Vitoria

We went by bus from Haro to Vitoria, as it was quicker and much cheaper than train (less than 4 euros for a one hour journey). We had a brand new, nearly empty bus and it was a comfortable easy trip, with a screen letting you know what stop you were approaching. We didn't have far to walk to the NH hotel, which has a lovely setting by Florida park. Vitoria is a very attractive city with much greenery, in fact it won the prize for greenest European City in 2012.  You can walk for several kilometres along tree lined, car free boulevards, and there are parks scattered around and throughout the city. There is a massive water park and we could see many people sunbathing and using the pools on a warm Sunday.

It is the capital city of the Basque Autonomous Community.

We are having fun with the language. English is not widely spoken and the written language will be in Basque and Spanish. Our limited Spanish also is not understood. It is not easy to decipher menus, because even the Spanish words for a dish may be different to down south. Pintxos are very popular - an array of small tasty dishes is placed on top of the bar, and you choose from there. So that relieves the menu problem. The main meal of the day around here is lunch with restaurants opening at 1.30 pm and people only starting to eat by about 2.30 pm. In the evenings people are sitting out on the streets, taking their time over a drink and maybe a pintxo.

We have tried the cider drink, txakoli, popular up here, but not really to our tastes. A lovely fresh white wine, Albariño, is much nicer (thanks CJ).

There has just been a jazz festival in town and on Saturday night there were bands playing in the town squares. The atmosphere was very lively with all ages out and about.

In the park near our hotel there is a bandstand and on the weekend evenings a dance band plays for the older folks with many of them dancing. Spanish of all ages seem to know how to enjoy themselves.

In the main square there were young ones rock n roll dancing to recorded music. Vitoria has a wonderful atmosphere and we are very glad to have included it on our itinerary.