Route: Tolosa, Azpeitia, Loiola, Azkoitia.
In the heart of Gipuzkoa is the Oria Valley, home to Tolosa, a town with a long-standing papermaking tradition. Many of the buildings in the former capital of Gipuzkoa pay tribute to the talented woodworkers, successful farmers and master chocolatiers.
An intense smell of coal drifts over from the adjacent valley. We are at the old Urola railway station, where train lovers and nostalgic railwaymen can still experience the clanking of the train rolling down the track pulled by a steam engine, now rescued from oblivion at the railway museum in Azpeitia.
Also in Azpeitia, surrounded by a beautiful outdoor setting, the Sanctuary of Loyola stands in all her glory.
We soon come to Azkoitia, known in the eleventh century as San Martín de Iraurgi, where we find the oldest tower-houses in Gipuzkoa. This important town, with its marked economic, social, political and cultural life ever since the eighteenth century, today is the headquarters of the "Real Sociedad de Amigos del País".
