In the museum of Cristobal Balenciaga.

Getaria is a tiny town about 5 km from Zarautz and boasts several big names who were born there. The main one, as far as Collette is concerned, is Cristobal Balenciaga, one of the leading fashion designers of the 1900’s. The museum of his life and work is a work of art on its own and is the main attraction in the town.

Outside of that, Getaria is a gorgeous little town with lots of Basque products shops, fabulous food and wine, and lovely architecture.

There is a mens and women’s jai alai tournament being played in towns all around the region at the moment. It gets very competitive.

This is the other big name to come out of Getaria. Elkano was a Spanish navigator and ship owner and was navigator on the Magellan expedition to the Spice Islands to complete the first circumnavigation around the world. Probably worth a statue or two but is it bigger than being the world’s greatest couturier?

The main shopping and eating street.

Inside the church, old and modest.

A further memorial to Elcano.

One of the local delicacies is char grilled fish. Unfortunately they didn’t fire up until the evening.

Another town built on a mountain.

Zarautz in the background.

Every town here seems to be able to find a local hero in their history. However I challenge anyone to be up on the history of The War of Jenkins’ Ear. If you can claim to be an expert, without the help of Wikipedia, you win a prize.

After walking up the hill from the last lot of steps I showed you, there are two escalator rides up to see this escalator and elevator. Told you it was hilly.

Some more fancy iron work.

The Balenciaga Museum.

The man himself.

It was an excellent presentation of Balenciaga’s methodology. There are 5 galleries which show his early life, the making, the structure, techniques, and shaping. There is also a section dedicated to the nameless women who did the meticulous manufacturing process behind it all.

These cardboards contain essential information about all the models in a collection, including their assigned numbers, a fabric sample with the name of the supplier and the name of the model who was going to present it.

A rough design sketch with the fabric to be used. This one includes the agent name or supplier of the fabric.

Time to head home. The bus public transport system in this country seems to go everywhere you might want to go but the timetable is a mere suggestion of what might happen if you are patient enough.

In this case we had 45 minutes to admire this 14th C watchtower that was designed to look for marauders and whales.

Getaria beach.

Tomorrow we finally leave our comfy camp site and head to Bilboa, the main city in Basque Country. We are very much enjoying the Basque experience as it is quite unique. Their passion for Basque, its produce and its place in history is great to see. We look forward to continuing it further in Bilboa.

David & Collette