Time in Bilbao
may soon need to be identified as BG or AG (Before
Guggenheim, After Guggenheim). Never has a single
monument of art and architecture so radically
changed a city -- or, for that matter, a nation,
and in this case two: Spain and the semiautonomous
region of Spain known as the Basque Country or by
its official name, Euskadi. Architect Frank
Gehry's stunning Museo Guggenheim, Norman Foster's
sleek subway system, and the glass Santiago
Calatrava footbridge, which allows pedestrians to
all but walk on water, have all helped foment a
cultural revolution in Bilbao, the Basque
Country's commercial capital.
Just southwest of
the southern border of France and bathed by the
Bay of Biscay, the Basque Country is made up of
three main provinces: Vizcaya (which includes
Bilbao); Guipuzcoa (which includes San Sebastián);
and Alava, where the Basque capital, Vitoria, lies.
Navarre, east of Euskadi and part Basque in its
upper reaches, and La Rioja, south of Euskadi and
the premier Spanish wine country, are closely
linked neighbors.
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Guggenheim museum
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With its steady
drizzle (poetically called the sirimiri),
damp verdant landscape, and rugged coastline, the
Basque Country is a distinct national and cultural
entity within the Spanish state, and it has a
linguistically mysterious, non-Indo-European
language of its own: Euskera. In contrast to the
traditionally individualistic and passionate Latin
peoples who have been their neighbors, the Basques
have often been seen as more collective-minded and
practical. They are also known to love competition
-- it has been said that Basques will bet on
anything that has numbers on it and moves.
The entire region
is packed with pleasures and treasures. Bilbao and
the Basque Country, along with part-Basque Navarre
and La Rioja, offer a great deal of urban variety.
From the industrial muscle and newfound artistic
power of Bilbao to the grace and lightness of San
Sebastián, from the classical sweep of Pamplona to
Vitoria's weathered stone or Logroño's streets
looking out on the fruited plains of the Ebro
valley, the five main cities have distinct
characters to savor. In addition, the geographical
gamut run from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pyrenees
or the Sierra de la Demanda peaks means that
surfing, sailing, skiing, and mountain hiking are
all within a 100-mile radius.
French Basque
Country
France's three
Basque provinces are in the south-western corner
of the country, near the Spanish border, steeped
in folklore and ancient customs. Unlike their
Spanish counterparts, the French Basque people do
not harbour radical separatist views, but they do
cling to their identity, their local unique
languages and traditional way of life, offering an
interesting diversion for tourists who visit the
area. Men can still be seen in the traditional
costume of a beret and cummerbund, towns and
villages all have concrete courts for the playing
of the national ball-game, pelota, and
bull fighting is a popular spectator sport. Most
visitors head for the Atlantic coast to the
popular resort towns of Biarritz and St-Jean-de-Luz,
or to explore the Basque capital, Bayonne. Hikers
and nature lovers are drawn to the grand Pyrenees
mountains to fish for fat trout, wander the trails,
dunk in warm mineral pools, marvel at the glaciers
or climb challenging peaks. Another great attraction
in the Bigorre region, close to Basque country, is
the Roman Catholic shrine at Lourdes, where the
Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to a peasant
girl in the mid-19th century. Millions of
believers have since made a pilgrimage to the
Lourdes grotto in the hope of miracle cures for
ailments and afflictions.
