A European appreciation of vacation combined with the leftovers of a once strictly Catholic society means that we civil servants get time off whenever a religious holiday rolls around. This week is Semana Blanca- Carnaval and the beginning of Lent- and so my high schools are closed all week! It would have been the perfect week to take off travelling, but unfortuantely the private sector isn't so generous with its vacation time, and at the language school where I work evenings it's business as usual.
Enter day trips. Northern Spain has a compact concentration of places I have yet to see, and the public transportation that will get you there and back in the same day. So I've been taking advantage of my week off and the unseasonably sunny weather we've been having to get out of Bilbao. (In Bilbao, when you see the sun, you'd better run outside and take advantage of it, because you never know when you'll see it again. )
Monday's destination was Santander with Kristine and an American friend of hers visiting from Ohio. Santander: coastal port city; encircled by beaches; summer tourist magnet but wonderfully quiet off-season. We took advantage of their free-use bike network and went from beach to beach and park to park on wheels, dodging old couples strolling on the seaside promenades. The Basque cities I've visited have these dense medieval centres of winding, narrow stone alleys. Santander's history doesn't go back quite as far. The streets are broad, airy, elegant.
Wednesday was a visit to Durango, 30 kms inland from Bilbao. My friend Julen's from there, and he showed me around the city, which has one of those dense medieval centres I just mentioned. Historically speaking, Durango was isolated for a long time, nestled between two chains of mountains, a river, and protected against invaders by a stone fort and two massive stone churches. When we left the city to go for a hike in Parque Natural Urkiola, history was put into perpsective. From the top of the peak we climbed, with mountains on every side, you could see how any army wanting to take Durango would have had quite the climb ahead of them.
1 comment:
A Canadian in Cantabria! Your post brings back memories. I was in Santander in October and I saw those bikes all over town. Was staying in Laredo, and my better half's still there. I don't suppose you miss Tim Horton's over there (but then they don't really do long coffee, do they?). Happy travels! (PS, I've been to Uruguay, like you, but that was a loooong time ago.)
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