Today is the last day of our voyage to Spain and Portugal. We ended this voyage in one of the most interesting parts of the Iberian Peninsula, Basque Country. During this entire voyage we have discussed the many waves of conquest that have occurred over the centuries in Spain and Portugal, and in nearly all of them, the Basque country, a thin strip of land north of the Cantabrian Mountains, which lie along the north coast of Spain, have been successfully defended by the Basques. They are probably descended from the earliest human inhabitants of Europe. They speak a language which is unlike any of the Indo-European languages, and they have blood types which are quite different from other modern European groups. They were adept at living and working in the rugged country in northern Spain and southwestern France, which they have occupied for centuries.

We went ashore for a visit the famed Guggenheim Museum, designed by Paul Gehry, which has been the focal point for a remarkable transformation of the city from a rather dingy, very industrial center along the river, to a beautiful panorama of new buildings and bridges that shined in the bright sunlight of the day of our visit. Bilbao and the rest of Basques country are today also the center for economic development in Spain. The rest of the country is feeling the effects of depression in the Eurozone, and people from other parts of Spain are emigrating to Bilbao in search of employment. Bilbao is prosperous because of many industries that are centered there, but the urban development that has transformed the city in the past 30 years has made it one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.