Over the festive break we decided to take an extended trip to Spain to see Izaskun’s parents and family, especially as usually we tend to stay for the weekend and never to get see much of the country. So, we departed London on the 18th December 2015 and didn’t return until the 5th January 2016, ensuring that we stayed for Christmas and New Years on the Iberian peninsula.

The first few days we stayed in Madrid which was good for us to quickly sort out some admin and provide some last minute Christmas shopping. It was an opportunity for Izaskun to perform her civil duties to the state by “Volunteering” be a president (a representative) for the elections, she worked pretty hard having to start working at 8am and counting the votes up until past midnight. A long day for €62. Overall an interesting experience to hear about other people’s political views and see first hand who voted for who. That evening the election results were announced with much mixed feelings.

The next few days we took the 3 and a bit hours drive to Extremadura, a Comunidad West of Madrid near the border with Portugal. Izaskun’s parents own a house in the countryside, in Valdecaballeros, a favourite retreat for the family from the city of Madrid.

It’s mostly farm land with a cute small town nearby. In terms of shops or other events there isn’t much to do with the nearest big town being about an hour drive. Our time in the country was relaxing with daily walks around the green and brown fields, along with a visit to all the local farm animals (mostly: pigs, sheep and cows). We managed to visit a local farm for lunch which we gorged on a local dish called Migas (essentially dried bread crumbs mixed with other things such as lomo, chorizo, fish, etc…). The overall lifestyle is very different to what we are used to in the big city of London so very interesting to see another perspective.

Another interesting day trip was a visit to Guadalupe which is a small village enough dominated by the Monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe which was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1993, it was built 13th century and apparently hosted a holy statue of the virgin Mary that was hidden from the Moors in the 7th century. Once the Moors were expelled it became a chapel and then subsequently grew from there over the ages until it was established as a monastery.

After learning about some history and visiting the country it was time to return to Madrid for a short stop over before our onward trip north. While in Madrid we managed to visit one of Izaskun’s friends, Rosa, who unfortunately has her mom in the hospital recovering from an operation. We visited Rosa at the hospital for a coffee and a general chat.

 

 

After this we went to the Archaeological Museum, that closes relatively late in comparison to other places. We arrived at 7pm and managed a full hour before they closed, best part is that the entrance was free (note: it is free after 2pm Saturdays and all day on Sundays). We roamed around learning much about the history of Spain from its tribal roots, Celtic defendants, Roman and Moorish conquests and onwards to the it’s catholic and medieval history but unfortunately that is as far as we managed to get to.

Some highlights that we would recommend to see in the museum (if you ever decide to go) are:

• Lady of Eche (shown above)
• Bull of Osuna
• Various moorish artworks from Alhambra (e.g. Vases, golden trinckets, etc..)
• Mixed Catholic & Islamic architecture style, called Mudejar
• Various Spanish Roman leaders (well their stories and their statues)

The next day we got back in the car for another 4/5 hour drive but this time north, we drive across the country until we finally reached the Basque country (País Vasco), for those of you who aren’t aware, the Basque Country consider themselves to be different from the rest of Spain and when you see the landscape you can see why, it’s very hilly and green when compared to the rest of the country.

It also has a beautiful coast with amazing beaches, which of course are a bit cooler than the south. It also has more of a collection of interconnecting villages or towns rather than bigger towns or cities that you might find elsewhere.

We first visited a small town named Mutriku where we sat and ate, and met some of the in-laws followed by a stroll and a short tour of the town. It currently has the world’s first multi-turbine breakwater wave power station. It also has an interesting history, in particular it is the birth place for a famous Spanish sailor, cartographer and mayor of the town, Churruca who helped build ships, produce maps and fought in the battle of Trafalgar against the English.

He died in the battle but was honoured by the English for his valiant courage in the battle, apparently his ship is now in Gibraltar and still demands respect when visiting, such as taking off your hat when entering.

 

We were also shown how to play the traditional sport of Pelota (sort of handball with a hard ball that really hurts your hand) and Jai Alai or Cesta Punta (a game which you use a net to catch and throw a hard ball). Overall good fun, we also managed to visit the family house called Caserio Torre for dinner.

We stayed in a cute seaside town named Deba,  in a hotel which is owned by one of Izaskun’s relatives. We explored the coast further down to a town called Zarautz which had a lovely boulevard and city centre.

We walked along the coast for about 3.5kms until the next town (Getaria) which had a small cute town centre, boasting a nice church and a small port with local fishermen.  It is apparantly one of the oldest towns in the Basque country.

It was then time to eat and be merry. We went back to the family house for a big lunch with the In-laws (14 people in total) and proceeded to eat the entire day until we escaped with a short tour (part 2) of Mutriku where we explored the harbour that we didn’t manage before.

Our last day, Izaskun and I went with one of Izaskun’s ex-work colleagues (Arkaitz) who lived fairly nearby for a day trip to the major City of the area.

To get to Bilbao, we took the train from Deba to Durango (where Arkaitz lives) who then was kind enough to drive us to Bilbao. We roamed around the elegant and pretty city for the day taking in the sights, of course ensuring a visit to the famous Guggenheim Museum and eating some delicious local pinxos in the Cafe Iruna.

Overall Bilbao is a classical and interesting city with the new centre sprouting around the museum but on the other side of the winding river is the older town with its classical facades. Overall the city was clean and well organised, so a very nice town, probably one of the best I’ve seen in a while.

Upon our return we said our farewells to the family in the family home as we wouldn’t see them the best day, with sadness we needed to leave early in the morning to make it back to Madrid in good time.

So the next morning we drove back to Madrid taking the well preserved highway all the way. The road was pretty good and in a relatively short drive of about 5 hours, including a stop over near Burgos, in the Area de Tudanca, we arrived back in Madrid.

The next few days flew past, we spent new years in Madrid with not much partying or hangovers. We watched the annual traditional 10km race across Madrid, “La San Silvestre” where we tried to find Luis, Gema’s husband without much luck. We even managed to complete our museum visit from before and go bouldering. Before we knew it our time was up and it was sad to say our goodbyes to the family… next stop London and back to work.