Tuesday August 28, Bilbao

August 29, 2018

Tuesday August 28, Bilbao

The stunning Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

I am writing my blog tonight with a panoramic view of the lights of Bilbao out the front window of the motorhome, this campsite is just amazing. We set off quite early this morning (9am!!) and only had an hour drive to the campsite. Bilbao is a big city but Jilly had us zipping through the motorways over to the other side of town and up into the hills in no time at all. I had read about this camp on Park4Night and everyone gave it rave reviews. For €15 a night we have all facilities, electricity, free wifi and the bus stop for town is 100 metres down the road.
We got settled then set off for a day in town. We met our “neighbour”, Alfredo at the bus stop who was a big help about how the bus system operates. For €1.30 we arrived in the centre of the old town of Bilbao in 30 minutes, after enjoying a tour around a rather interesting neighbourhood. The city is really compact with so much high-rise housing.
The old city was fascinating as we walked the narrow streets lined with really small shops selling everything from fruit and vegetables, fish, meat and baby clothes, shoes and clothing. We had heard about pintxos (pronounced pincher) bars from Herber a few days ago. These are similar to tapas but much more elaborate and he explained how people move from bar to bar selecting their favourite pintxos and a glass of something before moving onto another bar and sampling theirs. This usually happens between 11am and 2pm then everyone has a lunch from about 2 until 4 before siesta time!
We found a large square surrounded by many pintxos bars and outdoor eating areas and decided to try some out. The barman was great and he suggested a local favourite with cod and olive oil in a sauce which I tried (it was okay but not my favourite) and Ian had another local favourite with parma ham and other yummy ingredients. And of course some rosè. Loved people watching and seeing how they bought their goodies. Then did as the locals and off to another bar and tried some more. It really was fun.
We weren’t ready for lunch so set off along the river front to the Guggenheim Museum, it was quite a walk and Ian managed really well, making use of the sidewalk seats for a few rests. I had heard so much about this museum, designed by Frank Gehry, built in 1997 and clad in titanium, glass and limestone. The architecture is amazing with the light playing on the titanium walls creating all different colours and shapes. We walked around it before finding a café for a very late lunch. While Ian had a beer, I walked up to a bridge to get an excellent view of the whole structure, the light was amazing as the sky became very moody, then I heard the thunder, and a few spits. By the time I got back to the café there were some rather large spots. Realised we could catch a tram back into town ready to catch the bus, so we raced for the tram stop and shelter. By the time we were off the tram the rain was falling in really heavy drops and everyone was taking shelter. There were many different bus stops on all sides of the square and it took some time before we finally found the one we needed…by which stage we were feeling quite waterlogged! Finally number 58 pulled in and we were very happy to climb aboard for the 30 minute trip back to the camp, by which time the rain had stopped and the sun had come out…and it was almost 7pm.
Have really enjoyed our day, we are not big city people but had a lot of fun and for a couple of country bumpkins we managed pretty well getting around the town. It was really nice to relax tonight and look out on our fabulous view.