Hope Local Basque Priest Wins the Lotto

Village of Errezil

Lunch starter

Medieval carvings in danger

Lunch coffee

village of Errezil

San Ignacio de Loiola

Hope Local Basque Priest Wins the Lotto
Tuesday 5th June 2012
More pics here


When we arrived in the Basque heartland village of Errezil, in the Gipuzkoa, we little thought we’d be there for over two hours. A chance meeting with the local priest was responsible.

Earlier, we had crossed from the French border town Hendaye into Spain, heading for Tolosa, intending to loop around a few of the villages in the hilly interior before making our way to some of the coastal villages between Bilbao and San Sebastian. It turned out to be a great day weather-wise and a surprising one otherwise.

Our first “target” was the Bidania Pass (510m) and then the village of Bidegoian, the highest in the Gipuzkoa. No problems there and soon we were heading for the next pass, the Iturburu (550m) and, just below it, the Balcon de Gipuzkoa, high above the green valley in which Errezil village is situated. The views up here were just magnificent, really beautiful: sheep and cows and goats grazing and a scattering of farmhouses over the slopes of the valley with the village the main focal point.

After one or two photo stops, we headed down to see the village and its church of St Martin de Tours in particular with its large wood carving of the Saint on horseback. As we entered the darkened church (from the early middle ages), we were greeted, from behind, by the priest.

It turned out that he had worked in Liverpool, with Irish helpers, in the sixties and indeed had once been to Ireland, calling to Limerick on a voyage from Liverpool to Bilbao. He had excellent English and proudly showed us his church and its many carvings, some as old as five hundred years. But the works were deteriorating and, with a declining population, there was no money to repair them. He was hoping the lottery would help. Hope he wins.

He recommended a little restaurant under the shadow of the church (by the way, we forgot about asking to see St Martin on his horse). The bar/restaurant was more or less anonymous – you wouldn’t have thought it was even a commercial property. But it was and we enjoyed a three course meal, with wine, water and coffee, for twenty euro for the two of us.

No it wasn't haute cuisine but it was very good indeed. Our Spanish is even more limited then our French and the lady of the house was obviously unused to outside visitors. But we managed and she came up trumps.

Starters were a terrific vegetable stew with a boiled egg on top and Macaroni with Chorizo. The mains were meat balls with fries and a Bavette steak, also with fries. Dessert was Crème Caramel. Forgot to say, the wine was a full bottle as was the water. Add in two cups of excellent coffee, all for twenty euro. Incredible.

Now, under the gaze of the Izarraitz Massif, we headed for the town of Azpeitia and, from there followed a tree lined avenue to the 17th century basilica of San Ignacio de Loiola, the birthplace of the founder of the Jesuit movement. The church is huge but we had to be content with a view of the outside as it was closed for lunch hour and would not be open until 3.30pm, a bit too late for us.

And so we left and headed for the seaside and for the beautiful village of Getaria in particular.