Basque Country of Spain & France Oct. 8-16

Wednesday, Bayonne: We began with a walkabout led by a local guide who explained (in great detail) the long history of Bayonne and the way its strategic position at the confluence of two rivers that lead to the Bay of Biscay and thence the sea has made it important. Her talk involved Romans, Eleanor of Aquitaine, bishops, rebuilt churches, several very long wars (England, France, Spain in various combinations) and more. Lots of action for a small city. It’s also where soldiers invented the bayonet.

We enjoyed the warm sunshine and visited the glass and steel town market before heading to the Museum of Basque Culture, where we were regaled for almost two hours by an animated Basque fellow. It was a lot, but charming, in heavily accented English, with some French and Basque thrown in. I’m still figuring out the combination of geography, language and habit that makes a person or village, etc., Basque. Perhaps exploring the Basque Country of Spain will clarify.

We emerged from the museum to find the sunny day banished by clouds and spitting rain, so, after a quick stop at the hotel for rain gear, we managed to wedge ourselves into the local creperie for lunch. No sharing allowed! After, a visit to the pharmacies for more skin care to try, plus something for the sniffles I’d developed; a stop at one of the many chocolate ateliers (long story, including Sephardic Jews banished from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella, plus the discovery of cacao by early explorers of the New World) and an afternoon at leisure.

We had a pouring rain that lasted for hours, into the night; had a so-so selection of tapas (they’re called pinxtos here) and called it a night. Next, over the Pyrenees into Spain.

Thursday, a lot: We left Bayonne at 9 for the first of only three bus days on the trip, heading first for St-Jean-Pied-de-Port, the starting point for pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago, the walk of St. James. It’s a lovely, very small town devoted to the pilgrimage, filled with hostels, trekking supply stores and souvenirs galore — scallop shells, Basque berets, some restaurants and cafes. This wasn’t high season for pilgrims, but there were a lot of visitors, and as we left France and drove the extremely winding roads over the Pyrenees, we’d see the occasional person or two plodding along. Our guide, Adriana, has walked the Camino and offered such interesting context and history.

Next, taking the lowest altitude route, we headed for Roncesvalles, a settlement with a population of 19, nine of whom are priests. It’s famous for the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778, when Roland (as in Song of Roland) was killed as Basque tribes defeated Charlemagne’s forces. A very proud moment in Basque history!

Now it’s home to a very old (13th century) church and a hostel that once was a medical way station for pilgrims, who’d stop here for the night after walking the first long, hilly day from St-Jean-Pied-de-Port.
After this stop, we enjoyed a very robust lunch — white asparagus, a specialty of the region; big, delicious salad; croquettes of ham or fish; a tasty sausage called either chistorra or gurgur (I forget); duck confit or beef stew or peppers stuffed with cod; torrijas (sort of custardy French toast); coffee; lots of local red wine; and a shot of the local liqueur, which tasted like licorice-y cough syrup. Quite the meal.

Onward we went, many of us napping on the bus, to Pamplona, which we’d explore at length the next day. Briefly, it’s a city of about 200,000 known for the annual July 6 running of the bulls, Ernest Hemingway and its very conservative Catholic seminary, called “the priest factory” by locals. Opus Dei is a big factor here.
In the evening, Adriana led us on an orientation walk and then to a pinxtos bar (tapas elsewhere in Spain) for a snack and glass of wine. More to come.

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Friday, Pamplona: All the things! (A lot, again.) We spent four amazing hours with Francisco, a Pamplona native who’s a Rick Steves local guide, learning about the long, complex history of Pamplona. (Every time I’m in Europe I vow to read more history, then I don’t. Maybe this time?)
As in: Who the heck was San Fermin? Was he the first person baptized a Christian in Pamplona, and then was he beheaded by his father? (Seems unlikely, but …)

And: How Ernest Hemingway and his first novel, The Sun Also Rises, brought the world’s attention to the running of the bulls, which now seems to be the annual event around which the city revolves.

The bulls run about a half mile, from their pens, to the bullfight arena, guided by tall wooden barricades erected along the city streets. And by steers. And by lots of idiotas who are thrill seekers. It usually takes just a few minutes. Once the bulls are at the arena, they’re penned until it’s time for the bullfights.

We spent a lot of time in the cathedral, which is a gorgeous gothic construction, known locally as a beautiful lady with donkey ears (the towers that flank it). It’s 1100 years old, the first stop in the Camino after pilgrims cross the Pyrenees, and has the best French Gothic cloister in Europe, because it wasn’t bombed in WWII. Victor Hugo described it as “light and shadow, sound and silence.”
The local bishop has presided over the installation of several multimedia experiences that traverse the centuries, with medieval chants in one space and baroque music in another. With Francisco’s commentary, it was an extraordinary experience.

Next, we visited a lady’s apartment/private bullfighting museum, begun by her late husband. Fran translated as she explained how the collection came to be and then he talked poetically about the dance between the bull and the humans in the arena. I don’t grok the fullness of it but can appreciate how deeply embedded into the culture it is.

Finally, we repaired to a private eating society for lunch; this, and the bullfighting museum, were two of the special experiences Rick Steves tours offer. Basque culture is matriarchal, and the eating societies are man caves, of sorts. Lunch was very tasty, and our group is convivial, so, lots of stories and laughter.

A few of us returned to the cathedral to see a special exhibit of wedding gowns by the Basque couturier Balenciaga, them we went our separate ways for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

What. A. Day.

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Saturday, walking the Camino: After a bus ride of about 20 minutes, we began our Camino experience in lightly spitting rain, scrambling down a pretty steep incline over rocks of many sizes. Challenging for this geezer! I’d bought walking sticks at a previous stop, on our guide’s advice, and was glad to have them.

Soon enough, the path flattened and I was able to stop looking at my feet and soak in the vistas, plowed fields, forests, swaths of dead sunflowers, gently sloping hills. I was alone for much of this, and it was a memorable experience of quiet beauty and appreciation for this big world of ours.

We stopped at a small town that caters to pilgrims for a coffee and bathroom break, then off we went. Some of our group skipped the first segment but joined the remainder. Next stop was a very, very small town that has a surprisingly ornate altarpiece in its old church. It was locked but the lady who does flowers for mass turned up and kindly let us in.

We rambled on in hopes of visiting an architecturally interesting octagonal church that was specific to the Knights Templar, who protected pilgrims and became quite wealthy in the process. However, a wedding was underway so we gawked at that for a bit and proceeded to lunch at a winery nearby. More red wine day drinking ensued. Our Camino walk was a little over five miles.

Post lunch, we drove into San Sebastián, checked out a viewpoint for the beautiful, curving beach below, and had a little walk about orientation with our guide. Elizabeth and I walked along the sea wall to appreciate the sunset, then made our way through increasingly crowded streets before deciding we weren’t up to elbowing our way into a pinxtos bar. Back to the hotel we went for wine and potato chips, conversation with a few tour friends, and called it a night.

Our guide lives in San Sebastián and loves it, but it was my least favorite of the places we visited on the trip. I found the pinxtos scene to be raucous and super-crowded, but others on the tour really enjoyed elbowing their way to the bar and standing outside to eat and drink.

Sunday, San Sebastián: We spent two hours walking the old city with a local guide, who dispensed more information than I could absorb. This place gets about 65 inches of rain a year, and its city gardens are gloriously in bloom, lush and green and colorful.

Elizabeth and I had a wonderful lunch — tomato salad, grilled tuna, local white wine — then I took a nap before schlepping across the river to a clean and bright laundromat that dispenses detergent automatically and takes credit cards. Win!

I’d made a dinner reservation at a restaurant recommended in the Rick Steves guidebook, and we arrived to find a handful of tour friends already there. We may have ordered badly but neither of us was thrilled with our food and picked at it. I was stunned when the server brought the check and they’d taken off two of the things we hadn’t finished. I protested but they insisted, so left a big tip.

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Monday, on to Bilbao: But first, sheep and such sorrow.

We headed out for our final destination by way of a small sheep farm whose Basque owner is devoted to educating visitors such as us and school kids about sheep, cheese and so on. He has three sheepdogs who were a hit with the dog lovers among us. We had a chance to make yogurt and a soft cheese then visited a few sheep who are more friendly than I’d like. The soft-hearted owner doesn’t kill any of his sheep and when a lamb’s mother rejects it at birth, he bottle feeds it into adulthood.

Anyhow, it was a beautiful morning and the farm is in a gorgeous spot, with mountains as a backdrop. We tasted our creations with a bit of the local white wine and moved along to lunch, which was again A Lot of food.

Next to Guernica or Gernika as the Basque spell it. This is where General Franco invited Hitler and Mussolini to test their new strafing strategy. On April 26,1937, the planes came and the people died and the buildings collapsed. An abomination. The attack inspired Picasso’s iconic painting, Guernica. The town has a replica; the original is in the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid.
Onward, everyone quiet as we absorbed what we’d seen and learned in Guernica, we arrived in Bilbao.

Tuesday, Bilbao and the Guggenheim: I really enjoyed Bilbao for its architecture, its river winding through the city, its energetic but not frantic atmosphere and, of course, its magnificent museum.

Elizabeth and I had a morning wander through the winding, inclined streets of Old Town before meeting our small group at Frank Gehry’s masterpiece. (The museum limits groups to about 12, so we were split into two.) The city landed the museum over several others because the Basque government was willing to foot the $100 million building cost, fund acquisitions and pay ongoing costs. It stands alongside the Nervion River and is a stunning construction of titanium, glass and limestone. Do see it if you ever have the chance.

We spent about 90 minutes with our local guide, who offered context and history for the parts of the permanent collection we saw. Guides are the best investment a traveler can make, in my experience.

That evening, we toasted our guide and our shared experience and had a very good farewell dinner at Lar, a family-owned restaurant. A handful of our group had tested positive for Covid and either passed on dinner or sat at a separate table. I’d had the sniffles and an intermittent cough but tested negative. On previous Rick Steves tours, a positive test meant leaving the group, but now it’s about masking and being considerate. Covid tests cost only 1.5€ so I’ve bought a few.

This was an exceptional tour — focused on a culture that was new to most of us, a passionate and informed guide, experiences like the eating society and bullfighting museum, congenial group of travelers. Sharing it with my daughter made it even more special. We had separate rooms on the tour, which contributed to mother/daughter harmony.

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Wednesday & Thursday in Madrid: We arrived at Madrid’s crazy-busy, very big airport about 10:15 and made it to our hotel by about 11:45, after getting luggage and finding our driver. We stayed at Hotel Preciados, the same place my husband and I used for our 2015 trip because why reinvent the wheel.

After settling in, off we went to Mercado di San Miguel, which is a very popular, very busy place to elbow your way to various tapas counters and wine or beer stands. Madness! But fun. We had croquetas, cheese and cava and bolted. At Plaza Major we landed at an outdoor table for some people watching and a big plate of grilled vegetables. We’d been craving something healthier and this did it.

Elizabeth wanted to see the Royal Palace so we walked there but found the lines daunting and online tickets sold out, then we called it an afternoon. Later, we took a long walk (paseo) that eventually led us to El Caldero, the Murcian paella restaurant I’d found online and reserved. We saw a lot of fancy beautiful people emerging from limos on the street as we arrived; it was a breast cancer event sponsored by Elle Spain.

We shared a big tomato salad and a paella with vegetables and ribs and a delicious red wine. No dessert but they brought us shot glasses of caramel vodka, which was surprisingly delicious. We walked back to the hotel through a breezy night filled with people out and about.

Thursday we took the metro to Reina Sofia, the contemporary art museum, mostly to see Picasso’s Guernica in person, after visiting the town and seeing the replica. It’s even more moving than we expected. We took a lunch break (cheese plate, salads, cava) then continued Art Day at El Prado. So much to see!

Another Metro and we rested our tired selves for dinner, packing and Friday’s flights home.

We’ve had such a memorable trip, one we’ll remember and talk about for a long time. Bob, Elizabeth and I still reminisce about the original Big Trip in 2012 to celebrate her college graduation. Travel is such a privilege and I’m grateful for the chance to do so much of it.

I hope this term paper has been helpful to anyone considering this excellent tour. Happy to answer questions.

Thank you for a very interesting trip report. The Basque area of Spain doesn’t get too much attention so it was fun reading about the tour. It will be bookmarked for a future trip.

We had the great pleasure of taking this RS Basque Tour five years ago this month. Your local guide in Pamplona was our tour guide for the adventure (Francisco Glaria). A wonderful experience, then and it appears that wonder continues. A highly recommended tour - with thanks for your fine report.
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Such a great trip report! Many thanks for sharing about a tour I’ve long wanted to take. Lots of good food and wine and history, my fave.

Thank you for writing this trip report. I am signed up for this tour in 2025 and looking forward to it.

What a great trip report! Thank you for sharing it!

Thanks, we have signed up for the end of September 2025. Your report helps we believe we have made the right choice.

I loved your report. I am in no way a tour person, but we did an independent trip to the Basque country, well the Spanish part anyway, a couple of years ago.

Differently to you, San Sebastian was our favourite by a long way. We spent five nights there in a hotel overlooking the bay and it was simply heaven. We had gloriously sunny days and we loved the entire pintxos scene, although the city wasn't as busy back then as travel was just opening up again.

We also were saddened by Guernica. We went to Madrid for a week first, so had seen the painting, then we hired a guide to drive us from Bilbao to San Sebastian via Guernica, to see where it all happened. We had a marvellous guided tour of the town and learned so much there.

Glad you enjoyed your tour.

Thanks for posting your trip report—I took this tour a few years ago and it was wonderful to re-live it!!

Thanks for this report. My husband and I are doing it 2025 end of sept/beginning of Oct. For an after tour trip we are thinking of taking the train to Zaragoza for a couple days and then on to Barcelona for a couple days and possibly Madrid after that before flying home. We were going to stay in Bilbao an extra night. Is there enough to see if we spent the "tour-day-over" day there and train the next morning?

@jackiebret, it’s hard to say about another day in Bilbao… At the end of our tour, I was ready to move on. You could certainly spend more than the 90 minutes we had in the Guggenheim.

As you travel onward, I’d recommend Girona, about 40 minutes by train from Barcelona. It has most of a Roman wall, an incredible Jewish Quarter and great restaurants. Nice change of pace after big cities.