As the Days Fly...

Well our days are flying by and we only have about 8 days left. Actually Dean left this morning as he is headed to work in Vimperk, Czech Republic for a few days before heading back to Madison. In any case, this entry will be some of the more recent highlights from this adventure.

On July 5th we headed into Bilbao for the "estropatada," rubber ducky race. This was the 3rd edition and it is to raise money for people who contract unusual diseases. People "purchase" a duck for 5 euros that enters the race.  Each duck has a geolocator so the "owner" knows where it is in the race. 35, 000 ducks were launched off of the Deusto bridge from giant duck painted containers. On the linked site above you can find the news video that tells the story as well.  There were several people in kayaks connected to a series of swim lane ropes that created a canal down which the ducks float to the next bridge. The streets were lined with people watching despite the rainy weather. Marina came in from Mundaka to join us for the race. The photos below will give you some idea.

Estropatada - Kizoa Video Maker

That evening, we went with our friends Raul, Viviana, and Fernanda to check out the nearby abandoned Butrón castle. It is not far from where we are staying and for years we would drive by it and I always wondered about it. It does, on the outside, look like something from a Disney movie that has gotten run down and not well maintained. The location is nice, although isolated, along a river and we happened to catch a group of horseback riders that had also made their way there to check it out.
Here are some photos from our excursion.

 

 Castillo_Butron - Kizoa Video Maker

As  you may know the lifestyle here is much different. Most people live in flats above stores and don't entertain in their homes. Those who have gardens for the most part are in a community plot, as yards aren't typical. That said the area we are living in used to be mostly an undeveloped area. Between where we are living off a main street and the beach, there were wooded/field paths to the beach. Now most of that has been cleared and there are houses and duplexes going up everywhere for those who would like a beach house. It is a great area to be in for beach and surf. We have enjoyed our flat, although the one house across the street is a bit loud. It is one of the original old homes that has a fair amount of fenced in yard. Behind the fence are ducks, chickens, hens, turkeys, dogs, cats, and I'm not sure what else. We hear the dogs at night around midnight and the hens at about 5am. I suspect this is like living on a farm, although we don't have the responsibility of the animals. Despite that, we are in a great location for our needs. Dean and I have been getting our exercise regularly. These photos  are a some pictures I took on my speed walk the other day.





As much as we can we have been reconnecting with our friends

from when we lived her 4 years ago. Eugenia was one of Morgan's friends from school and her sister Alejandra and Maia are also the same age. We took a stroll with them down to the Puerto Deportivo de Algorta for ice cream and a walk on the beach. Since there really isn't room to entertain in people's houses, we have enjoyed the customs of going out for walks, meeting and hanging out with people in parks, plazas, and on terraces. Everyone walks everywhere or takes the metro. All of us are enjoying the fresh air
and opportunity to walk from place to place with friends. Dean and I are hoping to keep that "habit" up at least a bit in the states to take a walk regularly after we eat as it feels healthier. It's also really nice to see older people out walking all the time. Our dependency in the states on cars to get around and only moving for the sake of exercise is a bit less healthy of a lifestyle in our opinion as we see older people with so much mobility here. The day we were on that walk in the Puerto Deportivo we saw a really beautiful sunset.

While we are close to the beach we are also only about a 20-30 min metro ride into Bilbao. We have gone in to the city a handful of times for shopping and the best massage therapist I have ever found. One afternoon following a massage, I was walking down the Gran Via, a main street, and came upon a concert by Coldplace which is a really amazing tribute band to Coldplay. If you heard them without seeing them, you might not know the difference as Soundhound identified Coldplay, not a cover, for every song despite crowd noise. It was really awesome. They played for about 1.5 hours. This was the opening, to get people excited before Bilbao Live, a 3 day concert up in the mountain just above Bibao. Mumford and Sons played there among other well known artists. Unfortunately we didn't have tickets.

Another part of summer here in Spain is that every town has it's "fiestas" which are all centered

around Santos, saints, that they choose to celebrate. That said, these are far from religious events and they typically go all day and late into the night. Since most of our kid's friends are in Algorta area where we used to live, we went to the parties in Neguri. In addition to a variety of theatrical entertainment, portable dj/disco, friends, and a bar, the festival started out with cabezudos which are people dressed up with gigantic heads carrying sacks that they use to chase and wack people with.

 Since the fiestas in Neguri, the girls have regularly returned to the park to meet up with friends and hang out. One of the nice things is that they are able to go alone on the metro. Generally that's how kids socialize. They travel in groups and wonder around parks, stop at nearby stores for snacks and the like. I think the girls will miss that when we return.

Urederra

It's become clear that I'm just not able to keep up with the blog. We have been very busy, often out from morning until very late at night. We didn't completely forget about July 4th though. In fact, we spent it together, just the four of us on a wonderful hike. We drove almost 2 hours to Urederra in Navarra, Spain. It's an area I have never visited before and it's beautiful.

We went to the Nacedero del Urederra which is a national park and it’s part of the bigger Parque Natural de Urbasa-Andía chain in Navarra. The best time to go is in the early spring when there is more water running than what was there at this point but it was still incredibly beautiful.  

We first checked in at the information booth where they were surprised to find out we were from the states. Apparently there are very few folks from the states that have made their way there, although they did say the numbers are growing due to the photos that have made their way to the Internet. It took us about 3-4 hours to hike the whole thing mostly because of stopping to take pictures. I can't explain how beautiful it was but below is a slideshow of the highlights of what we saw along the way.
 

Necedero del Urederra - Kizoa Video Maker

As you can see from the photos it is a series of waterfalls and pools along the hike. The word Urederra in Basque means beautiful water. The blue color of the water was amazing. I have never seen water so clear and blue except in pictures of tropical places I have yet to visit. Despite the long drive the kids said it was worth it because of the incredible beauty. I hope to get a few more of these excursions in before we head back to the states.

Whirlwind Tour

Our time in Munich really flew by and clearly 3 days of touring isn't enough to see and do all we were hoping for. On our second day we tried to get an earlier start but jet lag had other plans for us. We finally got moving and out of the flat by mid-morning and headed to the Marienplatz. For those who want the English version of the Marienplatz page...

We did arrive in time for the clock ringing which was interesting but what is more amazing is the number of people that show up for it. I suspect if it ran ever hour instead of only 3 times a day it would be less of a tourist spectacle.

I did find that I have my own street right off the plaza.
From this point we headed down a pedestrian shopping area. We came, we saw, we bought. Unfortunately since we got our day started so late and the girls found a bit of joy in shopping, we missed out on the historic parts of that plaza and the next one down the road that we never made it to.

Our friends contacted us to meet them for a picnic lunch on the grounds of the 1972 Olympic park. If you are interested in a bit of a history lesson on that, it was the first time Germany had hosted the Olympics since the time when Hitler was in power. Tension was high and things didn't turn out so well. Check out this short piece on the Munich Massacre for details.

Today however you wouldn't know that was the case. The grounds are green and lots of people are wondering around. The swimming pool is open for swimmers to enjoy, there is a lake  where they have big balls you can climb into for running/falling on the water, a trampoline park, and some other sightseeing tourist options. We mostly wandered around as the girls weren't interested in any of the other options except swimming but we hadn't brought our suits.

The weather was beautiful for our walk through the park and we followed that up with a trip back to Patricia and Use's house. While Use, Dean and Maia rested, the rest of us headed out to play a little soccer in the park by their flat. As it turns out it's a huge park so when we got tired of kicking balls around, we took a walk to see some beautiful gardens, a lake and a beer garden. Unfortunately it was getting late and we needed to head back.

Here are a few  of our interesting sightings of the day...

If it fits, park it there whichever direction you want...

The next day was a to be a long day as we were headed to Dachau, then needed to pack and a final dinner with our friends.

Spring Break Part II: Salamanca

Salamanca is about 4 hours south west of Algorta. 14 years have passed since my last visit. Prior to that I studied there one summer in college and I had visited in 1985 as well. While much of the college town remains the same, Salamanca as a city has really grown. 

We started with a tour of the city. Since we were staying in Barrio La Vega which is on the other side of Rio Tormes, we had about a 10 minute walk in towards the center of town. We took some pictures of the views as we approached. 



Once across the bridge, we headed directly into the monument zone. The first on the list was the Catedral Nueva, which by US standards isn't all that new seeing as it was built between the 16th & 18th century.

You may have noticed the carving on the cathedral of an astronaut, which of course didn't exist when the cathedral was built. My understanding is that relatively recently they needed to clean up the outside of the building where some of the intricate carvings had eroded. They apparently did this with a bit of creative license to "modernize" the outside.

Not far from the cathedral is the Patio de las Escuelas and the historical university building with its famous frog carving.


From there we headed towards the center of town. Maia happened to notice some Jewish stars on some buildings which also had some moorish influences. That sent me on a mission to find out a bit about the presence of Jews in Salamanca. As it turns out what Maia had discovered had no real meaning other than the builder liked that architecture. However there is some history, although most remnants of it are completely gone at this point.

The Plaza Mayor is one of the most beautiful central plazas in all of Spain. If you have the opportunity to visit, stop in at Meson de Cervantes, another favorite study spot for me. While you can sit outside, I recommend going in and checking out the photos on the walls. It shows some of the history of the plaza from the times when cars were allowed, and how it has transformed into the meeting place that it is today. Once you are done in the plaza, across the street is a large indoor market which is a great place for picking up fresh fruit and vegetables.

The park pictured is Parque La Alamedilla. I remember studying there as an alternative to la Plaza Mayor as it tends to be a bit quieter. There is a bar/cafe in the park, where I had the best granizados de limón, basically a lemon slushy. Unfortunately we were told this is a seasonal drink that is only available in the summer. We'll have to go back some time for that...

Just outside of Salamanca there are many options for day excursions. We went with our friends, MaLuz, Sara, and Lola to La Peña de Francia and La Alberca. We drove up the mountain and stopped along the way to take in the views before reaching the top. It was quite cold up there and a rather gloomy day but we got some great pictures anyway.

At the top was a beautiful old monastery.

After having a drink to warm us up a bit we headed back down to an adorable little town called La Alberca. There we found a great place for lunch and took a tour around the city before heading back to Salamanca.

The sights were stunning and the company was great. Yet another successful adventure.

Excursions in Euskadi

We decided to rent a car for the weekend and head out on our first official excursion. Of course at the time we reserved the car we didn't plan on three out of four of us being quite ill during the week. Arming ourselves with cold meds and a sense of adventure, we crossed our fingers and headed out the door.

Our plan was a combination of sightseeing and seeing friends along the way. We began our journey around 10am, a car full of snacks, cameras in hand, and a GPS. We drove along the coast to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe. The drive was quite nice although the highways were curving around through the mountains so not the best for those with a tendency towards motion sickness.

We were most of the way there when the views caught our eye and we had to stop for a photo shoot. We were in the small town of Bakio. It was a really nice area and seemed to be the perfect place for a vacation home by the ocean. While it isn't far from Bilbao, it didn't appear to be as easily connected to the big city as where we are living; a car or bus ride away. These first pictures are what we saw.

We continued our journey along the coast guided by our GPS. Most of the time that works well. However, this time it took us, as it turns out, past our destination and to where the highway ends, literally. Apparently it has been closed for a couple of years due to fallen rock. We pulled over, got out, and could see the island we were trying to reach. This time guided by our gut we backtracked and found a parking area where we could catch a not very well marked trail.

As you can see the views were spectacular. The staircase consists of approximately 230 stairs. That part really wasn't bad at all though. At the top is a small church that dates back to the 10th Century. We were lucky enough to enter. In most cases the building is closed.  In addition to the church, there is a nice covered area with stone picnic tables and a fireplace. You may have noticed in the pictures that Morgan is ringing a bell. It is supposed to be good luck to ring the bell three times and make a wish. (My wish was for no more trips to the clinic...)

I have to admit, it took me all weekend to learn to pronounce Gaztelugatxe, a word in Euskera. Since I worked so hard at it, I thought you would be interested to know its meaning. Gaztelu is castle and aitz is rock or bad. So it is either Castle on the Rock or Bad Castle. You can choose.

After spending some time taking in the views at the top we headed back down. The underneath part of the stone bridge that connects the island to the land has two arches. You can catch those in the pictures as well. We spent about an hour climbing around on the rocks, looking at snails and finding the tiniest shells ever. The last part was the hardest. Climbing back up to the parking area. I don't really know why it was so hard. Perhaps because that part of the walk is much less inspiring.

Once back at the car we needed to head to Guernika where we met up with Marina, an exchange student who lived in Madison last year. She is from Mundaka, just outside of Guernika. She and her parents took us to a restaurant where we sat overlooking the countryside and filled our bellies with roasted chicken, salad and french fries. The setting was beautiful and the company outstanding. It was really nice to meet her parents and to see Marina again, only this time in her home setting.

Following our meal we went to Bosque de Oma.  It was a long walk in but once we found the painted forest it was well worth it. The tree trunks were painted by Agustín Ibarrola, a Basque artist who lives in the village below the forest. We aren't sure in which one of the houses but you can see the village in the pictures below.

In any case, this is by far the most unique forest I have ever ventured through. In addition to the painted trees, there are triangle numbered markers on the ground. The idea is that you stand on the marker looking in the direction it is pointing and from there you see the works of art created by Ibarrola. He managed to paint tree trunks such that looking at groups of them together you see a variety of shapes and designs. Very curious. My suspicion is that he occasionally must return to the forest to repaint as the weather must wear away at his art work.

After locating the 40+ markers we made our way down the hill and walked through the small town below. The total trip was a couple of hours at least. Lots of walking but well worth. We ended our visit with a really nice bar on the beach near the ocean just across from Mundaka. We look forward to our next visit with Marina and her parents when we hope to visit her home town and other beautiful cities along the way.

We returned home Saturday night quite late, exhausted, but energized by our excursion. We knew we needed sleep as Sunday we had plans to visit our friends in Victoria. We definitely were getting the most out of our rental car.

Sunday came fast. Our first stop was Murgia, a small town on the way to Vitoria. It was there that we met up with our friends Rosa, José, Sara and Marta. They took us up to the top of a rocky mountain, Las Penas de Oro where we found Nuestra Señora de Oro, a small church, accompanied by more outstanding views. (For those of you who don't speak Spanish, you can translate those sites pasting the URL in at translate.google.com. It's not perfect but will give you the gist.)

Following our mountain top pictures, we headed to Vitoria where we visited Salburua nature preserve. The museum describing how they restored the area was quite interesting and we could have definitely used more time to explore it. Unfortunately they close at 2 for lunch and reopen later in the evening. This is typical of most businesses. I find it amazing that Spain has continued to preserve so much of this tradition. It is also not possible to shop on Sundays as nearly everything is closed. Fresh bread and pastry is available, video rentals, movie theaters, museums, etc. However grocery/food stores, clothing stores and the like are all closed.

Following the nature preserve we headed for lunch and spent the rest of the day just enjoying our time together. The girls really welcomed the opportunity to spend time with Sara and Marta, who are 12 and 10.

The drive home was uneventful but most importantly, we knew this was the beginning. We hope to make the most of our time here and enjoy similar excursions as we get to know more about the area in which we are living.