Month: April 2018

Munitibar to Gernika, Tuesday, April 17

Post by Wynette: We walked 8.75 miles today. It seemed further. The two places where we thought we would be able to stop for food and a break were closed. We were pretty beat when we got to Gernika. Luckily a little over halfway we passed a little chapel with a bench to rest and ate some pecans and dried apricots. And, since we got an early start we arrived in Gernika by 2 pm in time for a lovely lunch. (Ensalada mixta, red beans, fresh fish, and calf liver. The liver was a translation accident, we didn’t eat much of it but by then we were already full.) After that we rested, then looked around Gernika a little and are now at the self-service laundry across from our pension. Charlie helped me get the laundry started and now he is out exploring. He is so energetic!

Gernika/Guernica

Post by Wynette: Tonight we are in Gernika, which is spelled Guernica in Spanish. This town has a tragic history. From Wikipedia: “On April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, the town was razed to the ground by German aircraft … sent by Hitler to support Franco’s troops. For almost four hours bombs rained down on Guernica in an “experiment” for the blitzkrieg tactics and bombing of civilians seen in later wars.” We have heard that Franco’s men guarded the exits to the town so that no one could escape during the bombing. Over 1650 civilians were killed.

Of course, this is the subject of Picasso’s famous Guernica painting. The original is in Madrid. The above is a copy in tile here in Gernika.

Got off early

Post by Wynette: We are mostly over jet lag and were able to get a good night’s sleep and be on the trail early (for us), around 7:30. Here is Charlie in front of the casa rural where we slept last night.

Fruit Salad for Dinner

Post by Wynette: We stopped at a Casa Rural a kilometer short of the tiny town of Munitibar which had no other place to stay. Charlie walked into town and bought fruit. We made fruit salad with that and pecans we brought that my mom picked up for me in Carlsbad. We enjoyed our dinner. Food here is great but we have to make a real effort to get enough fruit and vegetables. We had a great restaurant lunch earlier today. I’m getting hooked on ensalada mixta. It usually consists of lettuce, good tomatoes, tuna, white asparagus, boiled eggs, corn, sometimes potatoes. These salads are refreshing. The lettuce is always so fresh.

Basque, the language

You may have heard that the Basque language is not related to any other language and may be a stone age language that still exists. There are no cognates at all and everything looks strange. I was buying milk today and could not sort out nonfat, low-fat, and full fat. And we are staying near Minitibar. What’s with that? It doesn’t even have any of their ubiquitous Xs or Zs. We just call it mini bar.

Itziar to Munitibar, Monday, April 16

Post by Wynette: We walked 9.6 miles today. (Charlie walked an additional 1.2 miles to buy us some grocery store food for our dinner.)

Above, the yellow arrows took us through the grounds of a monastery with a beautiful church (below). We’ve seen far fewer churches on this path. So far, this Way doesn’t seem to have a pronounced spiritual side to it. Nothing like that of the Camino Frances. We continue to try to stay present and accept what comes. That is always a good (and hard) practice.

Early this morning we took the bus and skipped 17 miles of walking. There was a long stretch with no services which we weren’t up for. (We knew this was coming and had planned for it.) The skip took 3 buses but all went smoothly. We met some helpful Basque men at the bus stops. They are very proud of their culture. One, after telling us of his admiration for Michael Jordan and his disdain for Trump, told us that there is a large Basque community in Chicago.