Orduna: Our Month in the Basque CounTryside

We are falling in love with Spain every day!  For one, the Basque Country is absoluely gorgeous.  For two, the weather is perfect, especially compared to the extreme heat we endured in both Greece and Bosnia.  We love that we can finally wear our fleece jackets and puffy vests.  And for three, there is finally a language that isn't totally Greek to us!  (See what I did there?) ;) 

For reasons known only to Francesca, she chose the town of Orduna - around 30 minutes drive from Bilbao - for our home base and I highly commend her for it. This small town of about 4,000 people founded in about 1229 is as quintessential Basque Country as you can get. It is centered around the town square (called Foru Plaza) with the de riggeur cathedral and various tabernas offering pintxos (small plate dishes, like tapas) as well as other quaint shops like a toy store, a high end chocolatier and the local butcher and breadmaker, etc.  We keep saying we feel like we are either in Arendelle from Frozen or the Bavarian-esque city in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, except without the child catcher.  

Speaking of children, it's so fun to see the town square filled with young kids of all ages playing together, biking, dancing, playing futbol, etc.  Unfortunately our kids are too introverted to simply go up and ask if they can play together and, to be fair, there is probably a language barrier to contend with.  But my hope is that at some point while we are here we will meet other parents organically that will lead to some international play dates for our kids.  A dad can dream.....

The other major selling point about Orduna, and really, many of the towns in this area, is the amount of greenspace with an abundance of hiking and nature oppportunities.  The town is nestled into a valley with high mountains and limestone cliffs surrounding it and there are dozens of hiking trails and waterfalls to discover, including the highest waterfall in all of Spain, he 222 meter Salto del Nervion, which we visited (see pics below) although it is seasonal so there was not water in September sadly. 

Our little town also has a Jai-alai Fronton (aka Stadium) although sadly, they only play a version of handball there, not traditional jai-alai as was popular in Miami and elsehwere in the US in the 1980s.  I was a fan as a youngster back in New Jersey, but I had no idea that the sport was created in the Spanish Basque country.  

It just so happened that there was a professional match at the local Fronton in Orduna the first week we were here and so I excitedly purchased tickets for Ryan and me.  I was so amped to have a father-son outing and share a bit of my cultural upbringing with him (I used to play a simulated version of jai-alai in my basement with my friends in middle school - that's how into it we were).  

Unfortuantely, after forking over the 25 Euro (~$28) entrance fee, I discovered that they were playing hand ball on a jai-alai court.  But keeping inline with our trip motto of "roll with it" we stayed and enjoyed the handball competition.  Since Ryan and I are both competitive, we gamified it by each picking a team to root for with a prize for the winner at the end.  "My team" came back from 18-9 deficit ot end up winning it.  We didn't stay for the next match, but at least Ryan took in some local sports culture. 

TBD

As mentioned, Orduna was a strategic place to take day trips to some of the major cities in the Spanish Basque Country including Bilbao, San Sebastian and Vitoria-Gasteiz (the capital of the Spanish Basque Country).  Click below for separate blog posts on each of those cities. 

Here are some photos from some of our other day trips within 30 minutes of our place in Orduna.  First up is Gaztelugatxe (pronounced gaz-telu-gachay or something close to that). You Game of Thrones fans may recognize this spectacular place as DragonStone from Episode 1 of the 7th Season.  Of course there is a ton of CGI, but you can tell it was inspired by this place.

Next is the nearby Salt Valley of Anana.  It was so interesting for the kids (and us adults!) to learn about something we take for granted - the salt on our tables.  We learned about the history of salt production from pre-Roman times until the present, got to see a salt production facility in action and even enjoy a therapeutic salt spa.

Did you know that, while most salt today comes from the ocean, in the "olden days" it came from the ground in inland areas? Most of the inland areas used to be covered in water, but when temperatures rose (during the dinosaur times), the water evaporated leaving salt deposits on the ground that were then covered up with dirt and other materials over the millenia. Those salt deposits then resurfaced when running water underground swept up those salt particles and was pushed back up to the surface. Those deposits were then harvested in a complicated production process.

Did you know that the word Salary comes from the Latin word Salarium which means "Salt Money" which is derived from the Latin word Sal which means "Salt".  This dates back to when salt had tremendous value as it was the main method of preserving food and workers were sometimes paid in salt instead of money (ie Salarium).

Did you know that before this process, in pre Roman times, people would fill clay pots with the water and heat it up, causing the salt to harden. Then they would break open the pots and have a big salt ball.

Did you know that this platform salt making process eventually got replaced by machines that could mass process salt from the sea, but the real death knell came in the 1950s with the invention of the refridgerator which obviated the need for salt for food preservation purposes.  Nowadays, this archaic process is only used to produce and sell refined, high end, "artesanal" salt because it's time consuming and expensive.

We also visited the nearby El Salto del Nervion which at 222 meters is the tallest waterfall in all of Spain (when it is flowing).  It wasn't flowing when we went, but it was still impressive and worth the short drive and hike to reach it. 

We still have one more week in Spain before heading to Morocco.  In the next Roamers' Report I will share photos from our weekend trip to Porto with a day trip to Leon and Salamonca (both towns in Spain) on either side to break up the trip. 

During our last few days before leaving Spain for Morocco we had three fun day trips.   We spent a day at Ataria, the Salburua Wetlands Intepretation Center in Vitoria-Gasteiz and a day trip to Guernica, the Basque town that was bombed by the Germans in 1936 at the request of then head of Spain, Francisco Franco.  In addition, while Francesca took Austen on a one-on-one trip to Bilbao, Dan took Ryan and Finley to a really cool/fun indoor adventure ropes course called Bizkaia Park Aventura. 

I wrote a separate blog post on Guernica that you can access here.  For Ataria, I have included some photos and video below.  The kids liked the Interpretation Center learning about the flora and fauna in the wetlands and they really enjoyed borrowing the center's bikes to ride around the two different wetlands areas and seeing all the birds and other wildlife, particularly all deer in the area.  See our short video of our bike trip.