BASQUE COUNTRY THE INLAND

basque country the inland is the second day we spent pin-balling around the basque country in a rented car. and yes, the title is a bit misleading, since we finally made it to the coast this time as well.

our first stop was in durango. it was a saturday so you have a few pics below from the local market. so cool!

calas were everywhere, growing in gardens.

we walked around the old city and then got back in the car.

in elorrio, the first thing we did was talk to 2 dogs in the garden of the palacio olazabal. one of them kept on bringing sticks i could throw for her to fetch.

i don’t know if you can see, but there is an automatic meat machine right there. you could literally pay and get packed meat…

this is now a chinese bazaar but the cool olympic circles are due to the fact that there used to be a medical center for rehabilitation for gymnastics.

next, we stopped in bergara. we enjoyed walking around its empty streets.

in this cute little garden, there was a big magnolia tree called el magnolio de bergara. it was a majical place, find it if you are in town.

this is the santuario de loiola. we were there for a short ice-cream break. unfortunately, the light didn’t do justice to this big cathedral.

the town of getaria was very interesting. by chance, i noticed that a traffic sign saying: c. balenciaga museoa. so, as soon as we parked, we went running to see if it was still open. it was, but it was unfortunately in-between shows. actually, i heard the victoria&albert are opening a new balenciaga show very soon so i’m guessing that’s where most of the stuff went. well, i’ve seen a small balenciaga show in paris 5 years ago and some exhibits in getaria. it’ll have to do, right?

then, we walked around the old city. the views were so good.

and, last but not least, we managed to cram in one last thing: the unesco heritage site puente colgante aka puente bizkaia that unites portugalete and getxo, right outside of bilbao. i really liked the area and i was sorry we didn’t have enough time to check it out. maybe next time…