Day 13 – Bilbao to San Sebastian

July 1, 2019 – We left Bilbao about 10 AM. It was much easier to lug our backpacks down the stairs than it was to bring them up.  Getting to the parking lot and out into the city was uneventful.  Wayne wanted to go across the Bizkaya Transporter Bridge or more commonly known, the “Hanging Bridge.” It is the most outstanding representation of the industrial era and one of Bilbao’s most renowned icons.  Its main function is to connect the two shores across the Nervion Estuary.  Declared a World Heritage site on 13th July 2006, it is the oldest shuttle bridge in world.  It is 45 meters high with a span of 160 meters. When you cross the bridge, you drive onto the gondola, and cross the estuary while hanging from a 25-metre long, 36-wheel carriage which moves along the rails of the horizontal sleeper. Today’s gondola is the fifth and it dates from 1998.  The bridge crossing took all of about 1.5 minutes and cost € 2.50 .

After all of the bridge excitement, we carried on with our drive toward San Sebastián.  We were excited to be staying so close to the water in such a beautiful area.  San Sebastián is a resort town on the Bay of Biscay in the mountainous Basque Country. It’s known for its beaches – Playa de la Concha and Playa de Ondarreta – framed by a picturesque bayfront promenade.

On our way to San Sebastian we stopped along the way in a little Basque town called Guernica which has a tragic history as a result of the Spanish Civil War.  In July 1936 Spain was embroiled in a brutal civil war that had begun when the right-wing Nationalists led by General Francisco Franco sought to overthrow Spain’s left-wing Republican government. It did not take long before this bloody internal Spanish quarrel attracted the participation of forces beyond its borders – creating a lineup of opponents that foreshadowed the partnerships that would battle each other in World War II. Fascist Germany and Italy supported Franco while the Soviet Union backed the Republicans.

Hitler’s support of Franco consisted of the Condor Legion, an adjunct of the Luftwaffe. The Condor Legion provided the Luftwaffe the opportunity to develop and perfect tactics of aerial warfare that would fuel Germany’s blitzkrieg through Europe during 1939 and 1940. As German air chief Hermann Goering testified at his trial after World War II: “The Spanish Civil War gave me an opportunity to put my young air force to the test, and a means for my men to gain experience.” Some of these experimental tactics were tested on a bright Spring day with devastating results on the town of Guernica.

In the late afternoon of April 26, 1937 , German bombers appeared in the skies over Guernica and immediately transformed the sleepy Spanish market town into an everlasting symbol of the atrocity of war. Unbeknownst to the residents of Guernica, they had been slated by their attackers to become guinea pigs in an experiment designed to determine just what it would take to bomb a city into oblivion. The bombing is considered one of the first raids in the history of modern military aviation on a defenseless civilian population.  It was essentially a rehearsal for war. The figures for the number of casualties in the bombing are still disputed, but most historians think between 200 and 250 people were killed and many hundreds wounded. The world was shocked and the tragedy immortalized by Pablo Picasso in his painting Guernica which is now displayed in the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. We hope to visit this museum and see this painting on our way through Madrid at the end of the month.

During our stop we visited a Basque Museum (which was all in Spanish and Basque) and saw the “Tree of Guernica” at the Assembly house.  There is a long and interesting history of this tree.  In the Middle Ages, representatives of the villages of Biscay would hold assemblies under local big trees. The Tree of Guernica is an oak tree that symbolizes traditional freedoms for the proud Biscayan people, and by extension for the Basque people as a whole. The Lords of Biscay swore to respect the Biscayan liberties under it, and the modern president of the Basque Country is sworn into office there. The oak tree and leaves are depicted in the Biscay coat of arms and government logos.

The “father tree” was planted in the 14^th century and it lived for 450 years.  The second tree lived 150 years and its trunk is displayed in a small temple on the Assembly grounds. The third tree lived approximately 150 years, survived the Guernica bombings, but later died of fungus.  The fourth tree died of humidity related disease at approximately 30 years of age.  The current tree was planted in 2015 and its current age is approximately 18 years old.  We saw the current tree and the old trunk in the areas outside of the Assembly Hall. 

Assembly Hall is a beautiful building with a neoclassical design. The inside of the Assembly Hall was beautiful with an exhibition hall and conference room as well.  The ceiling of the conference room is a huge stained-glass window showing the Guernica Tree and the history of the assemblies held there with paintings of important figures going back hundreds of years.

When we got to San Sebastian, we found that our apartment was in a high-rise building…and it had an elevator!!!  Yay!  Our host, Ana, was not able to greet us on our arrival, but her husband was there and he showed us to our room and he and his daughter told us places to go, where to park etc.  They were very nice.  I was unsure about staying in someone’s home, but our suite was very clean, private with a terrace, large closet area and private bathroom. 

After we got settled, we took a short siesta and then Wayne got to work.  I took a 30-minute walk down to the laundromat to do a couple of laundry loads. Luckily, I got there just before the rush hit and there were 2 washers available.  The bad news is that the change machine was not working so I had to go out in search of coins.  It costs 6 Euros to wash a load.  I had plenty of change, but the machine only took 1- and 2-euro coins.  I quickly ran around attempting to find anyplace that might be able to give me change, but it was Monday and not a lot of places nearby were open.

I ended up at a bar that was just opening next to the laundromat. The owner was pretty grumpy when I asked him if he could change a 10 euro note. He would only give me 5….so I went back and put all the clothes into one load and hoped that I didn’t have any colors bleeding.  After I got the load going, I went back to that same bar and decided to order some pinxtos and wine.  He did not speak any English so it was fun trying to communicate. He did warm up a bit too. I asked him what one of the dishes was and he told me it was the hand of some type of animal…he must have thought that I wanted it because before I knew it, there were two of these things on my plate.  They were about 3 inches in diameter 1/2 inch thick, breaded and fried.  I think 98 percent of it was fat with little tiny pea sized meat nuggets inside.  The little meat parts were good but I wasn’t a fan otherwise.  When he wasn’t looking, I wrapped those fat balls into my napkin and tossed them away.  Everything else was good though.

I asked if I could take pinxtos to go (for Wayne) and they looked at me like I had two heads.  I guess it is not common to take out pinxtos from a bar, but they accommodated me.  I brought Wayne some sausages, bread, egg salad and a ham sandwich…and I stopped and bought some tangerines and a cheap bottle of wine. (3 Euros and it was delicious)

I had to walk back up the hill with Wayne’s food and wet laundry (because I didn’t have enough coins to dry the clothes), which was fun…but I made it back, fixed Wayne’s dinner for him, and relaxed on the terrace with a glass of wine.  Ana was home by then and I got to meet her.  She is very sweet.  We felt very comfortable in her home.

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