Basque Country

This past weekend we explored the Basque country of Spain visiting 5 cities in 3 days. The country is broken up into regions that are very different in weather, landscape, culture and language. Catalan and Basque are different dialects of Spanish, Catalan is spoken in Barcelona and Basque is spoken in several areas in northern Spain that we visited this week. Both are hard to read and understand but luckily for us everyone speaks Spanish as well. It is interesting to see all sides of the country.

                                             The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

This river runs through Bilbao, you can see rowing teams practice all morning
There isn't much to do in Bilbao but the architecture is very cool
San Sebastian was one of my favorite places, its a popular vacation spot in Europe. It was beautiful, and the beach was warm. It was so good to be back in the salt air and just sit on the beach watching surfers out in the water.



The water was freezing, we tried to put our feet in and we didn't last very long

There is a legend in Spain about St. James seeing the Virgin Mary on a pillar. Some catholics make a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela where St. James is buried, its related to the pilgrimage to Mecca for Islam. Most walk, some bike but it takes days to get there. This is one of the stops on the pilgrim trail, here you can receive a stamp as proof of your voyage. We saw a few pilgrims walking with huge backpacks and walking sticks while we were here. 
These fields were beautiful, even though it took us an hour out of our way up a very windy road to get here


We stayed in Pamplona for one night. This is where they have the running of the bulls every year in July. The festival is huge for the city, everything stays open 24 hours a day, there are parties and thousands of people come from all over the world to witness or participate in the running of the bulls.
One of the streets on the course where the bulls run
Burgos was a small town on our way to Pamplona. Here we stopped at a cathedral and saw a statue of El Cid. Cid is a famous conquistador in Spanish history who conquered a lot of Muslim controlled areas.

  El Cid

                                             Cathedral at Burgos

Im down to my last 3 weeks in Spain, I still have a few more journeys to go on but I have experienced so much of the country. Its amazing how every area is so different. I never thought I would be seeing this much of Spain, it makes the hours and hours on a bus very worth it.