Gernika

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San Juan de Gaztelugatxe

San Juan de Gaztelugatxe Today everyone from the program met at the gates of the University to go to Urdaibai National Park. This is not a national park in the sense we think of it. There are towns, factories, and roads that are in and run through the “Park.” Very much unlike parks such as Yellowstone, for instance, there are no gates into the park. Visitors come and go as they please. First we visited the town of Gernika which was bombed by the Germans in the 1930’s. We visited a peace museum that focused primarily on the bombing on Gernika, but also had a section on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. From here we went to what I’m going to call the “Government Building,” where the leaders of the different towns in Bizkaya (a provence in the Basque Country) have been meeting for—I believe—centuries. Here is where they keep the Oak tree that represents Bizkaya and that has been around for centuries. (The current tree is 21 years old, but all of the Oaks that have been there come from the original tree…heritage…line?)

After eating a big lunch in Gernika we traveled to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe. Here we hiked down a steep path then up 200+ stairs to a church that sits atop a giant rock on a peninsula. There was a bell that you could ring once you reached the top so you could feel special for completing the hike. After taking pictures from dangerous cliffs, we went back down the stairs and back up the hill (which suddenly seemed steeper.) After everyone got to the top, panting and sweaty (notice there are no pictures from after the climb), we drove back to Bilbao to rest for the remainder of the day.

Monday we have a meeting for our trip to Pamplona for the Running of the Bulls which will happen on Tuesday. You’ll hear from me again after I have some pictures to show and stories to tell.

Hasta!

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