The forest was alive with the sounds of birds as I climbed the hill outside the monastery in the early morning mist. I had the trail to myself for the first couple of hours, walking through some of the nicest landscapes I’ve ever had the privilege to experience – rolling hills, forest, and fields of so many shades of green, Crayola wouldn’t have enough words to describe them all. Houses with orange clay tiles dotted the landscape, and cows, horses, and their newborns clung to hillsides. It was beautiful hiking.
I took a wrong turn in the city of Gernika and ended up floundering around side streets for 15 minutes. When I finally got my bearings, I could see Birte way ahead of me. I ran to catch up, after which we attended to our daily ritual of finding a cafe with excellent coffee and tasty pastries. Birte has a degree in nutritional science, so if she says it’s okay to eat pastry every day because of the distances we are walking, I take that as gospel.
At the top of a hill outside Gernika, we were delightfully surprised to find an enterprising young woman selling food, beer, and coffee from her doorstep. We were drawn in by the sign that read Santiago 710 kms. We were making progress.
I ordered a coffee, which was terrible, but I didn’t care. I was happy to sit and immerse myself in the sights and sounds of the proprietor’s homestead. Birte chatted in Spanish with the woman’s grandmother, who is 87 years old, while I cuddled with the family dog that was walking with a bad limp after a car had run over her front leg. Poor girl.
The city of Gernika is known to us primarily because of Franco and Picasso. Franco was under pressure because of the stalemate of the Spanish Civil War, so he focused his attention on Basque country, using the German Air resources at his disposal to attack Gernika. In 1937, on market day, saturation bombing was introduced by the German Condor Legion. The town was pummeled by incendiary bombs, and then as the civilians fled on foot, they were strafed by a second round of plane attacks. Picasso was so angered by this attack that he painted ‘Gernika’ as a warning of the savagery of the fascist militaries.