BITRAVEL: the inland route

The second route, the “Inland Route”, goes along Araba and Gipuzkoa and is more common that the first one. Today the “Inland Road is perhaps the best mirror of the Basque Country, an itinerary of contrast uncovering a heterogeneous and enormously varied country in scarcely six days. Coastal landscapes, lush forest, fertile vegetable gardens, dry lands, interminable plains, highly – industrialised areas, rural landscapes, Basque-speaking areas, regions where the Basque language disappeared centuries ago…Enormous geographical, historical, socio-economic and cultural diversity in an area of barely 200 kilometres.

Is divided in six stages: departing from the mouth of the Bidasoa River in Irun. In the first two stages we go into the inside of Gipuzkoa through Tolosa and Goierri. In the third stage we go into Araba after crossin the famous San Adrian tunnel.

In the fourth stage we can not forget that is essential to make a stop in the villages of Alaiza and Gaceo to see the magnificent gothic paintings depicting. In the fifth stage our forced destination in this occasion is Armentia, the crossroads between the Roman Way. The temple of San Prudencio, was built in the 12th Century. It is one of the most beautiful buildings of the Roman Road to Santiago in the Basque Country. This building houses a statue of San Prudencio, the patron saint of Araba and, tradition would have it, a native of Armentia.

The sixth and the last stage is a crossroad. We have the chance of going to Burgos through Miranda de Ebro or in the other hand we can go to La Rioja through Haro.

In spite of having lost its protagonism some two centuries ago, this route is still an interesting green and golden trail, like the valleys of Gipuzkoa and the plains of Alava, which constitute a common axis where diversity, far from dividing, enriches the traveller.