Blogs from Guernica, Basque Country, Spain, Europe

Many places around the world are known for the terrible things which have happened there. When you think of atrocities in Spain, most people immediately think of Guernica and it's a place we had wanted to visit ever since we moved to the North of Spain. Although we had been disappointed with Picasso's painting when we saw it in Madrid 8 years ago, seeing it reproduced in the woods of Zilbati as an environmental protest restored our interest in the subject. On 26 April 1937 the town was the subject of a massive aerial attack. This was carried out by German and Italian bombers under the orders of Generalisimo Franco. The result was widespread destruction and large numbers of civilian deaths. Spain was engulfed in its bitter civil war and this was an attempt to gain ... read more

Day 9 Monday 6th April Up bright and early but still not as early as our German friends who were up and gone before sunrise. We packed up and made our way down the road to the bakery where we had a coffee and toast (I know.. coffee... coming around to the dark side...) and a chocolate croissant, as well as getting some snacks for the day. While very scenic, it was a fairly unremarkable day, with us arriving at Larrabetzu just before 3pm. We planned on camping somewhere between Larrabetzu and the next town Lezama, but we arrived during siesta and so there were no shops open to buy supplies for dinner. So we headed to the pub where we played cards until 4pm, when we then found out that the supermarket didn´t re-open ... read more

Yesterday was the International Day of Peace and we started it by visiting the Museum of Peace in Gernika- www.peacemuseumguernica.org. The ETA spent it setting off 3 bombs, the closest to us was in Ondarroa, 30 km from where we are staying. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7628555.stm The Gernika Peace Museum was inspired by the bombing of Gernika on April 26, 1937. On that day Hitler ordered, with the permission of Franco, the first-ever saturation bombing raids on a civilian center. The city was destroyed and more than 1600 people were killed, many while attending the weekly market that is still held each Monday in the main plaza. The museum focuses on the lesson in peace taught by the survivors of the bombing through their reconciliation with their attackers, in addition to other instances of reconciliation and mediation for peace ... read more

I´m getting closer to the "Camino de Santiago," the famous pilgrimage across Northern Spain that I´m planning to trek... Now I´m in Basque Territory, visiting the brother-in-law of my good friend, Christi. Ivan´s brother, David, and his wife, Liz, have been hosting me at their house near Gernika for the last couple of days, about 20 miles east of Bilbao. They have a 10-month old baby boy named Iñigo. David is from Seattle, and Liz is from Vancouver, Canada, so it´s nice to hang with English-speaking people again. David and Liz have been living in Spain for 2 years now. They are building a home on acreage with a view of the Atlantic Ocean (see photos). While they wait to get permits, they have a temporary cabin on the property. They also have an apartment nearby. ... read more

MOTOTOUR 2007 Day 6: Dune du Pilat to Mundaka Distance: 328 km (of 8,667 km total) We woke up in a thick fog Most of the dune had totally disappeared in the clouds. Realizing we wouldn't be able to see much, we decided there was no point in climbing up this morning either. There was nothing to do but pack and leave for Spain. No stop in beautiful Biarritz either, since the weather wasn't that great. Then we thought we'd stop by in San Sebastian, but the weather was still not that great. Upon entering Spain, the scenery changed: We saw tightly-packed apartments, laundry spilling out of balconies and windows of high-rise apartments against the backdrop of the beautiful Pyrenees mountains. We kept on going until the weather cleared up and we ended up in Gernika ... read more