Bilbao to Lekeitio (with a recharge of all sorts in GUERNICA) (Still in the works but pretty)

Where was I? Right. Bilbo. 

Before dawn. It's worth getting up that early ;-)

The Spanish salami at Breakfast is simply to die for.  YUMMY

After breakfast it's time to run around Bilbao for an hour to see things we might otherwise end up wishing we had seen .

I remember shopping at this department store chain in Spain 35 years ago !!!

Around 10:30 it has warmed up enough to hop on the bikes and leave town.

 We reach a peak and start going downhill.  There is a little rest area and we stop. An ancient stone bench and what looks like little people stuck permanently in the tree??? We've stopped in some bewitched ancient forest.  

Here is the reason why you should NEVER carry the camera in your backpack.  We stop for a breather after going downhill for a while. I turn back and notice this bridge.  A split second later I realize that a train is about to cross it from the right to the left. Years of practice reach into my pocket, get the camera out, find the power-up button while already pointing it in the right direction and moving it towards my face.  This picture would have been without a train ONE SECOND later.

We reach Gernika.  I had read in the internet that it's before-noon Monday market is famous all over Euskadi.  We get here by 1 pm and everything is being packed in ;-(

Gernika also means that we have overcome the 1st BIG HILL and that there is yet another BIG HILL to be crossed before getting to today's destination. That means charging the batteries for quite some time, which means eating yummy food and drinking lots of fabulous wine ;-)

OMG. Octopus on a stick.  SOOOO GOOOD

Note the combination:  pickle, olive red pepper, bean, anchovy.  Eating like God en el Pais Vasque ;-)

So we're eating in Gernika.   Guernica is the spelling most likely more familiar to the world.  Title of one of Picasso's most famous works. Title of what is considered the most powerful Anti-War painting in human history (think about that for a second).  I could tell you again how all that is related, but I'm tired of repeating myself.  Just google the string "Guernica" (There, I did it for you ;-).  
It's all tragic and senseless, but what disturbs me most about it that it was AGAIN Germans who didn't know where to draw the line.  Being of almost 75% German decent I feel shame eating yummy food and having a good time here in Gernika, when my non-too distant ancestors did this to this town

So it's a kind of pilgrimage when I ask the bar-tendress for the location of the mural copy of Picasso's painting, which I know to exist in town somewhere. In the beginning the plan is just to walk to it.  Then bloody lateral thinking pops the image of the Jerusalem Wailing Wall into my head. A wall to weep AND Jews, wonder how that relates to Germans crossing the boundaries of human decency? 
An image has formed in my head. Injustice, pain, wailing.
And that is where it usually would stay confined, that image. But not today because I stante pede appoint Zulema my photographic assistant.  Since she is new at the job, I feel free to blame her for any issues with the following image (Kiddin' LOL!).

While we are on this photographic excursion, we have left the batteries in the bar to charge. Which means we have to go back there and eat and drink more ;-)

The LOO. How did they know I was coming?

But all good eating and drinking has to come to a stop and we travel upwards again.

Yet ANOTHER HILL (a very pretty one though)

First sight of the ocean !

 We've booked 'an apartment' within an old villa on a hill.  When we arrive, we instantly like the area so much that we inquire whether the room would be available for the night after tonight. The receptionist right away says "But we have to know right away, because there are inquiries from Booking.com". She leads us up the wide OLD wooden stairs, opens the door, and we instantly say SI SI SI, because this is what we see from the entrance door.