Pamplona...

When you mention Pamplona to anyone, the first thing they think of is the Running of the Bulls (known here as the Festival of San Fermin). Perhaps the second is Ernest Hemingway. And maybe they’ve heard of the road to Santiago de Compostela, the ancient Christian pilgrimage still practiced by many today to retrace the steps the cathedral where the remains of St James are said to be laid to rest. For a small city, that’s much to boast about. Really, the city is pretty modern, but in the center is its heart, the Casco Antiguo, the old city where much of the excitement occurs.

When you look at a map of the Pamplona, often you will see an inset of the old city, similar to the map here. If you can locate the street running through the middle, Calle Mayor, you will have found our address at number 11, roughly where the “o” is in Mayor. We couldn’t believe it. Right on the Camino to Santiago, right on the path of the Running of the Bulls, right outside the square where the beautiful town hall lies, that’s where we are living. Our fourth floor apartment looks out onto the street and even to the mountains beyond out of our highest window on the second floor.

I had high hopes for the apartment based on the pictures I’d seen online. My expectations were met instantly upon arrival. Our hosts in absentia, Virginia and Sabin and their three children (whom we’d met and spent time with prior in Boston prior to our departure) have a very funky apartment. It’s a three bedroom loft, decorated in an eclectic and charming/hip style. The kids’ rooms have windows with balconies looking out to the street, the main room is comprised of the kitchen, dining area and living area, upstairs is the master bedroom and bath and a tiny guest room. There is an entrance hall and a bathroom on the lower level, and a window terrace where they connect clotheslines from the entry hall to the bathroom. Beyond the excitement of how cool it is, we were amazed at how good they are at using space. Everything possible pocket of space is utilized as a drawer or cabinet….even the bottom three stairs leading to the loft were a secret closet. I know this kind of living is typical in any city, but it is impressive to experience how a family of 5 lives in limited space. We think our house in Brookline is on the smaller side (such an American perspective), but our guests there were amazed with the spaciousness and our yard. It’s all different, and refreshing to experience the opposite of what we have for a while.

(For example, the kids were enthralled by the clotheslines, never having used one before. They spent a good 2 hours that first morning playing with them…hanging laundry, pulling in the line, and re-hanging it. I’ll admit it’s sort of fun to do, but after two and a half weeks, I will be glad to get back to my dryer at home.)

The city has so much charm. The cobblestone streets, the storefronts and apartments above, the balconies, window boxes and church towers sprinkled throughout, it all feel so typically and charmingly European. It was very easy to start a morning ritual of going down to our local bakery to get a baguette and to enjoy the sights and sounds of the city coming to life. Cars allowed on our street only in the morning. The buzzer to the apartment and the sounds of neighbors in the stairwell. Church bells in all sorts of patterns at many random times of days.

In the beginning we looked and felt liked tourists, and while I’m sure the look never went away, the feeling certainly did. I felt a certain ownership of the city after a week or so, being able to venture out without more than a key (no map necessary), knowing the place, and returning to Calle Mayor alongside the rest of the tourists but then turning to the door of our apartment, key in hand. As if to say, yes, I live here.

The girls loved gaining comfort with the city and being granted small opportunities to venture out to the bakery, art store, or fabric store on their own. They would buzz up to the apartment upon their return. They knew to be safe. And they loved their independence.

That first morning in Calle Mayor, we got a baguette, had breakfast, walked to the Plaza where the city hall is (about a block from the apartment), admired the Baroque structure, and discovered the market tucked behind. It was a large hall with stalls for cheese and meat, fish and produce. All local and fresh. The fruits and vegetables here are so inexpensive compared to Boston. It’s hard to spend over $10 while coming home with bushels and bags. There’s also a traditional grocery there where you can get just about all the regular staples and processed foods. But we tried to avoid that as much as we could.

After success with grocery shopping, we had lunch and ventured out to find the public pool given that the day was hot. Virginia (the wife/mother in the family we swapped with) told us how nice the public pool was in Pamplona so we were eager to find it. We walked out our door and in minutes were at a contemporary looking glass elevator to take us down from the heights of this fortress city to the river below. This is something we began to recognize and admire in Pamplona. They’ve done a wonderful job blending the old style with sleek contemporary renovations. Many front doors of the apartment reflect this. (Virginia’s sister and brother-in-law showed me their apartment which was unbelievably chic and contemporary –mostly white with some exposed wood beams, funky obtuse and acute angles, and two bedrooms also for a family of 5!!) Back on the theme of blending the new with the old, our walk along the river showed reflected the same in the bridges, many new metal structures interspersed between some historic stone structures.

A short walk brought us to a beautiful swimming pool complex…three pools, exercise rooms, barbeque and picnic areas, all open to the public for a small fee. We had taken Virginia and her family to the DCR swimming pool in Cleveland Circle back in Brookline (or really Brighton) and they were impressed that it was free and relatively clean. Now that I saw their public pool, I saw such a difference that it began a train of thought that continued for the rest of the trip. Pamplona (along with a few other parts of Spain, Bilbao in particular) has done such a good job with urban planning that it seems clearly designed for living and enjoying. There is an eye to the aesthetic, while at the same time the design invites you in. Specifically for a family with young kids, we were amazed to see how many playgrounds there are all over the place. I thought Soule and Skyline in Brookline were exciting new kinds of playgrounds, but almost all of the playgrounds in Spain that we saw were similar to Soule or better. Our observations of the pool in Pamplona and the playgrounds (especially in Bilbao) led us to interesting conversations about Boston and the Greenway and our public parks. While we’ve done a good job protecting and redeveloping some of our greenspace, I think Spain is way ahead of us and so far has done a much better job.

Back at the pool, we had a great time.  Afterward, we went back home and went back out to the old city to explore the restaurants and find some dinner, which ended up being ice cream cones in the Plaza del Castillo.