Mondragon, the town where Marga grew up, is a rather difficult place to get to. It’s situated in a mountain valley in the Basque Country. Until this year, getting to it by car required driving through some winding mountain passes. A couple years ago, they began a major highway project in the Basque Country, and are building a major motorway that will run right by Mondragon. The travel time from Mondragon to nearby cities will be more than cut in half. As with most Progress, the surrounding countryside has been damaged altered.

I took this photo in October, 2001, when I was visiting Mondragon for the second time. I had no idea when I was there on October 13, 2001, that I would be getting married in the same town six years later.

I took this picture last weekend. July, 2007.

Here you can see the two combined. They’ve cut the side of the mountain right open to make room for the motorway.

I recommend that you view the larger versions on Flickr by clicking on them. You can really tell the difference in camera quality between then and now.

You will notice that I’ve changed how the comments work here. I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time. You no longer have to be logged in to post a comment, you just have to be able to do a little math. This should stop spam bots and all but the most clever three-year-olds from posting their nonsense here.