Basque Country, Spain

Hooray, our second trip to Espanna has arrived! On our last visit we spent a bit of time down south in Andalucia as well as Madrid and Barcelona. This time we were headed only to a small region in the north, known as Basque Country. Sadly my history and geography is not as strong as perhaps it should be so I know very little about the Basque people, other than they occupy space between France and Spain, they speak Basque and they don’t like to be referred to as Spanish (or French). What we did find, despite their hostility to Spain and France, we found them to be very friendly people!

We flew into Bilbao on the north coast, only an hour and a half from Stansted Airport (which is conveniently about an hour and a half from central London). The flight was uneventful however we met a lady on the bus to Bilbao from the airport, who was staying in the same hotel as us. The very exciting news is that when Christine mentioned she misses her puppy back home, she offered to have us around to meet her Beagle when we are back in London.

We ate some lunch in a small Spanish bar and then spent the afternoon wandering around the city. In case you haven’t heard the Soccer World Cup is on at the minute, and since the start we have been supporting Spain (and anyone playing Australia!). Our first night in Spain they were playing Chile which was an exciting win, as a loss would have meant their tournament would have been over. It was also the locals response to the soccer that gave us our first sight of the Basque attitude towards Spain. As one old guy told us “Fuck Spain! Tonight I Chile!”
The main (and arguably only) tourist attraction in Bilbao is the Guggenheim. Luckily this well and truly makes up for the lack of wax museums and gift shops found in bigger cities. The exterior is a big abstract building made out of titanium. There is a giant dog sculpture (Jeff Kooms) out the front that has small flowers planted all over it. Once inside we found out that we were just in time for one of the guided tours in English. The tour was a great introduction to the gallery and the architecture and then went into some detail in one exhibition. This happened to be the most interesting part of the whole gallery, an exhibition by Anish Kapoor. The guy has apparently been around for a while, and each room was completely different. These included a series of about a hundred sculptures 1-2m high made of concrete that looked like some form of alien ants nest, some very colourful piles of powder, a room of mirrors (not unlike the crazy mirrors at the show) and a room with a wax canon that fires at the wall on the hour.
The exhibition on the top floor was not as interesting, it was basically some guy had gone around for years collecting bits of rubbish (everything from street signs, kitchen sinks, bicycles and scrap metal) and welded it all together to make hundreds of junk piles. The rest of the museum had some nice paintings and sculptures including the Matter of Time room which are some huge iron sculptures that you can walk through. We had spent most of the day in the gallery with a short break for lunch in the park and a spot of shopping.


Our second day in Bilbao we took it fairly easy. We wandered through the main plaza and then down to the river where we found some sort of festival going on. This had some bands and dancers along the riverbank. After bit of a look we went for a walk up to a park on a hill that had great views back over the city. We spent the afternoon wandering through the old town, which is always the nicest part of Spanish cities. Narrow cobbled streets lined with Spanish bars and restaurants. We took it pretty easy, plenty of Pinchos (similar to tapas) and Cerveza. The next morning we checked out and jumped on a bus to a small village called Haro. It is only about an hour or so south from Bilbao. We checked into our hotel (Cuidad de Haro), which despite the name is bit of a hike from the city. After a swim in the hotel pool we wandered into town to find out what was happening the following day. We were in this town for a festival called the Battaglia del Vino (Battle of the Wine). We grabbed some groceries, mainly snack food, beer and wine, watched some bands in the main square, had a look around town and then headed back to our hotel.
29th June 2010 – San Pedro - Battaglia Del Vino
On reflection of the past year and a bit we have done a hell of a lot of awesome things and it is definitely hard to pick out favourites. That said today may well have been the highlight of the trip so far!

We were up early, in Haro’s main Plaza by 7am. The town was a mix of weary looking people like us in fresh white clothes and bleary eyed revelers still out from the night before. On the dot of 7am we joined a march around town (although we had no idea what was happening). After a procession led by a brass band around town, the Spanish emerging from their homes to join in as we passed, we finished back in the main Plaza.
Suddenly everyone began piling into what looked like an apartment block. Still unsure what was going on, we followed inside and found ourselves in some government office, being offered cakes and liquor. The main reason we were here was to pick up some cultural banners and a silver pole (about 8ft long), probably something to do with the church and San Pedro.
Back in the main square, it was time to set off on our journey. From the town square the procession walked out of town and about 6-7km into the hills to a church called San Felices. The walk was good fun, there would have been 2000-3000 people make the trip over the whole morning. Most of the time was spent chatting, joking and trying to understand the locals as well as coping the odd spray of red wine. As we approached the hill, we could hear the commotion above us getting louder. The last few hundred meters which was a fairly steep incline gave us an idea of what we were in for. Beside the road we were walking along was a river of red wine, draining from the plateau above us. As we approached the plateau the local winemakers had set up ambushes, towing tones of red wine up behind tractors. They were parked on the road side, with buckets awaiting. The site of anyone in clean white clothes excited them! Within about 30 seconds each of us were pelted with 5-6 buckets of wine, all over, in your hair, down your back, in your ears and eyes (which stung) all of which drained down into our shoes. It was all in good fun though, and Christine was helped by a local lady with tissues to clean her eyes, not knowing what to expect, she had not closed her eyes in time!
Past the initial onslaught was a plateau where the battle continued. This was not as brutal, people were running around with super-soakers and agricultural weed spray backpacks filled with vino. People were just cheering, singing and dancing under a rain of redwine. The whole mountain was a buzz with happy red wine stained faces!

Out of the mayhem below we took a short break to continue up the hill to the very top where the church was perched. It was a small old church where a traditional ceremony had been held prior to the start of the traditional wine battle. The church had amazing views of the town and surrounding region.

After a bit more partying on the plateau we joined hundreds of others on the trek back into town. Many of the locals who had driven some of the way and parked at the bottom of the hill had started cooking barbeque lunches in the carparks which smelt great. The walk home was a bit more of a struggle in wine soaked shoes and clothes. The cars on the road would often spray water or more wine at us as they drove past.

At midday there was a procession back into town (the last few hundred meters). As the crowd walks back into town the residents are ready on their balconies with hoses and buckets of water to clean of the crowd passing below. By this stage we had found some people from our hotel and were sitting in the main square enjoying a cold beer. The procession then continued through town to the bull ring. We followed them and got some seats in the Encerrio (bullring). It was all fun, the bulls were young (but still big if you ask me) and had corks on their horns. The ring had 4 guys who were quite professional and would do a series of tricks, jumps and flips as the bull charged them. There were also about 50 ‘would be bull fighters’ who would try and run as close to the bull as they could without getting slammed. Thankfully, for our entertainment, there were a few that got nailed by the bulls. After this we headed back to the hotel for a siesta and swim in the afternoon.

We spent the evening back in town, starting off in a bar watching the Spain and Portugal soccer match, complete with the Spanish flag painted on our face by the bar staff. We chatted to the locals, aussies from our hotel and a group of welsh. That has been the highlight of the day was the small crowds (about 6000 people in the town today) and the lack of tourists (probably only 5-10%). Spain won the game to the cheers of the crowd. We have also been drinking a Basque drink called Kali Mucho (not sure of the spelling). As bad as it sounds it’s actually really nice and refreshing. It is a mix of red wine and coke with a slice of lemon. The night continued as one big party in the plaza and surrounding alleys. There was bands and DJ’s, fireworks and at midnight there was the ‘running of the flaming bull’. This was hilarious, its basically a guy dressed in a bull suit with fireworks strapped to his back. He then runs around the main plaza chasing the terrified local kids. OMG… I want that guys job!

VIDEOS (just click play)