Basque Country

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Written November 5-9, 2025; Visited October 14 – 21, 2025

I knew little about the Basques before we decided to visit Basque Land in north eastern Spain. I knew there was a big community in northern Nevada, they had a distinct language and food, but beyond that, zilch. A bit of background; The Basque people have been around with their unique and distinct language (not related to the various European languages) since at least the Iron Age, 1st Century BC. There is thought their language links back to Paleolithic times! They are also quite genetically isolated but were great sea explorers and known to be fierce warriors and protectors of their land. Today, although a part of Spain, (since Franco’s demise they have become an autonomous region. With that, lets do a little exploring. We’ve already visited some mountain areas and eaten food inspired from Basque country. Lets visit the cities of which Bilbao and San Sebastian are the most well known.

Bilbao

Bilbao (Bilbo in Euskara, the Basque language) is primarily known for the Guggenheim Museum there.

Classic Guggenheim taken from my hotel window. Could not have asked for a more convenient location.

What a building and setting along the Nervion River. What an enjoyable city of wander, walk along the river and eat. Lots of good food!

One can walk for miles along either side of the river through vibrant and interesting neighborhoods. The changing colors of the trees were an added treat.

The Guggenheim Bilbao

We spent a day exploring the museum and I have to say it was surprising and a bit odd. I’m not sure what I expected, perhaps something regional or at least European from an artistic perspective, but all the artists were American and much of the work had a very current American sense. I guess since this museum is just one of several showing works from the Guggenheim collection and they are American, much of it might be of that ilk. The entire museum was primarily had 5 artists in massive spaces and thus, almost all the work was of a large scale. The building itself was amazing, but I have to say, I enjoyed the building more from the outside than inside.

Richard Serra

My favorite by far was Richard Serra. His massive metal sculptures which you were meant to walk though and be a part of were quite fun. We also spent quite a bit of time with a film of how he works and build his pieces.

There were about 6 pieces. They were installed as such so you could almost walk from one into the next. It is hard to tell, but the angles of the steel could be quite disorienting as you walked through the pieces. A very cool installation

Barbara Kruger

Another American artist Barbara Kruger had quite a big exhibition of video, collage and spoken word. There were some interesting, though provoking pieces. I most enjoyed here wall size collages made up of images from magazines and print and in some case added text.

Having come out the computer technology world, I loved this.
What can I say. Such a poignant thought but with my thinking.
She was just so spot on for me in some of her pieces of her collages.

And of course, one cannot forget Puppy, (pronounced Poopy locally in Spanish) by Jeff Koons. What is not to like. He had recently been given a replanting of missing tufts.

Puppy was quite popular as you can imagine. it was hard to get his pic without LOTS of people around.

The Food

As I had mentioned and you know if you have read recent posts, food was a theme of this trip. We hired a private guide to introduce us to the food of Basque Country. This was six hour walking tour, visiting the market and eating and drinking our way around old town Bilbao.

There are many markets around Bilbao it turns out. The markets in Spain are very nice and the products oh so good!
Our first food stop was at the olive bar at El Mercado de La Ribera, inaugurated in 1929. We stopped for a Gilda Pinxto (pronounced pincho), a little bite of food. Gilda, originated in San Sebastian, but is very popular all over Basque Country. Created in the 1940’s as an homage to Rita Hayworth and her character Gilda in the movie of the same name. A toothpick with a manzanilla olive, anchovy and guindilla pepper, it is mean to be eaten in one bite. Hot and spicy, like Gilda.
The Tortilla Española is different than we speak of a tortilla in the US. It is essentially an omelette of eggs, potatoes and onion made into a skillet size “pie” and sold by the slice. It may be eaten at breakfast, lunch or dinner typically at room temperature. There are as many variations on the recipe as there are cooks. I never had one I did not like!
We stopped by a salt cod store. Salt cod in Spain is popular as the Basques were such mariners and this was the way to get their catch home. Here we see the desalting and re-hydrating process that can take from 24 – 72 hours.
Taberna Basaras we definitely a locals place where cider and a small chorizo sandwich was consumed. We had trouble finding cider that did not seem slightly vinegary to our palate. The locals love it however.

This was a great tour and I could go on for awhile showing you pics of incredible food. However, I’ll end this Bilbao food piece with an installation at the La Ribera market to celebrate women. A few I knew, but not all. Your homework is to look each of them up and learn about them. A very eclectic mix of smart, strong women.

San Sebastian (Donostia in Euskara)

San Sebastian is and has been a very trendy spot for the rich and famous for many years. Situated very near the border of France, on the Bay of Biscay, it is a beautiful, old town, close to the mountains.

San Sebastian has several miles of lovely sandy beach with an enjoyable malecón that is oh so popular, great food and a historic center.

The Food

It has quite a foodie scene and we did another food tour here.

Another riff on Tortilla Espanola. This one was much moister, had chunky potatoes as opposed to thin slices and onions that were more carmalized than the one from my previous picture.
A mushroom creation that I can’t for the life of me define further. I beleive it had some chorizo (sausage) and or course the egg. Mix it all up and enjoy.
We stopped at a spot selling local natural craft beer. Not a big thing in Spain, but they were good. They also had lots of bottles from natural wine producers. We did not taste them, but the labels were super fun.

Seeing the Big Picture

Jim and I also took the funicular to the top of Monte Igueldo which provides a spectacular view of San Sebastian, the Bay of La Concha and the surrounding area.

The view from the top was spectacular! it surely did not hurt that we had lovely weather.
There was a tiny amusement park at the top (all closed). But they had a Saturn 5 rocket! Go figure.

The Rest of the Town

San Sebastian is a town that seems to have fun. Perhaps that is just the resort and food scene and nice weather. In any case, it was a pleasure to wander.

A view from Monte Urgull another hill in town. A beach on the other side of the Urumea River that runs through town.
A large Marilyn at low tide on the main beach. Very skilled guy with his tarp out to collect coins from those on the malecón.
The waves can be rather fierce coing into the bay. There was a guy on his kayak enjoying the waves.
Your next test; only look at the top of the sigh and tell me what is says. Almost all signs were in both Esukara and Spanish. Luckily menues tended to be in Spanish and or English.
UPS deliverly in the city. They folks in the US would balk at this little cart. I thought it was so cute!

Around the Rest of Basque Country

Hondarribia

A Spanish Basque town on the border with French Basque country, it has much more French influence. This was our opportunity to visit France (as a 4-some) without going to France. Frankly, I can’t say the influence was not noticeable to me, but it was a cute town.

Buildings int he foreground are Spain, across the Bay of Txingudi is France. The better marinas were in France as were the moored boats.
Dinghy storage for those with boats moored in the bay. The big boat? It was on a boat railway but we could see no way that it could have been pulled out as there was no wench.
We climbed (actually too the elevator) to the old town behind the city walls. In the church I really liked this old (apparently not used) vessel for holy water. It fit the environment.
A local street in the old walled city. This city is quite old from at least the 1600’s.

Getaria

Another day trip from San Sebastian took us to Getaria.

Cristobal Balenciaga

Leesa really wanted to see the designer Cristobal Balenciaga’s museum and there were a couple spots along the way Jim and I wanted to visit.

Balenciaga was from Gateria. He began designing in the teens (of the last century) but became well know internationally in the 1950’s. This dress not typical for much of this work (to me). He was very big in haute coutrue but also introduced the sack dress.
He did like to experiment. A dress in neoprene.
There are sedign workshops for young designers at the museum/instute. A student creation. I could not imagine wearing this…. is this flattering in any way? I will give it an A fore creativity and origionality.
Another student creation. I thought this was quite lovely.

I did enjoy the museum quite a lot. Lots of information on designing and examples of the process. He had some amazing dresses made from a single piece of cloth folded and sewn from a single piece.

Zartuta

On our way back to San Sebastian, I wanted to stop and see this amazing tiny marina.

This is the whole marina. Lines across and small fishing boats that somehow catch a line to old their boat in place and then, I guess, hop from boat to boat to get to shore.
Near the entrance to the tiny marina, a log sticks out into the manmade harbor where locals go do some jumping. In the background, the orange boat had just returned from rescued two young kids. Not from the jumping spot but rather somewhere out in the bay where they had gotten into trouble. An ambulence came and collected them. As they walked to the ambulence wrapped in space blankets, I assume they werre OK. Quite an eventful stop!

This completes our expedition of northern Spain. We spent two full weeks crossing northern Spain and drove roughly 1500 miles, not including getting to Galicia and back from San Sebastian in Basque Country which was another 1000 miles. The rental car company was surprised at the number of miles we went. I guess that is not typical. What an incredible adventure. I learned so much in this northern journey about people, history and food.

We had another couple days back in Madrid, but that will be another post!

In closing, who is this proud gent? Your third assignment of the post….

Ok, I’ll tell you; it is John Adams. But why? In the 1770’s Adams visted Europe to review constitutions and laws to help in formulating the US Constitution. During this trip he visited Bilbao. Adam wrote a 3-voloume work titled “A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America” in 1787-88. He aparently wrote this in response to critisism of the proposed new American Government. His this we writes about the Basque people stating, “…this extraordinary people have preserved their ancient language, genius, laws, government and manners, without innovation, longer than any other nation in Europe”

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