Greetings from Bilbao, Spain -- or, more to the locals’ taste, from Bilbao, Euskadi (Basque Country). Euskadi is an autonomous community of northern Spain, centered in Bilbao but stretching as far east as San Sebastian and as far south as Logroño. The larger Basque region also includes Navarra here in Spain and the Pays Basques in southwestern France. It would like to be independent, and is the home of the ETA movement with which you may be familiar.
But enough of geography for now. Jerome and I left home yesterday to catch an afternoon Delta flight from Salt Lake City to Paris, and despite a two-hour delay in departure, managed to make our connecting flight in Charles DeGaulle with seconds to spare, to arrive in Bilbao as scheduled. Sadly, our luggage did not make the French connection, but we are assured that it is on its way on the evening flight.
So, here we are back in Spain. This trip’s itinerary will keep us in north central Spain, first westward from Bilbao along the coast, then south to León, east to Tafalla, then back north to Bilbao for some day trips eastward along the coast. This is a shorter trip than usual for Jerome, who will fly stateside on September 27th. I will head east into the Catalonian Pyrenees, for a three-week artist residency at the Centre d’Art i Natura (http://www.farreracan.cat/) in the tiny town of Farrera, returning home on October 18th.
As is evident, I’ll be sending my traditional travel notes, complete with photos as soon as we get a night’s sleep and I can focus. We had a lovely large Spanish meal late this afternoon, and are planning to stay awake until our luggage arrives in another hour or two. Tomorrow we will head out to explore Bilbao, with the first stop the Guggenheim Museum.
