Thanks StCirq. Knowing from you and mikelg that addresses, place names are in both languages should make navigation easy. Due to my admitted ignorance, I didn't realize until now what mikelg clarified, that Donostia-San Sebastian represents the name of the city in two languages. But now I know, thanks, mikelg.

mikelg, many thanks for taking the time for the useful info. We are also home bound, but I don't mind it - at least for now. There are so many things on my list of things to do that I kept postponing. Also many of the local and US symphonic orchestras and operas are providing special events online, which is really nice. See here about the Met, if you are interested: https://www.metopera.org/about/press...virus-closure/

I will go back to some of your comments and my questions, maybe you can advise:

- are there any places in Bilbao where one can experience local, basque songs, music, dance, knowing that there will not be any festival when we will be there?
- could you point to a specific street that is part of the San Nicholas neighborhood in Zumaia?
- any comments re. route options/roads for Day 9 (Potes to Burgos)?

Based on what I see, "reservations" in most places means paying for unrefundable tickets. At this time probably would be premature to get them, as nobody knows what will happen tomorrow, let alone 6 months from now....

Thanks in advance.

kja and you mentioned the Torture Museum in Santillana. No offense to anyone, but I would not visit it even if they paid me a lot for it. Not a "cultural attraction" for me. I leave it for those with more sophisticated tastes .

By now I feel quite comfortable with the info I have for this "level". I will now dive into more detail, to further evolve the daily programs and hope that I can experience them and not have to cancel the trip....

Enjoy the staycation and stay well.

Thanks for that link for the opera venues in high definition...definitely very handy when you�re confined home as we are now!!!

- are there any places in Bilbao where one can experience local, basque songs, music, dance, knowing that there will not be any festival when we will be there?
Well, not really, as these songs and dances are normally performed during festivals or special holidays. But ask me as time gets closer and I�ll do some research!
- could you point to a specific street that is part of the San Nicholas neighborhood in Zumaia? Given that you�ll be in the area outside the restricted parking dates (June 15 to Sept 15), the best thing to do is to drive uphill to San Telmo church and park in the area. Otherwise, you have a very steep street to get there. San Nicol�s is of no help, it�s just a place nearby, but no good on those dates, much better to get there on your car.
- any comments re. route options/roads for Day 9 (Potes to Burgos)?
Roads are very good, but option 1 and 3 are very, VERY curvy and narrow roads. Not much parking in Orbaneja, really..., at least the last time I was there. I love the road by the Embalse de Arija and the towns on the way (ancient Roman ruins of Juliobriga close to Reinosa). On the way, Bra�osera, officially the first municipality of Spain, founded in 824. To summarize...if you want to experience the flavour of rural Spain, it�s an excellent route, but very demanding drive!

Thanks mikelg. I am very disappointed about the very, very curvy and narrow roads for Option 1 & 3.... I am trying to avoid them. However, this means that Option 2 (through Cervera de Pisuerga) is easier to drive. I am surprised, because on Google maps this looked the "curviest" one.... Option 3 (through Reinosa and Aquilar de Campo) looked like the easiest one.... It is hard to see all of this on Google.

Enjoy the operas. We are practicing dancing in the kitchen in the absence of our weekly dance gatherings. Stay well.

Plenty of romanesque churches and off the beaten path towns on the Cervera route. The monastery of Santa Mar�a La Real is well worth a visit, in Aguilar de Campoo, as well as San Andr�s church and the Colegiata of San Miguel. Santa Mar�a de Mave, cave churches...I went on that route last year with 4 friends, on a biking-historical route, loved it! You�re going to love your trip!!

Thanks, mikelg. It will be Option #2, and yes, I am sure will enjoy it. At least I know that I have reliable info from someone who is familiar with these roads. Just keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that the virus threat will be gone by then and that we will escape without catching it. Same wishes for you.

Just wanted to "check in" hoping that everyone is fine, particulalry our friends in Spain. We are not leaving our house other than for walks in teh neighborhood. Hope that the virus will be contained soon and life will return to normal. Stay well!

Hi Suzanna, thanks for asking. Well, we�ve been home confined for two and a half weeks, almost, and we have another twelve days before our confinement ends (supposedly). We can only leave our homes for groceries, urgent matters (hospital, primary care) or pharmacy goods. It�s a very strict confinement (no walks in the neighborhood either) as the government has just also prohibited working in non essential activities, that means a big blow to our heavy industries (the Basque Country, for example, is very industrialized...and very green and full of natural spaces as well) and our automotive and aeronautical component factories. The peak of the contagion is supposed to be now, and the percentage of people infected is lower every day, as well as the number of deaths. Shops and businesses are closed, except those related to food (fruit, meat, groceries shops are open) and essential needs. Government has developed a financial aid programme (we�ll see how it works, clearly insufficient for most of us) and the situation after the virus will be of economic disaster, most likely. Hospitals are working at full capacity, but responding well to the situation (we are lucky to have a very robust public health system), also with the aid of private hospitals and all kind of institutions.

All in all, citizens are responding well to this extreme situation. At 8pm everyday, we get out our windows or balconies for a huge cheering and clapping to our health workers, and there�s a big wave of solidarity among us (plenty of volunteer work going on, too). There�s frequent calls to family and friends, lots of games played at home, watching movies all together at home, many have learnt to cook or to improve their cooking skills, I�ve started yoga lessons...Internet is a great aid!!

Again, thank you for asking about our situation. Getting used to it, getting fatter too , and hoping for a soon ending to this nightmare...

Great to hear from you, mikelg and good to know that you are doing well and that there seems to be a light to the end of the tunnel in Basque Country.
It is difficult everywhere, but the experts are saying that these drastic measures are saving a large number of lives. The economy, all over the world will be impacted, but if we will be around until this virus is no longer a threat, we should be able to hopefully survive the rest.

Your nightly cheering is a very nice gesture and I admire you for making that happen. Those on the front line more than deserve it.

Here, the forecasts are talking about many more months of what we have now. We are retired and feel lucky and are grateful to have a home and no longer have to worry about a job, like many others.

We just cancelled a trip scheduled for May to NYC. Our trip to Europe for September is in a limbo, we will see what will happen between now and then. For now I just cannot focus on planning, particularly with the many unknowns with some talking about a second wave in the fall….

I hope that the usual "pundits” on this forum are also doing fine. For a little bit lighter take see this short youtube:

https://onemileatatime.com/when-flig...erm=2020-03-28

Best wishes to all of you.

So funny!! Thanks for sharing, we need good humor these days! Today the news are more encouraging, as the number of deaths and contagions is lowering every day. Here in the Basque Country we were affected earlier and it seems we are going to recover earlier...but again, the enemy is invisible and you never know!!

Suzanna, that's brilliant. Thanks for posting it.

mikelg - thanks so much for the update on the situation in the Basque Country, where you seem to be ahead of the UK in many things not least in coping with the necessary restrictions to which we have been subjected for about 10 days. Going out to exercise is still allowed here which has led to some people being stupid, but generally most of us are knuckling down to our new reality knowing that it's the only way to get to the end of it as quickly as possible.

At the moment I am still hanging onto my reservations for my June trip to Spain but as the time to cancel gets closer I can see that it's probably not going to happen this year. There will be other years. Good luck to you and to all of us who are struggling to get through what you rightly describe as a nightmare.

Thanks Annhig, for your words of encouragement and support. I perfectly understand that many visitors will have to postpone their visit to Spain for next year, so considering that it�s one of our most importan industries (mainly for the South and Mediterranean coast, in the north it�s not that important yet), it�ll be an economic chaos in the following months. But that�s life now and nothing much we can do about it...except following the rules that our governments are implementing and hoping for the quickest solution to this, again, nightmare. Thanks again!

Just checking in. Hopefully everyone reading this thread, particularly those living in Northern Spain are doing fine. We have a gorgeous spring here and I am lucky and grateful to be able to got out daily for walks in the neighborhood, where I am alone with trees in bloom. Very worried about our son who is treating the very ill patients in a hospital…. I thought of all of you when I read this article today from the Wall St. Journal. It gives us some hope and permission to at least dream about better times ahead of us. Stay well.

REVIEW --- Moving Targets: Let's Go Back to Making Unrealistic Plans

Queenan, Joe.Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]11 Apr 2020: C.6.
A fellow senior-citizen student in my Spanish class announced in our Zoom video session last Thursday that he had just canceled his flight to Aruba and re-booked it for October. My immediate reaction was: "October when? And by the way, profesora, how do you say 'in your dreams' in Spanish?"

I reacted this way because the idea that anyone in our age group (my fellow estudiante is in his 70s) would be flying overseas anytime this year struck me as absurd. As far as I can tell, nobody in a high-risk group is getting on a plane and going anywhere until this pandemic has completely passed. And just about nobody in the scientific community thinks that will happen this year. My kids might get to Aruba this October, but I won't. I might not get there next October.

But then I had second thoughts about my knee-jerk, wet-blanket reaction to my compadre's fall travel plans. What's the harm in believing that the crisis will pass by early fall and that we can all go back to flying overseas to see our children and grandchildren? How is it hurting anybody to make tentative, albeit unrealistic, plans to criss-cross America in an RV this summer? What's wrong with making plans to see Rihanna at the Acropolis in September?

It makes no difference if these fantasies are unlikely to come to fruition anytime in the near future. How is fantasizing about flying to Spain in October any nuttier than fantasizing about being in the stadium when the Detroit Lions finally win the Super Bowl? At some point it will be possible for my friend to make that trip to Aruba, even if it doesn't happen this year. The Lions, by contrast, are never going to win the Super Bowl. Never, ever, ever. But that's no reason to tell Lions fans to stop dreaming.

Clinging to preposterous dreams is one of the things that makes America great. Without the thrill that comes from dreaming the impossible dream, we would never have invented Ticketmaster or Cremora or the MacBook Air butterfly keyboard or Las Vegas. Going back even further, where would we be if Ponce de Leon had not gone searching for the fountain of youth, or if Christopher Columbus had not headed out on a search for a passage to India?

How did people deal with such dire situations in the past? My suspicion is that during the German occupation, French people hated it when persnickety, fact-obsessed neighbors went around saying, "You can just forget about the Allies getting here by Bastille Day" or "Based on my reading, I think the thousand-year Reich might last two thousand years." They much preferred to hear, "Mon dieu, is 1943 ever going to be a great year!" and "I just ordered tickets to see Edith Piaf the first Thursday after the Battle of Stalingrad." So what if these plans were a bit premature?

Earlier, during the seemingly interminable Black Plague, impossibly chipper sorts were known to declare, "They're saying that the Renaissance will get started in July, just as soon as this thing blows over," and "Don't forget -- Easter egg hunt at the Doge's Palace in April."

Taking my cue from these upbeat antecedents, I refuse to be a Gloomy Gus and tell people that their fall travel plans are ridiculous. Nobody wants to hear that everybody over the age of 60 will be in lockdown for the next 18 months. So if you really want to help your fellow Americans, especially older Americans, do them a favor and play along with the gag. Paris in August? I can already smell the frites on the Boulevard Saint-Michel. Windsurfing in Vietnam this fall? I'm airing out the wetsuit right now. Marlins-Orioles World Series tix in October? Batter up!

The worst that can happen, if we all lie to ourselves about how fast this thing is going to be over, is only that we're wrong. So go ahead and plan that autumn trip to Kathmandu. Start scheduling that block party in September. And by all means set aside oodles of cash for that long-awaited Led Zeppelin reunion concert at Madison Square Garden on Halloween. Better to be delusional than depressed.

Today was not a happy day for me. Based on what’s happening around us I decided to cancel the trip planned for this fall. I hope to be able to do it next year. Thanks to each of you who helped me do all the planning and though me about local specifics. I wish all of you good health and happy travels beyond the virtual ones.

So sorry for that, but fully understandable. The situation in Spain is improving daily and we have been able to flatten the curve, and the confinement is much less strict than it was at the beginning (we are now in the second phase of the descalating, out of four), but nobody knows how the next months will be. Hope to be able to help you with better answers next year!!

Good to know that you are OK, mikelg. Thanks for all your help. I hope for quick recovery of the world.and for the same trip next year. Stay well !

Suzanne you are not alone. My trip was going to be earlier in the year, next month in fact, and I left it as long as possible but I finally bit the bullet and cancelled all my hotels and car hire [all fully cancellable - thank goodness]. Hopefully such trips will be possible in the not too distant future.

mikelg - it's good to see that things are getting better in Spain. I fear that we in the UK have quite a long way to go before we will be able to be confident that that is the case.