The great thing about cruising is unpacking once and enjoying the ride to various ports of call with someone describing the history of the area. Today is Guernica, Bermeo and the Cantabrian Coast. Our docking location is Getxo which is the closest to the city of Bilbao, Spain. While that is where many people are touring today to see the Guggenheim, we chose to go off into the Basque Country.

Our tour guide tells us all about the Basque Country of Spain. The location makes it quite culturally distinct including the unique language spoken here. The country side is mountains/hills covered with forests on one side and rivers to the coastline on the other.

First stop is Guernica which was seriously bombed to almost complete destruction in 1937 by the Germans during the Spanish Civil War. For over three hours, German and Italian aircraft supporting Francisco Franco’s Nationalist forces bombarded the town, destroying more than 85% of its buildings and killing anywhere from 150 to over 1,600 people, according to varying estimates.

Our tour starts in the plaza slightly up a hill where a few of the surviving buildings and an oak tree survived. There is also a church which had painted the symbol for the Red Cross on the roof and was not bombed. The tree now dead, left behind its acorns which are now planted throughout the world by Basque dependents as a symbol of survival.

A small park is up top the hill where there are sculptures, again symbolic of the survival of the war.

Back down the hill along a narrow street, we are taken to a famous Picasso artwork created in 1937 to display the tragic bombing of Guernica. Here’s a link to a YouTube video describing this art work.

A short walk back to the bus and we are off to our next destination – Bermeo, a well-known Basque fishing village. There are huge tides here which expose areas that are beaches that people use to cross the river to Mundaka and also enjoy a summer day at the beach. The fishing done here is for anchovies and tuna and then shipped all over the world. A lovely town with interesting architecture. The narrow streets/walkways wind up the hill to the homes and shops. We stayed down near the plaza and the harbor enjoying watching people enjoying their summer afternoon.

The garbage bins on the streets are quite interesting! No small trash cans around the city, just these giant ones placed in various areas.

As we leave Bermeo, the bus takes a narrow, winding road along the Cantabrian Coast overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. We stop at a well known sight Gaztelugatxe. It is a rocky islet sitting in the Bay of Biscay connected to the mainland by a zigzagging 241- step staircase. It is considered the historic hermitage dedicated to John the Baptist.

Built between the 9th and 10th century, this historic site gained global fame as the real-life stand-in for Dragonstone, Season 7 of Game of Thrones. Of course, this makes it a huge tourist destination. Fortunately our tour does not include walking the staircase (no time)! We take a nice photo from the cliff.

A 45 minute drive back to the ship and relaxing evening as we sail away to La Caruna, Spain.