Happy San Fermin 2011 6th of July --- with special thanks to all the people who contribute to Wikipedia, below is a brief review of the festival:
‘The festival of San Fermín (or Sanfermines, Basque: Sanferminak) in the city of Pamplona (Navarre, Spain), is a deeply rooted celebration held annually from 12:00, 6 July, when the opening of the fiesta is marked by setting off the pyrotechnic chupinazo,[1] to midnight 14 July, with the singing of the Pobre de Mí. While its most famous event is the encierro, or the running of the bulls, the week-long celebration involves many other traditional and folkloric events. It is known locally as Sanfermines and is held in honor of Saint Fermin, the co-patron of Navarre. Its events were central to the plot of The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, which brought it to the general attention of English-speaking people. It has become probably the most internationally renowned fiesta in Spain. Over 1,000,000 people come to watch this festival.’ From willapedia - let the mayhem begin!
Food - bodega for lunch - fried calamari on a fresh roll with mayonnaise ... yummmmm!
Weather - The rain never falls on these plains in this part of Spain! Hot, HOT, HOT! The wind came up in the afternoon, which wouldn’t have been too much of an issue but when you ride for 2.5 hours you’re going to get some head wind at some point, more on that below ... I guess there is a reason why there are wind farms on all the mountain ranges around here, please excuse my stupidness.
Car - Pamplona needs more scooters, bikes and less gypsies, all their vans are taking up valuable spaces around town. It took me 20 mins to find a spot y’day around our apartment, no kidding!
Conversation - Tourist “look they have Mercedes as cabs here” - nuf said!
Animal - forget animals, lets talk HUMANS! Those crazies that were atop the ‘jumping fountain’ in Pamplona today! I cannot believe they climb to the top then jump into peoples arms - L-O-C-O (spanish for crazy!!) I must admit, I’m so glad that I saw it happen. Did you know that on their maps of ‘old town’ Pamplona they’ve got that jumping fountain labelled with a small icon of a man falling off the fountain! If you’re a facebook member you can see the footage by clicking here. If not some of these photos will help you understand the craziness!
What else of note: Great ride through the rolling hills of Pamplona this afternoon. I was lucky enough to have a little free time to explore, it took me a while to track down the right road but once on it - WOW! Amazing rolling road, FAST surface and wheat/sunflower fields a plenty! It was a massive tail wind out and a humongous head wind of the way home. I’m certainly not complaining, just stating a fact ... it slowed me but the ride/surface/serenity of the ride was just bliss.
Parting thought of the day/blog: Pamplona Citadel - my suggestion, ride around it on a single speed/fold away bike at 12am on a week night, before San Fermin or any time not associated with the festival. It was amazing, NOT a sole around, the only noise was from the frogs in the drains and the lights on the walls are just spectacular - here are some pix but they just don’t do it justice! 
There are too many pix, more photos can be found here.
Love the Blog Will. Keep up the posting. Very entertaining. One small request would be to make the image (file sizes) larger. Too small to see detail and hyperlink click doesn't increase the physical size. All the best Paul.
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