Basque Country

In May, when a friend and I went on a Backroads International tour of the Basque country in northern Spain and southern France, I went with trepidation and came back singing its praises. The Basque country is beautiful with its mountains, rushing (rivers), rugged coast and charming small villages. And San Sebastian is a delight. All of this was made more exceptional because of our tour guide, an American who now lives in the area, speaks both Spanish and Basque and brought the region to life for us because of his knowledge of Basque history.

BEASAIN, Spain - The Spanish countryside is littered with unfinished condos, stillborn reminders of the country's disastrous construction boom gone bust. But the verdant valleys and Atlantic cliffs of the northern Basque Country are virtually free of that blight. Why? For decades, terrorist attacks by the Basque separatist group ETA meant no one wanted to build here. Now with a cease-fire that's held for two years, the region is casting off its reputation for terrorism and garnering one for something else: Economic growth unseen in the rest of Spain.

Spanish police arrested eight suspected members of a Basque separatist group Wednesday, seizing weapons and bomb-making material, including a vehicle being prepared for a car bomb attack. Police officers wearing masks to conceal their identities hauled boxes of evidence out of apartments after their dawn raid against suspected hide-outs of ETA separatists in the towns of Zizurkil, Zaldibia and Lasarte.

- At the village market, my friend Pepa buys a couple of small white fish, a handful of clams, a few shrimp. I ask what she's preparing. " Una sopa marinera, de pescado ," she replies. A fish soup. Nothing fancy, no complications, just a simple home-style fish soup, ready in minutes. In Spanish, " marinera " has nothing to do with tomato sauce - it means mariner's style, fishermen's fare. These seafood soups are traditional aboard fishing boats or in fishermen's homes, where the remains of the day's catch find their way into the soup pot. From the village where Pepa and I shop, we look down to the Mediterranean coast, where a fishing port receives fresh seafood daily.

Rick Steves will appear this weekend at the Los Angeles Times Travel Show to talk about -- what else? -- Europe. Steves wrote his first "Europe Through the Back Door" guidebook in 1980 and has churned out about 40 books since then. His latest project reveals 12 hidden places in Europe that most Americans haven't visited. Steves takes viewers there and explains his picks in a public TV special "Rick Steves' Hidden Europe" that will air in March. Here are some of the spots he selected.

Cash machines glow with Basque-language instructions. Bilingual road signs are going up. Students can take exams in a language once discouraged by the government. The French Basque country, long known for violence by Basque separatists, seems to be starting down a peaceful path that local leaders hope will lead to autonomy.

Spain's Basque country erupted in protests against France's expulsion of six suspected separatist guerrillas as French Premier Jacques Chirac paid his first official visit to Madrid. Demonstrators blocked expressways and roads around several Basque towns, set fire to a French-registered truck and stoned the headquarters of the ruling Socialist Party in Hernani. During his seven-hour visit to Madrid, Chirac met with King Juan Carlos I and Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez.

Claude and Pierre can't agree on Claude's nationality. "I am Basque," Claude says. "No, you live in France and you are French," answers Pierre, jabbing him in the chest to make his point. Welcome to France's Basque country, a corner of the southwest where history, culture and geography fuse to turn the simplest question into a convoluted argument.

For high school senior Alex Wray, there's no stigma to his membership in a troupe that performs traditional old-world peasant dances. The 17-year-old also is an offensive lineman, but he said his varsity football teammates never razz him about his primary passion: dancing with the young adults of the Oinkari company. In many communities, the harmonious mix of arts and athletics could be attributed to "Glee. " In Boise, thank the Basques. "My mom is Basque," Alex said, referring to Basque Country, the small, semi-autonomous chunk of land straddling the border of Spain and France.

In a region where separatist violence can determine the outcome of big and small projects alike, the Basque regional government has decided to try something new: Ask the people what they think. To preempt extremists who sabotaged an earlier road project, the government has appointed citizens' panels to evaluate a plan to widen the only two-lane stretch in a highway that runs from Sweden to southern Spain.

Rick Steves will appear this weekend at the Los Angeles Times Travel Show to talk about -- what else? -- Europe. Steves wrote his first "Europe Through the Back Door" guidebook in 1980 and has churned out about 40 books since then. His latest project reveals 12 hidden places in Europe that most Americans haven't visited. Steves takes viewers there and explains his picks in a public TV special "Rick Steves' Hidden Europe" that will air in March. Here are some of the spots he selected.

THE BEST WAY TO SAN SEBASTIÁN, SPAIN From LAX, connecting service is offered on American, Virgin America, Air France, British, KLM, Lufthansa, Delta and US Airways, with at least two stops for changes of plane. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $972, not including taxes and fees. TELEPHONES To call the number below from the U.S., dial 011 (the international dialing code), 34 (country code for Spain) and the number. TOURS Tenedor, http://www.tenedortours.com , offers culinary and cultural tours of the Basque Country, including a visit to a txoko and cooking classes.

San Sebastián, the heart of Spain's Basque Country, is well known for its superb cuisine. The elegant seaside resort of 185,000 lays claim to more Michelin stars per capita than any other city in Europe. Restaurants such as Arzak and Mugaritz, acclaimed for their high-tech gastronomy, attract diners from all over the world. But there's another side to San Sebastián's culinary culture that few outsiders are aware of. The city is home to scores of txokos , private gastronomical societies where members gather to cook, eat, drink, talk and, quite often, sing together.

For high school senior Alex Wray, there's no stigma to his membership in a troupe that performs traditional old-world peasant dances. The 17-year-old also is an offensive lineman, but he said his varsity football teammates never razz him about his primary passion: dancing with the young adults of the Oinkari company. In many communities, the harmonious mix of arts and athletics could be attributed to "Glee. " In Boise, thank the Basques. "My mom is Basque," Alex said, referring to Basque Country, the small, semi-autonomous chunk of land straddling the border of Spain and France.

Before home soccer games in this Basque city, local fans wearing their team's red-and-white jersey cram into bars and streets around the San Mames stadium and chant, full-throated, Athletic Bilbao's traditional call to arms. "Athletic, let's go!" they roar in the Basque language, "You're in all our hearts, the people love you, because you were born of the people!" That's no idle boast. Spain's top soccer league is one of the best and richest in the world, with teams such as Real Madrid and FC Barcelona enjoying seemingly bottomless reservoirs of cash to assemble -- and just as swiftly scrap and remake -- dream teams filled with the most talented feet on the planet.

Amid a bitterly divisive campaign for next month's national elections, the Spanish government is cracking down on Basque separatists and their potential ballot-box voice with a string of arrests and the banishing of political parties. The police and judicial actions underscore a sobering backdrop to the March 9 elections: the collapse of a landmark truce with the armed Basque organization ETA that had appeared to have ended the decades-old conflict.

An attacker shot a Spanish newspaper executive seven times Thursday in the first killing blamed on the Basque group ETA since voters overwhelmingly rejected separatist bloodshed in a recent election. Santiago Oleaga, 52, was shot three times in the head, three times in the back and once in the neck in a hospital parking lot in the northern coastal city of San Sebastian, police said. He did not have police protection.

A van packed with explosives blew up Friday outside a police station in the Basque country, shattering windows, destroying cars and injuring two officers in the first serious attack by Basque separatists since they called off a ease-fire in June. Authorities blamed the Basque separatist group ETA for the predawn blast targeting a Civil Guard station in Durango, just south of Bilbao, the region's main city.

LA RIOJA, a breathtaking, mountainous area in northern Spain, produces some of the best wines in Europe. But a part of it -- Rioja Alavesa -- is now producing something else, too: architecture. Rioja Alavesa is in the country's Basque region, south of Bilbao, the home of Frank Gehry's curvaceous stone, glass and titanium Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Gehry's creation helped drive urban renewal in Bilbao, regenerating the city with innovative architecture.