Day Trip to Vitoria-Gasteiz

We last visited Vitoria-Gasteiz, the capital of Alava and the Basque Autonomous Community in 2018. Since then, a new museum opened in 2021, the Center / Memorial to the Victims of Terrorism. We’ve been wanting to visit, and we finally made it there last week (May 18).

Like Bilbao, Vitoria is an hour and 15-minute bus ride away. Unlike Bilbao and San Sebastian, Vitoria is inland and has a reputation for being chilly, especially during the winter when Basque locals joke its name is “Siberia-Gasteiz.” Fortunately, we had decent spring weather for our visit. The center of Vitoria has numerous attractive older buildings, squares, and churches.

After stopping for coffee, we headed to the museum, which is in the former Bank of Spain building.

The museum is about and the impact of terrorism on society, democracy, and human rights, highlighting victims and their families. The focus is on terrorist groups and acts of terrorism in Spain, but it also incorporates terrorist events from around the world, including 9-11.

Living in Spain, and in the Basque region, we felt visiting this museum was an important part of our political and cultural education. Most of the terrorist acts in Spain were perpetrated by ETA, an armed Basque separatist group that operated between 1959 and 2018. ETA killed 829 people, including 340 civilians, and injured more than 2,200. There are small plaques on the sidewalk in San Sebastian memorializing the assassinations that happened here. (I highly recommend the movie Maixabel, which should be available on Netflix, if you are curious about this part of Spanish/Basque history.) Our interest was vindicated as we gained a broader understanding of terrorism’s power and how governments respond. Spain has also experienced right-wing and “jihadist” terrorism. (Another Netflix recommendation is a documentary about the Madrid train bombings on March 11, 2004, 11M:Terror in Madrid.) We had the entire museum to ourselves, which made it easy to “enjoy.”

We explored the city a bit more before heading to eat at Waska, where we enjoyed a 3-course lunch. We had a cold gazpacho made with berries that was vibrant and delicious.

We are now looking forward to our third planned day trip next week: Bayonne, France.

Hasta pronto,

Shana & Jeff