit up. And she taught me a few more, which pleased her and me both.

I ran out of room, just as I was saying what a good tour this is. And as Pam suggested, learning and experiencing a different culture, even at the tourist level, is valuable, opening our minds and reminding us that other ways of living are equally valid.

I'll be delighted to answer any questions. Thanks for letting me go on at such a great length.

We found the Basque language was more prominent in Spain than in France. The Basque culture and lands date back before Spain and France. Are the Basque men in Spain still wearing berets? We loved exploring both the Spanish and French Basque regions and plan to return. Thanks so much for your report!

Jane,

Thank you for the detailed trip report. We are going on this trip next April and it will be our first RS trip. Your detail is great information and I will be making note of your recommendations.

Suki, we didn't notice that many men wearing berets, but they were certainly prominent in the souvenir stores! I suspect we would have seen more in use had we spent more time back in the neighborhood bars and carés, away from the center. Although I will say many of the people shopping, eating, and drinking in the center (and dancing!) seemed to be locals.

And yes, Basque culture in general is more evident in Spain than in France, at least in those areas we visited. Our guide Todd also pointed this out, citing historical, cultural, and especially geographic reasons for the difference. Northern Spain was never settled (conquered?) by the Romans or the Moors, for one thing. The natives lived their own lives in their rather isolated mountain valleys, with little outside intrusion.

I would love to learn more about the language. I know it's a linguistic isolate, but I can't help but wonder if there isn't a Celtic tie somewhere? Or Finno-Ugric, like Finnish and Hungarian?

Kwinnick, I'll be glad to answer any questions you may have. Feel free to PM me.

The Basque Language Center in Bilbao has museum-like displays I found very interesting. It's open weekdays only unless you make prior arrangements. https://www.nekatur.net/en/the-basque-language-centre

Wikipedia has a rather extensive write-up on the Basque language that begins with this text:

"Basque (/ˈbæsk, ˈbɑːsk/;[5] euskara [eus̺ˈkaɾa]) is the last surviving Paleo-European language spoken indigenously in Europe, predating the Indo-European languages of the Bronze Age invasion of Europe from the Eurasian steppe by pastoralists whose descendant languages dominate the continent today... Linguistically, Basque is classified as a language isolate, as a relationship to any of the other known extinct pre-Indo-European languages of Europe has not been established, nor is it related to the later arriving Indo-European languages."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_language

I don't think I'll be tackling it anytime soon. Wikipedia says a noun can have over 450,000 forms; many of them are due to incorporation of prepositions into the noun. Mind-boggling.

About 3 years ago, the Basque channel, ETB ran a series the history of the Basques, Una Historia de Vasconia. It was very well done and very interesting.

One episode was about the Romans and the Basque. While the Basque may not have been conquered in the traditional sense, they had very close relations. It is pretty well known now that there were Basque soldiers at Hadrian´s Wall. What surprised me was the idea that the Basque did not fish before the Romans came. Seems they had enough to eat with what they found on land, but Roman´s love for Garum, made fishing a very lucrative business. And the rest is history as they say.

Not far from Vitoria there is a small hermitage, Nuestra Señora de Elizmendi from the early 13th century. In order to save a bit on materials, they took tombstones from a Roman cemetery to built the hermitage. Today you can see between 15 and 20 funerary stele in the walls.

acraven, I've often wondered how much Paleo-European influence is still found in modern European languages. And years ago I worked with some Native American languages which are agglutinative, with words formed by adding existing particles, sometimes in novel ways. Fascinating, and not quite as daunting as it may sound.

dlindstrom, thank you for the interesting tidbits of information. Isn't life fascinating?

Thank you Jane for another wonderful trip report!

Really good further information, Jane. A lot of time and effort went into your whole report and it’s so fun to be transported to Basque Country for a bit!

This was most helpful. I’m on the waiting list for two of the dates of this tour. I hope I get one of them.

Sharon, I hope so too. It's a great tour.

Hi. I believe we were on the trip right after yours, last October 2023. Our tour guide was Basque, and I have forgotten his name, which says something. ( Augustine).
The group did not meld as well as other tours, and I'm not sure why. Pamplona was a highlight, in particular the private Bullfighting museum. I would go back in a heartbeat and stay longer. So much memorabilia if one has an interest in such, which I do. However when I asked about going to the Bullfighting arena I was told we don't do that. I sensed a great dislike of the tradition by the guide and that puzzled me. I didn't want to go to a bullfight, just would have liked a look inside. Our guide was raised in San Sebastian so was well informed about past political unrests. We saw one of the first pro-Palestinean protest marches in San Sebastian, as it was right after Oct 7th. I loved our group stop at the Cafe Iruun (sp?) for its grandeur and the connection to Hemmingway. I went back later for another tasty drink and snack. On the whole our weather was hot, and although we were tracking that possibility, my friend and I needed to shop for cooler tops.
Before we met up with the group we stayed three nights in Biarritz. Fabulous. Warm, beautiful beaches, lots of walking in very nice weather. We landed by chance in a great 2 star hotel very close to the beach/bay, with surfboards for sale in the lobby! Hotel Palmito. Our weather there was lovely, the food lovely. Would go back just there again.
The Camino walk was meaningful, and considering the tour agenda, gave us a tantalizing look at possibilities.
This tour is housed in large cities, and that makes it different than other Rick Steves tours. But the farm tour was the sweetest, and those large afternoon lunches amazing. And the sheep!! So darling.

Jane, I’m so happy to have found your wonderful, detailed trip report, as my daughter and I are booked for early October of this year. We’re spending a few days in Paris at the start and a couple in Madrid after, and I’m looking forward to the tour and traveling with her again. It will be my fourth, her first RS trip. Thanks for so much insightful info.

Felicia, thanks for the kind words. I suspect you'll love the tour. After I posted this trip report, I posted a "mini" report about our subsequent visit to Paris, which might interest you, as well: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/mini-trip-report-four-days-in-paris-october-2023

I did the Basque tour last May and our tour guide was Fran! He has such a big personality and was a lot of fun but he also is very knowledgeable and a great tour guide. It’s so interesting to see how tour guides tailor and personalize the tours. For example, we started our Camino walk day at the top of the hill with the bronze sculptures of pilgrims and walked down the hill to Uterga. He encouraged us to walk alone and with our thoughts which made the walk really meaningful. Uterga was a check point then we proceeded to Murtazabal and our final stop was the tiny church of Santa Maria de Eunate where Fran got married!

In Bilbao, we arrived on a rainy evening and Fran showed us the historic cente then we were on our own to find dinner. The next morning he gave us another walking tour of Bilbao. We walked across the Zubizuri Bridge and made our way to the Azkuna Zentroa, a cultural center that was built on an old ware house site. The Zubizuri Bridge’s architect is the same one who designed the Bilbao airport and the Oculus (the WTC subway station) in NYC. There’s a lot of interesting architecture in Bilbao. We toured the Guggenheim in the afternoon. We actually stayed an extra day and hired a private guide to show us around the area. I really enjoyed reading your trip report and had fun reminiscing along with your travels!

It’s so interesting to see how tour guides tailor and personalize the tours.

Claudette, this is so true! There are a couple of tours we've repeated, with different guides, and the vibe is so different! Not necessarily better or worse, just different. And we've been to Paris on a number of different RSE tours, each with a different guide or local guide, each with different emphases, outlooks, and interpretations. There is always so much to learn about any place.

I envy your having had Fran as a tour guide. He does lead several RSE Spain tours, of course, and we're thinking about booking a Spain tour next year... Hmmm... I wonder what the chances are...

Jane, you’ve been on 19 tours?! Wow! That’s a great tour alumni discount. I wonder if they cap it at some point?

I’ve only been on 3 RS tours and I loved my other guides but Fran was easily my favorite! Here’s an idea- he is on Facebook. I wonder if you’re allowed to reach out to him to find out when he’s planning to lead a tour so you can schedule yours with him. We were so lucky to get him. His personality really comes out on the tour and he is so hilarious! I watched the MNT he did with Rick and he was definitely showing his more serious side on it. I hope you get lucky too!

One highlight (of many) of our tour was running in to him on our free evening in San Sebastián. We had planned to do a pintxos bar crawl so we invited him to join us. There were 5 in our group. He happily did join us but would not let us pay for any of his food when we offered. So we got our own private tour of the pintxos bars and got to enjoy his exclusive company for one evening. That was so special.