The Basque Country – AKA the foodie tour

 The Basque Country

The Basque Country is situated in the far northeastern corner of Spain at the intersection of France, Spain, and the Atlantic Ocean. With a culture all their own, we are forced to think of the many years of wars surrounding, but not always affecting the region. The Basque Mountains are a transitional range, that exists between the two larger ranges of the Pyrenees to the east and the Cantabrian range to the west. These natural ‘fort-like’ barriers, provided by the mountains, have isolated the area for eons. Until modern times, these barriers protected the region from being invaded and conquered for millenniums. With Spain neutral during the World Wars, only the Napoleon siege of Spain managed to push through the Pyrenees into Spain and conquered the Basque region. But only for a few years.   

No one knows the specific origin of the Basque language since it is unlike any other modern language. One would expect it to be a blend of the French to the north and the Spanish to the South. But the Basque people have managed to keep their own unique language and even today, Basque is still the primary language of the locals. Also, because of this isolation, we found fewer English speaking people. In fact, on one sign on a wall we saw the sign printed in four different languages and English was not among them.

Tectonic Origins of the Terrain

Abby's dad Zeke, a geologist, would love it here. At the meeting point of two tectonic plates, the terrain of Spain is marked by rugged and rough mountains, that show their origins in the stratified rock uplifts seen everywhere. It is seen in the mountains and particularly, where the mountains meet the sea.

This fascinated us so much that we researched it and found something quite astounding. There is only one city in the world that is situated over two continental plates and exists over the African plate and European plate at the same time. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to visit Almeria Spain on the Mediterranean coast on this trip. But what a trip it would be to be in Europe and Africa at the same time.

Back to the Basque Country. The history of Spain is written in the mountainous areas created by the continental collisions. Wars were mostly avoided by impassable mountains. Development was stymied by the same. And the Basque language lives on. Not French, not Spanish, but Basque. But in the last few hundred years, the area has became a vacationing spot for royalty and the wealthy from France and Spain and is now a tourist destination. We have to admit we were drawn by the food and the beauty of the area.

Pintxos and Tapas

Legend has it that in rural taverns, customers would use bread to protect their drinks from flies and bartenders began adding ingredients to enhance the flavor resulting in the earliest form of pintxos. The word pintxo itself may come from the Spanish verb “pinchar” referring to the toothpick or skewer that holds the ingredients together. As we discovered, the letters ‘tx’ are common in Basque and have a sound like “ch” in American English. Quite possible this is how the Basque would spell the phonetic equivalent. What we hear is “peen-chō.”   What we taste is out of this world.

The three cities we visited in Basque Country are San Sebastian, Getaria and Bilbao. Each is unique, but they share their love of pintxos. In fact, there are more Michelin Stars awarded per capital in San Sebastian than anywhere else in the world. In  Getaria, with a population of 2,800, about the size of Weimar Texas, we saw a couple of decals on the doors of restaurants. This is not your average stuff.

Eating pintxos is a trip in itself. Imagine, you’re in a crowded bar with a few hundred of your closest friends. You finally wedge your way through the crowd and up to the bar. And there, under a glass cover or perhaps on the countertop are dishes of pintxos. They are slightly larger than a cocktail appetizer. They are meant to be eaten in one or two bites. Maybe it is anchovies and goat cheese on a piece of bread. Or perhaps tuna, caviar, or sliced Spanish ham, but always on bread. You point to it, the bartender puts it on a dish, and you enjoy the delicacy with a glass of Rioja wine. Somehow these magical bartenders are doing this so fast, and they still manage to keep up the individual tabs for everyone at the bar and tables. Truly a work of art and the pintxos are amazing. 

We wanted to explore the difference between pintxos and tapas. Literally, tapas means ‘small plate’ and pintxos means ‘held onto a piece of bread with a toothpick.’ As you move from bar to bar in the restaurants, it is like the best cocktail party where the appetizers never stop!

It’s hard to find favorites with each new pintxos being as good or better than the last. But here’s a collection of some of the great ones.

   

 

 

 

 San Sebastian 

San Sebastian has been the destination of the rich and royal for a long time. The French, the Spaniards, they all came and enjoyed the food and the cool from the Atlantic Ocean or more precisely Biscay Sea.  We encountered rain on the one day we were there.  At times it poured but it did not deter us from having fun and enjoying this lovely place.  We jumped on a "Hop on Hop off " bus and saw way more of San Sebastian then we could have walking.  We sat on the covered upper deck which partially protected us but not from the blowing rain.

 

 

 

These rocks are huge chunks of beautiful granite used for a seawall.

Getaria 

A small town of 2,800 people that juts out on a peninsula into the sea. The food. The charm, the relaxation. Right on the Camino de Santiago where we saw individuals and small groups making the pilgrimage. Everyone makes the walk for reasons known only to them. Some do it for religious reasons, others for spiritual reasons, some for comradery with friends or family. We walked about a mile to harness the energy that comes from it for ourselves. Every bit of energy given was returned. Maybe someday there is more to this story… Susanne felt the charm of Getaria was absolutely magical.

 

The Camino

We also did a walk from Getaria to Zaruatz, another beachfront community about 6 kilometers away. Walking on a paved sidewalk beside the main highway and dropping off into the ocean on our left was an experience. The picture above with the algae on the stratified rocks is actually a view from the suspended sidewalk.

 While we were doing these walks, a major power outage hit the Spanish peninsula, and power was out for as much as 11 hours in parts of Spain and Portugal. In Getaria, the outage lasted about an hour and that was in the middle of our four-mile walk and two-hour lunch so we missed it all. The first we heard was when our daughter in Denver asked us about it and we didn’t know what she was talking about. We had to ask around to find out the impact in Getaria and our hostess at breakfast told us the next day that it was only about an hour. I don’t know if they know the cause of this outage yet. Some are saying it was atmospheric. We think that the conditions may have been a result of atmospheric energy from our walk on the Camino and our walk to Zaruatz. But we’re not taking any responsibility for the outage.  

Bilboa

Once a large industrial city, it is now home to one of the most amazing museums in the world. Probably known more for its architecture than its art, it was a moving mixture of both. The building was designed by the architect Frank Gehry to both fit the collection and to be a host for visiting exhibits passing through. With only one afternoon there, we were unable to see as much as we would have liked, but the Guggenheim Museum is a must if you’re ever in the area.      

This picture is an order of magnitude of the size of the artwork in the Guggenheim. It is made of the old aluminum bottle caps that when cut and flattened are maybe an inch in length and a half inch in width. They are all tied together with wire. There are two people right in front of the piece, one standing and one bending over. This is huge and fascinating from a distance or close. 

This was an 360 degree audio visual with soothing music that filled the room. Sitting on the sofa like benches you were beamed into another world. Very moving.