Urdaibai: Gernika & Mundaka

This past Friday, the CIDE group had another scheduled day trip, this time to the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve. Despite the name, the Bioshpere Reserve is just an area that spreads across 22 different cities in the Basque Country, two of which we would be visiting on our excursion. 

Our first stop was to Gernika where we visited the Assembly House, the Tree of Gernika, and the Museo de la Paz. Though Gernika is considered the historical capital of the Basque country, I didn't find the Assembly House nor the Tree of Gernika all that impressive. The current Tree of Gernika was just planted in 2005, so it's status as symbol for the Basque people was hard to appreciate, especially in February without any leaves.

The entire CIDE group in front of the Tree of Gernika.

Jacklyn and I posing in front of the Tree.

Next we visited the Museo de la Paz in order to understand the significance of the tragic bombing of April 26, 1937 that obliterated the town of Gernika. Seeing the effects of the the Civil War on the Gernika definitely left an impression. Though I had seen Picasso's painting Gernika depicting the bombing during my school trip back in 2006, it was a different experience being in the town itself.

After a lunch that consisted of seafood paella (claws, feelers, and all) and fish, we headed to Mundaka. The beach at Mundaka on a sunny, warm day I'm sure would be the place to be (especially for surfers). However, as is our luck, rain and wind was in the cards for us so we weren't able to fully enjoy Mundaka. However, Nana, I'll have you know that your hot-pink flower umbrella is coming in handy... even if it makes me stick out from the crowd :)

Mundaka.. hopefully I'll go back when it's warm!