So finally arrived at Bilbao on 10 August after riding from Thessaloniki. The reason was the 12 August eclipse, which finally everyone else seems to be aware of.
I met up with Julia who flew over to watch it with me. We met up at the Pension we stayed up, in the old town up 4 flights of stairs and the most arcane login/entry method imaginable. Overengineered.
Bilbao is utterly beautiful. One of the nicest cities I have stayed in. Lovely old town. Beautiful architure and the food, particularly the pintxos, are amazing.
Found a place in the park on the 12th to watch the eclipse and made my way up there three hours beforehand to claim my place. Julia was struggling inn the heat, so she came and joined me later on.
The eclipse was really interesting. We both had proper eclipse glasses, so were able to watch it from the beginning all the way through. It was like watching pac-man open his mouth ever wider. The sun overtook the moon moving from left to right and then there were 30 or so seconds of totally at about 8.27. What I was a ring of fire around the black circle of the moon with what looked like coloured jewels. I think I saw what looked like a ruby on the left side and a multi-coloured row on the right. I'm not sure if that really out there or just my eyes reacting to the light. It didn't go completely dark. And more a very dark shadow than total darkness. Went too quickly so I have decided to do it again next year in Egypt when apparently we get 6 minutes.
In addition, did a bus and boat tour of Bilbao and many snack bars. Spent the last night at a campus due to the pension being booked up. No hot food nearby so had to go back to the old town.Read more
Aug 10–14 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C