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Camino: Etapa 6 – Gernika to Meakur

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Etapa 6: Gernika to Meakur
Distance: 15 km
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Weather: Some rain, cloudy & cool
Photos: 40 total
Notables: Oak of Gernika, Biscay Assembly House, stained-glass ceiling, Picasso’s Guernica, finding Meakur in the rain

Etapa description continued after the break. Follow the flecha . . .

Walking the Camino de Santiago does not allow many chances to do actual sight-seeing unless you take a day off as I did in San Sebastián and Bilbao.  However, today’s etapa was a short 15 km to Meakur, allowing me to spend a casual morning in the symbolic Basque city of independence, Gernika (Guernica).

Gernika is the ancient seat of Basque lawmaking and the tree in the above photo of Gernika-Lumo’s coat of arms signifies the Oak of Gernika.  Traditionally, Basque assemblies would meet under local trees to discuss their fueros (code of laws).  Eventually, the separate assemblies were replaced in 1512 by a single assembly that met in Gernika.  One of the oaks, Gernikaka Arbola, survived until the 19th Century and the petrified trunk is on display under tight security at the current Biscay provincial assembly house. Subsequent trees have been planted from from the seeds of the original oak.

This tree amazingly survived the most infamous event in Gernika’s history, when Nazi Germany’s Luftwaffe bombed the town at the request of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War in 1937. The bombing occurred on a Monday, a traditional market day in the town, and was an early example of carpet bombing. Pablo Picasso immortalized the event in a famous anti-war painting: the original is on display at a museum in Madrid while there is also a mural in Gernika and another copy at the entrance to the Security Council room at the United Nations in New York City.

Back at the site of the Oak of Gernika, I took in the impressive stained glass ceiling inside the Casa de Juntas, which houses the Vizcaya (Biscay) assembly and the historical archive of the Basque Country.

With noon approaching, I set on my way out of Gernika and back on the Camino. The 15 km to Meakur was only going to take me 3-4 hours. Along the way I met a German pilgrim who was resting his feet in a field recently cleared by loggers.

Most of the pilgrims I met on my Camino were German but this one was different as he was closer to my age – most German pilgrims were in their 50s. He lived in Munich and was taking a few weeks holiday before starting a new job. He had become frustrated with his previous job and realized that his days consisted of sitting in an office, talking on the phone, and then going home to watch television and have dinner. He was disgusted about his sedentary, unhealthy, and uninspired lifestyle. His goal was Santiago de Compostela but he knew his lack of pace and time meant he wouldn’t be able to walk the entire way and would require a train or bus trip to cut some distance off his Camino. We walked and talked together for a few kilometers before arriving at a tricky navigational point on the day’s Camino. He didn’t speak any Spanish so I did my part to flag down some motorists to give us directions. The foreboding clouds from the morning had fulfilled their promise of rain and we were trying to find the correct way to Meakur and the albergue in driving rain – not one of my favorite Camino memories.

Meakur is actually off the Camino and honestly not worth the hassle of finding. The albergue is nice yet expensive, the village is tiny, and the nearby town’s restaurants did not open for dinner until the typically late Spanish dinnertime. Tonight’s meal was half a loaf of bread, two oranges, and a handful of sunflower seeds – early to bed to fight off a hungry stomach.

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