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.

A Tourist's View: Part I

For over 20 years the Basque Country of Spain has had a tremendous influence on my life. In fact it changed my career path. In that time I have had few opportunities to introduce this world to close family and friends. Other than my husband and children, no one we know from the states has seen or experienced life here the way that I have. That is until now...

A few weeks ago friend, Sarah, from Madison came on a work trip and I had one rainy day to give her a quick tour. That helped me think about what places and spaces have left the greatest imprint on my life. Then on Thursday, June 9 our good friends Kevin and Lynne arrived from California to spend several days with us. It's amazing what you start to pay attention to once you play tour guide in your own city. Of course paying attention to Kevin and where his professional camera pointed helped me to see things I hadn't noticed as well...

We began with a quick Thursday evening trip through Sopelana. That's the small town we usually stay in when we come to visit.

The girls went to art class and the rain held off long enough for us to take a walk to the wall for a nice view of the beach. We then took a quick snack and drink break at La Kala our favorite bar, while Morgan and Maia finished their class. My sister MaLuz stopped by to chat with us for a bit before we caught the metro home. Kevin and Lynne did quite well on jet lag and little sleep.



Friday the weather was a bit dreary and we were keeping things pretty low key. We took a tour of Algorta starting at the Hotel High Tech Tamarises. From there we walked along the beach and into the Puerto Viejo. It's a beautiful part of the city which has been well preserved.

After wandering the streets for some photo ops we headed on a path toward a cafe on the hillside where we sat for a cup of coffee. The views were fantastic. We kept running into a group of woman with a tour guide. I took that as a good sign. Clearly our tour must have hit the important points along the way.

From there we continued on the streets that followed the curve of the coastline, stopping at a bakery for a bit of typical San Juan pastry, which is available only at this time of year. On June 23 is the celebration which includes bonfires and festivities at the beach. I'm not sure of the details yet.

We headed to La Galea, which is a walk along the cliffs next to the ocean. We decided to check out the ruins of the old fort.

 
While we were enjoying the walk we eventually looped back for lunch at home and to pick up the girls from school. Friday night we headed up to the new Algorta station park where our friends Patricia, Eusebio and their girls joined us. The evening was full of conversation, pintxos, and relaxation in outdoor terraces. Very typical of a night on the town as they are celebrated here.

Friends & Family

The past two weekends we have stayed close to home. We are trying to enjoy as much time as we can with family and friends and visiting some of our favorite places. I can't believe how quickly five and a half months can go. In the remainder of our stay we will balance our time spent with family and friends, with seeing and doing as much as we can in the short time we have left.

Weekend 1: May 28-29
Saturday we spent shopping as the girls have outgrown many of their clothes. I suspect there is a little more shopping to be done before they go off to summer camp here as well. I didn't really plan for away camp when we packed for this trip. My guess for their growth spurts is the good nutrition in the school lunches. Coming from the states I never thought it was possible to have "good nutrition" and "school lunch" in the same sentence. Hopefully upon returning to the states we can maintain at least some of the habits and routines we have picked up here.



Sunday, Beatriz and family invited us to Nando's parent's house in Gorliz. Gorliz is the neighboring town to Plentzia. Andrea, Bea and our gang took the metro to Plentzia and walked along the ocean to the Gorliz beach. The girls always love spending time with cousin Andrea.  It was a beautiful day, perfect weather for the beach and ocean. We also happened upon a collector's car show. Nando met us a little later as he rode in on a vintage motorcycle.


The sand was great for playing and the water, well, it was more like ice but that never seems to stop the kids.

After a few hours at the beach we headed up to the house for lunch where we were joined by Nando, his mother and his aunt. Lunch was followed by some time to relax,  work on an enormous puzzle, and give the kids rides on the vintage moto around the abandoned tennis court.

Weekend 2: June 3- 5
Again the weather was perfect despite the predictions for rain. We started by pulling the girls out of after school activities and went with Viviana, Raul and Fernanda to a beautiful park in the woods of Leioa. The girls played, we all ate and then played some more..


Saturday was very spontaneous but worked out quite well. We started our day with a bike ride picking up Morgan and Maia's friends, Eugenia and Alejandra, along the way. We headed to Las Arenas where we found La Feria de Movilidad Sostenible, a festival on green transportation. They had some learning games the kids participated in about different kinds of energy, various electric cars and bikes, and other literature to fill our backpacks.

From there we continued our ride through Las Arenas to the path that goes along the ocean. We stopped for a drink, to climb a tree, and enter a cave... because we can...

Our return of Alejandra and Eugenia evolved into lunch at a Cervecera in Berango to which we were able to bike. Cerveceras are very common in this area of Spain. Typically they offer both indoor and outdoor seating and most of them have a park or similar to entertain the kids. The idea is to go with a large group of people, order roasted chicken, fries, salad, and other options including tortilla patata, croquetas, pimientos verdes,... You order at a counter and bring it all to the table to eat family style. We arrived around 3:30pm, a pretty typical time for the biggest meal of the day in Spain. We stayed until after 8pm as the kids enjoyed the park and we were enjoying the company of our friends. Fun for the kids never stopped as the evening ended in a sleepover. All in all it was a long but great day.

Sunday was a day of putting together some puzzle pieces. I learned in January that some colleagues of mine from Wisconsin, north of Madison, have roots in the Basque region. Cristina, a Spanish professor is from San Sebastian, about 1 hour from Bilbao. More recently I learned that she and David, who is on the committee for the program I direct, have two children, very close in age to our girls. We decided it was time our families meet so they came to Bilbao.

We began at the Museo de Bellas Artes.  It's perhaps a bit crazy to think that 4 kids between ages 8-11 are going to truly appreciate and want to hang out in an art museum so we introduced a game. They had a list, a scavenger hunt of items to find in the paintings, about 25 or so, and they got points for what they found. The items had different point values depending on how hard I presumed it would be to find them. We inter-mixed the kids, the 2 oldest and the 2 youngest. They were totally engaged and did quite well. In addition to the regular exhibition there was an exhibit by Daniel Tamayo, an artist from Bilbao, whose work is imaginative, colorful and busy so a great option for the kids to study as they looked for objects. I don't think I have ever enjoyed an art museum so much with kids in my life. Morgan and Maia were clearly more entertained there than they were at the Guggenheim.

From the museum we headed for lunch where we met Begonia. (Spanish speakers, I know it is typically spelled with an ñ but everyone that I have seen write her name spells it like the flower.) Anyway, Begonia has been a friend of my sister MaLuz for a long time, as well as a friend of Cristina's from back when they were both studying in Cincinnati. She is also connected to people at the Universidad de Deusto in Bilbao, with whom I have made connections. So, the world is small and it was nice to finally place that piece of the puzzle.


After lunch we headed to the park by the Guggenheim where the kids could burn off some energy before going for ice cream.

We finished our day with a visit to the Alhondiga, an amazing building both in its beauty and its contents. It combines, cultural exhibitions, with a beautiful library, and a recreational sports center with a pool. There is also a cafe, gift shop, money machine, cinema, if they had beds, one could live there and never have to leave.

We arrived home a bit after eight, exhausted but happy. Our kids now have another Wisconsin family with whom they can connect on many levels as their new friends also lived and studied at an elementary school in San Sebastian during Spring 2010.

This & That-Here & There

The past few weekends we have stayed closer to home but been busy nonetheless. I've added a map so you can see where these places are.

Beach Surprise in Algorta
We rode our bikes down to the Ereaga beach just past the Old Port area of Algorta on Sunday May 1 to find some really amazing sand sculptures. The artist was still there putting on the finishing touches. I don't know his story but he welcomes donations from passersby and certainly deserves them considering the attention he paid to details in his work.


Culture in Arrigorriaga
On May 7 we took a train to Arrigorriaga, a small town just outside of Bilbao. They were having their XVI International Clown Festival. We actually didn't see any clowns but we did catch an impressive marionette act, the Grannies from Austria who were 4 men dressed in drag as old hags. They were pretty funny as they took the observers on a tour including scaling a building (losing underwear in the process), "stealing" a bike and a car, along with other shenanigans. Dean and I agree that much of what they did would probably not be acceptable as a public family show in the US. Following that was the acrobatic team Circo Claxon in the pictures. They were quite impressive.


Hanging Out with Friends in Mundaka & Gernika
On Sunday we headed to Mundaka to visit Marina and her family. Marina lived in Madison last year attending High School at La Follette. We took the metro to Bilbao and then hopped on a slow train in the direction of Mundaka. It was an older train that reminded me of RENFE circa 1980's. The scenery was quite beautiful along the way. We got off in San Cristobal where we met up with Marina and her family. From there we started our hike to Mundaka. Not far into our journey we found the Torre Madariaga and museum of biodiversity. We learned about biodiversity in the world, and the birds and wildlife native to the Basque region. One of the coolest rooms was the animal photo room pictured below.


At the top of the tower there were telescopes where we could get a close up of the surrounding terrain. I believe the purpose was for bird watching but they must have all been napping as we didn't see any birds in the hills.

We continued our journey along the water as we approached Mundaka. Mundaka is a beautiful small town on the ocean. While there are people that live there full time it is a hotspot for tourism in the summer months. They are known for their great surfing. Pictured below is a white building on the beach. That's where Marina lives with her parents and her sister. We stopped there for lunch. They had balconies off of each of the rooms. Too small for patio furniture but nice to stand on and get some fresh air. What a great flat and location. I can imagine how relaxing it would be to come home from work and have views like that. The beach is in a cove-like area so the water is relatively warm there. After lunch we took a bit of a tour around the town. On the edge of the ocean was a chapel. The girls found a horse that took a liking to them, or at least to the attention they were giving it.


From Mundaka we grabbed the train heading back in the direction of Bilbao but stopping off in Gernika. Gernika was bombed by the Germans in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War and pretty much decimated. Hitler's airstrike was in solidarity with Franco's work to overthrow the Basque government. One surviving item is the oak tree. In years prior to the war, the Basque Assembly would gather under the oak tree to discuss issues of the region. The oak tree died of old age but the trunk has been preserved. Around the corner is another oak tree, an offspring, as its replacement. The tree of Gernika symbolizes the freedom of the Basque people and serves as a reminder of the past. Oak trees in this area are considered sacred and may not be removed. Pablo Picasso painted numerous pictures telling the story of the atrocities of the war and the bombing in this city. At this point, most everything in Gernika is new as the town had to be completely rebuilt after the war.


On the Run in San Sebastian
On the 14th we headed to San Sebastian. Dean was primed and ready for the half marathon on the 15th. We had a slow moving day on the 14th and just wandered around San Sebastian a bit to get oriented as to where we needed to be for the race on the 15th. San Sebastian is known for its tapas/pinxtos which are small appetizers you get in the bars and cafes. We've made meals out of that more than once. That evening we caught a really nice kid-oriented theater production. The Mariantoia Oliver Company is a four person act that combines dance, acrobatics and clowning around.


The following morning Dean ran and did quite well finishing in 1:40:49. The run was along the ocean for a large part of it so the scenery was nice and he felt the race was very well organized.

Taking a break in Hondarribia
Following the race we took a trip along the coast to Hondarribia, a small quaint town on the eastern border of Spain. It was an important shipping area for exports but is increasingly host to lots of tourism and has a port full of private yachts. The kids wrapped up their weekend on the beach playing in the sand and water a bit until they were just too cold with the wind. I took a stroll through town to get a flavor for life on the border of France.