Goodbye France - Welcome to Spain

A rainy low pressure system (as known from the weather report) came from the Bay of Biscay and into our souls, so we spontaneously left Biarritz; well ... France :-( ... and hoped for a sunny welcome in Spain. In Pamplona, we even got a festival on top of it. Somehow, people celebrated the old date of San Fermin (running of the bulls). This holiday used to take place somewhere between September and October in bad weather, so the Pope moved it to July. Since then, every year in July, the bulls are driven through the narrow streets of Pamplona to the arena. There was no spectacle like that on September 24th, of course, but there was music playing everywhere and some traditionally dressed Basque people were dancing. It was loud and cheerful, and it was hard to move forward in the crowded streets. We let ourselves drift, turned to the music ... to the left ... continued on ... for dinner at our campsite near the mountains. On our evening village walk, we accidentally happened upon a Catholic church service. We could guess what the spoken word meant, but the voice of the 'lead singer' in harmony with a very gentle organ was really beautiful. And when Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' started playing, I was completely enchanted.

For me, Sunday was a holiday - sunshine, hiking boots on, and off to the Sierra de Lokiz. The griffon vultures circled above us, but none of them really wanted to pose for a photo shoot, even though I bravely carried my telephoto lens. Micha was also unwilling to sacrifice his slice of sausage from his sandwich ... oh well. It was still a beautiful day.