Today is the first day of the fifth week of our little trip and our destination, the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz.
We found our bikes, which had been stashed in one of the hotel's meeting rooms on the first floor and got them downstairs. Outside, we started to load bags onto the bikes when M1 noticed a White Stork in a nest on top of the church on the plaza. He hadn't noticed it there yesterday. And then we both noticed that there was more than one nest and more than one stork. In fact there were four nests and as far as we could be certain, nine White Storks up there!
M1 tried to get some photos but it was quite back lit and his phone's camera is rubbish when the zoom function is in use. They'll have to do. Photos or no photos, it was an amazing sight.
About five minutes out of Orduña, we were into the day's first and only big climb. We cycled uphill on a gradient of about 8% for around 4 miles. You can see it plainly in the profile graphic above.
The weather forecast had been for sporadic rain again. This seemed quite plausible. There were very low, dark clouds all over the sky. As we pedalled ever upwards we got closer and closer to those clouds until eventually we were enveloped by them and then, cycling above them! The views were dramatic and it felt good to be cycling in a such an amazing place.
After topping out, the road led downwards with a more gentle but welcome gradient. We saw a sign for a viewing point on the left and decided to investigate. It turned out to be a waterfall falling into a gorge. There was a fence at the edge of the gorge but also a viewing platform that gave you a less impeded view over it. To be honest, the waterfall was somewhat underwhelming. But we had to check it out.
The road ran down a long valley with big stone cliffs above steeply sloping ground on both sides and with a major road running parallel to ours. M1 could see big birds of prey circling about the cliffs. The cycling was fast and easy here.
We stopped for coffee somewhere.... it was probably Nanclares de la Oca.
We were now close to our destination. The final miles took us through the industrial outskirts of Vitoria-Gasteiz. Soon though we were cycling on an excellent network of cycle paths that apparently are everywhere in the city. We found our way to our hotel without difficulty and checked in, stowing the bikes in a locked room off the underground car park.
M1 dealt with the man on reception during check-in. He spoke great English and was thoroughly nice. "Are you here for the festival?" he asked. M1 said that they were not. And then "Tell me about this festival please". It turned out that there's a multi-day festival called the Akzena Rock Festival in the city right now. And headlining tonight are none other than Queens of the Stone Age! M1 and M2 have seen the band a couple of times before and rate them as one of the best live rock bands they have ever seen. It was meant to be. We bought tickets as soon as we got into our room! They're not expected to be on stage until about 00:20 tonight so that's going to be a slight challenge for the already tired M1 and M2 but it had to be done and tomorrow's a rest day so we can sleep in :-)
The festival venue seemed to be a large car park or maybe just a park. We could have got a taxi there or maybe public transport but no, the day's cycling had apparently not been enough for M2 and it was decided we'd walk for an hour to get there! Each way :-)
To be fair, this turned out to have been a great plan as our route took us right through the old part of the city which is lovely and vibrant, full of happy people, food and drink and entertainment. We passed a band playing for free and then a bandstand which was playing music to which a small crowd of people were doing something that looked a bit like line dancing (but probably wasn't).
As we walked into the festival venue, which had four stages in total with two in operation at a time, we passed Rain Parade playing. M1 has an album of theirs from way back.
We'd arrived at about 21:00 with the intention of watching L7 play their "Bricks Are Heavy" album in full. Apparently it's the 32nd anniversary of the album or something. We don't particularly know the band other than one or two tracks which we do like. Like this one:
They came on and did their thing. They were OK.
We then waited and waited until 00:20 for Queens of the Stone Age. One thing that can be said about the festival is that it was well organised and ran like clockwork because on the dot of 00:20 the band arrived on stage, opened with Little Sister and went on to play a blistering set!
We walked home through dimly lit streets and got back to the hotel at about 3:00! A great evening.
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