Walking to… Bilbao (Basque country!)
Exercise November 23rd, 2007I’ve been fascinated by the Basque people for quite some time. The Basques are an ethnically distinct group in Europe currently living in Southwest France and Northeast Spain and are coming close to the end of the line as they become more and more assimilated each year with the European culture around them (Spanish separatist movement & violence notwithstanding).
I’ve been in France for 4 years now & have never made it there to visit, even though I’ve read several books on the topic & am very interested.
Well, my husband proposed that we take a weekend there early next year - in February.
In the meantime, I’ve been trying to decide what to do for my exercise tracking. I’ve seen these neat programs where you do a virtual walk across the US or Canada but couldn’t find that for Europe, so I calculated the number of miles between Paris (where I live) and Bilbao (capital city in Spanish Basque country) and viola — 462 miles.
Yikes. I don’t think I can actually walk 462 miles between now and our trip, but at least it gives me something to measure against, and it seems more meaningful than counting the minutes. Last week I set up an exercise ticker w minutes, with the goal randomly selected at 500, but I’ve actually been making good progress towards that (as of yesterday I’m at 285 of 500 minutes, so clearly that is do-able). I think the miles to Bilbao will be a better goal, and even if I’m far off in February, I’ll get there eventually.
So, here’s the ticker :
…it’s also on my Progress page!
I had an exercise boost today. There have been major transportation strikes in Paris for the past few weeks, and today I had a meeting across town. I considered my options and decided to WALK instead of fighting the crowds of the metro or risking crazy stress levels from terrible traffic jams on the roads. So I put on my iPod and set out… and ended up walking home at the end of the day too. 6 miles round trip! Not bad at all, and the most environmentally-friendly and least-stressful choice I could have made! Plus I’m that much closer to Bilbao 
November 23rd, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Neat idea; maybe I’ll try a goal like that for my dreaded exercise bike in the garage—it’s the closest, easiest exercise I can get and yet I have a terrible time talking myself into getting out there and on it. I’ll bike “somewhere!!”
November 23rd, 2007 at 8:57 pm
That is a wonderful plan! After a week/month you could look up where those miles walked could have taken you. Might learn something new about the towns you live near.
November 23rd, 2007 at 9:09 pm
What a cool idea!!!!! I might have to steal it from you and start tracking my miles on the treadmill. Not quite as exciting as walking outdoors, but it’s been so cold here.
November 23rd, 2007 at 9:38 pm
How very cool and you answered the question I asked you on my blog (where were you going?? LOL). Sounds like a beautiful walk today — 6 miles round trip is so doable and I speak for myself when I say I just don’t do it — must try to change that.
Good on you!!!!
J
November 23rd, 2007 at 10:45 pm
I took a look at the link you had to the Basque people. Very interesting! While very different, it’s kind of like the Amish in the area that I’m from. Since I grew up around the Amish, I don’t particularly find them that interesting, however, people come from across country to see them & experience their lifestyle.
Such a wonderful idea, “walking” to Bilbao. It makes your trip seem all that much more personal! Best of luck on your goal!
November 24th, 2007 at 12:43 am
Great idea for your exercise goal! I agree that it is definitely better than counting minutes walked. Good luck! Maybe you could even pick “destinations” along the way to set mini-goals for yourself - like any small towns or cities along the route.
Thanks so much for your comments on my blog! I love getting the support. My hand is healing well - the “chunk” out of my hand was a lot smaller than I thought - but there was so much bleeding that it looked bigger! I ended up taking yesterday (Thanksgiving) off from exercising but exercised on both Wednesday and today. I will continue to read your blog because you have great posts!
November 24th, 2007 at 1:21 am
I have no doubt you will achieve the goal you have set.
My future son-in-law speaks French and wants to take my daughter there some day. He visited Italy as part of his Bachelor Degree Program a couple of years ago. He loved it and said he hoped to see France as well with my daughter (he said you need to see France with the “love of your life”)
Thanks for dropping by my blog and leaving a sweet comment!!
Have a great weekend!!
Hugs,
Judy
November 24th, 2007 at 4:43 am
Hey, what a neat idea. Let me try it out too. I somehow don’t like walking so much. I am also going to track my kms in a ticker and let me find out a nice place I want to walk to. Maybe I can arrange a trip there at the end of it.
love,
iniya
November 24th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Thanks for all the support! It’s a pretty neat idea, isn’t it? I’m glad others of you find it interesting too.
I love the idea of making mini-goals along the way. I’ll have to map out where I’m heading and maybe make a weekly post of my progress — where I am along the route.
December 5th, 2007 at 9:41 am
[...] A few weeks back I decided to start counting my exercise time towards a goal. Since I am currently walking for exercise I chose to measure in miles. Since I’m very interested in the Basque country, and we have a weekend planned there in February, I chose Bilbao as my destination. So I’m walking to Bilbao. [...]
January 24th, 2008 at 8:59 am
[...] Back in November I decided to start counting my exercise time towards a goal. I am currently walking for exercise I chose to measure in miles. Since I’m very interested in the Basque country, and we have a weekend planned there in February, I chose Bilbao Spain as my destination. So I’m walking to Bilbao. [...]
February 19th, 2008 at 9:58 am
[...] Back in November I decided to start counting my exercise time towards a goal. I am currently walking for exercise I chose to measure in miles. Since I’m very interested in the Basque country, and we had a weekend planned there in February, I chose Bilbao Spain as my destination. So I’m walking to Bilbao. [...]
July 1st, 2008 at 8:22 am
[...] last Fall I also started tracking my walking by working on a virtual walk to Bilbao (in Spanish Basque Country). There is a small amount of cheating (or creativity, if you will) - I [...]