Let’s start off with Pais Vasco and the Basque language and it’s exorbitant use of: z, k, x. Cool, if we’re looking at monosyllabic words, but whenyou name a place Gaztelugatxe (which was oddly in word prediction in my phone...) I’m not even going to try and pronounce it. Gaztelugatxe is where I went today. It’s the location for Dragonstone in Game of Thrones (thank CGI for the castle). It was absolutely beautiful, but every time I hike to a church/monastery on a hill it makes me wonder if they really wanted parishioners.... why isit such a hike?!? So. Many. Stairs. You had to hike down to get to the base, then hike up to the church...
Next stop, lighthouse where you could see Gaztelugatxe.
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Next stop was on to Gernika. I know a little of the context for Picasso’s Guernica and had the chance to see it with my dad a few years back in Madrid, but I didn’t really know all of the details. I knew when, why and who bombed the city. What I didn’t know was that the the Biscayan Assembly (the seat of government) and the Gernika tree outside (where people had been meeting since the 1500’s ) survived the bombing. The tree died in the 1980’s, but scientist had saved acorns from the tree and had a new one ready to go. Standing in Gernika near the tree and imaging theee quarters of the buildings destroyed, with the remaining damaged was a little overwhelming. However, definitely going to try and see the painting at the end of the summer when I’m in Madrid.
Remains of the tree that survived the bombing.
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