Burgos

I went to Burgos on November 5, 2011. Quite rainy the day of and not quite as warm as Spain usually is, but altogether a gorgeous city. The city is well known for the large cathedral located in the old part of the city. It is absolutely beautiful; however, besides the church there ain't much more to see in Burgos. The weather was brisk and the fall changing trees were lovely, but in my opinion I think the city was lacking unless you count the awesome "chocolate con churros".

Here are some photos of the city - Somebody's head somehow got in one of the photos - :

Anyways since the city was lacking - I'll tell you about the Cathedral. It is a gothic style roman catholic church and is dedicated to the virgin Mary (like a lot of the other churchs in Spain). The cathedral is famous for being ginormous and having at least ten different chapels inside - all with different decorations, priests, saints and donors. Construction began in the early 13th century and was continued until the 16th, although some very important modifications have been added to the building since then.

As if you can't see the cathedral in the first picture... Here's a close up!

Here are some pictures of the many different ceilings within the building:

And... Here are some pictures of the more important things inside the Cathedral (the stuff you see in postcards and travel books). The quality of some of the pictures aren't that great, but you get the idea.

On Friday: Barcelona!

San Juan de Gaztelugatxe

Well, hello there everyone! I visted San Juan de Gaztelugatxe - pronounced Gaz - te - lu - gatch - ay - a few weeks ago and I wanted to share the photos and a little history!

Gaztelugatxe is a small island located outside the small municipality of Bermeo, a forty-five minute bus ride from Bilbao. The church and the bridge to the island were constructed in the 9th or 10th century by the Knights Templar - Masons. The funds were donated by the Lord of Biscay, don Iñigo López to the church to the monastery of San Juan de la Pena.

The pathway up to the church as around 230 steps and is made of stones from the surrounding beaches. Once you get up to the top it is said that if you ring the bell on the church three times you are allowed one wish. I did not know this at the time, thus I did not make a wish; however, I would have liked to...

Now, I'm going to take on a little picture tour of the hike up to the top of Gaztelugatxe. The bus dropped us off about 3 miles away from the top in the little town of Bermeo. We had to walk along a hilly road - along with some passing cars - for quite a while before we arrived at the actual trailhead. The countryside was absolutely gorgeous and I would not mind spending some time out there. Bilbao is a big city and it was really nice to get out of the city for the day. Anyways, here we go!

The first sign we saw on the way there... I forget what the leaf means. It's something similar to the shell that represents the Camino de Santiago I have mentioned before.

Frollicking along the road and admiring the scenery to our destination...

The traditional basque house - baserri - were built so that in the winter the animals could be housed in the bottom level of the house. This way the body heat from the sheep, cows, chickens, etc. would rise and heat the house during colder winter months.

Through the woods and over the hills... to San Juan Gaztelugatxe we go!

Woohoo! Finally the last sign telling us where to go... You can see the other island, Aketze, as well.

The view from the small parking lot where people can park if they decided to take their cars on the unkempt road to the island. Hardly anybody drive all the way out and there are no services to drive you out because the road is so bad. Looks, like the spaniards/basques need them some 4-wheel drive cars. Gorgeous I tell ya!

This was my favorite scene on top of the island.

This is the church with the bell that I rang a few times, but didn't make a wish...

After seeing the top of the island we headed back to town to catch our bus back to Bilbao. The sunset was absolutely beautiful as we walked down those rolling hills. I just might have to go back - if only for that.



Next week: Burgos

*I'm sorry little Herman hasn't been in the blogs as of late! There'll be another blog soon where you can search for that sneaky little bear!

Guernica

This is the famous painting "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso. Guernica is a small town located about forty-five minutes west of Bilbao. Even though it is very small, this basque town has a lot of stories to tell. On the 26th of April in 1937, it was bombed by a number of German, Italian and Spanish aircrafts. From the year 1936-1939 Spain was involved in a civil war. The monarchy against the aspiring dictator Franco. Franco was a strong believer in expelling people from Spain who weren't Spanish and all languages other than Spanish. He enlisted the help of the Germans and Italians to overtake Spain.

Right now, I live in the autonomic community (kind of like states) of Pais Vasco - the basque country. There are three provinces in France, the autonomic community of Navarra (capital: Pamplona), and Pais Vasco - called Euskal Herria - that all speak the language Basque. They aren't necessarily much different than the Spaniards, however they speak a different language and therefore they were a major target for Franco.

Guernica was well known for their traditional basque pride and although it was a small town and served little threat to the large army of Franco they were bombed. They lost a lot of people in the bombing because it was market day and everyone was out of their houses getting food and had little time to run to their small bomb shelters closer to the mountains. Now, the city has been reconstructed and is very much the same small town as it was before.

These pictures show one of the most important symbols in Guernica. In the olden days, the basque people would get together and discuss politics beneath the "Guernica tree". Nowadays their governement buliding is actually just to the left of where the tree stands - not the one behind it. The tree now is one of the great, great, etc, grandkids of the very first tree of Guernica.

In the first flag picture, the two flags in the middle are the Spanish flag (red and yellow) and the basque flag. The basque flag is shown more closely in the second photo.

This is where the old market once stood, a new one in it's place. I think market day is still Monday, so there was no one selling food and no tables were set up.

A traditional basque pastry thing... that I don't remember the name off... but it was really yummy and you can get them in chocolate too.

La Iglesia de Santa Maria... According to rumor, a bomb came right through the roof and didn't explode and the people inside were kept safe.

Well, that's all for Guernica! Thanks for reading! Herman wasn't in any of the photos in case y'all didn't notice. He was left at home for the day...

Next week: Who knows?

Doña Casilda Iturrizar Park

And so it begins... This park was designed in 1907 by Ricardo Bastida and Juan Eguiraun. Why? Because Bilbao didn't have enough parks... Which consequently enough, the only major green spot on the map of Bilbao is this park. Well, I guess that's sort of a lie - it's the only tree covered green spot in the city... The other green areas of Bilbao don't really look too much like parks. They look like misplaced front/back yards because everybody lives in apartments here. You can see some mountains though, nice green ones; however they are not quite as impressive as Pike's Peak or any other Colorado mountains. Anyways... if you didn't notice, Herman is greeting y'all from the small fountain above, which of course is inside this lovely park.

Take a walk through and you will spot some ducks swimming in a quaint little pond...

A small monument for all of those who died in random attacks of the Basque terrorist group: ETA

Where is that Teddy Bear?

This fountain is usually prettier, but the water is really low and you can see the devices that actuallly shoot the water up out of the ground...

Where's Herman in this photo?

This one is obvious... but he's cute sitting up there in that knarley old tree...

The last one... Really tricky, but Herman is there! Can y'all find him???

Next week: Guernica!

Santander

Last weekend I had the chance to go tour around the seaside city of Santander, Spain with my ISA group. One of the most interesting things about this city was the fire that burnt half the city down in 1941. They still don't know what caused the terrible fire, but some say it was bad wiring fueled by a strong wind for two days. Only one person died, but many were left without their homes and most of the historic buildings were burnt down. The picture above is one of many lighthouses in Santander.

This week there are two photos with Herman in them... Can you find which ones?

This is the government building in Santander:

This is the main Cathedral in Santander with a fountain out front:

In this picture you can see the difference between the part of the church that was reconstructed after the fire and the part that remained:

This next photo is of the little courtyard within the chapel:

Here's a photo of the altar inside the main chapel within the Cathedral:

The last photo I have for this post is the Palacio de la Magdalena, constructed in 1908 by the local government for the purpose of providing a seasonal residence for the royal family in Spain. I wasn't able to go inside or actually get pictures of my own because they wouldn't let us out of our mini tourist train.

That's it for this week! Next week: More scenes from Bilbao!

Basilica of Begoña

The Basilica of Begoña is late gothic 17th century building designed by Sancho Martinez de Arego, and of course is located in Bilbao. The church is dedicated to the virgin mary - "Andra Mari" - who was declared patron of the provence in the 18th century. On the inside there's a number of recently restored paintings narrating episodes in the life of the Virgin. They are known to have come from Seville and to have arrived in Bilbao in the early 18th century. The present reredo (decorated area behind altar) was made in 1869, after the first one disappeared, made of gilt wood and is presided over by a 14th century Gothic polychromed wood carving of the Virgin of Begoña. (Info taken from pamphlet at church).

Here's a picture of the centerpiece:

Here's a video I took of the interior of the church while they were reading off Rosaries or something:

I'm afraid my camera does not do the church much justice, but it was absolutely gorgeous. The altar looks more gold than it appears and you can't see the virgin very well, but y'all get the gist.

Here's some pictures of the exterior of the church, and what you have to do is find which photo has Herman in it... There's only one! Post a comment if you think you know! I think it's pretty easy, but we'll see!

Absolutely gorgeous, right? I love it! I hope y'all did too!

Next week: Scenes from Santander!