Camino del Norte: Guernica — Rising Son Travels

I arrived in Guernica before noon which gave me nearly a whole day to explore the city. All of the museums were closed (Travel tip: Museums are often closed on Mondays so plan ahead) so I walked around with Dennis and Sandra.

If you tell someone you are going to Guernica, the first thing they will mention is the Picasso painting that current resides in La Reina Sofia in Madrid. This painting is one of Picasso’s most famous and is credited for drawing international attention to the Spanish Civil war in 1936. There’s a mural in Guernica that depicts the painting.

Forget Picasso, the best piece of art in Guernica is this homoerotic statue on the side of a building. Do not ask me anything about it because it is a mystery and I prefer to keep it that way.

Various people told me that I needed to see “The Guernica Tree.” We wandered around looking and every time I saw a large tree I would ask, “Is that the Guernica Tree"?” The Guernica Tree is an important symbol for Basque people so much so that Franco wanted it killed and taken down because it could be seen as representing Basque nationalism. The Old Tree’s trunk is preserved nearby. It survived bombings during the Spanish Civil war but was no match for a killer tree fungus.

The current Guernica Tree is 14 years old and was planted in 2015. It was not the big imposing historical tree I was expecting.

The latest Guernica tree was planted in 2015.

The Guernica tree is housed at Gernikako Batzarretxea, which is an important political and cultural center in Guernica as well as for the Basque Country in general. There’s a large assembly room and most notably a room with an entire ceiling made out of stained glass. Depicted on the stained glass is, you guessed it, the Guernica Tree.

After our afternoon of sightseeing we headed back to the hostel. On El Camino del Norte many of the albergues are only open during summer months so we were all staying at a local hostel. It was there that I saw Manuele, an Italian pilgrim I had met the prior day.

Manuele had a similar reason to me for walking the Camino. His mother got very ill. Luckily, she is better now, but he told her he wanted to walk the Camino for her. Manuele is a chef and sold his restaurant before starting his own journey traveling. He was cooking dinner for the pilgrims tonight. On the menu was paella, broccoli, tomatoes, potatoes, guacamole, and a ton of wine. It was the best meal I had on the Camino thus far. His friend and fellow pilgrim Lorenzo brought a mini-guitar with him on the Camino (I can’t fathom carrying the extra weight but I say this from the 2 pound laptop with which I am writing this post). I was surprised that these European pilgrims wanted to sing songs like “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Country Road” but after a few glasses of vino tino I joined in as well.