Casa Batló, Barcelona

Day 7

In the morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel, then checked out and boarded our bus at 8:30. After driving for two and a half hours, we first arrived at the sea-side town of Camillas. There, we visited a house built by the famous architect, Antoni Gaudi, for an old, wealthy man who died only seven days after moving into his new house. For this reason, this house was called: Gaudi's Folly. Right next to this house was El Palacio de Sobrelleno, the palace built in the same era for el Marques de Comillas. Next, we walked to the University of Comillas, which was situated on a tall hill, overlooking the town. There we enjoyed a scenic view of the beach and the sea. After taking more photos of the town from atop the hill, we hiked down through the town to the beach, where we had lunch. After lunch, we drove for a few more hours to El Museo de Altamira, where we visited a full-scale replica of the cave where the first paintings by Homo sapiens ever recorded were found. These were crude paintings of bulls, deer, and horses, painted throughout several different periods. We then learned about the ancestors and development of modern-day humans. Bones, ancient tools, and other artifacts from the prehistoric period were on display in the exhibit. Finally, we drove to the beautiful, industrial city of Bilbao. With a metropolitan population of two million, Bilbao seemed much bigger than the city of Oviedo (~250,000), where we had stayed the previous two nights. In Bilbao, we checked in to our hotel, the Ibis, struggled with logging into the wifi network, then embarked on a short tour of the city despite light rain. On our walk, we were able to view the modern exterior of the Guggenheim museum of Bilbao, which was designed by Frank Gehry, the architect for the famous Walt Disney Concert hall in Los Angeles. On our walk, we also walked past the Campo Volatín footbridge, a modern, beautiful, arcing, white bridge designed by the renowned Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava, who also designed the Milwaukee art museum and the subway station at the World Trade Center in New York City. When the rain grew harder, we sprinted to a nearby supermarket, soaked, to buy food for our breakfast and lunch the next day. Then we ate dinner at a restaurant named La Kazeta. After having cheesecake and flan for dessert, we returned to our hotel to rest for the train the next day.

Por Jason y Michael.

Asturias, Cantabria, País Vasco

 

Camino de Santiago

Today we took a long bus ride to Besullo where we had the amazing oppurtunity to meet the nephew of Alejandro Casona. We learned all about Casona, but also the small town of Besullo. We walked around the entire town and got to see the blacksmith at work. The blacksmith had harnessed the power of water to pump oxygen into his fire and to power a hammer to pound metal. Then, we climbed the mountain behind his shop and saw lots of cows. Finally, we were able to enter Casona's home. In the house we saw the kitchen, the room where Casona was born, and even got to listen to one of his records. We left the house through the basement, and saw an army jeep. After our tour through the house, we sat down at a restaurant where we had vegetable soup, meat, bread, fish, and a delicious chocolate cake. Having eaten tons of food, we got back onto the bus to go to part of the Camino de Santiago. While on the bus, we listened to lots of music and played a lot of games. When we arrived, we walked down the trail, and sang God Bless America for some of the people who were completing the walk. Then we got back onto the bus to return to Oviedo.

El Besullo

Home of the Spanish dramaturg Alejandro Casona. An enchanted and mythical town where nature will embrace you.