Hello from Gernika - July 21

It has been a while since I have accessed a computer so this is a catch up post.

The sun has been out for 3.days  This is pretty special because when I left Irun the rain started and persisted for 10 days.  The way is difficult with the mud and rain.  The highest climb from Irun to San Sebastian was about 525 m but it was straight up and straight down.  Not nice on bad knees.  Since it was raining in San Sebastian we just walked through.  The city is beautiful, very much a tourist stop and the beach is to die for.  Too bad I couldn't enjoy the water.

I am walking with a woman from Ireland.  She has a guide book which is great.  The one I bought from the St. James group in London England was useless.  It had no maps and the layout was very confusing.  I threw it away!

Our next stop was Zarautz just 23K from San Sebastian.  The climb was slow but steady this time and only 375 m.  We saw the sun break through the clouds in Zararutz as we waited for the Albergue to open at 5.  So off we went to the beach for a swim.  It was great.

Deba, the next stop was a real treat.  Again a beach town but for some reason I never got to the sand.  Can't remember why.  This is an interesting town full of steep streets with the centre of the city at ground level.  The streets are so steep that they actually have elevators bult into the rock.  The day was up and down big time even through the elevation reached just over 200m.  There were five climbs and then the decent into Deba.

The next day ended in Markina after another series of ups and downs.  As high as 500m this time.

 

Today is Gernika.  What a story this town has.  It was destroyed, at least 2/3s of it was, by Hitlar and Franco in 1937.  Yes before the WWII was really booming.  The two miserable men made an agreement that the Germans could use this city as target practice for the German war ships.  (The U.S. did the same thing with one of the Hawiian islands called Molokai except no people were killed as far as I know)  Franco did not alert the people of Gernika about the raid and 2700 people and two-thirds of the city were distroyed.  Picasso has a famous painting of the horror that I will try to attach to this post.

Gernika is now a lovely city but all of the historic buildings from before the raid are gone of course.  My pain of the walk obviously left my body when I read this story on the city hall building.

The image says it all.  You can google the image and or the histry of the bombing.  More later on my next computer stop.