Bilbao

Today we had an early start because our parking was free until 9:00. We set off from the pension in the pouring rain and found, much to our delight, that we had not picked up a parking ticket from the previous day. Our destination for today was Bilbao, a significantly larger city (metro area population 845000) than San Sebastian about 100 km south of us. Not too far out on the Autovia - toll highway - the skies cleared and the rain stopped. It wasn't pristine blue skies when we arrived but at least we weren't fighting off the rain. We had originally set out to visit Bilbao to see the world famous Guggenheim Museum. Our original plan was to come directly here from Lourdes, but we changed that plan when we determined that the weather was going to be much better for a Pyrenees crossing on the Saturday than Tuesday on our way back into France. So much for our chance to see the Guggenheim, because on Mondays it is closed. In actuality, we were most interested in seeing the building created by Frank Gehry - as it turns out we have a limited attention span in museums. To get the best look at this building, one needs to be on the bridge above the site. We did not get there as the drizzle returned, but these are our views.

We found it curious to note that a familiar cruise line also showed up here on a closed day.

Bilbao is an interesting city architecturally, from the very traditional Basque design to the ulta modern.

Fortunately, thanks to the receptionist at our pension, we were not totally bereft of cultural enlightenment as we did visit the Bellesartes Museum here, with everything from Modigliani, shown below, and Picasso, to very modern works. This was just the right sized museum for us.

Since the day was improving, weatherwise, we took the autovia only a short distance on our return to San Sebastian, before choosing a more scenic coastal road.

If I were young living here, I would be like every other young man here, looking for the right surf to "hang 10". I watched this fellow paddle out to catch just the right wave. It wasn't a long ride, but it was probably pretty exciting.

I must remind even myself that we are on the North Atlantic Ocean, which I'm not sure ever gets very warm, so the wetsuit for surfers is a must. We have seen people puddling along La Concha in San Sebastian but not many actual swimmers and the kayakers and paddle boarders are indeed wearing wetsuits. Back in San Sebastian we found the parking garage used by the pension - a good kilometre from the pension I might add. It is little wonder that "thin" is the rule here. They walk a lot. Then it was back to the pension for some R&R. Tonight we opted to stay closer to the pension for dinner. The area in the next shot is only a block over from us, with lots of great restaurant choices. There are some beautiful buildings here, reminiscent of Paris.

Picking up roaming here with the phone has ended up being very advantageous, because almost every sign or menu is written in both Spanish and Basque and guess what? Google translate does Basque, which sounds a little like German, but is impossible to interpret without electronic help. It 's been a big help in making us feel more comfortable with the language here. On our way back to the pension this afternoon, we stopped in at the convenience store across the street for our new best friend, Rioja. We already knew and enjoyed Rioja Crianza at home, but the variety available here has brought Rioja to a new level. This one was like drinking velvet. Should we ever see this at home, please snap up a couple of cases.

We went to the Cafe Vienna for dinner this evening - one block from the pension. I had two Rioja while Dawn had Spanish beer and we shared 4 pintxos, mostly seafood and the bill was 13.4 Euros. After dinner we dropped back into the convenience store and bought yet another Rioja, at which point the lady said "I told you this was good. I'm going to tuck one of these away for later for myself." I think we chose, WISELY!