One of the main reasons I wanted to come to the north of Spain was to go to Guernica. Guernica is a relatively small town, just east of Bilbao in Basque Country. During the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1939, which put Franco in power, the Basque people fought against Franco. Franco was determined to unify all of Spain with the same culture and language. Obviously this did not sit very well in Basque country. So in April 1937, Franco enlisted the Germans to bomb Guernica. Since Hitler was planning to start a major war, he was very interested to see how his Air Force would do. They picked a Monday which is market day so more people would be out and about. It was a slaughter. A journalist who arrived on the scene published pictures of the destruction. Pablo Picasso, who was living in Paris at the time, saw these pictures and painted his famous rendition of the event. I saw his masterpiece at the Museum of Modern Art in New York when it was traveling from its permanent home in Madrid. I also own a print of the Guernica which I hung in my apartment until I got married.

Some pictures of what the town of Guernica looks like now.

Here are some of the photos the journalist took. They are on display in the Memorial Park.

One of the interesting things about the painting is that there is only one male figure and he is holding a broken sword. All the other figures are female. The painting is only in black, white and gray. The bull is a symbol of Spain.

After visiting the Memorial Park, we went to the parliament building. Here are pictures from inside the building, which had a remarkable stain glass ceiling.

Our last stop in Guernica was at the weekly market. From there, we drove onto our lunch spot.

We had lunch at a Basque farmhouse where we learned how to make talo which is similar to a Mexican corn tortilla. Our lunch consisted of different toppings for a talo. We made our own, which was used for dessert. 

After lunch we went back to Bilbao to rest. Dinner was with a host family. Our host was a delightful woman with an 18-year-old son that she had adopted from Ethiopia when he was four months old. He is currently studying medicine at the local university.