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September 24, 2006
Guernica
Eversince learning about the Spanish civil war and seeing Picasso's famed Guernica I've always wanted to visit Guernica.
The train journey from Bilbao to Guernica was very pleasing as it goes through lush rolling hills of the Basque Country. No wonder that this area (along with Austurias, Cantabria and Galica) is called the Green Spain. Many have told me that the Basque Country is very beautiful, they weren't wrong. Even the biggest city, Bilbao, is very green. Guernica is no exception.
Almost the entire city was destroyed by the 1937 bombing, the few buildings that survived are clearly identified in the tourist map. The main sight is not the cathedral or a church for a change, but the thought evoking Guernica Peace Museum. Although the centrepiece focus of the museum is the Guernica Bombing, peace and reconciliation are the major issues in this museum. Visitors follow a linear path which ends with Mohandas Gandhi quote inscribed on a huge (fake) marble: "There is no way to peace, peace is the way" (in Basque and Spanish. Reading the Spanish I guessed the translation and was pleased to find out that I was right! yay ... :)
Spent the rest of the day wandering around the small town of Guernica, visited the Vizcaya historic parlement building, the oak tree and the seemingly famous mural on Picasso's Guernica.
Posted by vhadiant at September 24, 2006 06:39 PM
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