June 16, 2024
Saint-Jean-de-Luz to Zarautz
Hard to believe that this evening we are back in Spain! We crossed Col de Banyuls on May 25 and today is just 3 weeks later.
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Al and I had both passed through Hendaye in 2016, on our separate trips. I was still navigating with a paper map and doing occasional place-name searches on my Garmin. I think he had created routes and loaded them on his device, but I think there were places with gaps (or dot-dot-dots as they were calling them). Hendaye may have been one; he said he thought that was where they’d been on a bike path that had an elevator and were confused. I was also confused on my ride through but didn’t remember any elevator.
He was correct. There is an elevator to bring you from the cycling/pedestrian path below to the bridge level. And the bridge isn’t the heavily-trafficked highway bridge I remember; it’s a repurposed former road bridge that’s now for pedestrians and cyclists. I must have changed from the bike path to the highway before the narrow boardwalk section. I’ll add that we rode the boardwalk, slowly, ignoring the walk-your-bikes signs—as did everyone else.
Once across the Bidasoa and into Spain, the marked bike route continued for a couple hundred metres and then disappeared. We both remember getting a bit lost trying to find the road to Jaizkibel in 2016. In 2024 we had a course on our Garmins but it was still confusing.
There were a lot of cyclists on the climb, especially the first part to the Hermitage of Guadalupe. I even passed two! One an exhausted-looking man on a road bike, who had probably expended a lot of effort prior to me catching him, and another a loaded cycle tourist we saw again later.
As we were descending, we first saw a police car with flashing lights coming towards us. It went past. Then there was a vehicle with a loudspeaker on the roof, blaring music. Then there were cyclists with numbers on their bikes, many wearing the same jersey. It was some sort of sportive event, riding up Jaizkibel from the south. We never saw where they started because, when we got to the bottom, the left turn toward Lezo, the usual route to Donostia/San Sebastian, was blocked by construction. The few cars on the road were turning right and then looking for places to turn around.
Luckily for us, our route was to the right, though Pasai Donibane. There was a section through a narrow mediæval street where signs (and Sunday strollers) required us to walk our bikes, which I didn’t remember from last time. And then our route, shown as a red line on our Garmins across some water, ended in a ferry dock and I remembered researching this section. Yes, there’s a passenger ferry across the Bay of Pasaia and yes, it takes bikes.
While we were wondering how to get our bikes aboard, the loaded cyclist I’d passed near the summit of Jaizkibel rolled his bike down the ramp, removed his bags, and lifted his bike on. We did the same.
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We spoke briefly with the other cyclist before setting off again. He’s German or maybe Dutch, just starting out on his ride to Santiago de Compostella. I think this was his first day.
We rode up and over a low ridge to Donostia. In the heat, though, it didn’t seem so low.
I think the video gives a better idea of the size and atmosphere of this beach. Zurriolako Hondartza is the easternmost of three large beaches in Donostia. Only one small area was open for swimming, with caution (orange flags).
We ate the food we were carrying, a bit of leftover pizza from last night, but were both still hungry so watched as we continued through Donostia. Al spotted a small supermarket and I went in. What an experience! It’s early afternoon on a sunny Sunday in a coastal city and this is the only supermarket across from the busy beach. There are many shoppers looking for inexpensive, ready-to-eat food, mostly wearing backpacks or carrying big beach bags, no baskets to carry one's selections, and one cashier, until she managed to call for another. Al thought I’d been kidnapped!
We rode to Ondarreta, the westernmost beach, and found a shady bench in a park across from the no-shade beach to eat our haul and drink our iced tea while it was still cold.
Our second big climb of the day was Igeldo, starting essentially at the end of Ondarrega. I’d routed us up the correct way this time, not the crazy hike-a-bike I’d done in 2016.
It was a hard climb, especially on a hot afternoon, but there was no summit sign to celebrate our accomplishment. Nor were there the big homes with hedges of giant hydrangeas I thought I remembered. I didn’t photograph any of the fantastic hydrangeas in Biarritz yesterday thinking they would be today’s flower of the day, but it was not to be.
Down again on the narrow road (no camping cars or trailers permitted), swooping cautiously around unmarked switchbacks, to Orio. Then it was up and over one last relatively low ridge to our destination.
We are staying in Zarautz tonight. It’s also a beach town, but much more my scale than Donostia. Al said he liked Donostia, based on our quick ride through, but I explained that, like Biarritz, it was a very expensive place to stay. Maybe next time. Here, our accommodation was 65€ and we were two blocks from the beach, in a spacious room.
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Today's ride: 67 km (42 miles)
Total: 2,062 km (1,281 miles)
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4 months ago