We felt we could not spend time in Northern Spain without visiting the world famous city of Pamplona where they hold the San Fermin Feria del Toro (Bull Fair) – a week’s festival in July which starts each day with the Running of the Bulls through the city to the Bull Ring, and ends each day with a massive fireworks display and beef steaks on offer in every restaurant.

The bulls are brought from the surrounding locales to pens just outside the city, on their allocated day, and at 8am the bulls are freed to run the gauntlet through the town, up cobbled streets, through narrow side roads, up the central street Calle Estafeta (a small narrow shop filled street) and into the Bull Ring whilst having several thousand local idiotic men running in front of them. For the men to arrive the 500metres into the Bull Ring without injury is an achievement, their emotions and adrenaline pushing them to run faster and jump higher than ever to get out of harm’s way. The bulls, on arrival at the arena, are penned, calmed down, fed and watered, and some are selected to participate in the bullfights later in the day and evening, either in the traditional way with Matadors and their capes or with Matadors on horseback (Rejoneos). The history of the arena itself was explained, it was built in 1922 by monies donated by the locals in a sort of “buy a brick” lottery with an expansion to include a third tier increasing seat numbers to 19,700, it’s the oldest solid concrete building in Pamplona. The proceeds of the fights and tourist visits go towards supporting 580 senior residents in the Casa de Misericordia of Pamplona nearby.

The city is a lovely mix of modern, old, new and tidy buildings, yet parts of the old town are beautifully ornate and traditional.

Here are some pictures of the main square:

Here are pictures of the actual route from the beginning to the end of the Bull Run.

The “holding pens” are where the white barrier is. The bulls then run up hill towards the central square.

They come to the top of this lane and keep going uphill.

This is the final straight, across the lights to the main arena, all in about one and a half minutes.

The Town Hall in the City (below); we spent quite a bit of time sitting in a cafe outside, watching the world go by. The Bulls would run right past here and they certainly would not stop to admire the artistry on the buildings frontage!

 

The main street (above) is fairly narrow and full of overhanging balconies and would create a loud, noisy atmosphere. The arena itself was hot, dry and very big and so quiet……! Well it was on the day we visited 🙂

Bull??? Oh hell, let’s get out of here…..

Yes, bully to you too!

The journey home was an hour’s drive through the most amazing mountains and scenery, as we left Pamplona we were met by the greying coastal clouds again but this gave rise to some lovely cloud and sky formations. We were also so high that we were up in the clouds several times.

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