Pamplona - Iruña

Hello again,

Being in Vitoria, we profit its excellent geographical location to visit Pamplona, in neighbouring Navarra, and San Sebastian (soon in this Blog) still in the Basque Country.

Pamplona, also known as Iruña -its Basque name- is the capital of the region of Navarra. This town hosts one of the best known "fiesta" in the world: the bull-running of San Fermin. Also known as just Sanfermines, this fiesta is held the week (actually 9 days) around July 7th, the day of San Fermin. Not only bull-running, which actually last just a few minutes every morning, but sanfermines is also, and especially, the night. Music, dancing, concerts, bads (peñas) playing music in the streets, the afternoon corrida, excellent food, better wine... not to be missed.

Downtown Pamplona is -just as Vitoria- full of the charm of a little village, and the tapas can be found everywhere. Another specialty of Pamplona are the sidrerias, places were one can be served excellent beef steacks or amazing tortilla de papatas just in the middle of a collection of huge cider (sidra) barrels. The cider is self-service, and one buy the right to haev a glass, and then serve it self straight from the barrel's tap. Just great!

We spent a lovely day in Pamplona, we promise!

AS usual, more pics to be found here.