The Basque Country is quite unique with its Euskara language of unknown origin. Men are dressed in white with red berets and red girdles to dance or play pelota against the “fronton” of each village.
Along the coast are the main cities of San Sebatian and Santander.
San Sebastian is at the French border. It lies in a beautiful setting of a scallop shaped bay, between Mounts Urgull and Igueldo. It is known as the “pearl of the Cantabrian Coast”. As a high fashion resort it gained its reputation by being patronized by the Spanish Royal family. All summer long, the San Sebastian events calendar is rich in many programs with Film and Jazz festivals, the Semana Grande in August, a Basque Festival with folkloric festivities, tennis and golf tournaments, contests of clay shooting, racing and regattas.
The gastronomic reputation of San Sebastian has long lasted with its culinary academy and its good food clubs (Sociedades Recreativas); there are more than 30 of these clubs, where men, only, prepare excellent meals in the club kitchen and consume them accompanied by cider or local chacoli wine.
On the north Shore of a great bay, Santander extends behind the older residential quarter of El Sardinero where the ancient Summer Palace is now the Santander International University annex. A gambling casino, golf, water sports, theatrical events, St Jame’s festival are part of the entertainment available every summer.
Discovered in 1879 the rock paintings of Altamira were the first of a kind to be discovered. They were found 20 years ahead of the paintings of the Dordogne Valley, in France. The amazing pictorial art made by Paleolithic men were originally viewed with extreme skepticism and taken for fake and not recognized. The cave temperature has a constant 57 degree Fahrenheit. The art has been dated from the end of the Magdalenian period, 15000 to 12 000 years BC. The colored frescoes, particularly on the ceiling show an extraordinary realism bison, which are sleeping, galloping, or stretching. Other animals such as boars and horses are also painted on the walls.
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