We’re in Bilbao for next week’s total eclipse of the sun; today, we toured San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, Mundaka, and Guernica.
We’ve never watched Game of Thrones, but we were told that they’d used San Juan de Gaztelugatxe as “Dragonstone”; the climb to it certainly looked (and was) imposing.
After the climb, we were ready for lunch; a short drive to Mundaka and we were seated outside the Hotel El Puerto enjoying salads with delicious fresh tomatoes and local tuna.
Our final stop was Guernica, which was a sacred place to the Basque people because it housed the oak tree under which all significant government decisions were made. When the old oak tree died, they planted a new one – the most recent tree was preserved in a mausoleum after it died.
Of course, Guernica is known to most of the world as the site of a massive bombing raid and follow-up slaughter during the Spanish Civil War.
We returned to Bilbao exhausted and educated, just in time to meet our touring companions at the evening reception.