Barcelona to Pamplona

Completely empty plaza, at midday.

After breakfast we made our way to the car rental place and got into our VW Polo and left Barcelona.  Benjamin navigated, Jon drove and I sat in the back and went to sleep.  We drove on toll roads and saw lots of dry fields and vineyards and not much of interest.  Eventually we got hungry and wanted to stop for lunch so we left the highway and found a small town.  It seemed to be asleep, or perhaps abandoned.  The shutters were closed and the streets were mostly empty.  The signs said they were closed for the afternoon.  We walked through the empty plaza and decided this was the wrong place for lunch. Just as we were leaving town we decided to stop at a Bar/Restaurant that seemed to be open.  We had lunch, nothing special but all fine. The dessert options were all different kinds of custards or puddings, which seemed like heaven to me.  We had creme caramel and mango mousse and a baked custard, the house specialty.

It was my turn to drive after lunch and the boys snoozed.  With only the skimpiest of instructions, I followed the signs to Pamplona until I needed a nap too, and we switched drivers.  When we got to Pamplona we found a parking spot and Benj sent Peio a text.  Peio and his mother Laura found us asking for directions in a shoe store owned by the Ayestaran family, as we had been instructed.

Roman ruins in parking garage in Pamplona.

After a brief orientation to their lovely 11th floor apartment (where they have lived for  their whole lives -- Peio grew up with his older sister Ione and brother Antxon, playing on the big balcony that is their outdoors) we scurried off downtown to soak up the sights. Laura is a tour guide occasionally so she could tell us about the buildings, the bulls, the history of the Basque people as they keep trying to gain independence (it has been pointed out that we have not yet been to Spain).  We saw where the bulls run, the whole 823 meters, along cobblestone streets, up hill, around corners, all the way to the ring.  There are large photos of the last 100+ years of bull running, with thousands of people cramming the sides of the roads.  We learned that most people only run for about five steps in front of the bulls before they veer off to the side because bulls are faster than people.  At the turns, the barricades are reinforced to withstand the bulls that crash into the walls, and the surface of the street is rougher so they can keep their footing.

Along the way we stopped for a pre-dinner snack in a bar.  There were plates of snacks lined up on the bar and people get a drink and a snack to keep them going until dinner, which is late.  Jon's stomach was not so good, but Benjamin and I enjoyed our little open faced sandwiches of egg and mushroom and cod.  It took me until the next day to realize that we had started on our tapas adventure.  They don't call it that.  It's just a bite, a snack, a pintxo (pin'cho).

The Gastronomic Society dining room, underground. At
far left, Laura. With their backs to the camera, Uxua,
Sylvia and Koldo. Facing the camera, Hana, Benjamin
and Peio. At far right, Inaki.

Eventually we met up with Peio's dad Ramon who had finished his workday and we all went to the Gastronomic Society -- their version of a Common House, with members who cook and eat together after work sometimes.  They can bring any guests, they keep track of who uses the kitchen and how many people they bring, and there is space for two separate dinner parties or one big party for 30 or 40 people. Peio says it is a modest version of a gastronomic society, not so fancy or rich, just a bunch of friends.  Laura had organized a dinner for us, her family, Ramon's brother Koldo and wife Sylvia and daughter Uxua and one more brother, Inaki, who has Down's Syndrome and in the last few years also has Alzheimer's.  Inaki is 51 and is cared for by various members of his family on the weekends, in a rotation, and by the housekeeper who worked for his parents before they died. (All weekend long we saw his siblings taking care of him with patience and love, seamlessly.)  We had a dinner that might have been designed for Benjamin's birthday, it was so perfect.  An endive salad, a main course of fried eggs, and sheep milk yogurt for dessert.  At every single meal there is fresh bread. Without bread they cannot start the meal.

Antxon, Sylvia and Koldo trying to scoot across the
wall standing on a ting ledge.

Eating with these brothers and wives and cousins helped us understand how and why Peio was so comfortable melting into our lives.  He has grown up in the same sort of pile of cousins as our kids did, with uncles and aunts around all the time.  After dinner Antxon amused himself by trying to balance on a little ledge sticking out of a stone wall, crossing from one side of an arch to the other. Benjamin joined him, then Peio, and eventually just about everyone was trying, and the rules of the game evolved.  It was nearly impossible since the ledge got narrower and narrower, so it became the rule that no one could touch the ceiling or the side wall to keep balance, only the wall they were clinging to.  It was most entertaining.

We drove to Muskitz and went to bed at about midnight.