Short Days

Thursday and Friday turned sunny again, and we had short walks of about 7 and 8 miles. That gave us time to have lunch, shower and nap, which helps us to recover.

Bilbao was our favorite town so far. With over 1 million people, it’s the largest city in the Basque Country, a combination of vintage buildings and cutting-edge modern architecture. Its crown jewel is the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, opened in 1997 and financed by the citizens of Bilbao (photos below).

John was thrilled to find a KFC while I was thrilled to find tapas and a nice red wine. Our pension room was located on a narrow street with a couple of bars. They closed at midnight, but folks carried on talking and singing for a couple more hours. Then around 3:30, the street cleaning machine fired up below our window and proceeded to hose down the street. So we were already awake when Ronny texted us that our pecan tree was pretty well destroyed, along with other tree damage, on a storm that moved through San Antonio yesterday. Messy, but looks like no structural damage.

Tonight we’re in Portugalete, a port town near Bilbao, in a very comfortable hotel. We crossed the river into town via the Viscaya Bridge, an iron and steel cable bridge built in 1893 (photos below). A shuttle that hangs from the bridge frame can hold 6 vehicles and several dozen people. Cost to cross was €0.45. Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” was playing on the way over — how appropriate!Read more