Bilbao 2016, Part 2

Bilbao 2016, Part 2.

June 6.

I didn't realize how long this would be when I started writing this, but I'm going to keep going and using the same header image, because I can.

Anyway.

June 6th started with a partly cloudy day threatening rain, but it cleared up quite nicely, which worked out great because I'd told my best friend that I really wanted to go to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, because I hadn't been there in 16 years.  And it's absolutely stunning, completely unmissable.

That morning we walked along the cliffs that lead out over the Bay of Biscay, and it's a nice walk from my best friend's house.  It has beautiful views of the sea and the cliffs, as well as the main port.

After spending a couple of hours up there, we ate lunch, then headed out towards San Juan de Gaztelugatxe.

If you've never heard of this place before, you've probably seen it.  It's been featured on Bing's homepage, I've seen it as a preset wallpaper on Windows 10, and it was also a set for Game of Thrones' 7th season.  At least part of it.  It's not iconic, but it's one of those places that's so photogenic and when people see pictures of it they're always like "Where is that?!"

Ladies and gents, it's in the Basque Country.  It doesn't quite hold a monopoly on beautiful places, but it does come very, very close.

The view of the bay from the parking lot.  The Basque coast, y'all.

It's still astounding to me how so few people have ever actually heard of the Basque Country or Basques because it's seriously one of the most beautiful places in the world, with an incredible coastline and picturesque mountains and valleys.  One of the most highly underrated places, and even though I talk about it nonstop, I really hope it doesn't become super touristy because that will ruin the charm.  I keep seeing news articles now how after being featured in Game of Thrones, those who have discovered where the locations are have decided to visit in droves, leading the local government to consider visitation limits and whatnot.

Part of me is glad, because this place should seriously never be ruined by tourism, but the other part of me is very sad because I lived here when no one outside of Spain and maybe France had ever really heard about it (unless you kept up to date on your terrorist organizations), and I always liked the fact that it was so underrated.

But what can you do, this place is beautiful, and people really should go there.

Somewhat skewed panoramic view of the area.

There's a tiny chapel on top of the little islet, dedicated to the Basque mariner.

I have so many more pictures but I won't be posting all of them.  Or most of them.  I have posted some on Instagram among other places, though.

Heading back up to the car, we stopped at a hostel/bar and sat on the deck overlooking the bay.

We even made a friend.

Every time I come out here I realize yet again how absolutely gloriously beautiful this whole place is.

June 7.

My best friend had to go back to work, so I slept in, relaxed, joined her parents for brunch at the local bar, ate lunch with them soon afterwards ("brunch" is just basically pintxos at the local bar before you head home for the actual meal), and then I headed out to Las Arenas and walked around the area where I'd gone to school and spent most of my time as a kid, before meeting up with my best friend.

It's the kind of walk down memory lane that I love taking, since it's changed enough that it's kept with the times, but at the same time not enough to feel like I've been missing out or out of place anymore.  In this area there's so little space to build anything, and there's no point to tearing anything down, so it all looks very much the same as it did when I lived here nearly 20 years ago.

When I met up with my best friend we crossed over to Portugalete on the transporter bridge, the Puente Colgante or Puente de Vizcaya, which is one of the largest and oldest bridge of its type in the world that's still functioning.  Only one in Germany surpasses it both in size and age, I believe.

We walked along the riverfront on that side into Santurtzi, the neighboring town, before we walked back and headed back to her house.  I don't remember getting on the metro at all.

Santurtzi

Back in Getxo.  Basque sunsets are incredible.

June 8.

This day was pure insanity, but it wouldn't become pure insanity until later.

I left earlier than usual to head up to Artxanda, which is a funicular train that goes up to the hills on the eastern side of the city, and it overlooks almost all of Bilbao.  The views are phenomenal.

From there, I wandered down into the riverfront area around Deusto, which faces the Guggenheim, and walked around there.  My best friend and I had decided to meet around 5 or so, depending on when she finished doing reviews with some of her students who'd failed the latest exam.

I probably don't need to go into too much detail about this building.  People may not know that Bilbao is a city, but they'll recognize this building.

Jeff Koons' "Puppy", originally supposed to be a temporary installation until the locals fell in love with it and decided to start paying for its upkeep.

I walked around the south end of the Parque de Doña Casilda,which is a beautiful green space in central Bilbao, and it has some gorgeous colonnades and ponds.

My phone was starting to die, and I sat around waiting for my best friend, finally letting her know where I was.  Then it cut off, and I was stuck.

I stayed around until about 9 o'clock, walking around to the university area hoping to see her leave, staying around the park because I didn't want to stray too far from where I told her I'd meet her.  Finally I gave up, and headed back to the apartment, only to find that she and her father had actually taken the car to go look for me, meaning that she'd gone back home, driven back to Bilbao, and within about 10 minutes of me showing up back at the house, they showed up, defeated.

The next day, I bought a portable battery pack.

June 9.

After the last night's adventure, I took it easy.  I walked down to the nearest beach, about a 20-minute walk, and just sat and enjoyed the sunshine.  Beautiful blue skies are hard to come by in the Basque Country, so I leapt at the chance to enjoy the sand and sun.

After the beach, I ate dinner with my best friend's parents and then headed into Bilbao in the afternoon to meet up with my best friend after work, and she introduced me to "Bilbao's worst kept culinary secret".  They have these sandwiches.  They're very simple, just a slice of ham, lettuce, bread, and the secret sauce.  Everything's prepared locally and no one actually knows what's in the sauce, only that it is the most delicious sandwich I have ever eaten in my life, and everyone in Bilbao knows about it.  How many non-locals know about it I don't know, but it doesn't matter.  This place is currently legendary.

It looks like a normal sandwich, but I can assure you, it is anything but.  And I don't even like sandwiches with weird white sauce (I don't do mayo).  This stuff is crack.

On our walk we headed down to the Maritime Museum down below the San Mamés stadium, where one of the old ship cranes is still standing.  Bilbao was a major industrial capital in Europe, especially Spain, during the late 19th century and into the 20th, with a resurgence during the '60s and '70s.  It was one of the few places where Spaniards could get work, and since it was nigh impossible to cross the border into France or even Portugual, Madrid, Barcelona, and Bilbao all saw a huge influx of people.  The Romans actually discovered iron ore in the mountains during their empire, and after its decline the Basques focused on fishing and farming.  Basque fisherman wound up in Newfoundland (Canada), and traded with Vikings and other Scandinavians at later times, and in fact it was a Basque who successfully circumnavigated the globe for the first time, as he served as First Mate under Magellan, being promoted to Captain after Magellan's death in the Philippines.  In the 1800s the iron was mined and the Basque culture of fishing and boating was culminated in a massive shipbuilding industry which while declining under Franco, still maintained ironworks and foundries until the '70s and democracy came back to Spain.  The foundries are no longer in use, and many of the iron mines are empty, but seafaring and sea culture are still a formative part of Basque culture that there are museums dedicated to it all along the coast.

July 10.

I knew when I booked my tickets that I'd be spending a few days with her family in their pueblo (it's the same word as "town", but in Spain it's also used to talk about the town where your family is from), a tiny town where my best friend's mother was born before her family moved to Bilbao for work.  We left in early afternoon for the four-hour drive.  Along the way we stopped in León, the capital of the province, as well as the seat for the regional autonomous government (Spain is divided into 14 self-governing Autonomous Communities).

The Casa Botines, which was designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí.

León has this gorgeous Gothic cathedral.

And classic alleyways.

León city hall

What's left of the original Roman wall, when the city was called "Legio", as most of the towns built in Hispania by the Romans were used as military barracks or residences for centurions and their families.  Or retirement communities in some cases.

My best friend's pueblo is actually located about a 45-minute drive from León.  It's a tiny town with under 1000 residents, and it's a quaint little area.  Her family still owns the same house, and even though her grandmother has passed and her grandfather isn't doing so well, the house stays in the family.  Her father wasn't born here either, but rather a small town in the province of Palencia, but he's made the upkeep of the house his pet project.  My best friend and her family love to go here to relax, and it's not hard at all to understand why.

July 11.

This day is bittersweet for me in retrospect.  We went into La Bañeza, which is the municipal seat for the towns in the area, to do some grocery shopping and other such errands, since there's nothing in the actual town.  The flea market (what Spaniards call the mercadillo) was going on in town and crazy enough, I met up with my 7th grade Spanish language teacher, who's known my best friend's family for decades.  My best friend had to remind him who I was, and as soon as he remembered me as "the American" his face lit up.  It was pretty fun.

It was here where my best friend introduced me to one of her friends, who ended up being my boyfriend for a little over a year, until he decided...something... and decided to send me a message on the day I was flying back from India that he'd met someone else and didn't want me to contact him anymore.  C'est la vie.

After La Bañeza we headed back to the pueblo for dinner, and then we headed on a walk around town before heading into Astorga, about a 30-minute drive from town.

Poppies!  Poppies!  Poppies!

Spain's version of Big Sky Country

Astorga was an ancient Roman capital along the Gold Road because of gold deposits in northern León, and has vast historical significance, though you couldn't tell just by looking at it since it's teeny and hasn't really surpassed its Roman walls in the way León has.  It's right along the Camino de Santiago (St. James' Way, the popular pilgrimage route) along with León, and has its own bishopric.

The Episcopal Palace, also designed by Antoni Gaudí.  Gaudí designed three buildings built outside of Barcelona.  León province has two.

Grafitti in Astorga.  It's actually more impressive in La Bañeza, but still gorgeous.

Astorga city hall.  On the hour, there are moving marionettes who ring the bell.

Excavations of Roman ruins right behind city hall.

Astorga cathedral

My best friend got a call from her friend (my soon-to-be-and-now-ex boyfriend) and we made a late-night run into La Bañeza to hang out.

July 12.

Last day in León, and we walked around the town a bit and my best friend told me about the fires that had gone through the year before and absolutely devasted the entire area.  Life was starting to creep back into the fields, but a lot of the land was too far gone still to be able to do anything.  The countryside was hauntingly beautiful.

We left in early afternoon, but instead of making the straight drive back, my best friend's father stopped the car in Burgos, since he'd heard that I'd never been there before.  So we walked around Burgos, which is another provincial capital with great historical significance in Spain.  It also has a beautiful Gothic cathedral.

This is the building where Christopher Columbus met with Queen Isabella and where he was granted the funds to make the trip to the Americas.

Monument to El Cid.  Who was from Burgos.

June 13.

My second-to-last full day in Spain, and it was very relaxed.  Most of the craziness ocurred in the first half of the trip, and really after that day in Bilbao when my phone died, I didn't really go anywhere particularly noteworthy from a touristy perspective.  Ultimately, I don't go to the Basque Country to be a tourist, I go to go back home and revisit the places I loved as a kid, with some fun day trips and walks along the way.

When my best friend got home from work we walked up to the mall that was built behind my house when I was a kid; we could watch them building it.  It's a remnant of its former self since even in Europe malls are dying out, but there are still plenty of stores, and some of them are even the same from when I was growing up.  I picked up some silverware from my mom that she'd requested I get, among other things that I could bring home to the US.

June 14.

After my best friend got off work, we headed out to Plentzia on the metro to walk around the beach.  It's much quieter than the beaches in Getxo, but just as beautiful, and they've been working really hard to clean it up.  The beaches in Getxo spent decades of having foundry waste being dumped into them that they had to close them for a while to clean them up.  The difference is astounding; when we were living there the water was gross and brown, and would sting your skin when you went swimming (it was bad).  People started going to the beach in Gorliz, right next to Plentzia, instead.  The beach is still much calmer, though the water in Getxo now is a beautiful shade of blue.  Never underestimate Basque work ethic and the ability to follow through on what they'll say.  Madrid should listen (ahem).

It's always bittersweet to go some place beautiful on your last full day when you're visiting family, but such is life.  Such is my life.

Plentzia

The bridge in Plentzia.  It's a simple half-circle and almost anachronistic.

Near the beach at Gorliz

View of the bridge in Plentzia

June 15.

Even though I knew I'd be going back to Spain in a few weeks to do the au pair work in Castellón, it was still really hard to say good-bye.  I absolutely adore the Basque Country for innumerable reasons.  It will always be home to me, no matter where I go or how long I'm away.  There is absolutely nothing at all like it in the world, and the only place where I truly feel comfortable and at home.  I adore the Basques and their culture and absolutely everything about this tiny corner of the world.

"I will not say 'do not weep', for not all tears are an evil."

And a year later, I'd be back.