22nd October 2009 - Pamplona

Huesca awoke to rain.  We took a look out of our window and as we had already done some sightseeing, and were not massively taken with the town as a potential hostel location, we decided to move on.  We had planned a rough route around Northern Spain that took in the major towns and tourist spots like Pamplona, San-Sebastian, Bilbao, Santander, A Corona, Santiago and more.  The road to the nearest of these, Pamplona, took in the town of Jaca, which is known to be the gateway to the Pyranees.  Since it was on the way and, more-importantly, since I love skiing, we though a look around Jaca would be in order.

We took a few hasty, rain splattered, photos of Huesca which do not adequately capture what a nice place it can be, and then hit the road again.  I would recommend a couple of days in Huesca to anyone doing a tour of Aragon, but I cannot see Jana and I living there.

The road to Jaca threads through the foothills of the Pyranees passing through mountains at some points and affording spectacular views over precipitous drops at others.  The drive, much like the one we had to Huesca, can be extremely beautiful and is worth doing as experience in itself.  We take the slower but more pleasant N roads whenever we can as we are not in any tearing hurry and the stunning scenery is so much more apparent from the N roads.  The A roads are excellent but you do not tent to see as much (A for Autopista or motorway).  We decided that N must stand for Nacional, much like the French Route Nactionals, and there are also E roads.  Since one sometimes have to pay a toll for using the E roads we have named them E for Expensive.

Our little Toyota Yaris is rubbish on hills of any letter, be they C, N, A or E. When driving up gradients on the Autopista’s we have to change down to third gear.  We booked and paid for a VW Polo as we thought this would be an OK car on our budget to do a lot of kilometers in.  The Yaris was all they had at the airport, it is a city car and the only good thing I can say about it is that it has a nice tight turning-circle.  Having a low-powered engine is probably not even a petrol saver when it has to work so hard to get us up hills.  We were overtaken by lorries a couple of times.

Jaca, also in Aragon and proud of its’ Heritage as the city of Ramiro I, is the service city for the Spanish Pyranees and seems like a pleasant little place.  We arrived during Siesta but there was still some folk around and all of the cafe’s and restaurants were open.  I imagine that when the snows come and the skiers arrive the town can get very lively.

We spent the afternoon wandering around town, happy that we were not being deluged with rain as in Huesca and Girona, and we enjoyed the town very much.  We took a stroll into the old town, then up to the Citadel and had a picnic near one of the churches.  We didn’t really get a chance to talk to any locals but we felt as if the town was just awaiting the start of another ski season when the economy can boom and the tourists spend their money.

Personally I would be happy to open a backpackers hostel in a place like Jaca, the town is pretty, it is surrounded by mountains and there is a good chance of business, with skiiers in the winter and walkers (it is on the Camino de Santiago) the rest of the year.  We even saw our first backpackers hanging around near the bus station.  Jana is a little dubious because of the cold and snowy winters and the fact that backpackers, in her opinion, do not really go skiing and we might be offering the wrong product in the wrong place.  I think that Jaca should go on our list but appreciate that it is going to be pretty low on the list once we have visited a few more promising places.  The thought of a full seasons skiing every year for evermore has probably influenced my feelings about Jaca more than sensible considerations such as whether it is the right location for our business.  Good job I have got Jana here to be the voice of reason.

The drive from Jaca to Pamplona was also beautiful, I believe we are falling in love with the Spanish countryside, and there were many occasions when we exclaimed how stunning the view was.

On the outskirts of Pamplona we spotted a Media Markt, and so we popped in to get some SIM cards for our mobile phones so that we could have Spanish phone numbers and be able to keep in touch with each other and people back home.  Having a number is also a must when job hunting, how else are companies and agencies going to get in touch and ask us to a job interview?

Despite the rather generic and built up outskirts Pamplona is a very attractive and charming city.  Jana had a feeling about Pamplona and I have to say she was right.  We have been here for only a few hours, long enough to find some accommodation and grab a bite to eat, but already Pamplona strikes us as an excellent location.  It is world famous due to the Sanfermines (Running of the Bulls) plus it is on the Camino de Santiago and has an airport and good transport links.  In addition it is not too far from the coast or from the ski resorts of the Pyranees, both within a couple of hours drive.