Pamplona, Spain 🇪🇸 2019 – Michael and Pam's Travels

Date: 4-5th October 2019

Travelled: 180 kms from Zaragoza to Pamplona in the province of Navarra

Visited: Pamplona

Stayed: Pamplona municipal aire, €10 all services. N42.82067, W01.65631

Budget: 118 days @ €78 per day

We service the Hymer and roll out of the aire in Zaragoza in good time. Reviewing our data-base on Pamplona it indicates the aire is very popular, so better to be early and assure ourselves a spot.

The GPS set for Pamplona, we make good time out of the city but suddenly find ourselves on a tollway. The signage on the Spanish roads is obviously designed to trap rich Germans but somehow we have been swept into the trap. €19 later we are approaching the outskirts of Pamplona.

The rain in Spain doesn’t appear to fall on the plain.

We do a quick Lidl stop as we plan two nights in Pamplona, then go on to find a place in the aire. The aire is excellent with two service points and reasonably wide spacing for each motorhome.

Pamplona, Navarra - Nafarroa, Spain

Map of Pamplona, the icon on our parking spot.

Obviously Pamplona is famous for the Fiestas de San Fermín and the ‘Running of the Bulls in the week of the 6-14th July. However our guide book outlines several things to see in Pamplona so we set off to find the tourist office and have a look for ourselves.

We walk up through the 15th century Neuvo Gate, we later read it had an extensive update in the 1950’s.

A striking bit of street art depicting the ‘Running of the Bulls’.

They have set up a concourse of classic cars (some more classic than others) in the Avenida Carlos II

This lovely fountain and garden on the Plaza de las Merindades.

Yes it‘s drinks and tapas time in Pamplona. We have made it our mission to always order a ‘tortilla de patatas’ along with whatever else we may fancy on the bar. This one was very salty but amazingly good, real stroke material !

So our afternoon in Pamplona is done. We make our way back to the Hymer and watch a constant stream of motorhomes arrive to find no spaces in the aire. Anyway we have a quiet evening as the sun sets.

Next morning after a little sleep-in I go for a wander to find 24 motorhomes parked on the adjoining street and a car-park adjacent the fire station next door. It appears Pamplona is a popular stop over.

Breakfast done we prepare ourselves for another day’s exploring and walk up the hill through the Neuvo Gate.

Yesterday the young lady in the tourist office told us we can walk the old city walls. So once we pass through the Neuvo Gate we take the steps up to the top of the battlements and start walking. Nice view !

The sign says ‘A Stone with a Woman’s Name’, so here is Pam with…

We continue on to the Cathedral de Santa Maria before leaving the city walls to firstly explore the Cathedral Museum and cloisters (€2 pp). The museum is an interesting mix of gold and silver this and that as well as numerous spare altar icons (see below).

Stone coffins appear a bit uncomfortable for the long sleep.

The cloisters are quite beautiful. This amazing spiral staircase sets the scene.

Our guide book highlights the cloisters here in the cathedral. Unfortunately there is an extensive renovation along one side, so we don’t see them at their best.

Back inside the Cathedral, the high altar and choir. We must be getting a bit cathedraled out.

After escaping the cathedral we make our way back to the bullring and do the self guided tour (€6 pp). It was excellent and learnt quite a bit about this traditional blood-sport of Spanish culture.

So that’s Pamplona we make our way back to the Hymer in the mid-afternoon. It’s Saturday and it seems the locals are all out having a drink.

Michael and Pam

2 thoughts on “Pamplona, Spain 🇪🇸 2019”

2 Comments

Greg
October 9, 2019, 08:13

Shame its not July! Ahh Pamplona spent 7 days there during the festival de Fermin I think they call it, mad!

Kirston Tozer
October 9, 2019, 17:25

So glad you got to Pamplona, I absolutely loved it there what a lovely place wish I were still there instead of cold wet UK.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

2 thoughts on “Pamplona, Spain 🇪🇸 2019”