What about Basque Country?
 

Hi there,

I would like to know anything about Basque Country, in the Northern Spain. Do you know anything about the basque lands and basque people? I have heard beautiful words about their traditions and gastronomy and would like what places I should visit there, info about accommodation and some beautiful tours.

Can you help me?
Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,
Margaret

There are wonderfully helpful people on this thread who would like to help you, Margaret, but we cannot serve as your educators of the Basque region. You will need to first do your basic research by getting a guide book or two and doing some homework.

After you do that I suggest you come back to the Forum with both some indication of what sort of things interest you, and the level of your budget. Then you can pose more specific questions that we will be happy to assist you with.

Start here:
http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/s...basque-country

Searching the forum archives for trip reports will also help.

The Basque region extends up into France as well, Bayonne being more or less the northernmost point near the coast. It's a great small-medium town with an interesting museum of Basque culture at the base of the old town, excellent food.

Kimhee is one of the experts on here, search for her posts. She's very knowledgeable on San Sebastiàn/Donestia, my favorite town on the Bay of Biscay in northwest Spain, as well as on the region in general.

Go to www.maribelsguides.com and read her sections on Pais Vasco(Spain) Pays Basque(France) and San Sebastian/Donostia.
She knows the area very well and her guides which you can print are very helpful for this part of the world.

Two very good intro sites to the Spanish Basque Country/Euskadi:
http://www.euskoguide.com/
http://tourism.euskadi.eus/en/

How about starting by reading "The Basque History of the World?"

In addition to Mark Kurlansky's excellent book that StCirq has referenced, for reading about the Basques and Basque culture, there' are the Robert Laxalt books, written from the son of a Basque emigrant to America's perspective:

A Cup of Tea in Pamplona
The Land of My Father's: A Son Returns to the Basque Country
Sweet Promised Land

and Rodney Gallop's:
A Book of the Basques

and Paddy Woodworth's:
The Basque Country, a Cultural History

Bernardo Atxaga's
Obabakoak: Stories from a Village

For more travel tips, the web site
www.euskoguide.com

And travel tips for the French side, Pays Basque
http://www.terreetcotebasques.com/en/

Documentaries:
Basque Ball: Skin Against Stone by Julio Medem

More on Basque culture from a personal friend and founding member of the Seattle Euskal Etxea
http://buber.net/Basque/

And from the North American Basque Organization:
http://www.nabasque.org

For recipes of Basque cuisine:
Teresa Barrenechea's
The Basque Table

And Gerald Hirigoyen's
The Basque Kitchen

2.5 million inhabitants, historically divided in two countries (Spain and France), and in two regions in Spain (Basque Country and Navarre, which may not fully considered Basque). Basque language is spoken by about 600,000 people, divided in 7 dialects. Very autonomous region, it has its own Parliament, laws, and taxes are paid to each province, not to the Spanish government. There´s a Basque police and education is mainly in Basque. Bilbao (350,000h) is the biggest city. One of the longest life expectancies in the world, mainly for women. Good food is like a religion here. And we have our own sports, traditions, way of living...that makes us kind of "less" Spaniards than other regions. No flamenco, no sangría (in fact, sangría is drunk mainly by tourists in Spain), not much bullfighting, not a sunny place. Rioja wine region is, in its northern part, also part of the Basque Country. And plenty of history, castles, medieval towns, wonderful landscapes (70% of surface is covered by mountains and forests). Over 70 beaches, surrounded by trees and woods.

A very brief description...and a wonderful place to discover.

So this was a disguised ad after all?

Is nothing sacred anymore? People like that contribute to my budding misanthropic growth.

I just can´t believe it...I know these people personally and they can´t be so clumsy...