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.
I haven't written in several weeks partly because we took a "vacation" from "traveling"!! We traded our time-share & booked a week in Majorca-the largest island in the Balearic Islandsarchipelago, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean.
Cuevas del Drach"- Dragon Cave - with one of the largest underground lakes in the world
Since 1935 the cave tour includes a live classical performance on a boat on the underground Lake Mertel
we thought this would be a small tourist spot with some retires and ex-pats living there. Were we shocked when we got off the plane to thousands of families! Turns out that the airport is one of the busiest in Europe in the summer months and Majorca's economy is totally based on tourism. German and British make up the most of the 10 million annual visitors.
Karen's favorite Watermellon popsicle on a very hot day!
As we toured the island we saw evidence of the abandoned farming and agricultural industry and now hotels, apartments and houses line the coasts along with shops selling all the plastic and beach stuff a tourist would want! Needless to say Majorca was not our cup-of-tea but it's a great holiday spot for the families with kids.
Our next stay was in southwest France in the Dordogne area. This is famous for wine, walnuts, castles and ancient cave art. There are over 1500 castles in the Dordogne and we stayed for a week in the center of a medieval hamlet complete with its own castle. Castelnaud-lap-Chapelle sits on a hill overlooking the Dordogne River. It's history dates back to the 13th century and was mostly aligned with the English throne and was the "rival" to the French Chateau de Beynac castle just across the river.
The
"our" Castlenaud-la-Chapelle
Beynac Castle
The
One the things we wanted to do was canoe on the Dordogne River. So on Karen's birthday we took a 14 km trip past old towns and castles. There are dozens outfitters up and down the river so a whole lot of canoes and kayaks floating along the relatively smooth water. It was quite warm and stopping for a beer along the shore seemed just perfect. What a fun birthday!
Birthday dinner at a French festival
This area's, however is much more ancient with a series of caves with paintings and etchings dating back 20,000 years. Most of the caves are either closed or have extremely limited visitation to preserve the art. We toured the new Lascaux 4 International Center for Cave Art complex that opened just 7 months ago. It houses exact replicas of the cave paintings and a fantastic museum center. When the tour started the guide said to expect to spend 3 hours-- most of us looked around with skepticism. Sure enough it was just over 3 hours as there was so much information! We were clearly entering a reproduced cave since we walked on a cement path and through a tunnel but once inside it was pretty amazing. After the caves, they have an interpretive room where we could take pictures. Since the actual caves were pclosed in the 1960's and we will never see the originals, this is certainly the next best.
Over 600 huge paintings that are over 20,000 years old!!
Mostly bulls and horses
Next on to Basque Country and across the Pyrénées.
Destined for Foie Gras
and here it is....
Now in to the Basque Country and across the Pyrénées
So ends our time in Switzerland. I have been reading the beloved book, Heidi, written in 1879 and could just imagine we were on the same mountain with the beauty of wildflowers, the laughter of frisky goats and the magnificent mountain peaks shining down on us. Okay, okay-- but it is majestic and hard to put into words!
We spent 6 days in the Bernese Oberland Alps among the mighty Eiger-Monch-Jungfrau peaks. First in Wengen, a small resort town frequented mostly by Swiss families. Second was in Gimmelwald, a tiny village on a very steep, green, flower-covered slope. This is one of the last villages in Switzerland without cars and the only access is by a cablecar.
I think my pictures will describe so much better than words and bring Heidi to life! Please click on the link for photos (you can also click on each picture-some are videos).
"Sorry, we do not speak French." These past three weeks housesitting in Switzerland have been really interesting, challenging and different for us. We have struggled with communication, shopping, the washing machine, directions, car breakdowns, reading signs (resulting in a parking ticket), and a very reclusive cat. But we wouldn't trade it for a minute!
We have been exploring our "neighborhood", or actually the 7 villages that make up the community of Vully les Lacs in this canton of Vaud (cantons are a division similar to counties or states). We have had the use of a small car which has been nice to get out and see some of the area and try to find local festivals and events. One weekend we drove nearly 3 hours to the mountain ski resort of Haute-Nendez, an adventure in itself. Google Maps took us up a very narrow, windy road that eventually dropped us on a dirt path. Nervously we turned around and eventually found another way up the mountain. Just around the bend, voilà--a year-round resort village that was much larger than expected with many hotels and condos, restaurants, sports and services. We were there for the International Alphorn Festival, a 3-day celebration with over 180 Alphorns, an international competition, along with other folk dance and music.
With no buttons or valves, the sound depends on the alphorn's material, thickness and shape, and of course the way you work your lips- the greater the tension, the higher the note.
There were several regional folkdance troops as well as the Italian Fiorentino Historical Flag-wavers.
We epecially enjoyed the Jodlerklub Alperösli, which was very different than we expected. When a solo yodeler starts to sing a slow sequence of notes, the other yodlers hum along with the appropriate tone, and provide a spontaneous melody-resulting in natural yodel singing without words.
I loved this and looked for more events, but to Jack's relief we missed the Swiss Yodeling Festival last month where there were thousands of yodlers!
We found a local Tomato Festival at a farm in our little village of Salavaux one day and enjoyed an awesome plate of about 6 or 7 different kinds of fresh tomatoes. We like finding this local events even though we often don't fully understand what is happening.
Swiss National Day, August 1 - a celebration of the founding of the Swiss Confederation in 1291--just a few years back!
Less of a big marketing campaign, the smallest of villages have speeches by public figures, music concerts, gymnastic displays, firework, bonfires, national anthem récitals, or just time spent with families and friends in the alpine huts. The traditional huge bonfires, often on hillsides, date back to ancient times when they were communication as beacons or celebrations.
homes are decorated with flags and banners from the Cantons
picnics at the lake
we could see the red bonfires at night (Karen showing how big this one is) miles and miles away
yea it's open!
We have tried to make the rounds of several of the local wineries here in Vully. Again it is difficult due to the language difference and just the culture of business, and most of the vintners speak French or German.
We discovered that most of the Caves (wineries) are open only on Saturday morning for a couple of hours. We wonder how they sell their product but people do stop in and buy by the case.
most of the red wine is aged in large barrels
finally got our wine!
advertising (?) on the side of the farm house/winery
Family Loup ("wolf") is in our village of Montmagmy
Finally there are an amazing amount of Roman, medieval. and WWI sites around here. Not too far from us in Avenches there are some of the best Roman ruins of the then-known Aventicum, which was the Capital of Helvetia (from 15 BC) during Roman Rule.
original ruins on the bottom & the rest was restored 100 years ago...pedestrian entrance on the left and taller one for chariots
It had a population of 20,000 and there are ruins of a theater that held 9,000, city walls and gates and a Amphitheater that could seat about 16,000. Gladiators battled each other and fought animals but today the sound of fury comes from modern rock groups. It was really facinating to see how a 2,000 year old amphitheater is still in use today.
the ancient Amphitheater with stone step-seats and modern plastic seats getting set up for a 4-day musical event
Redoubt from WWI
Our two housesitting gigs have allowed us to immerse into local life in small villages in England and Switzerland while giving us time to take a break from hectic travel and engage with the communities. While not for everyone, we have found this is a new way of cultural travel for and we plan to do more.
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