Nájera bike and hike

September 22, 2023

So I see I’ve been pronouncing it incorrectly all this time. It’s Nájera, not Najera. Accent marks are important!

With four straight biking days ahead, today is Rachael’s last chance for a while to get a walk in and she’s taking it. She’s mapped out a route to the southwest that continues on beyond where she turned back last night. I’m biking though of course, mostly because I’m of a lazy disposition and it’s just easier to cover territory on bike than on foot if you’re slowed down by a bone-on-bone knee.

We both get an earlier than usual start, leaving our apartment just past nine. The day doesn’t start quite as planned with scrambled eggs though, because the temperature in the fridge is set much too low and the eggs have frozen. Rachael reads up on what to do with frozen eggs and ends up boiling them but I opt for muesli instead, happy that the milk is only semisolid and useable.

It’s still quite chilly out when we leave, but we’re getting a jump on the day because we want to get back to the room in time for afternoon lunch. We admonish each other to be back by two.

The route I’ve picked for myself is pretty much just randomly drawn, with me looking for quiet roads with a modest amount of climbing. I haven’t researched anything I might see along the way, but as it turns out I’ve done well by myself. It’s a splendid ride, full of stunning scenery, a few surprises, and another new bird. For awhile I thought I had two new birds for the day, thinking I’d seen a pair of Eurasian marsh harriers out in one of the pastures. When I got home though I couldn’t convince myself of it. It’s possible, but more likely that they’re just run of the mill common buzzards. A mild disappointment, but it was still an outstanding ride.

There were a lot of surprises on the loop, but the Yuso Monastery really stood out. I had never heard of it and the nearby older Suso Monasteries, and only came upon it by chance. I see now that the two of them together are a World Heritage site, and if I had known and had the time it would have been well worth visiting the interior of Yuso. Suso, the older Monastery, was established in the sixth century and was the site where the first writings in the Castillian language were produced.

I could tax myself to come up for captions for these shots, but I’m leaving many of them to speak for themselves. I feel like I’m due a break so you can interpret them as you wish. Why do I always have to do all the work, anyway?

So what’s this? Several things seem possible.

#198: Spotless starling. This is the first I’ve known that starlings come in different flavors.

A Eurasian marsh harrier? Possibly, but more likely just another common buzzard.

The Yuso Monastery. With a little more time I could have climbed another mile into the hills and seen the nearby Suso Monastery too, where the Castillian language was born.

The view north across the Ebro. The notch to the left is the Puerto de Herrera, the route the high road south from Vitoria takes on its way to LaGuardia. It’s a beautiful route and dramatic descent beneath those cliffs, which we remember from six years ago.

The remarkable cliffs rising above Matute. I’d like to have biked another couple of miles to the village for a closer look, but then I’d be late for lunch which obviously would never do. Rachael hates dining alone.

An imaginative mural in Baños de Río Tobía, another village that looks worth exploring. Note that the windows and blinds are painted on. Also note the cat perched on the downspout.

A 16th-century transept in Arenzana de Abajo. The central pillar is capped by Adam and Eve and the four apostles, and the other four are the corner posts of what was originally a roofed temple.

Rachael’s been home for all of about fifteen minutes when I arrive, and chastises me to hurry up and get ready so we can step out again for lunch. Fifteen minutes later I’ve showered and changed and we’re walking toward the center again, mapped to a waterfront restaurant that looks appealing from the reviews; but before we get there we get reeled in by another one that looks fine too.

We grab a table up front by the sidewalk and enjoy a thoroughly pleasant hour and a half, taking our time over our three course meals and enjoying the riverside scene and the stream of peregrinos passing by. While we wait for our first course Rachael pulls out her phone to show me the photos from her thirteen mile hike; and later she’ll curse at and wrestle with her tech devices long enough to put together a slide show so you can appreciate them too.

Then it’s back to the room to hang out for a couple of hours. Rachael pulls the laundry in from off the line outside the window where it’s been drying all day while I indulge in a nap. Toward sundown we walk across the river to the dramatic red cliffs backing the town, in the hope that those swallows or swifts she saw swarming there yesterday are still about; but they’re a no show tonight. It’s nice to see the cliffs up close though, and high up we see about ten griffon vultures gyrating to the end of the day.

It’s been a great stay here in Nájera. We love the apartment, we like the feel of the town, and we haven’t exhausted the possibilities yet. We’d both be happy to be staying for another night or more, but it’s time to move on.

The cliffs right behind town really are impressive. This trail would make a pleasant regular evening walk.

No swallows tonight - maybe they’ve already called it a day, or even just left for the south maybe? Rachael did spot this impressive wasp nest halfway up the wall though.

On the way back to the room I stop to watch the playground, filled with kids scrambling on the equipment while their minders watch on. These youngsters must be fifteen or twenty feet up in the air. Are such exposed playground structures like this even allowed in America?

A new discovery! I’ve never noticed before that you can change colors of the track, but it works well here. Red is Rachael’s hike, blue is my bike ride.

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Ride stats today: 33 miles, 2,000’; for the tour: 201 miles, 11,200’

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2023 Bird List

198. Spotless starling

Today's ride: 33 miles (53 km)
Total: 523 miles (842 km)

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Comment on this entry	Comment	4

Keith ClassenGreat slideshow Rachael … looks like a great hike.
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1 year ago

Suzanne GibsonI have always observed that you are very meticulous about the correct spelling of place names!
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Suzanne GibsonI wish I’d paid attention from the start! We stayed in Nájera six years ago, and now I suffer from years of mentally mispronouncing it. It’s like Boise. I’m probably fated to always have to self-correct myself now when I think of the place.
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1 year ago

Kelly IniguezI was reading about the Basque language. Was that a link you posted? Anyway, have you heard anyone speaking Basque? These are beautiful photos - I'd love to see that area of Spain. So many places, so little time!
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1 year ago