I’m Sorry, Officer…
103.45 miles hiked, 4 Cultural Events Attended
Our wonderful tour company, Pura Aventura recommended that since we were staying in Gallipienzo, we should see the Navarre desert in the Bardenas Reales National Park. These are the heart of the badlands of Spain that are reminiscent of the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. The erosion of softer clay amongst harder rocks, minimal vegetation, and dryness creates incredibly dramatic landscapes that sear the soul, at least for me. The hoodoos, which is the greatest name in all of geology, are always breathtaking. If you don’t know what a hoodoo is, don’t worry, you’ll see a magnificent one later in this epistle.
But before the hoodoos, we must get there so we begin the drive. Our ultimate destination is the city of Tudela. We are only staying one night in Tudela as that seemed reasonable when we were planning the trip. The next night we are staying a single night in the next place. I’m already feeling a little sad because what we love to do is spend enough time in a location, so we smell it, feel it, and know it. I’m worried we won’t get to know enough about these places to satisfy that traveling need I have.
As we are scooting down the road, a vision appears. We are in the flat country now and off in the distance we see a huge castle. This is Spain and if you are in the province of Castile y Leon (Castile means “land of castles”) you are used to seeing them there, but we are in the province of Navarre, while flat, I wasn’t expecting a castle. At this point, you must be wondering why I’m surprised, but on our trips to Spain, I don’t worry too much about in between spaces from one location to another. We like the surprises, and this castle is a perfect example. Since Pam loves castles, the car points itself right at it.
We pull into the town of Olite, a four thousand person town with a castle because if there’s a castle that matches every Hollywood stereotype, this is it. We find parking right in front, and for a Sunday in Spain is something of a miracle.
The castle was the seat of the kings of Navarre and in the 13th century, Carlos III of Navarre decided to build a that his wife, Leonor de Trastámara, would find perfect so she spent more time with him. Leonor wasn’t too thrilled about living in Olite, so this was not a defensive castle, but show piece to proclaim his wealth and power to the world. If you are thinking rich dilettante, whose parents earned everything, but they blew it on a house, it’s the Biltmore of 600 years before.
In 1813, the French invasion of Spain by Napolean was in full swing and to prevent the castle being used by the French, the Spanish military burned it almost to the ground. Weirdly, the guides just referred to a huge fire in 1813 that destroyed the castle, but never mentioned why the fire occurred. I guess today they are more interested in making French tourists happy instead of telling the real story.
After sitting abandoned for over 110 years, the Navarran government decided to restore it, but as they said in one of the displays, “to restore it and make it more impressive.” They added many meters to towers and did everything they could to achieve that goal.
I think it’s important to tell the real story because all the current guides from the castle hype up the 13th-14thcentury history, without fully mentioning that the restoration was to give Olite a permanent tourist destination. There’s nothing wrong with that, and we very much enjoyed visiting the castle, but I thought they should have been clearer about “truth.”
The castle is totally worth a visit because they let you walk up all the towers with those crazy winding stairs. Also, they give you access to most of the entire castle. It’s a celebration of a dude with too much money and time, and there’s nothing wrong with that. We had a blast following the guided tour from the brochure.
It was off to Bardenes Reales, where the land got dryer and even flatter, if that was possible. Almost as soon as we turned into the national park, I felt this place in my soul. As a little boy in Yuma, AZ, the desert always occupies a special place in my heart, and to feel something like it was wonderful. No visit to Bardenes Reales would be complete without a picture of the most important sites in Spain, El Castiledetierra (Earth Castle).
The hard rock interspersed with the soft limestone wearing away leaving the hard makes this the ultimate hoodoo picture (told you I’d show you!). Looking at this transcendent beauty, there were two things that elevated it to something I will cherish forever. As a car carrying introvert, you’ll be surprised that both were human.
Walking around, everyone I saw was just thrilled and happy. That happiness you get when you are seeing something in nature that’s glorious and you can’t stop smiling. Everyone had that and “Oh. My. God.” smile. The awe, the intense desire to be there, the wanting to capture it in a photo was infectious. It made me so happy to be there and just see it with those people. Even on this Sunday, there were only 30-ish people there. Seeing all those people being happy made me happy.
The second was something incredibly simple that the Spanish park service put up. A pole. But this pole had a little iron box on it, where you could put your phone into take a selfie of you at this transcendent piece of nature. This simple act made everyone so happy they could capture a picture of themselves (and friends) in front of this glorious nature. As I’m writing this I’m tearing up because for us introverted people, we were understood and accommodated. We didn’t have to ask someone to take our picture, but we could get the picture we wanted but would never get without that pole. My heart almost burst when I saw a single person set up their phone to take their selfie. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in all my travels.
We move on around the loop in the park to the place where the recommended hike starts. We are going to walk a road through the badlands so we can see them and be in them. I’m so excited about being in this place. Even though it’s 68° F, the winds are crazy now and we must put on our fleece to keep from freezing. We walk about five minutes, and we see a truck bouncing down the road we are walking.
It's a park service truck and the ranger started yelling at me. With the wind I can’t hear him, so I walk up to the truck, and he tells me that we are not supposed to be there and he’s going to fine me with “a very, very large fine.” I’m confused and he’s mad that I ignored the signs and I’m in trouble. He’s accusing me of ignoring the rules and I tell him I’m sorry, but I didn’t see any sign, but I believe him. I show him the route we are going to hike, and he says I purposely ignored the signs and I’m in trouble. I finally figure out the trail is closed and there’s some sign he’s referring to. I tell him I honestly didn’t see a sign, but he says I must leave. He keeps insisting that if he turns me in the fine will be very large. I tell the ranger over and over, that I’m sorry but if I’m in the wrong, I’ll pay the fine.
He tells me that he’s going to lock our car in on the road and wait for us so he can turn us in. I said if I broke the law, I understand and it’s my fault. He speeds back up the road and we see him sitting by our car. We walk as fast as we can back, and he pulls off down the road. We get to the car and that’s when I see a sign 15 feet from where we parked the car that no access is allowed to the trail. I feel a massive wave of embarrassment wash over me. We look all over the car for a ticket, but there is none. We unlock the gate he put around our car and pull out, locking the gate behind us.
Wow. I went from feeling glorious to the lowest of lows in 20 minutes. When it comes to rule following, I have Pam beat when it comes to national parks. I feel terrible and can’t shake the shame. We drove out of the park as soon as we could. I’m still so mad at myself for missing that sign. I guess in my excitement to commune with the badlands, I forgot common sense. I still feel horrible about it.
Out of the park we drive to Tudela to find our hotel. It’s in the old part of the city and Apple Maps takes us to a parking lot, that’s not near the hotel. I fortunately see an area reserved for our hotel parking, so we park and go look for the hotel. After getting Pam settled, I still haven’t done any walking for the day, so I walk around Tudela.
In my walk, I find that Tudela considers themselves the vegetable capital of Spain. It’s right on the Ebro River and they truly do grow all Spanish vegetables here. In fact, they have a festival for the vegetables that goes on for a week with gastronomic tours and everything. It sounded like so much fun I want to see it.
Pura Aventura has set up a tasting menu at Le Bistrot Tudela, one of the best restaurants in town at 7:30 PM. If you know anything about Spain, no one eats dinner at 7:30 except Americans. We were told that it was hard to find the restaurant, and that’s no lie. We figure it out but show up as the waiters are setting up for their real customers, locals. At first, we try to explain to the waiter what we are there for, but he’s not sure what’s going on. He says the guy who knows is in the bathroom and might take a while. Honestly, that was information I could have done without.
The waiter comes over with a GIGANTIC book, like the ones you see in medieval times or in the Scrooge play. I’m kind of in awe of the book, but I point to our handwritten reservation, and everything clears up. We have the four appetizer tasking menu with two mains. For Deb, Marion, Anita, and Lauren reading, stop reading now. Pam chose the suckling pig, and I had the sucking lamb. We loved them and thought each of us had won dinner.
My hope is that you are never in trouble with the law on your vacations. As always, that’s for reading!
What a day!!
Also…I think that policeman overreacted a bit. He obviously didn’t know who you are. I am so glad you were able to bust out your car and hit the road. I’ve already made the movie in my head!!!