What a spectacular day on the Camino! We stayed last night at the Monasterio de Zenarruza, built in the 14th century and an important stop on the Camino de Santiago during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Many of our Camino friends stayed there that evening, which made it great fun. We joined the monks in Evening Vespers, then had a simple Pilgrim’s dinner in the guest dining room, all done as a service by the monks. There was great conversation and lots of camaraderie. This is the essence of the Camino experience!
The Chapel at the Monasterrio
We rose early this morning because we were concerned about a rainy forecast and had lots of ground (and elevation!) to cover. Lo and behold, it turned out to be a glorious warm and sunny day. Daybreak over the mountains was priceless!
Daybreak outside the Monasterrio
We walked through the mountains toward the quintessential Basque town of Munitibar, which couldn’t have been cuter. We passed lots of pastures with all types of cattle, and walked through special “gates”, really a small space set at a 90 degree angle through which a person can pass, but not an animal. Here’s Paco demonstrating how this works.
Paco at the Cattle Gate
We also passed more forest land that had been-clear cut and totally bare. This was ancient forestland. It’s not obvious what the farmers intend to do with the newly-cleared fields. We saw some fields with newly-planted eucalyptus groves. Those trees were popular in the Spanish province of Galicia as well, and there are lots of similarities between Galicia and the Basque territory when it comes to climate: cool and damp weather, abundant rain, mountainous terrain, lots of coastline. But with global warming, Galicia learned the hard way that eucalyptus trees, while fast-growing, are highly flammable, which contributed the rapid spread of one of their worst wildfires in 2015. Hopefully, the same won’t happen in the Basque region.
Logging...and Windmills!
And we found an open café and enjoyed our café con leche before 9:00 am! It was a lovely café on the corner of the cute village of Olabe. The café was situated on the road all the pilgrims pass. We were able to connect with one of our fellow travelers from the Monastery, who planned a farther journey today that we did.
Happy Paco with Coffee
Our hike through the mountains was awe-inspiring. We could see the fog dissipating in the distance, and passed cool views like a grove of kiwi trees (in Basque country? Who knew!)…and 2 baby horses no more than a few hours old!
Landscape with Fog
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| Kiwi Grove |
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| Newborn Horses |
Around noon time, we reached Guernica, the site of the Nazi bombing of innocent civilians. There’s a monument in the center of town with a copy of Picasso’s famous painting that now hangs in the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid. A few steps away is the Iglesia de Santa Maria, with the Peace Museum and exhibit of photos of the aftermath of the bombing in the plaza. And on the way in to town, we passed an original (and ancient) “Cruz de Camino”, the Camino Cross. All in all, it was a stunning visit.
The Guernica Wall Mural
Iglesia de Santa Maria and the Plaza
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| La Cruz de Camino |
Five more miles of hiking uphill to our destination, an area called Alto de Morga. “Alto” means “height” in Spanish, and they sure got that right! Here’s the view from the end of the day.
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| View from Gerekiz |
Our albergue is a mile further from the closest one from town. As the municipal hostel in Guernica is temporarily closed, most pilgrims headed for the nearest option. It was quite crowded as we passed by. Our albergue, in the meantime, had only 2 occupants, us and a father-son duo. We had the entire property to ourselves! The proprietors provided a lovely pilgrim’s meal, so all is well with the world.
Tuesday, July 4, we plan another long and elevation-filled day culminating in our arrival in Bilbao. We love that town and can’t wait to be back. Wake-up time 5:30 am. Good night!
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