Friday + Saturday 8/9 July 2011 #9/10 a continual bike riders dream with a bull or two

Day two and three of running with the bulls - time to watch it from above the crowds then watch it from up in the stands in the bull ring!? 

Food - Friday - pastries while waiting for the bulls (and people) to run by, a lovely way to start a day + our dinner at the Convention Centre last nite while watching the fireworks! Saturday - home cooked dinner tonite, potato salad with spanish sausage, mushrooms and onion and some cider, with ‘the team’ before Vic and I split.

Weather - Cold - long pants and t-shirt were not the dress of the day ... that was what I was in till changing into cycling gear and getting a few k’s in. Saturday, HOT and plenty more people in town due to it being a weekend, again this ‘celebration’ goes on and on and on! 

Car - Ambulances, there were heaps of them today, carting those poor buggers off to hospital. Sad enough, as I was driving past the hospital today there was someone being ‘released’ with a bandage wrapped around his head, he’ll have a memory for life. More ambulances on Saturday, a guy was in our street getting his heart pumped when we left early this morning ... a guy about midday was also being kept alive by the ambo’s. 

Conversation - Friday - Tourist to me in regards to last nights firework display “Those fireworks are the best I’ve ever seen” - I hate to be a fireworks SNOB but they were not as good as the Sydney’s New Years Eve celebrations, kmon! Saturdays conversation, it was with Seb who I was sitting next to in the bull ring this morning, anything he said was a drunken slur ... not bad for a 17 year old, his parents would be so proud ... I just wish that I had a breath mint for him!

Animal - Friday, seeing the bulls run was quite amazing, more on that later, they take the cake but up there with them were ‘the bugs’. On the ride on Friday evening I was riding along with a million of my newest friends, flying nats! Thank goodness for sunglasses!! It was only for a small section but there were enough of them to have a few still swarming around inside my jersey when I got home. Saturday - the five bulls which are let out to play with regular Joe/Joannes in the bull ring. These ones get to live for a few more years that those which ran in the morning. They entertain us in the stands and punish many of the drunkeds that try to be a matador! 

What else of note: The running of the bulls, in one word ‘crazy’. I decided not to see the ‘riff-raff’ on Friday, instead I decided to be above them. To do this you need access to a private apartment which overlooks the alley. These people hire out their apartments for the mornings of the festival. People use their lounge rooms to watch the bulls run. I guess you’d get a little passé about it all after a few years. I must also admit that living above these streets during San Fermin would be a little tiresome due to all the ‘partying’ during the night. The city is absolutely mobbed ALL night, people are everywhere, the streets are full and they stay there for the whole night/festival. The days wouldn’t be so bad. Most revelers head to the parks to sleep before waking in the afternoon to start all over again. 

Parting thought of the day/blog: to the guy who stripped down to his birthday suit and  then proceeded to get recked by the bull. He was pulled away from the danger by good hearted strangers and was visibly bleeding from the head. Once he caught his breath he went straight back in! He got collected again and people saved him ... humanity really is special. Only once that bull was out of the ring did the police come in and take him away! For MORE PICTURES - CLICK HERE

Thursday 7 July 2011 #8 a continual bike riders dream with a bull or two

Day one of running with the bulls - a religious festival!? 

Food - all you can eat breakfast at AC Hotel, why not, time to eat a real breakfast, real milk, real pastries and plenty of fruit ... oh and more pastries!

Weather - Cold - dare I say it, the top temp was 25C today, plus it was cold in Sydney! 

Car - All the police cars around town and I’m talking everywhere. The National police are serious dudes, full riot great and everything. 

Conversation - It was more what wasn’t said ... all the drunks who were everywhere were speechless! 

Animal - a toss up, there was a guy who was walking with his goldfish, sorry not fast enough to get a photo or the bulls. Quite impressive animals which are now all d-e-a-d ... I’ll you make your own decision about whether bull fighting is a good idea or not.  

What else of note: In Australia we play Barry Manilow and other such great artist to keep ‘hoodlums’ out of the car parks. While in the central underground car park this morning I parked the car (in their ridiculous small car spaces and TIGHT corners) and when getting out heard ‘bumping’ dance music. Thinking this was their version of keeping people out of the car park ... alas it was a guy who had his music blaring and he was passed out! What makes it even better was that when I came back 2 hours later he was still in the same position! There was also some other graphic displays of ‘celebration’ - pictures speak better than words - enjoy!

Parting thought of the day/blog: How do they make the city clean again after so much partying. There must be some serious man/woman power to clean up this town! I am impressed that they do it so quickly and will do it for nine days!  

Wednesday 6 July 2011 #7 a continual bike riders dream

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.

Monday 4 July 2011 #6 a continual bike riders dream

Happy 4th of July --- after living in the States for 8 years (and only ever being there for 2 of them) I feel that I need to acknowledge their big day. 

Food - don’t let this out but I got to cook tonite, with left over vodka what else can be done, Salmon Vodka a sure fire winner! Also more bananas today! 

Weather - Most of the day was spend doing work for the upcoming TdF trip - plenty of cool breeze in the apartment which was nice. Still on my drive around there was a heap of men and women in full winter clothing, Amazing!  

Car - forget the cars, it’s all about the car parking here in Pamplona! Granted the spots in Pamplona are tiny which doesn’t help but still! I parked the Renault Traffic today. It was in a spot where the car next to me was parked next to one of their rubbish bins on the street. So he (or she) had plenty of space on the garbage side. So the guy parks right on the line on the opposite side from the bins! Leaving NO space ... if I wasn’t ‘in the Spannish mood’ this may drive me a little crazy but ‘when in Pamplona’ does as the locals do! Since the R.T’s are massive it is easier to park on the line as well ...

Conversation - the conversation around the dinner table tonite was priceless, reminiscing about past trips, characters and what’s to be expected. Good times and the clients haven’t even started.

Animal - again a shame, no animals today, the opening ceremony is tomorrow and the bulls run the next day. This was the closest thing I saw to an animal. 

What else of note: I may have to talk about another food situation, at lunch we had Pintxos (tapas) and there was one which we called ‘surf and turf’ - ham, crab, anchovy, egg (of course) 

Parting thought of the day/blog: Parking W H A T parking in Pamplona ... good thing they produce a lot of VW’s down here ... hopefully they have a huge spare parts division! 

Sun 3 July 2011 #5 a continual bike riders dream

Food - breakfast cereal with OJ, please tell me if you do enjoy long life milk!? Why oh why is this the 'norm' in EU!?

Weather - First real day in Pamplona, true to form the weather was HOT! If you were to ride here you’d be up early or riding really late ... I’d lean towards the early part and then enjoy a siesta. 

Car - did you know that Pamplona has a huge VW factory and they are everywhere, so that'll have to take the cake.

Conversation - the gypsies are in town, they do all the major events over the summer, what a life they would live!! Take good care with your valuables around here! The best conversation would have to of been watching the locals deal with them with such distain, precious!

Animal - honestly I didn't see one animal today! Bulls will be the flavor of the month in coming installments!

What else of note: Today's entry seems to have more unanswered questions than previously, please excuse, I'm not tying to be Seinfeld! 

Parting thought of the day/blog: Thought of the day, how is it that older gentlemen can wear wool pants, shirt and tie, plus wool hat in 36c heat!?

Sat 2 July 2011 #4 a bike riders dream continues

Food - The two pastries out at Orio ... just a little sugar rush to get me home. Tonite off to Pamplona so who knows what we’ll have on the dinner table ... just hope it is not freeway food! 

Weather - Almost Cut and Paste from y’day ... this is what everyday should be like, cool breeze, sun and more sun, glorious.  

Car - it is going to be a Renault Traffic - I’ve not seen it yet but that is my trusty steed for the next oh - 3 weeks - on the road. This automobile will end up with a nickname and will most likely appear is a few of these blogs

Conversation - it would have to be with the rider E’kite, who I rode up the second last mountain with today, 18 years old, just done 100k and not even out of breath. We chatted on the monster (many more monsters to come and they’ll be ‘worse/better’ than this pee-on) of a hill between Orio and San Sebastian.

Animal - the cows on the road between Orio and San Seb - they have one amazing view, I bet they don’t even appreciate it.

What else of note: I’m pretty excited that my 2 months of gear has fitted into my army duffel and I can ‘comfortably’ carry it around for the summer ... hmm will I ever bring a bag with wheels to EU!? 

Parting thought of the day/blog: San Sebastian is one amazing place, many many thanks to Gorka and his crew for taking me in. I see a trip to SS with a group of riders sometime in the very near future. One more thing, there was another picture in the restaurant that we had lunch in yesterday, it was of Neil Stevens, he too lives in the area but I forgot to mention him in y’days notes. It is also the first day of 'le tour' it is one of those things that I think being back in Sydney you get to see more of le tour but it is still great to be here, see the newspapers (try and interpret what they say) and watch it without it being at 2 in the morning, sorry Australians. 

PS Congratulations to Philippe Gilbert on winning stage one of le tour

Fri 1 July 2011 #3 a bike riders dream

Food - I’m a cooking dinner tonight so WATCH OUT! Smoked salmon and vodka, one of favorites, who knows who is coming for dinner but I’m sure there will be a few extras as this seems to be the Spanish/Basque way. I’m also going to be a little hungry after the 4 hour MTB ride today in the Basque country, a great ride with more ups than downs, cheers to Gorka and Anna for the guide - BTW Anna rode in the Giro de Italia last year for women, need I say “impressive” and she can climb! 

Weather - this is what everyday should be like, cool breeze, sun and more sun with 90% of the riding in the shade.  

Car - Gorka’s “egg” a 4 door white Cleo - it was overheating this morning when he had to run out to get my bike ... he made it home then added some water and down came the heat ... perfect as we needed it to go riding today. 

Conversation - the conversation with the waitress today at lunch, who knows what she said but an Alan Davis photo was on the wall and I said “Australian-o” then pointed to myself and said “Australian-o” - she went off for about 10 seconds in Spanish and all I could do was smile. Or was it the interpretation of a conversation down the beach ... Girl 1 “I would never go topless at the beach with my boyfriend and his best friend” - Girl 2 - “I wouldn’t either, he’d just spend the whole time looking at your breasts!” Obviously topless bathing in EU could almost be considered the ‘norm’.

Animal - is a Specialized Stump-jumper an animal or a MTB? It was wailing today, it even bottomed out a few times in the front suspension but it got me through the entire day. It was great to ride an old-skool bike again ... makes me miss my good old Trek 7000. 

If must know about real animals, there were more cows today but the horses take the cake, in particular the foal on the trail up the top of our last hill. 

What else of note: Last nite one of the guests at dinner was Inigo Altuna, he owns and runs Cortadores y Venenciadores - what is this you ask, he cuts ham’s, he has won awards, needless to say I was CAPTIVATED over dinner hearing all about his skill! Different parts of a ham leg taste different and he HAND cuts the meat with a knife as fine as any machine slicer, he also makes art out of the ham leg, he has won awards for this as well, I could go on but I won’t. 

Parting thought of the day/blog: Pamplona tomorrow ... running with the bulls starts 6 July, it’ll be a hoot but I can’t say that I necessarily agree with killing bulls in the fashion ... are you with me or against me?