I was reminded by an unnamed traveling companion that I owed the blog a “Basque highlights recap” that I mentioned on Day 7.  So here goes the top pieces of learning…

– Talking about “the Basque Country” is a bit complicated. Of the 17 autonomous regions of Spain, there is a defined geographical “Basque Country”. But for those Basques who believe in a real, separate Basque country…the area would also include the Navarra region, small parts of other Spanish regions and parts of southwest France.  Key learning: I will defer to more qualified sources to explain the current and past political history of this region.

– Basque traditional attire is distinctive. The black Basque beret looks cool on older Basque gentlemen and on virtually anyone during the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona. I tried it on…couldn’t pull it off.  Yes…I deleted the photos.

– Basque food is great…cheese…cakes…pork. Thank goodness we are walking 15 miles a day.

– Saint Ignatius Loyola and Saint Francis Xavier were both Basque priests and missionaries.  The Jesuit order was founded by Basques.

– People in this mountainous/hilly area were consistently friendly, outgoing and good-humored. We would like to visit again some day…via some type of non-walking mode of transportation.