We had no expectations about Vitoria. We picked it because we were looking for a place to wait for a day before we head into Bilbao. Ton read somewhere that they had the best preserved medieval center in Basque country, so we decided to check it out today. I almost waived off Vitoria because it doesn’t have a campground, but the city provides two aires that were both well reviewed- so Vitoria was on.
Vitoria made an interesting first impression. The road to the aire was a wide boulevard with trees down the middle. The apartments and offices on either side looked like they had been built in the last 20 years and had interesting designs that suited our taste. It did not look like the medieval city we were expecting. It made a good first impression on us because it was not what we were expecting.
The Autocaravanas Parking occupied one end of a municipal parking lot as is common in Europe. It requires a small fee to use and we pulled up to a barrier that we had to negotiate. A quick look showed that it required an app, I downloaded the app and put in the usual information, the last step to activate was for them to send a pin by text. I never got the pin. I tried several times but could not get the pin. While I was troubleshooting this I had a French lady come over and pepper me with questions (in French) while smoking, she didn’t hear my apology for not speaking French the first time so the questions kept coming while I messed with the app. The second time I broke out my “Sorry I am American and don’t speak French” in French, she understood and looking disappointed wandered off.
After another 15 minutes of Ton and I using both of our phones to try to gain entry, and sending a whatsapp to the app developer we finally got the pin we needed to pay the aire. The problem turned out to be our US phone numbers as the app doesn’t want to pay international text rates.
Having conquered technology we decided to head into the city for the afternoon. We arrived at the tram spot just as the very sleek and modern tram pulled up. These days most trams and buses have pay stations on them so I told Ton to hop on and I went looking for the pay station. It turns out this time Vitoria is bucking the technology trend and still requires paper tickets you purchase before you get on. So now we were scofflaws. Fortunately the ticket police didn’t check and we got away with it while feeling guilty.
The old town is well preserved and nicely compact. The street going to it was full of large street art murals that Ton loves. We spent a good deal of time climbing the steep street and taking in the art. After we got into the old town we noticed the next street over had escalators going up the hill to deliver you to the top without the climb. This is a modern feature we have seen a few other times in Spain.
Ton kept commenting about how Vitoria had a nice small town feel. I agreed with her but I also pointed out that I don’t think it is a small town, as small towns don’t have tram lines. Later Ton confirmed that the population was 260,000 people.
After spending an hour in the quiet old town, Ton handed me the name of a restaurant to find. It had the simple name that translates into English as Restaurant #7. Walking to Restaurant #7 we descended into the modern city and found a street full of cafes, restaurants, and Pinxto bars and many of the people of Vitoria out enjoying the blue skies and perfect temperatures.
We arrived at Restaurant #7 and all the outside tables were full, but there was room inside and we managed to get a table. This restaurant had a four course menu of the day with a bottle of wine for €23. The menu was in Spanish only, but I got our drinks going in Spanish. The rest of the interaction with the waiter was in Spanish and though I suspect his English is better than my Spanish he made an effort to keep me in Spanish by coaching me a bit. It added to a good experience. We each picked a different dish for each course and they were all wonderful. Restaurant #7 has set the bar high for service, atmosphere and food for the rest of the trip.
We were very full and a bottle of wine is a big commitment for the two of us these days so after finishing the meal we walked it off for about 20 minutes before we decided to head back to François. This time I purchased our tickets, but after boarding realized I had not validated the ticket as required; so once again we had to sweat the fare police until we got off. The next time we ride the tram in Vitoria I will get it right.
Vitoria was a wonderful surprise for us. The kind of place we look forward to when we travel because it has history we don’t know, but feels like a place that is lived in, and not just looked at.