Basque Country

This morning as we left out little posada in Santillana, we decided that we needed to make some distance and there would be no more little seaside or mountain diversionary drives. We almost made it- but more on that later.
First we headed to Santander, a big seaside city that is very modern as it was burned down by a major fire in 1941. For a modern town it was very lovely. It has a beautiful beach-El Sardiniero- that is right in the city and wonderful seaside promenades like so many of the Spanish cities. Toronto has much to learn about waterfronts and Guelph's view of its river walks are lamentable compared to what they do here. We didn't linger as our big agenda was to get to Bilbao and the famous Guggenheim designed by Frank Gehry.
A little aside- the roads are wonderful and getting better all the time. Most places are connected by 4 lane divided highways with excellent signage and the secondary roads are paved and in good condition. There is much construction going on to upgrade sections- hope that isn't part of the cause of the financial difficulties here!
Anyhow, we motored into Bilbao and found the museums with the help (and some hindrance) of our dear GPS system. Getting from the underground parking into the museum was quite complicated..there were no signs and we ended up walking totally around this fantastic building before locating the entrance. But the building is incredible! all curves and glass and titanium siding..odd shaped spaces and even odder modern art inside. Anish Koor is the main exhibit and his work is fascinating but outside the box to say the least...a cannon that shoots wax bullets against a corner? he has collaborated with other artists to create architectural creations in NYC and Chicago and other places. Certainly challenging to understand his work! After lunch in a shopping centre restaurant (actually was a pretty good salad!) we saw the more traditional work at the Museo Belles Artes. There was saw an El Greco, a Manet, several Rubens- and other amazing people from across the centuries. There were some other modern Basque artists with exhibits showing their culture.
This Basque city that was until the mid nineties and the building of the museum, just an industrial no name, has all sorts of incredible buildings now and more under construction..looks like things have really taken off!
Basque culture...quite amazing. The language is totally different from our language and is theorized to be closer to Finnish and some of those languages. The Basques are like the aboriginals of this area and are thought to have resisted conquest by both the Romans and the Moors and retained their own unique language and customs as they got pushed into the area around the border of France and Spain. They are seafarers and probably arrived in North America long before Columbus as they followed the whales...maybe even before the Vikings. One hears about them because of ETA, the so-called terrorist organization that is agitating for a separate Basque homeland and has been the cause of several bombings that have caused great damage in France and Spain. Their food is apparently quite amazing ( don't know yet as we haven't tried it) and they are still resistant to Spanish attempts to squash the culture. Apparently this came to a head under Franco and Hitler attacked a key Basque city-Guernica- in 1937 experimenting with cluster bombs and hoping to win Franco as an ally. The ancient city was destroyed, a thousand people died, and Franco stayed neutral in the war. Tomorrow we will visit that city.
As we left Bilbao, we read in Fodors about this spectacular seaside drive around to Guernica...well let me tell you. The spectacularness was a little spotty, the drive was very difficult to follow even with the GPS assistance and then with no warning the road was closed and we had to backtrack. We should have stuck to our original idea to avoid slow roads today! So here we are in Mundaka at Hotel Atalaya after checking in after 8 pm.
It is an important football game tonight..so dinner was a sandwich as Jurg watched the game in the bar. Sue will make sure that anticipated Basque meal happens tomorrow in San Sebastian...price be damned!
Hasta luego