Basquing in Bilboa

Arantzazuko Bascillica

The pictures from the trip are visible in the album.

Our last stop in Spain was the Bilbao area. We stayed in a Casa Rurale called Ametzola about a half hour outside of the city nestled in the hills. It's run by Mikel who originally turned part of it into a B&B in order to pay for the restoration of the building. It was originally built in the 16th century and is a very large, 3 story house just like every other old rural house in the area. Originally, each house held one, 3 generation, family. The bottom floor was the stable where the animals were kept. The second floor is where the humans lived. Finally, the top floor was for storage, mostly of foodstuffs and hay. Mikel has 6 guest rooms, which were mostly empty when we were there, while he cooked us breakfast and dinner each day, which was absolutely delicious, but more on that later.

On our way from Rioja to the Casa, we made a detour to the Arantzazuko Sanctuary. It's another stop on the Camino, south of San Sebastian. Originally built in in the 1500's, it's a bascillica and sanctuary for travelers up in the gorgeous mountains built on the spot where somebody had a vision of the Virgin Mary sitting in the hawthorn bushes. It's burned down twice in it's existence while both times, the altarpiece of the Virgin survived. In it's most recent incarnation, it was rebuilt in the 1950's in a wacky avante-guarde Spanish style. The outside is is a blocky structure covered in stone spikes meant to symbolize the hawthorns that are endemic to the area. It reminds me of Thwomp from Mario. The inside it just like famous architecture from the era where it's quite dark, while everything has strong lines, sometimes filled with organic curves. The whole building is nestled into a compound of dorms that is much more traditional. There is also a meditation space just up the hill from the church that follows a poem about running water, hawthorns and strangers.

Inside the Bascillica

From Arantzazuko, we drove to the Casa Rurale, settled in and had dinner. Dinner started with a potato cod soup, then the main was veal cheeks braised with potatoes, carrots and PX sherry. Finally, desert was a bowl of local yogurt and local apples. Mikel makes amazing food, mostly using family recipes and he definitely doesn't take shortcuts. The veal was made by first pressure cooking the veal by itself for an hour. Then, the potatoes and carrots were both poached separately in olive oil for many hours. Next, they are combined with the juices from the meat and the PX sherry and slow cooked for another couple of hours. Finally, in the last hour, the meat is added back in. Delicious, but time consuming.

San Juan de Gaztelugatxe Hermitage

The next day was a rainy Monday. All the museums were closed so we decided to go the hermitage San Juan de Gaztelugatxe out on the coast. It's a couple km walk from the parking lot down to the ocean and then you walk up a series of staircases up the rocks until you reach the hermitage perched on the top of the rock that's jutting into the sea. Along the way, you'll see the footprints of John the Baptist in the rock and be treated to some amazing scenery. Once you get to the top, you ring the bell three times and make a wish.

Stairs on the way to the hermitage.

From there, we stopped for lunch at the restaurant by the parking lot. They definitely take advantage of their location! Then we drove to a nearby town of Mundaka. It's a beautiful little port town with a beach, but because it was raining and a Monday, it was quiet and there wasn't much to see. So we didn't spend long.

From there, we went to the next town, Gernika. Gernika has a famous market every Monday and we figured that it worth trying to see it. Unfortunately, our timing wasn't great because the market was done by noon, so there really wasn't much to see. After that, we made one more stop. Near Gernika, there's a painted forest. In the 1980's an artist decided to paint some trees such that if you line up your view just right, you'll see an image painted across a number of trees. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see it. When we got there, it turned out that it would require a 7km hike. It was already getting later in the afternoon and importantly, Catherine had already done a lot of walking and didn't think that it would be a good idea to push it that far. So, we just headed back to the Casa to relax and have dinner. Dinner started with a goat cheese and zucchini soup, followed by some roasted duck breasts and finished with flan.

On our final day in Spain, we went in to Bilbao. We started at the river market, which is one of the bigger indoor markets in Spain. It was a little underwhelming even if it was good market. It is smaller than Kensington market in Toronto and didn't  have the variety of vendors that that market has. It was mostly just basic provisions, which is what you'd use if you lived there, but there wasn't really anything too unique.

From there, we wandered around the old part of town looking at shops for gifts and maybe souvenirs. There was a wide variety of shops lining the narrow, winding streets from higher end clothing stores, to weapon stores to your stereotypical souvenir shops. It's a beautiful area of town and was fun to explore and people watch. We finished by having lunch at the pintxo bars on the main square. These were not as extravagant as the ones in San Sebastian, so there was a lot less for Catherine. She ended up eating a number of slices of tortilla, that were flavoured differently at least.

After lunch, we walked through the newer area of town over to the Guggenheim museum. The Guggenheim is a great museum. There aren't many pieces showing at any one time, but every gallery has a theme, so it's reasonable to go through in an afternoon. Admittedly, some of it was modern art with a lot of bloviating, but some of the pieces were really fun. In particular, there was one exhibit designed for a corner of the Frank Gehry building. It was a series of 8 or so pillars of LED lights where messages are moving from the ground to the ceiling. The messages were from an event about AIDS from when the piece was built. You can walk between the pillars and get a very different view. The other amazing piece was the Matter of Time. It's a series of gigantic steel sheets that you walk through. Each piece is a part of a conic section and they are put together such that as you walk through them, you have an illusion of space contracting or expanding around you. It's hard to describe since it's one of those things you have to experience. It's worth going to the museum just for that piece.

Around the outside of the museum, there are a number of other large pieces that are part of the park along the river near the building. Just like many cities, it's right downtown and used to be an industrial area but now, it is being rejuvenated.

After walking through the park, we headed back to the B&B for our last dinner in Spain. It was a special one because Mikel made a traditional basque delicacy of cod collars. The collars have a lot of collagen and are slow cooked. So they have a chunks of gelatinous texture. It is served in a olive oil and cod fat emulsion. It was absolutely delicious but could be a challenge for some people. It was a good way to end the trip.