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Posted on by Rick Steves

Haggis in Northern Spain

I’m in northern Spain working hard, but it is a little discouraging because so few Americans are traveling here. León and Burgos are great old towns with awe-inspiring cathedrals and plenty of colorful tapas bars. (I just found the Spanish twin to Scottish haggis — it’s called morcillaand comes without the skin. You’d think a dog got sick on your plate. Smear it on toast with a fine red wine. It’s quite tasty…if you like haggis…which I do.)

Sure, it’s great traveling here. But I want lots of people to use my work. And the chances of that here, relative to just about anywhere else in Spain, are about nil.

Anyone walking through town with a backpack is likely a pilgrim, heading like me (but on foot) from France to Santiago. (Some 80,000 are expected this year — I figure that’s about 500 a day through the season.) I play a game: When they walk past, I spin around to see the scallop shell dangling from their pack — as it has from the rucksacks of pilgrims for over a thousand years. I love the idea that the first guidebook ever written talked up “going local, packing light, and watching out for pickpockets” for pilgrims traveling the Camino de Santiago a thousand years ago.

My guide, Paco, is from Pamplona — a famously conservative town with a famously rowdy drunken brawl each summer when the bulls run. Today in León we walked by a sex shop and Paco said, “Not in my town.”

Pamplona is a center of the super-conservative wing of the Catholic Church, Opus Dei (with a university, medical science center, hospital, lots of money, and lots of power). Franco put it here to tighten Navarre’s connection to the rest of Spain. I commented on the contradiction of pious Pamplona being famous for its annual drunken brawl, and tied it to the notion of a PK (a “pastor’s kid”…often the troublemaker in middle school). Paco, who stressed that Opus Dei neighbors are welcome and respected, explained that they may believe sex is not for fun. But when they party…they really party. He then said, “We say, ‘In Spain, you could never say that that priest is not your father.’”

When Franco died in 1975, the end of his repression unleashed an orgy of pent-up hedonism. A decade of movies was known as the Destape(disrobed) period — when every Julia Roberts in Spain had to play topless. Today, these actresses look back and see the irony in the end of Franco’s repression being replaced by what they now see as another kind of repression.

In Spain, humor changes from region to region. Paco’s take: Andalusian humor is noisy and simple. People in the north have a raw, edgy sense of humor, Saturday Night Live-style. And in Barcelona, people love Woody Allen.

Paco, like everyone here, is high on Obama. Europeans are buzzing about his recent visit at the G20 meeting. Paco explained that the press is famously unimpressed by politicians. “And for the first time in memory, the press corps gave a standing ovation to someone…and for an American president!”

Paco’s degree is in marketing. I asked him about “the brand of America.” He said when his grandparents were young, French sold. For his parents, Italian sold. For his generation (which came of age in the 1980s), American culture sold. For young people today, China and Japan sell. (Not coincidentally, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is featuring very popular exhibits by Chinese and Japanese artists.)

Paco said that back in the days of Ronald Reagan, people were charmed by American culture on TV and in the movies, and it seemed to match reality. In the last years, the American image on TV and in the movies didn’t match the uglier reality people saw on the news. To Paco and his friends, Obama isn’t the Messiah, but he has “the face of truth.”

I was impressed that Paco had the new edition of my Spain guidebook. He said, “Whenever we need an international book, Amazon.com is our answer.” They pay the same as Americans do — no extra for shipping. And rather than arriving in two or three days, the book comes in about 10.

Paco is from Navarre (in the north). He said, “We are shy and reserved, but when you talk to us, you open the door.” I have found this to be very true. He’s a good guide for his region, but he’s never been to Santiago de Compostela (the greatest city in northern Spain, just a day’s drive away). I ribbed him about this, but admitted that I’ve never been to Yosemite (and he has). So he ribs me that, since he’s traveling with me, he’ll get to Santiago before I get to Yosemite.

Comments

19 Replies to “Haggis in Northern Spain”

  1. Rick…………I hope I will visit northern spain after seeing your new information and dvds……I have heard (from spaniards while visiting other parts of spain) that Ireland and northern spain are very alike and both very nice…….I know Ireland well and am curious to compare the two areas…also n. spain is not overrun with touristas which to me makes it much more fun to meet locals and no crowds…………..thx for the blog….

  2. Another really good blog, Rick. Thanks for sharing your adventures and giving us a glimpse into a Spaniard’s POV.

  3. Rick you must go to Yosemite. You owe to your country to see the grandest national park in America.This month’s edition of The Atlantic Monthly captures the spirt of Yosemite in two pages. I have to have my yearly fix.

  4. I commented on the contradiction of pious Pamplona being famous for its annual drunken brawl, Now come on, Rick… after all your travels, does the idea of pious Catholics getting roaringly drunk really still surprise you?

  5. Love your travel blogs. I just watched Mr. Bean’s Holiday movie and he did a lot of stuff wrong there for a traveler. I was thinking about when Steve Irwin did the Crocodile Hunter movie and how well that worked. So I was also thinking how you Rick could be in the next Mr. Bean’s movie working on travel tips and how Rowan Atkinson messes up. Just a thought. Keep up the blogs. Thanks!

  6. I think a DVD would really help to inspire. We have traveled a lot in the past 10 years, but we are not wealthy people to we pick very carefully what areas to travel because we don’t know how many years we can keep doing it. I have all your DVD’s and more than once they have inspired us to pick a place we didn’t think interested us!

  7. the first guidebook ever written talked up “going local, packing light, and watching out for pickpockets” for pilgrims traveling the Camino de Santiago a thousand years ago. – no! I’ve tried to correct this before – got a reply from a member of your staff, but… The first guidebook was written around a thousand years earlier still, during the Pax Romana (when travel was temporarily safe) by a guy called Pausanias, about Greece. I’ve traveled in N. Spain, with a backpack but without a scallop shell – I used trains. I wished I had planned to spend longer, the mountains looked very inviting. And I preferred Leon’s austere cathedral, with all that stained glass, to Santiago’s more elaborate one. But I suspect that the rain in Spain stays mainly in the north.

  8. Hi Rick, I have visited this area of Spain, and walked part of pilgramage trail. I do think more Americans would benefit from also seeing this area, but I confess, I enjoyed the chance to meet more Europeans along the way!

  9. Full disclosure, my politics lean right. I really need you to ask Paco exactly what out of Hollywood has he been watching. For the past 8 years we have seen a movie a week taking a subtle or not so subtle jab at Bush. Or maybe the better question should be what are they reporting as “news” about America in his area? Reading your comment by Paco brought a small sense of regret for the airline ticket I just bought to travel to Europe (won’t get to Spain) this fall. Maybe Europeans like Obama because he is helping (lord knows those who came before did not help much) to bring our debt levels up to European levels. See CNBC.com World’s Biggest Debtor Nations.

  12. Surprising,contradictory and provocative things really make for interesting trips. Of course, it isn’t at all surprising that a small percentage of people who post here, still think mentioning them is the same as finding fault with them.

  13. Thank you for sharing! Although I enjoy provocative social discussion, I also enjoy these wonderful eclectic chats that offer a smogasbord of thoughts as you travel. One of my goals is to take the time to walk the Camino de Santiago. It is funny how we pigeon hole conservative people…as if we expect perfection in righteous thought and deeds and when they fail to live up to our expectations we like to laugh at them. I also find it interesting that we never expect liberals to be moral; it is as if it is a given that liberals will be moral degenerates. If Obama’s choice of a cabinet is any indication they certainly can’t seem to pay their fair share of taxes. Why is that when they believe in the role of government in society they all seem to shirk paying taxes, but I digress? Seems like it would be better to not paint our life’s perception with such restrictive, narrow minded strokes and just conclude that humanity is frail and weak regardless of how lofty our ideals. One thing is certain, give me your lofty ideals, follow those dreams, and I will not hold you accountable when you fall. Seems like all of us have done our fair share of failure.

  14. Rick, take the time to see Yosemite. I live in the CA. Central Valley and it is a day trip for us. Yosemite is not a place to see, it is a place to experience. I am in Switzerland this year and privileged to be able to see the Alps every day the weather permits. The Sierra Nevada & the Alps are both magnificent.

  15. Rick, Totally surprised you have never visited Yosemite. As a northern Californian, I urge you to go. Even high season a beautiful experience as you become one with diverse peoples all exclaiming in every language about the beauty of the place. A “religious” experience.I have traveled to Pyrenees/Alpes. They may equal but definitely do not surpass!Eleonore

  16. We just returned from a week in Scotland. This is our first trip to Europe since the 2008 elections. Comparing this trip to prior trips under previous administrations, the people we visited shown no interest at all that we are from America. This compares to visits during the Bush and Clinton administrations when the Europeans we visted with were anxious to visit with us about America. Now, under President Obama they just did not seem to care. Perhaps they were just glad that any American was coming for a visit in the current economy. Or perhaps the Obama hype is just that – hype not shared by the average European.

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