Lazama, 14 miles
Left Hotel Guernica, big, nice, clean, elevator, really decent breakfast and front desk staff really nice. The front desk woman took our photo next to the peregrino (pilgrim) statue before Rick left our group. Yes, that’s her thumb in the corner, but we got the photo!
We walked through Gernika to exit the town, stopping at a few sites on the way that were all marked on the camino, according to the hotel map.
First, the Guernica mural in tile that replicated Picasso’s Gernica.
In town next to the Assembly Hall stands the Tree of Gernika. By ancient tradition, Basques, and indeed other peoples in Medieval Europe, held assemblies under a tree, usually an oak, to discuss matters affecting the community. Starting in the late 1300’s under different trees the democratic assembly would meet with 2 representatives from each district. By 1512, its oak, known as the Gernikako Arbola, became symbolic of the traditional rights of the Basque people as a whole. The Spanish kings would come to swear their commitment to the Basques and kept the peace in this way. The trees are always renewed from their own acorns. One of these trees (the “Old Tree”) lived until the 19th century, and may be seen, as a dry stump, near the assembly house. A tree planted in 1860 to replace it died in 2004 and was in turn replaced; the sapling that had been chosen to become the official Oak of Guernica is also sick so the tree will not be replaced until the earth around the site has been restored to health.
Rick walked with us through the city to see these things and then left before he was covered in mud since he’d just scoured his shoes in order to fly home without tracking a lot of Spain onto the plane. Rick had to leave and we missed having him with us. He’s off to Chicago for meetings and will be back on camino in a few days.
Even the dogs were ready for the rain, on the balcony!
Today ended up being a 14 mile hike instead of 11, and in mist or rain all day, but we were prepared and the rain was very manageable. I did wish I could record the sound, not of birds, but of incredible squelching as our shoes and poles got stuck and had to pull them out!
First dry, not so bad
Then not so much
The country continued to be green, mountainous and beautiful.
A farm by itself, gorgeous
A moment on the trail, last of a group we’d walked through
Starting to see embedded Camino shells occasionally
Baby animal photo for the day
Matthew had been exploring on his phone where we could get lunch when we got in and realized that we should really eat before we went to our hotel, it was another rural casa on the outskirts of the town. We were drying out so we went to the one restaurant that was open and managed to get a table for our group. We were really lucky because we were able to go right in; the restaurant never had an empty table, they turned rapidly. And it definitely filled us up!
Our hotel was lovely, Hotel Rural Matsa, quiet, dark at night (from my room, others had a bit more noise from fellow residents) and the owner made us tea and coffee in the late afternoon. The beds were weird, but I’d repeat if I came this way because it kept us very near the Camino. We all then went to our rooms and snacked on whatever chocolate we had at hand. Realized this the next day when we were comparing notes. Funny response to wanting just a bit of something before bed.
Reb's Walks! 