Bilbao 2018

June 2018 - March 2024
A cheeky little pre holiday holiday!!! Hasta luego!!
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  • Day 1

    Back in the hotel

    June 9, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    A great evening!!! We landed at 8.30 at Bilbao airport and got the bus in to the centre. Kent and I both totally chickened out with our Spanish and just asked for tickets in English, having no actual idea what stop we needed for our hotel.
    We finally got off at Plaza Moyua and walked for 30 mins (uphill!!!!) to our hotel.

    It’s not the best of starts as I have discovered two liars today....
    1) the weather people who have been adamant that it would be raining WITH thunderstorms from 9 onwards (which means my jeans + backpack + hill to hotel + hot muggy weather = sweaty Becca). I promptly changed into a dress to cool down
    and 2) all the trip advisor reviews who said that our hotel was in a central and convenient location.... it’s not.

    We went out to grab a beer and found a place with a band outside. We/I tried out our/my Spanish “Do you take credit card?” The reply was a definite no and then some nonsense about a tortilla which neither of us understood, so off we went to find some cash. Found cash and walked back to the pub when the heavens decided to open....

    We ordered ‘dos cervezas, por favor’ and I pointed to the only beer I recognised... Amstel, only to find that it was ale. Grim. Mental European pub with locals doing wine and beer shots.
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  • Day 2

    Day 2 - Around Bilbao

    June 10, 2018 in Spain ⋅ 🌧 16 °C

    Very busy day today, we started off with a walk to the funicular railway which took us up on to a viewpoint of the city. Then had a coffee with the locals, although every one else was on wine despite it being 11am!
    Next we went on over the Guggenheim museum. Incredible building but crap exhibitions bar some brightly coloured cherry sculptures (see cool photos!)

    On our way there we got caught up with a political movement which we found out later on the BBC was actually a demonstration for Basque independence and their right to maintain liberties from Madrid’s rule and government. All across the basque region demonstrators held hands to form a 250km line to show solidarity. It was quite inspiring to see such unity for ones homeland. It’s not something I could ever see happening in the UK!

    Kent then insisted on his afternoon nap, so we headed back to the hotel for un poco siesta!

    The evening was fun with a Spanish version of caleh dancing in the square near our hotel and a truely unbasque evening meal. All of today’s demonstrators were out in their masses and by 8pm it felt like most of the town was drunk! It felt like we had turned up for the end of a great big party!

    A big thing for the people of the basque region is Pintxos (pronounced either pintos or pinchos, I am none the wiser to knowing which is the correct way to say it so you can pick whichever you like!) Pintoxs are inherently part of the Basque social culture. They are little appetisers to have with a drink of wine or small beer before lunch and dinner. The main thing with pintxos is that you NEVER have more than one or two in any bar. When you have had your 1-2, you move on to another bar for some more.

    So, what did we do? In our desperation to find food Kent persuaded me that a bar doing a pintxos meal deal (12 pintxos plus a bottle of wine for €32) was a great idea. #livelikealocal.... maybe we can try again tomorrow.
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  • Day 3

    San Sebastian

    June 11, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Today we set out for a soggy day in San Sebastián, a pretty little coastal town to the east of Bilbao.

    The weather today was horrific but Kent and I are not ones to complain....

    Off we started on the tram (where they play classical music while you travel), over to the bus company to start our 1.5 hr drive to San-Seb.

    Our day in San Seb mostly involved walking and eating. We decided to do a Pintxos trail of 7 (yes 7!!!) bars. The first was closed which is not surprising in this region (ie continental Europe!!) as we find places tend to be closed more often than open!!! We ended up doing 3 bars as after 3 glasses of wine and only 3 nibbles to accompany them, things were starting to get a bit hazy. My Spanish however was really rather good!!

    The sun decided to come out so after a stroll, and an ice cream we headed back to Bilbao for yet more be hopping and Pintxos.
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  • Day 4

    Portugedes y Getxo

    June 12, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Today we headed north to the costal and port towns of Portuguedes and Getxo. First however we needed breakfast. After Kent found us a great place to eat, and after we walked 40 minutes to get there, we found that it was closed. I mean, why would a breakfast place be open at 10.30 in the morning??!

    Hopped on a metro to head to Portugedes, we met an American man on the train who told us his wife’s mum was from the region and then just wanted to talk about the Royal family and Netflix series. Honestly.

    Portugedes is a quite a small place with no result centre. The big (well more like small to medium) draw here is their bridge. The first transporter bridge in he worked was built here in the 1800’s and its quite something! It’s exceptionally ugly but also quote a feat of engineering. We stopped to have a coffee, admire the river and bridge and then headed up.....

    It was SOOOO windy at the top!!!!! A little scary at times to be honest but we were caged in so all was well. I can’t say the views were great as there wasn’t that much to look at!! The area has a port and that’s about it!

    We headed back down to go and get some lunch and ended up at a locals place. I find heading into a locals restaurant to be the most daunting thing in the world, it always feels awkward and confusing. A feeling not helped by the first waiter who when I asked (in Spanish!) if they had a table for two hoe just walked off to find someone else to talk to us.... food however was great!! We both had a salad, tiny little fish for main, a hunk of bread (which was just sat on the table when we arrived), and I had a banana (skin on and just popped on the table for me) as desert. My other desert choice was an apple. We had ordered 2 glasses of wine with lunch, and we were just given a bottle. After waiting 10 mins for someone to pour our wine, we just did it ourselves. Total bill €22 and he wine was free..... no wonder the place was rammed at 3pm. #livelikealocal

    Next a stroll over to the beach, a coffee (where Rather Be was being played!) and home for a much needed nap!
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  • Day 5

    Last day!!

    June 13, 2018 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Final day here before we travel back to the UK this evening. There wasn’t much on the agenda today. We wanted to visit the nearby bullring and bullfighting museum to learn more about it. After spending 40 mins getting there and walking all the way around the ring, we were convinced it was closed. But Alas! It was open just really really hard to find!! Needless to say we were the only tourists there.... the museum however was really disappointing as all the information was in Basque or Spanish, so we didn’t really learn much at all.

    We have done quite a lot in Bilbao but what we have yet to do is eat some real gormet food for which the region is famous for! So, for lunch today I had booked us into Los Fueros for a tasting menu. It was really nice and such a great way to wrap up our 4 days in Bilbao.
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