Basque Country

"thank you"

We have traveled for a couple of weeks in the Basque Country of Spain, an area we have wanted to visit but seemed to be so remote!  We stayed in several small Basque villages enjoying the local Basque cuisine such as pintxos (tapas), seafood like hake and salt cod, Txakoli (local white wine), gateau basque, and generally taking back roads to explore the countryside. In this part of Spain, the Basque language, Euskera, is the oldest living lanuage in Europe and so it often made it a challenge to read signs & menus. 

National sport called Peloa- court sport against a wall or two teams face to face

flag on the left is the local flag of Hondarribia and on the  right is the official flag of the Basque Country Autonomous Community of Spain.

old town of Hondarribia

Pamplona was a "must visit" and it certainly lived up to its name. While the bulls weren't running-that happens in July-we did walk the route and the bullring. When the bulls run through the streets they put up heavy wooden barricades to keep the bulls in the center of the street and the spectators on the side, but of course both of the bulls and the people get excited and get together!  The bull ring had a great multimedia display of the run, its history, and of coarse how well the bulls are treated once they arrive in the bullring. There are only about six or eight bulls that are chosen for the bullfight and that only happens once a year during the bull run. I think the best part that we appreciated was that all of the money that is raised from the bull run and the bullfights are used to support a senior housing program for about 600 people in Pamplona!!

 Running of the Bulls

this is all there is between the bulls and spectators!

did Jack find a new hobby?

We enjoyed learning about the wines of the region.  The bright white wine is Txakoli and the red is Rioja which is made from the temprenello grape.  We toured the Carlos San Pedro Bodega underground ancient cave that is 8 metres under the ground and has been used for making wine for hundreds and hundreds of years.  They put the entire grape cluster into huge concrete tanks that sit in perfect temperature, humidity, silence and darkness all year around. 

Had to climb the ladder to look into the cement tank that is fermenting the wine

bottles in the caves

We were mesmerized by the town and Peace Museum of Gernika (Basque name for Guernica) which was bombed by Nazi planes to "test" their terror bombing type of warfare. It was expecially horrible because it involved the bombing of civilians by a military air force.  Almost the entire city was decimated!  Interestingly,  Gernika is twinned with Boise, Idaho.

The original Oaktree where for hundreds of years the Assembly leaders met and it symbolizes traditional freedoms for the Biscayan people and all Basque peoples

Picasso's famous Gernika painting (original is in Madrid)

Sister City is Boise!! Agreements of co-operation in the field of culture, education and industry

We really enjoyed the Basque Country and found the people uniquely friendly and the culture intriguing.