Zenarruzako-Gernika

We attended Lauds in the monastery and then started through forests and up and down hills. Interestingly, there was a long stretch with a walkway and stairs, where we met a couple and a dog struggling with a pushchair loaded with camping gear. Apparently few places accept dogs overnight. After a tasty tortilla and coffee at a bar with several other pilgrims, we continued past locked churches and old farms over the rolling countryside. At a rest stop by a river, we talked to a Romanian girl as several other nationalities of pilgrim walked past. There followed more rolling countryside and locked churches, made more interesting by medieval roads and bridges, before a final long descent to Gernika. After a quick look around, we had a delicious pizza and then took a train to Bilbao, where we had booked an Ibis budget hotel room for a few nights.

(Gernika/Guernica was the scene of the bombing in 1937 by the Nazis at the request of Franco to help overthrow the Basque Government. The painting by Picasso is considered one of the most moving and powerful anti-war painting in history.)