2018 Camino del Norte

Speaking of graffiti, we saw a lot of crumbling industry with graffiti on it along the canal. On our first Camino in 2013 this sort of thing was everywhere. Today the country is clearly doing much better. Far less graffiti and derelict buildings. Well into recovery. Another sign is lots of kids. People are feeling better about the future.

I’ve always liked the cider in England. The Spanish/Basque cider is not as sweet but I have acquired a taste for it. It is always served in a tumbler not a wine glass and always just an inch or two, as much as you will drink in a few minutes. They pour it into the glass from as high as possible.

Walking along the canal from Bilbao to Portugalete (I love that name) the autopista passed overhead on a high bridge, no problem getting ships under that. First of all, is concrete amazing or what? Second, how did they get that graffiti so high?

Michael Pollen uses this phrase to describe the bucolic conditions that places like Whole Foods want you to think their food is grown in. In the US the reality is far different.

On the Camino del Norte this is the reality. The little farms are exactly what you want to think your meat and eggs are grown in. We passed a scene one morning where the sheep were still sleeping lying on the grass. The chicken were passing between them pecking at the ground. The chicken are usually in big yards with lots of grass and not crowded at all. The sheep, cows, horses, and even llamas (or maybe alpacas) are in huge, beautifully green pastures with tons of space.

Everyone is proud of their culture and Basques are no exception. Two people we talked to about where we were from mentioned that there are a lot of Basque people in Idaho. And another talked about a large Basque community in a town whose name escaped him but he remembered that Michael Jordan played basketball there (reader puzzle).

Every town seems to have a Basque history museum, we have yet to visit one, and the tourist information people always mention it prominently. In Gernika the tourist information woman said that the Old Basque Meeting House was the most important thing to see in the city. Something about an old oak and the keeper of the laws and some oath of the laws. Not IMHO the top site in Gernika.

Bill Walker (“Skywalker”, he’s tall) has written books about the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, (both of which he through-walked), and the Camino. He noted that the people who laid out the Appalachian Trail never went around a mountain, they always took the trail right to the top and back down.

The Camino del Norte is in active development. Originally it had a lot of road walking. They are redesigning it to avoid roads as much as possible. In principle this is a good thing but the result is often that a road walk of three miles is replaced by a walk of seven miles through the mountains with a vertical rise of 300 meters. This is not an exaggeration, we have walked those. The walks are beautiful but all up and down. You never encounter switchbacks. Just straight up then straight down.

And the mud. Yes the mud. Did we mention that it rains a lot here? It seems that rain creates muddy sections on trails that are continually going up and down. Who knew?

We are of two minds about this. The forest trails are undeniably beautiful but we recently avoided one and took the road and were happy we did. Then, close to town (Gernika) , we took the new Camino path avoiding one mile of lightly traveled road (say a car every 4-5 minutes) and took the path and found mud and more mud. And it was slow, and steep … and muddy.

All the guidebooks note that the Frank Gehry architecture of the Guggenheim in Bilbao is more impressive than the art in the museum. We saw it yesterday and it is very impressive. There are several large pieces outside which are impressive, including a “fog sculpture” which is just fog vents that make patterned fog in the pool by the museum. There is also a “flame” sculpture of which we just saw five vents (presumably natural gas jets) in the water but we didn’t see it going. And the popular puppy made of flowers.

This made me think what a great investment the Guggenheim was for Bilbao. I don’t know how much it cost but probably less than a single painting by a master in the current art market. We saw five big tour buses parked there on a Wednesday morning in the off-season. The museum must draw huge numbers of people to Bilbao. So, my takeaway is spend money on the architecture not the art.

We walked from Bilbao to Portugalete today along the canal (really a river). At the end we crossed the canal on this unique suspension “ferry”. It takes cars and people over the canal every few minutes and leaves room for ships to pass. Quite amazing.

Below is view from the other side (from our hotel room window).

The main shopping street (pedestrian only) in Gernika is Pablo Picasso Way. Other things are named for him. He is a local hero. The 20th century (and all the other centuries) saw many horrific events, massacres, etc. and almost all of them are forgotten in the mists of history. But people will remember the bombing of Gernika for a long time because of Picasso’s great painting. It is terrible to have these things happen to your town and even worse if it is forgotten or denied. I was reminded of the Armenian genocide which Turkey wants people to forget. It had no great artist or commemorate it. It also reminds me Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five about the Dresden bombings but either literature is not the right medium or Vonnegut is not great enough to keep Dresden in the public mind as much as Gernika.

We have been staying at hotels and have noticed a difference from even a few years ago. Every hotel room now has outlets on each side of the bed. They know everyone has a phone to charge.

It is a commonplace to observe that everyone is on their phone all the time but it seems like we notice it more when we are traveling. On the street, at the bar, in the restaurant, everywhere, people are looking at their phones.

This means that no one can tell we are tourists. We are looking at our maps trying to figure out where we are going. The locals are checking Facebook or messages or whatever.

Also it seems that the internationalization of clothing companies means locals and tourists don’t look as different as they used to. Of course, the pilgrims look different with their quick-dry clothes and backpacks.