Feb. 22 by Eric

Gernika was bombed to smithereens in 1937 during the Spanish civil war. Lots of towns have been bombed to bits but Gernika was special for two reasons. First, the civilians were deliberately targeted. The industrial part of town was ignored. Second, the attack was conducted by the Germans and the Italians, who were flying for Franco. It was basically a favor Hitler did for Franco. And in doing it, Hitler's Luftwaffe got in some good target practice, to prepare themselves for WWII.

At the time, Germany denied having anything to do with Gernika. Spain pretended to be neutral during WWII. But after the war, at Nuremburg, the Germans admitted they had done the bombing. We're not sure if the Italians admitted any connection. According to the museum in Gernika, the townspeople saw Italian aircraft among the Luftwaffe during the bombing.

Also at Gernika is the Basque Assembly House. Our guide book, written in French, said something about an old tree that we didn't understand. When we got to the assembly house, we found a small round pavilion with columns, sort of like Monticello except just about 12 feet in diameter. Inside was a sorry old rotten log.

It turns out the Basques consider the tree a very important symbol. For as long as anyone knows, people in the Basque country have met under a big tree to discuss and debate policy. Eventually they wrote a whole book of laws.

The rotting log in the pavilion was the previous tree. The current tree was planted in 1860. Nearby is a sapling awaiting its turn. Won't be long by the look of the current tree.

The Basque lawmakers don't actual meet under the tree anymore. The tree stands beside a rather stately looking parliament building. Also, the Basques don't govern themselves anymore. They were forced to abolish their book of laws sometime in the last century, and to adopt Spain's instead. These days the Basques get to write their own laws about public works and other policies, but they are not anything close to being the independent nation they would like to be.

When we asked the guide about this, he said the Basques don't have anything against Spain, they just want to have better relations with the rest of Europe. As in, they want to be a member of the European Union, on equal footing with other countries. They were hoping to become a city state, like Luxembourg. The guide said the Basque see city states as the way of the future.

The next day it was still raining. Nonetheless, we had an excellent ride for the first couple hours. We climbed some big hills and had some glorious, if damp, descents. Quite of few other cyclists passed us, sometimes in racing herds.

I noticed that most of the other cyclist on the road in Spain ride very nice road bikes. And plenty of them ride -- even in bad weather. I have a lot of admiration for them. If I lived in Gernika, no way would I have ridden on a cold wet day like that.

We see a lot of mountain bikes locked to poles in cities, but on the highways in bad weather, it's almost 100% road bikers.

The last bit to Bilbao was very difficult. We climbed this endless hill that turned out to be only 300 meters high. We saw a sign that said 4.5km to Bilbao. Normally 4.5km is practically nothing but that day it seemed to take forever. It was raining and the traffic was really heavy.

Then we didn't even get to enjoy the descent. Just over the crest we found ourselves in a traffic jam. We skirted it on the right as much as possible but it was work to get down the hill. At the bottom we were lost in the city. We asked directions and got a pretty good answer, "Go that way then ask again." This worked tolerably well.

All the recommended hotels were full. Who knows why they would be full on a weekday in February but they were. Another place had room for us but wouldn't take the bikes.

We finally ended up in a small room on the fifth floor of a building. The room was pretty nice but entirely without heat or ventilation except the windows. It was too cold and rainy to open the windows so our stuff stayed wet during our whole stay. The mirror stayed fogged for several hours after we showered. At least the water was hot. I never imagined I would run across a room with no heat whatsoever in Spain.

We pretty much avoided our room during the day. When we weren't site-seeing, we went to cafes and stayed for hours, studying Spanish and reading.

I liked Bilbao and Joan didn't.

Bilbao has a gorgeous new pedestrian bridge across the river. It's a masterpiece. The opposing curves and lines of the bridge gave me a strange feeling walking across it, sort of like walking into a painting. It's one of my favorite bridges ever.

The approach to the bridge is another thing. We had to walk across a temporary scaffolding right beside an abandoned, half-collapsed old warehouse that looked like it was bombed out during the Spanish Civil War and never razed or repaired.

This was typical Bilbao -- great new places like the Guggenheim museum surrounded by ugly old industrial wasteland. But there was so much construction I expect it will be a great city in a few years.

We ended up spending three days there. We got out to the Guggenheim, which is really an amazing building. AT 400 pesetas a person to get in, it was also cheap. We also found a great Net cafe near the sports arena. The cafe was a real cafe that only allowed Net use during non-eating hours. The decorations inside were wild: horror figures, skeletons, and a neon-haloed Madonna who was smiling blissfully down upon a computer mouse, which she held in her hand.

next: Sun!! Bilbao and Trespadernes

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