Amazing Day 5: Markina to Guernika

Yet another beautiful, sunny day with blue skies and amazing views. Like yesterday, today´s walk was through many forests so shade was generally overhead. This route, so far, is incredibly beautiful with no unpleasant or industrial areas (inevitably this will change on either side of Bilbao). I love chatting with the locals but I haven´t had many opportunities thus far. Today, however, I did have a few pleasant encounters. The best was when the camino cut right through this old man´s property alongside his house, in his yard/cowpen. I asked him if he minded that so many people walked through his yard. In true old man Spanish fashion, he replied that he didn´t mind and he minded even less when they were women. He asked where I was from and I told him and then this old, rural, Basque farmer, with a wheelbarrow in front of him and a pitchfork in hand, informed me that my countryman, Michael Jackson, had died. I was delighted to have a news source in the middle of a cow yard. And yes, Mom, fear not, I did ask him about his cows. He didn´t tell me the breed but informed me that they were not milk cows but meat cows.
I have just started exploring Gernika and the map provided by the tourist office differentiates the pre 1937 bombing buildings from the new buildings. There really are only a handful of original buildings. They have rebuilt some of the city in a nice style but generally it really just isn´t as charming as most Spanish villages. I was headed to the small area where the original old buildings stand and came across this library so I stopped in.
Last night, in Markina, was my first big social outing-group dinner of the trip. A bunch of us went to the alleged bad restaurant for dinner. It was the French couple, Giuseppe, Kepa, me and a few others: Juan Carlos ( lives in Hendaye just over the border in France although he is Spanish), Irene (is from Belgium but of Italian parentage--she has walked here from somewhere in france near the swiss border), Pau (kid from Barcelona) and we also met Jan, who has walked here from his home in Antwerp, Belgium.
I have been speaking Spanish a lot more on this trip than on the previous two which is pretty fun. I rely on Juan Carlos so much to translate for the French couple that last night at the restaurant, I leaned over and said, "Tell the french people..." He alerted me that I was speaking to him in ENglish and not Spanish. I´ve asked Kepa to teach me a couple of Basque words (hello, good morning, etc) but I´ll have to write them down, I¨ll never remember. Incidentally, the restaurant was okay--actually tasty and a very low price compared to anywhere else we have been.
I´m covering less kilometers/day than on my previous two routes but the hills (which continue to be there) make it considerably more time consuming.