Fall in Euskadi

Plentzia
Kristine and I!
The view from the cliffs
Castillo de Butron




Fall in the Basque Country is amazing. Some days are warm, some are crisp. The trees and flowers and still in bloom; the leaves don't change colour until late October or November. And so far, it hasn't rained THAT much.

We've been taking advantage of the fall weather and of Bilbao's being surrounded by coast and mountains over the last few weeks. Some are regular Sunday strolls, like a walk up Artxanda (and a funicular ride down). We've taken in the coast via Muskiz Beach and the trail from Sopelana to Plentzia along the cliffs. We walked more than 700m straight up for the views from the top of Pagasarri, and followed the seemingly never-ending trail from Plentzia along the river to the Nintendo-castle Butron.

Basque hikers are hardcore. Young or old, they all get up early and do their hiking to be back home for a 2 or 3pm lunch. Then, on some of the more accessible trails you see people out for an after-lunch stroll in the late afternoon. We usually manage to time things so that we are just heading out when the hardcore hikers are heading home, active during everyone else's siesta time.

The best feature of hiking around here is that trails often lead from village to village. Which means that when you get to your destination there's always a pub or cafe where you can refuel before the trip back.