A Navarran Day Trip!

I think I made up the word Navarran, but I like the way it sounds. Anyhoo, this Sunday, some students who are on the international committee decided to organize a day trip to a few locations in Navarra. We went to the Irache Monastery, Larraizar Winery, and Las Bardenas Reales.

I actually didn't know about the trip until my French friend, Clara, told me about it after Spanish class. I get about 10-15 event invitations every week on Facebook, so I've gotten to the point where I don't read them anymore. They're usually either from PC (my college back home and naturally I can't go to those) or party invitations, which happen practically every day so the novelty has worn off.

When I got home after Spanish class, I checked the event and saw that I still had time to sign up. It cost 25 euros, but that included absolutely everything--the food, the wine, and all the transportation. All of which get really pricey really fast here. It was an excellent deal.

We met up Sunday morning at 10:00 in front of the Edifico Central (the campus' main building) and headed out. It's always funny to me that Europeans think 10:00 is really early. For us, 10:00 is an excellent time. 6:00 is really early. Everything on the Portugal trip started at 9:00, which was fairly normal, certainly not ridiculously early. It's just funny.

First stop was the monastery, which was about a 45 minute ride. The monastery dates back to the 8th century. I wish we had been able to have a tour guide or someone who knew a lot about the monastery. As such, we basically just walked through it and took pictures in the courtyard. We couldn't spend a lot of time inside as a mass was going on.  If it had just been me, I'd have stayed for the mass, but since it was a huge group we moved on. We then walked around the monastery and got a nice mountainside view of the pueblo (village) in which the monastery is located.

After we had taken our fill of pictures, we walked back to the bus and they distributed our bagged lunch to eat at our leisure. It consisted of two bocadillos (sandwiches), an apple, a can of Pepsi, and candy. I kind of munched on the food throughout the day. When we all had our food, the students led us down the hill a little bit to a wine and water pump--no joke. There weren't any cups so those of us who had water bottles filled their bottles with wine. I tried someone else's before filling mine and it was too strong for me, so I just refilled my bottle with water.

A little while later, we hopped back on the bus and continued on to the winery. There the women working there led us on a tour through the winery. We watched a video from the owners explaining a little about the monastery. It was in Spanish, but I understood a lot of it. The woman giving the tour gave the tour in English. I wish she had done it in Spanish, but I think a lot of people in the group don't study Spanish here so they wouldn't have been able to understand.

Side note--it truly fascinates me that English is the unifying language for everyone. I have a group of friends who come from all over Europe, with their native language certainly not being English, but they talk with each other in English. They learn English in school and therefore know it very well. All of the international events are conducted in English, so hopefully you can speak English! I suppose they think it's more likely that most of the people will speak English than Spanish, or at least be able to speak both. A lot of the exchange students here are studying business or communications and their classes are in English. They don't even really need to speak Spanish besides the basics. That was like me when my family lived in Germany. I went to an American Department of Defense School where all my classes were in English. I took a German class like we take back home, but I only learned a little German.


To go back to the trip, after the video the woman took us out to the vineyards and explained the growing and harvesting process. The first vineyard section we saw was the experimental part, where they try out new growing techniques. Then we went through a gate and into the bigger part of the vineyard. I wish it had been growing season! I could imagine how gorgeous it will be when the leaves are green and the grapes are growing. As such, we still had a beautiful view of the pueblo and other mountains.

After touring the vineyard, we walk into the back area where they make the wine. She explained the process and then we went to where the wine is stored. My friend Clara told me that the wine on the top is the newest and the oldest is on the bottom where you can try it. Very interesting. After that room, the tour was finished and she took us upstairs for the wine tasting. I was excited, because I've always heard of wine tastings, but I'd never actually done one.

Before we could try the wine, however, she taught us the "proper" way to hold a wineglass and to taste wine. You have to hold the glass at the stem with your first three fingers and taste the wine by swirling it around in  your mouth to get all the flavors. Too elegant for me. We tasted two types of wine that they produce at the winery. They were both really strong for me and I didn't like them too much. But the cheese and bread they served with the wine was excellent! I'm a fan of cheese.

Once we finished the wine tasting, we got back on the bus to head to Las Bardenas Reales. The Bardenas Reales is a desert in the south of Navarra. One of the James Bond movies was filmed there. I don't know which one because I've never seen a James Bond movie, but fun fact!

Anyway, It was about an hour long bus ride from the winery and an hour and a half or so to get back. I took a nap on the bus. I've found that wine makes me really sleepy. I had that problem in Portugal when the Fado singers were performing, I struggled to keep my eyes open! I blame the wine. And the exhaustion from sleeping on a train the night before and touring a city all day.


The Bardenas Reales was my favorite part of the trip. I've never seen anything quite like it in real life. I imagine that's kind of what the West looks like with the Grand Canyon and deserty areas. It was absolutely gorgeous. We went to two different sites. Basically all we did was walk around, explore, and take pictures, but it was glorious. Clara and I both agreed that it would be great to spend a whole day there and have a picnic.

 The first sight we went to is hard to explain, but I have a picture so hopefully you'll understand. The only picture I've included from the first sight is the one that kind of looks like a desert statue or something. See all the sand dunes? Clara and I walked around those and explored a little (on the right of the picture). Then we rejoined the rest of the  group who were in the left area and took more pictures.

After that, we climbed back on the bus which took us to our second location. It consisted of the part in the picture above and the mountain below. The group was kind of free to do whatever, but a lot of us climbed the mountain first. There was a staircase, which made it pretty easy to climb. The only problems with the staircase was that a few of the steps had fallen off so you had to navigate around that. I guess when it rains, the steps get loose in the mud. Eek! Glad it was dry that day. It's funny how Europe is just like, if you're too stupid not to be careful, then don't climb the mountain.

The view was absolutely spectacular. You could see for miles. I kind of felt like Simba sitting with Mufasa in The Lion King, because there were large shady parts covering the land. "You must never go there, Simba." I don't think Spain has elephant graveyards though, wrong continent.

After the mountain, we climbed down and climbed onto the structure/mountain/thing in the first picture I have up there. Again, awesome view.

It struck me as odd how different everything looked in the Bardenas. As you can see in the picture of me that Clara took, there are green parts along with the sandy parts. On the bus ride back, I saw a few hills that looked perfect for a golf course. There were also hills of sheep that looked like a scene from Scotland. Some of the landmarks looked like the Outback in Australia and the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Truly amazing.

We left at about 6:00 and rode back to Pamplona. It was a nice full day and a lot of fun. I wouldn't mind going back to the Banderas. It would just be a matter of transportation, which can be tricky.


I had no idea that Navarra had a desert before coming here. The things you just happen upon.

That's all for now, folks! Until next time.