AC/DC to give concert at Bilbao Exhibition Centre, April 2009

The Australian group will arrive in the Basque town of Barakaldo on April 4.

he mythical band AC/DC will come to the Basque Country. Barakaldo's Bilbao Exhibition Centre (BEC) will hold Australian band’s concert on April 4. The General Deputy of Biscay Jose Luis Bilbao confirmed that the concert is promoted by the Foral Delegation of Biscay, Bilbao City Council and the Basque bank BBK.

Young brother's performance in Barakaldo will take place after the concerts in Barcelona and Madrid. AC/DC started last Monday a world tour in the United States to present its new album Black Ice. After several months in the United States, the band will travel to Europe.

There isn't any information about the tickets yet.

SECOND GUGGENHEIM IN BISCAY

The new museum’s management would be set up in Bilbao and is expected to be located in a 80,000 square-meter plot of land in Sukarrieta, Urdaibai, now occupied by a building that usually hosts holiday camps.

The Solomon Guggenheim Foundation gave its approval to the Museum’s expansion project around Urdaibai's Natural Reserve area, Biscay, Basque Country. The plans and costing were introduced in New York yesterday by representatives of the Museum and the Biscay’s County Council.

Culture Councilor Josune Ariztondo and Guggenheim Bilbao Museum’s director Juan Ignacio Vidarte accompanied County Councilor Jose Luis Bilbao.

“They saw the suggested place and they were delighted. We can say that we’ll work together to consolidate the project, but, as that was not an executive meeting, we can’t say that we took any decision”, Bilbao, who is also the president of Guggenheim Bilbao Foundation’s Executive Committee, explained.

The new museum’s management would be set up in Bilbao and is expected to be located in a 80,000 square-meter plot of land in Sukarrieta, Urdaibai, now occupied by a building that usually hosts holiday camps and that is owned by financial organization BBK. Savings bank holds conversations with the Foundation in order to make a “exchange of lands”.

Jose Luis Bilbao introduced the Guggenheim Museum’s 100-million-euro branch three months ago.

Cy Twombly’s works reach Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

The Art Gallery in Bilbao welcomes a monographic exhibition until February 15, 2009, organized in collaboration with the Tate Modern in London.

Coinciding with the American painter and sculptor Cy Twombly's eightieth birthday, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents from October 28, 2008, to February 15, 2009 the most important monographic exhibition that any Spanish institution has ever dedicated to this artist—one of the most influential of the latter half of the 20th century and the dawn of the 21st— organized in collaboration with the Tate Modern in London.

A selection of nearly 100 works, including paintings, sculptures and drawings, will occupy the second floor and one gallery on the first floor, with particular emphasis on the most important thematic series created by the artist over the course of his career. Saving a few exceptions, the works are arranged in chronological order.

This exhibition also emphasizes the museum’s special relationship and commitment to this artist in recent years with the 2007 acquisition of his series Nine Discourses on Commodus (1963), the first unitarily conceived series that Cy Twombly has ever designed and around which the exhibit revolves.

Dutch family in my Basque life, By Saskia Kamphuis

The Basque way of living is hard to compare with the way of living which I am used to in the Netherlands, the Dutch way of living. Of course there are some comparisons but the differences overrule.

The weather, the dinners, the shopping times, the people, the language, the traffic, the view and of course the costumes of the Basque people aren't comparable to what we Dutch are used to in our Dutch life.

This week my mother and sister came over from the Netherlands to visit me here in the Basque Country.
It was very difficult to decide what I wanted to show them because they would only stay here for one week. When I finally made up a plan the Basque weather came and made it all fell apart, so the last three days we just went with the moment.

On Monday it was luckily for us twenty-seven degrees in Bilbao, where we started our little trip. Letting them taste some good '"pintxos'" was the first Basque thing that I would like them to get in touch with. So we went into a nice bar with a terrace in the centre of Bilbao. While my mother and I were almost making our mouth water drop by just looking at the "pintxos" I realized that for someone who has a harder time to adept itself to a other way of living, like my sister, that eating '"pintxos'" is very unknown for a Dutch person. My sister just preferred some quick toast with marmalade like she is used to in the Netherlands.

Again the difference was noticeable ad night. I had a little bar in mind where they served typically Basque dishes but my sister wasn't used to the idea of eating in a bar. She expected a big restaurant with a lot of tables full of people eating.

I myself prefer the eating manners here, different tastes of different dishes in one meal and taking the time around the dinner table. In the Netherlands for lunch we just eat a quick sandwich. For dinner, that we have around six pm, people just eat typically Dutch dishes like peas of meat with some potatoes and vegetables.

In my opinion eating traditional Dutch food is boring because it knows only little variations. That is why I am very happy with my mother's love for cooking foreign cuisines. And for the same reason I wasn't surprised when my mom couldn't get enough of the '"pintxos'" we ate in Donostia on Thursday. By that time my sister had gotten curious to the food here and I was gladly surprised to see here enjoying different '"pintxos" in different bars as well.

While we were shopping here this week it was very difficult for us to find something in the right size because we Dutch women are much taller then the average Basque women. This was a bad thing because we saw so many good looking close but we could only do with window shopping most of the time. Which was a good thing for the wallet on the other hand of course.

When we were driving here from town to town in our rented car it was a good thing that I picked up some Basque and Spanish during the last two months. We got lost all the time because the roads and way of driving here in the big towns are more chaotic comparing to the Netherlands. After the second day we just dropped the car somewhere and travelled in the way that I am used to here, by bus or by foot. I prefer it this way because you can take your time to look around and another good thing is of course that everybody can join in the wine drinking with the '"pintxos" and during the lunch or dinner.

To bad for us that it was raining Thursday and Wednesday and that it just was thirteen degrees on Thursday. I actually can't really complain because all September and October the weather here was very fine, especially comparing to the Netherlands where it is freezing in the nights for some weeks already. It was only that my plan was to show them the charming sunny Basque Country, witch I was telling them about by phone all the time, and now they just saw the cold Basque Country where you have to get inside to notice the good charm of the country by a nice glass of wine.

I was scared of my mother and sister not fitting in to the life I have here because of the country and its manners that is unknown for them and in witch communication for them isn't that easy because they don`t know any Spanish. But my worrying was all for noting. They just loved the country and its views. They have let the dinners taste very well and they adored being with my new friends here who went into the trouble to just communicate with them in English.

My conclusion is that a Basque - Dutch life is possible but the differences are just very clear when you are trying to mix two lives like I did this week. At this moment I just wish that I didn't had to say goodbye to my mother and sister this morning because it was starting to get better and better having them here fitted into my Basque life. It isn't my Dutch life that I miss here, on the contraire because I don't feel like going back to the Netherlands at all, it are just the Dutch persons that I love which I miss.

Study confirms importance of Bay of Biscay's lineages on European genetic map

PhD thesis at the University of the Basque Country involved a detailed study of the maternal lines (mitochondrial DNA) of three autochthonous human populations in the Cantabrian coast area of the Bay of Biscay and which aimed to clarify the role of these populations in the postglacial recolonization in Europe.

Dr. Cardoso Martin explored the involvement of the Franco-Cantabrian populations of the Franco-Cantabrian refuge during the postglacial recolonization of Europe by analyzing the variability of mitochondrial DNA. According to a study made at the University of the Basque Country, the Franco-Cantabrian refuge, extending from the south-east of France to the eastern end of the Cantabrian coast, is considered to have been the main settlement for groups of humans who arrived from the north of Europe during the last glacier age, in order to escape from the extremely adverse weather conditions.

Looking for genetic markers

In order to carry out this research, an analysis was undertaken of a sample made up of 194 individuals belonging to three autochthonous populations from the Cantabrian coast: from the Arratia and Goierri valleys in the Basque Country, the Valley of Baztan in Navarre and from the Pas valley in Cantabria. The HVI and HVII segments from the mitochondrial DNA control region of the 194 participating individuals were sequenced.

Moreover, the complete mitochondrial DNA for 43 of the individuals was sequenced with a twin objective: to reconstruct the development of the various maternal lines from the Franco-Cantabrian refuge area and to confirm the results of the analysis of the sequenced segments. The results of this analysis enabled the classification of the individuals under study into genetic families known as haplogroups. The frequency of the various haplogroups was also analyzed - their spatial distribution throughout Europe and the age of the most recent common ancestor to the various lines was estimated.

Reduced genetic diversity

Most of the 194 individuals analyzed presented mitochondrial haplogroups characteristic of the European populations. Additionally, very infrequent haplogroups were found and exceptionally individuals, carriers of a haplogroup of African origin, were found in the Pas Valley.

The most frequent haplogroup amongst our samples from the Basque Country and Navarre turned out to be H, and, more concretely, the subhaplogroup H1. Also notable amongst these two populations was the high frequency of the J1c line, and particularly in the case of the north of Navarre, lines U5b and T2b also registered notable frequencies. In the Pas Valley, on the other hand, the greatest frequency corresponded to haplogroup V.

The adverse climate and the orography of the terrain would have favoured a marked isolation of the populations and, in consequence, a local genetic microdifferentiation that is reflected today in the predominance of some or other maternal lines in each of the analyzed populations.

Apart from presenting caracteristic haplogroups, as regards diversity, the research showed that the three autochthonous populations studied were characterized by reduced values for genetic diversity with respect to other European populations, even with respect to the rest of the Iberian Peninsula.

The populations of the Basque Country and the Pas Valley, together with that of Galicia, demonstrate the lowest diversity of lines within the European context. The population of the north of Navarre showed values within the range of European populations taken as reference.

The author of this study has put forward these differences in mitochondrial genome diversity as being related to the lower isolation of northern Navarre, given the powerful influences of the presence of Romans, Arabs and Jews in the region, as well as its location on the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela.

The comparison undertaken with other European populations showed that certain mitochondrial haplogroups presented their maximum level of frequency in the area of the Franco-Cantabrico refuge. It can be deduced from these findings that the definitory mutations of these haplogrupos could have originated in the refuge zone, or otherwise could have been transported by humans who retreated from the north of Europe, thus substantially increasing their frequency subsequently as a consequence of the genetic drift, a phenomenon known as the "founder effect".

Genetic markers of recolonisation in Europe

The study enabled the confirmation of the importance of lines H1 and V -the most abundant amongst the sample of analyzed individuals- as genetic markers of the postglacial recolonization from the refuges of southeast Europe. Also, the study’s findings showed that the T2b, J1c and U5b haplogroups constitute "paleolithic maternal lines", well conserved to date and with relevant frequencies in the Franco-Cantabrian refuge area.

This is why it is recommendable to include the area in future studies aimed at finding genetic tracks of the postglacial repopulation of Europe and at the evaluation of the impact of this grand demographic event in the reconstruction of the genetic patrimony of contemporary European populations.

The three Basque Paleolithic caves of Santimamiñe , Ekain and Altxerri declared as World Heritage sites

UNESCO's World Heritage Committee meeting in Quebec on Monday added the Basque Paleolithic caves of Santimamiñe (Kortezubi), Ekain (Deba-Zestoa) and Altxerri (Aia) to its list of World Heritage sites.

The richness of their Prehistoric paintings is a ‘gift’ the past has given us. Santimamiñe, discovered in 1916, has wonderful paintings of horses and bisons; in Ekain (1939), red and black horses can be found; and in Altxerri (1956) there are beautiful paintings of bisons


Although the caves of Santimamiñe, Ekain and Altxerri are closed to the public in order to protect and preserve their Paleolithic paintings, there is a virtual tour available to visit the cave of Santimamiñe, and a new replica of the cave of Ekain has been opened recently. This replica, will let you admire one of the most important temples with the most noteworthy cave art of the Old Continent, shows the first painting of a horse head found in Ekain. And if that is not good enough, the tour displays 70 paintings by the cave inhabitants 14,000 years ago. Most part of them are bison, horses and deer. To conclude the tour, an audiovisual screening explains the characteristics of the original archaeological site. Moreover, the visitors will be allowed to carry out a second tour across the cavern. This way, they will be back inside the cave with a major knowledge of its features. Ekainberri also consists of an exhibition room focusing on the Palaeolithic art in the Basque Country

Basque social eating in a gastronomical club, Part 2,By Saskia Kamphuis

There is no background music in the clubs because the sounds of knifes and forks chattering at the plates and the voices and laughter’s would overrule the music for sure.

By the time we got to the "patxaran" all the tables in the club were taken and the mood was at its best. The mood in a gastronomical society is always very cheerfully because everybody just loves to go there and when everybody starts singing spontaneously at the end of a evening the club feels like a warm and cozy celebration with a big family.

Gastronomical clubs are very common in the Basque country. Most of them where founded in about 50 years ago or more. In the beginning only men were allowed because they were the founders of them. A group of friends build them themselves for having good meals and playing some card games all together. Because they are all handmade by the societies every club has its own charming old style. When a change in the club or a extend of it is needed all the owners have to agree on it. Nowadays women and total families are invited to the clubs as well but in most of them it are still the men who do the cooking.

Because social eating is a daily event for a Basque dinners most be made in the clubs as well. The members invite there families and friends to the club and cook for them themselves. A gastronomical society can have members up to 200 people so a big kitchen with a lot of big pans and ovens is necessary and for the chefs to be able to serve all the food that is made big eating tables are a must as well.

Every night the members who are cooking bring the food for there own visitors to the club themselves. Most of the tables are booked almost every night for many hungry people so in the kitchen of a gastronomical club there is always a lot of movement. There are different cooks making different dishes at the same time.

With some help of one or two of the visitors they’ll prepare the dinner while the other visitors are relaxing with a bottle of wine and some chorizo or slices of ham. After the dinner they have to write down how many bottles of wine they used because the drinks are paid monthly by all the club member together.

The cooks serve every course to the visitors themselves but the do take the time to eat and relax with there visitors between the servings. After the dinner they can relax for the rest of the evening because a cleaning lady is hired every night for doing the dishes and cleaning the place. And they now how to relax very well.

After the dinner card games are being played under the enjoyment of a good Rioja or “patxaran” while other members are singing joyfully songs in the background until the last drop.

Basque social eating in a gastronomical club, Part I,By Saskia Kamphuis

Eating good food is a Basque tradition. The best way to participate in this tradition is find your way into one of the gastronomical societies that the country is known for.

You can't just knock on the door of a gastronomical society and walk in, a invitation by one of the members is needed. Last Friday I was lucky enough to be invited to a gastronomical society in Elorrio. Together with eight other foreign students I accepted the invitation to the society "Alkartu", which means 'coming together', with big curiosity. The husband of the sister of my teacher is a member so we were very lucky to have that connection. Balen is the name of the husband and together with the wife of my teacher, Bego, he was cooking us a lovely dinner that evening.

When we entered the club we first got a tour true it guided by Juan, one of the 154 members. The club had a very nice charm because it was founded in 1979 and it still exits out of the first stones that were placed with by the hands of the founders. The club is three floors high and at the upper floor the house still had only windows made out of stone without any glass inside. On the back side of the house there is a terrace with a barbeque and a big garden for the children to play in during the summer nights.

A homemade "txakoli", typical Basque white wine, and some chorizo with bread were waiting for us at the kitchen counter after the tour. While we were nibbling I got a good peak at the kitchen of the club. Five members where cooking at the same time for there visitors. Balen even had a other group of visitors next to us that evening so he was very busy. But the kitchen had the right equipment for the hard working cooks, the big pans and the large ovens were stuffed with many good smelling dishes. It was for sure that nobody would go home on a empty stomach that evening!

We started with a nice salad of potatoes with a light dressing and some fresh baked bred. Of course the opening of the wine bottles continued and we enjoyed a good "Rioja" with the dinner.

The salad was followed by a "salda" with chicken. "Salda" is a bouillon cooked out of spices and vegetables. To the bouillon cooked meat is added and I was told that another dish is often made out of the cooked vegetables. Instead of the cooked chicken we had in the "salda" we could also have had cooked chorizo. It is typically Basque to put chorizo in a "salda" and at local festivals on the streets "salda" with chorizo is very often served with a peas of bread.

The mean course of the evening was a tuna steak with a salsa of red and green peppers, garlic and tomato juice. A very good combination with a tender grilled tuna stake. Balen made ribs as the mean course for his other group that evening but he was so kind to put some a side for us. We are all still thankful for that because it were the kind of ribs that will make your mouth water by only looking at them The right spices where used and the cooking time in the oven must have been perfectly timed because even the family of Balen was amazed by the tenderness of the meat. It just fell right of the bone.

As if we hadn’t eaten enough already plates with creamy goat cheese with a kind of marmalade aside were served. After that it was good that there was coffee because we all have to recover from the delicious meals. But of course even the last bite that came with the coffee in the shape of a home backed cake with raisins was enjoyed by all of us. Next to the coffee we enjoyed a glass of "patxaran", which is a typical Basque liquor made out of blueberries.

Basque Country is the 2nd HotSpot for Lonely Planet tourist guide for 2009

The prestigious tourist guide Lonely Planet, the most influential one in the world, will be on sale on Wednesday. In this edition, it recommends the 10 best destinations for 2009, the Basque Country among them, in 2nd position.


In fact, our country is defined as "a cocktail of fun, sun, culture and beauty" in the guide. Lonely Planet makes every year a selection of the 10 most attractive places and gathers hem in a guide, the blue list, which is a reference for travelers from all over the world. It emphasizes the views that can be seen from the Pyrenees, which are described as "a place to fall head". It also mentions Guggenheim Museum, described as "a futuristic fantasy". It also includes a reference to our local parties, which "last the whole night and where millions of people get together to have fun". The guide even proposes a route: it recommends starting in Bilbao and spending the night in a hotel near Guggenheim Museum, traveling through the coast to Donostia-San Sebastian, coming through Bermeo, Lekeitio and Mundaka. Once arrived at Donostia, it proposes eating the popular "pintxos"

The pace of life in the Basque Country, by Tieme Hermans

Whenever people like myself live in or visit the Basque country, they could be heavily confronted with their own Northern European mentality.

Logically, differences are what makes us from beingmore than a bunch of pathetic clones.Here however, even though you don’t feel that far from home, in a way you’veentered a completely different world. One were people naturally seem to taketheir time for everything in life.

Take.. well, what not! Supermarkets! In Holland,people go berserk when the queue is longer than five people. There’s even achain that gives you free shopping if you’re the fifth person in line. Not inthe Basque Country.. When I look around, all stressed out and teeth grinding,people seem calm, eager to chat and quite able to wait a bit more.

Now you’d expect the shopping Basques to rush homeafter wasting all that precious time waiting in line. Not really, when youcompare the pace they walk here to that in Northern Europe you’d be surprised.While I cannonball along, Basques stop for talks that can take as long as theylast, walk like they’re absolutely heading nowhere and take their time tocheek-squeeze every baby they encounter. At the time they’re home, an averageNorthern European probably cooked his food and stuffed it in already.

This brings us to the Basque eating habits, here yousee a mayor difference between the Basques and us ‘guiri’.Guiri is the Spanishnickname for an embarrassingly stereotypical tourist from Northern Europe. Thegreat difference is that in our potato countries, we would eat lunch betweentwelve and two and dinner between five and seven. Basques couldn’t, here lunchis taken around three o’clock and is can be enjoyed with a nice glass of wine.Dinner can be eaten until eleven at night, since they consider it to beafternoon until eight here. And again, the speed is slow, the food might turncold but the conversations are longer and people seem relaxed.

Even more relaxed, Basques appear to be when you’rereally heading somewhere. The other day I was with a couple of Basque friendsand we were in front of an overcrowded bar, deciding where to go now. Right inthe entrance, they decided to hold still to discus the whereabouts for thatnight. Such a calm blockade we were, and besides me, none appeared to bebothered by it!

But hey, things aren’t always that bad for a poor guiri like myself. As a proper Dutchman I tried obtaining me a bicycle to get aroundsome time ago. The man in the bike shop showed me what he had in stock, but thefor what he asked for a ramshackle bike I thought I could get much better. So Ichallenged my patience and just stood around a bit, for it happened to be afriendly bloke working there. Twenty minutes later, after practicing my best Euskera(Basque) and Spanish on him, he told me to wait while he headed for agarage. Thereupon, he returned with this old racing bike, which he told me Icould borrow from him until I returned home. We inflated the tires, tightenedsome screws and it was like new! Where in profit seeking Western Europe wouldyou find a bike to borrow from a shop without them noting down your name oranything?

I guess good things really come to those who wait

Weather in the Basque Country

The weather in the Basque Country is something that may surprise its visitors. Unlike in many parts of the Iberian peninsula, it can be quite a downer here when you left your warm cloths at home.

Travellers in the Basque Country will be well reminded of the fact that they're not finding themselves in Spain. I read a sign in a coastal surf town called Mundaka saying: 'Dear visitor, you have just entered a village that is not in Spain, neither in France, but in the Basque Country'. People new to the Basque Country may be confused about the exact size because of the different interpretations of it. One will hear people talk of Euskadi, Euskal Herria or Zazpiak Bat. Well, to make things easier for my co-mazed foreigners, I would suggest them to do nothing more then to look around. Cause besides of the Basque names, looks, building styles and other ways of cultural expression, the nature is completely different than in Spain.

Prior to my arrival, I found myself being amazed, sitting in the airplane. I knew I wasn't heading for a place where people look or feel Spanish, but besides that, even the country appeared to be most unspanish! Before arriving at Bilbao airport we flew over hills, valleys and farmlands that looked green enough to think the pilot accidentally took the exit to Ireland instead of the Basque Country.

But just like in Ireland, the Basque Country couldn't be the greenest part of Spain without dealing with the downside of fertility; rain. There is hardly any place on the Iberian Peninsula were it rains as much as in the Basque Country. This does indeed make it an excellent farmland and a heaven for outdoor lovers but since the area is so mountainous and close to the sea, the weather can be highly unpredictable.

A couple of weeks ago, I went visiting a friend in Zaragoza and I was stunned by the sudden difference that occurred. As soon as my bus left the Basque province of Araba,we left the green zone and entered a dry, hostile land, only sometimes to be interrupted by the presence of theRio Ebro. The desert like environment would bearound me until I came back to re-experience the sharp geographical contrast between Spain and the Basque Country.

On one hand, the Basques are blessed with a temperate climate that doesn't show extreme differences during the changing of the seasons. But on the other hand, the weather changes so fast that it can be hard to keep up. Therefore, you learn not to trust forecasts, to take your umbrella to the beach and plan hikes when rain is predicted..

Cause here you just never know, let us go and check out the forecasts!