Finally after being here for three years we made it to the birthplace of my grandparents, Fermin Acebo Casar and Elvira Lastra Gomez. They arrived in the United States through Ellis Island and made their way to Vermont meeting in and marrying in Montpelier. If you travel to their birthplace, Mirones, you’ll notice similarities to Vermont, mountains, albeit more rugged and imposing, and green, very green.
We had planned to visit Mirones (population 142) in September but Landen and Lauren had planned a trip to see us, visit Bilbao and San Sebastian in Basque Country (Pais Vasco), and then go to Germany to link with her brother and sister. So Cindy and I added a day to our itinerary and went to Mirones another 80 km to the west and visited my cousin Tina Acebo Gomez , her husband Val, and daughter Elena. Tina was actually born in Barre and moved to Spain with her parents when she was 20. I posted a picture of us on Facebook and Suzy Bedia Lamson (Suzy is Spanish too) recognized the little girl she used to played with on Second Street in Barre.
Bilbao (345,000)
Bilbao is more temperate in climate, cooler summers and winters, no Vermont winter, 20-30 C in summer and 8-10 C in winter, sounds pretty ideal to me. We loved Bilbao, just a beautiful city, different from the south of Spain with multicolored buildings and of course the center piece of the city, the Guggenheim Museum. Landen found an Air B&B centrally located which made negotiating the city very easy.
Museo Guggenheim
San Sebastian (186,000)
Smaller than Bilbao, you could live here, hell I could live here, if you like beaches and if you like quaint and beautiful. It has these beautiful arching beaches with a imposing castle protecting the harbor from invading English or French. Again walking is so easy and lots of wonderful restaurants and sights.
Tour Guides
Mirones (142)
The family started here and my newest cousin, Elena’s daughter and Tina’s granddaughter. It’s surreal walking down these streets after Google Earthing them many times. We also went though another village with some Barre connection so this one is for the Rubalcaba family. Another village nearby is La Carcoba which also rings a bell in Barre.
I’ll finish this with current history, no not the stuff in Washington, but Madrid and Cataluyña. We are following the events here and have been since we moved to Ronda. The Catalán government passed an independence resolution and have now formerly declared independence. They have their own language, police force, medical system, education system, and account for approximately 20% of the Spanish economy, think California which accounts for 14.1% of the US economy. So this is a big deal when put into perspective, and it’s always about the money. And it’s also rooted in history, yup that history again. Under the Franco dictatorship minorities were suppressed in Catalyuña, Galicia ( different language here too), Pais Vasco ( and another language). So take the past stir in some present and you get….a problem looking for a solution, and the solution as it is most times is COMPROMISE. So we’ll see what transpires.
Here’s some language for you
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Luns Martes Mércores Xoves Venres Sábado Domingo-Galician
dilluns dimarts dimecres dijous divendres dissabte diumenge-Catalán
astelehena asteartea asteazkena osteguna ostirala larunbata igandea-Basque
lunes martes miércoles jueves viernes sábado domingo-Spanish
Our España 