59 - House of the Dragon / Tree - Bilbao, Gaztelugatxe, Guernica

Sunday, April 21 

I slept in today, deciding to hit snooze on the alarms rather than get straight to the day; this was probably the right choice as I've yet to wake up invigorated this trip.  As such, by the time I was packed out of the hotel it was about 10AM.  I could feel some soreness from yesterday's walking but nothing too serious, which was good to confirm.  

The big ticket item for the day required me to leave Bilbao a little after 11AM so I had an hour to mill about and have my coffee; so mill and cafe I did.  

Some colorful townhouses on a sloped street, in Bilbao not San Francisco

The bull arena; this one's massive!

El desayuno de los campeones

After wandering a bit, I turned my focus towards the community/cultural center I'd seen the day before.  I'm glad I poked my head inside, the place is really cool!  

So many pillars and they were all in different styles

Most people coming in were headed to a corner that seemed to be for a pool and gym; turns out the pool is up above everything else!  

Scattered amongst the pillars in the cool darkness were some art sculptures and seating.  There was also a few restaurants and stores along the edges and a cinema in the basement.

The main entrance has a super tall ceiling and a reception area, it makes for an interesting contrast to the dark enclosed areas.

One of the side places I stopped by was the mediatech, which is like a library+.  In the library section there was an exposition about comic artists / artists specialized in drawing for graphic novels.  I thought it was neat to see the three featured artists have very different styles and story telling methods.  

I think the engraving says this art exhibit was designed by children?  I'm not sure what the cabbage symbolizes 

The bridge between places

The study room of the mediateka was absolutely packed with people hard at work on their laptops.

I grabbed a loaf of bread before leaving town.  In my best Spanish (progress on Duolingo has been slow 😅) I said I want some bread, "quiero unos pan".  Camera pans left to a massive stockpile of loaves, buns, and baguettes.  I didn't have to understand the words to know his question was "ok, which one 😏?"

I had to switch to English to say "the pointy one" 😅

Getting out of Bilbao took a bit of time; the way the traffic lights work means that both cars and pedestrians alike get plenty of time to reflect on whether the destination is really worth the effort.  Once out of town, there were some tunnels and sloped curves to negotiate but I made it to my destination on time: San Juan de Gaztelugatxe.

This place features a church nestled on a lonesome rock accessible via footbridge.  Most recently, it picked up a ton of popularity for being used as a filming location (Dragonstone) for the later seasons of Game Of Thrones.  Despite its popularity, visiting is free but requires reserving a ticket & time slot and some good shoes.  

From the mirador; it's quite a picturesque area, isn't it?

On approach, keeping a watchful eye on the sky for large, hungry winged-shadows.

In flysch fashion, the waves were breaking many, many times before they ran ashore.

Beginning the climb; the path was pretty well done but the stones weren't completely even so it did require a bit of attention.  

Not everyone can mill about climbing wayward church steps, some of us gotta work for a living.

This island has several windows, this one was hiding pretty well.

The small brush growing on the island was colorful and there was just enough wind to balance the intensity of the sun

It's just a few steps.

At the top of the steps is a small church, a decent patio to mill about, an off-limits refectory area, and some nice views.

The church was closed but putting my phone up to the window really highlighted the boat theme the place had going on.  

I found a dragon in Dragonstone!

Turns out there were a LOT of lizards about.  Here were a bunch basking in the sun but along the path you could frequently hear furious rustling in the nearby shrub

Looking southwest to Bakio and Bilbao a bit further down.

Managed to get closer to one of these lizards; this one wasn't particularly green.

Dracarys!

I swear I saw a couple lizards thrashing around on the stalks of this plant; I guess they were eating the flowers/seeds?  

Hasta luego!

Only from walking up the unpaved trail a bit could I notice that the other island has a narrow window too!   

Once wrapped up, I made an audible to stop by Guernica.  Not much of an old town to see as ~85% of the town was destroyed by German planes at the behest of Franco in 1937.  Still, the town was charming and the Biscaya/Viscaya parliament was interesting to see.

The town center was pretty quiet, but that might've been related to showing up during siesta

The market was empty but still a nice layout; I can imagine it being full of merchant stalls and life.

A monument for particularly heinous bombings throughout the years; located next to one of Guernica's bomb shelters

This shelter was the closest to the buildings producing war materials but wasn't actually hit during the bombing.

Enjoying a glass of cider and a pintxo on a quiet, sunny Sunday afternoon

A neat little school court

A monument to Basque soldiers; I thought it was neat the flag was showed color and that the soldiers wore berets.

Some sort of amphitheater?

As I climbed the stairs towards the park atop the hill, a couple of young people asked me a question in Spanish.  I apologized and said I spoke very little Spanish, switching to English they said assured me not to worry and that they were just looking for a place to find lunch.  Turns out the two travelers were pilgrims; Fernando y Berta.  They were dressed plainly, Fernando had a very humble black button-up shirt and Berta had a simple robe and swathed herself in a big scarf.  Unlike other pilgrims I'd seen working their way to Santiago, these two were walking to Rome from the Asturias province of Spain.  Also unlike the pilgrims working their way to/from Santiago, it doesn't seem the pilgrimage to Rome has a symbol like a scallop shell.  With a "vaya con dios" we parted ways as they went in search of lunch.

Fernando gave me a paper crane, I assume from a receipt.  It was really pleasant speaking with them, I'd never heard of the Asturias province before nor where it would be located.  

At the top of the town lies a lovely little park and apparently a provincial government building.  Guernica served/serves as a seat of a representative government for the Bizkaia / Viscaya region, and the Guernica tree serves as the symbol for this government.  I found the current Guernica tree not to be all that impressive considering it's only about 20 years old; every time the Guernica tree dies, a new one is transplanted into the plot.  

A former Guernica tree

The assembly room had some really nice decoration and showed different lords who'd comprised previous assemblies.

I imagine it could get a little crowded in here if all representatives showed up.

The next room featured a stained glass window: in the center in the Guernica tree, the assembly house, then below are the three pillars of the Bizkaia economy (sea, agriculture, and industry), the buildings along the edge are town halls of the representatives.  I'd say it does a decent job of representing the region and a democratic government, but the window only shows men.  😅

The coat of arms featuring the Guernica tree

And here it is, el gernikako arbola!  

The assembly house

My tour of the assembly house complete, I pressed up into the park at the top of the hill.  There were many families milling about and enjoying the nice weather, a few families were gathered around the pond teeming with ducks and turtles.  I stopped to watch for a bit and tuned in just in time to see a duckling seemingly messed with the wrong turtle.  Turtle grabbed the ducklings foot and pulled it underwater.  Mama duck made a couple efforts to recover the duckling while it kept its head above water but a switch flipped and mama duck seemed to decide to cut her losses.  I'm not sure she even realized the issue was the turtle, she kept grabbing the duckling by the neck to pull it up out of the water rather than attack the turtle head.  I wasn't the only spectator, a little girl shouted to her dad across the pond "papa, a turtle pulled a baby duck underwater!" Dad: 🤷‍♂️.  Circle of life, kid.  

Mama to the rescue

She gave up and was returning to the rest of her flock when the duckling managed to get out a few more cheeps and she doubled back.

Sadly, Mama Duck wasn't able to recover the duckling but I suppose that's just a fact of life in these ponds.

I was a bit surprised that afterwards the rest of the duck family was ok with milling around the rest of these turtles.

I wrapped up Guernica with a few sculptures in the park, this one was a Chillida

The twisting of the concrete looks like it would have been fairly difficult.   

And of course, we can't the mural replica of Picasso's work in the town of its title. 

Having finished up in Guernica, I opted for a quick lightning bonus round to make good on the remaining daylight: visit Urkiola natural park.  This was the park who's mountains had impressed me on my drive to Bilbao the yesterday so I figured it wouldn't be too much of a detour to pop my head in.  I put the GPS for a central location in the park (not too far from the visitor center) and had to negotiate a few 180 degree hairpin turns but I arrived with plenty of time till sunset.  I turns out the location I'd entered was a large church which must've just hosted a massive event: there were tons of buses at the park and school aged children.

I mean busloads and busloads of people, the place was a madhouse when I arrived.  

It was a pretty large church/venue.  The staff for the event stuck around for quite some time breaking down and loading up stuff.

 

I'd scurried past the church hoping to find a mirador to view the mountains and started up a trail figuring it was the right route.  About about 20 minutes on the hike, I decided to check AllTrails and found my route was walking around the summit and would require another 30 minutes to reach a junction that likely wouldn't even have a viewing spot.  So I turned around and headed back, but I managed to catch a few scenic glimpses on this short hike.  

I've seen plenty of potchoks on my hikes but surprisingly few cows.

Aha!  a spot to see a bit of the mountains!

Despite the sun, I was glad I brought my jacket when I started descending.  

I guess it's foal season.

A couple of suspicious characters, I decided to cross to the other side of the street.

When I returned to the area with the church, I found that a horde of buses had been blocking a sign saying "panorama this way" 🤦‍♂️

The sunlight on the light gray limestone is really impressive.  It made me want to climb and walk the long of the ridge over there! 

Per what I've gleaned from the regional museums and placards, part of the Basque pagan beliefs (before they were suppressed or coopted by Christianity) was the goddess Mari who lived in a cave in these mountains.  I could see these mountains being a holy site.

With the sun ready to start setting, I began the drive back to Soustons.  Before parking at home base, I stopped in town to grab a take-out dinner; the only place who's "kitchen" was still open was a Thai place called "Comme à la Maison".  I scared the heeby-jeebies out of the woman at the register when she looked up; I was coming in the door 15 minutes before closing and she'd started cleaning up.  My bowl of 5-spice chicken hit the spot as I finished packing up the apartment for moving out on Monday.  

My watch says I walked 12.5 miles today; I can believe it but I felt much less beat up today compared to walking in Bilbao.  It's probably due to more breaks to drive between locations.  Anyhow, I had a great weekend in the Bizkaia province!  I'd like to amend my previous evaluation of Bilbao: I didn't like it as much as other cities from a tourist perspective, but I think it'd be a pretty decent city to live in/near.