Bilbao, Spain  June   -30

Day 1- We docked and had a leisurely morning looking at the coast of Spain. We are docked in  a small town of Getxo ("Get-cho") which is lovely seaside town. Before Bilbao reinvented itself as a cultural city by building the Guggenheim it was an industrial wasteland of steel production, shipbuilding and blast furnaces. The river was polluted and it was just not a happy place-especially after the economy in Europe was hitting a low and steel production went to other countries.  So they made the decision to tear down all the nasty infrastructure, clean up the river, build the museum, and become the lovely city that it now is-all within the last 25 years!! Which brings us back to Getxo. The “bourgousie”  didn’t want to live among the blast furnaces so they lived here, just about 15-20 miles from Bilbao, so it was and still is to some extent, filled with large homes that the rich folk built. It is now just a very nice “suburb” of Bilbao but it is very welcoming and a place where lots of locals come for the beaches but not foreign tourists which is nice.

The beach in Getxo

The ship with a lovely backdrop-our cabin view!

More pintxos and drinks!

Now for the food and wine of Spain-OMG

The culture is similar to that of England/Scotland/Ireland where they go to bars/pubs everyday to socialize and be with friends. There are streets filled with bars and you go from one to another to another and eat yourself into Spanish oblivion!!  Each bar has little appetizers called pintxos (pin-chos) that are all out on plates and you just take as many as you want, have a little glass of wine or beer and then move on to the next place that has completely different pintxos and drinks! And it is so cheap it is crazy! We actually never went to a sit down restaurant because it is too much fun going from one place to another. We even went to San Sebastian that has several 3-5 star Michelin restaurants!!!  Which are decidedly not cheap!  

So back to the first day-we went to Bilbao and saw the Guggenheim Museum which was absolutely spectacular both in terms of architecture and exhibits (Yoko Ono’s exhibit-not so much spectacular!).  We then wandered the streets of the old quarter having gelato and just marveling at some of the cathedrals and lovely streets and cute shops (that were closed due to the afternoon siesta!). Yep-most of the shops close every afternoon from around 2-5 for siesta and then reopen. Bars are usually open with pintxos but restaurants don’t even open until at least 8:30 for dinner with most people eating from 10ish on.  So do they eat and then go to bed?  We never made it late which is probably why we mostly had pintxos!! Bilbao was a lovely, welcoming city.

The "Puppy" at the Guggenheim

Rick and Tina at the Guggenheim!

Entrance and cafe of the Guggenheim Bilbao

Outside view of the Guggenheim

Old Quarter of Bilbao

Time for pintxos!!!! Lovely outside cafes and bars

I could eat the Iberian Ham every day!

Rick and his class are documenting sustainability efforts of each city we visit and the difference between European cities and US cities is staggering. So much more is done here in terms of environmental and sustainable initiatives! I know it is easier to do that on a much smaller scale than the US but it is pretty great!

Day 2- Hondaribbia and San Sebastian

We went on walking tours of these 2 cities. Hondaribbia is the last town in Spain before crossing over into France. It was a lovely medieval city with beautiful churches and town squares with shops, café’s, bars and restaurants. In Portugal they have Pousadas which are hotels built on the sites and on top of old castles, convents, etc., but in Spain they have Paradors which are old castles that have been taken over by the government of Spain and converted into hotels that are-hello-castles you can stay in!! and they aren’t very expensive.  Note for a next trip!!!

San Sebastian is a very upscale historic yet modern city that is host to what is hailed as the largest film festival in Europe (what is Cannes-chopped liver?) and it is visited by the stars and they wealthy. It was still a lovely city where we had a lovely walking tour and lunch.

View from Hondarribia towards France

Lovely cathedral-playing Pacobel's Cannon

San Sebastian beach

Rick and Tina overlooking San Sebastian

The money shot!!! San Sebastian

Day 3- Sopelana

Rick took the morning to work on his classes while Tina wandered with friends to a small village about 20 minutes away for a religious/cultural festival. We will get the pictures up soon as that will help describe what they was like.  It was one of those magical little experiences where you get to be part of the culture of this village just for a little while.  In the town square they had these huge-20 foot high- characters that men walked under and there was a parade of these characters and towns people dressed in  folks costumes with bands with accordions, drums, horns, etc. all following in the parade. We all became part of the parade that went to the catholic church where they had a service. During the service we went and had pintxos and coffee (to die for-both of them!) and as the parade came back to the square there were vendors set up selling jewelry, scarves, FANS, and just fun things. Guess what I bought!!!  A sweet story-all of the towns people that were in the parade in folk costume or just in the streets were wearing a bandana that was the one designed for this year’s festival. Other years had different bandanas. I approached one of the women in costume, and tried to ask her where I could get a bandana. (We had a smattering of Spanish at our disposal but that didn’t help communicate since we were in BASQUE country and they speak a completely different language!) Anyhoo- this very kind woman just took hers off and gave it to me!!! We took pictures and had a little international bonding moment!!  Once back in the town square folk dancing ensued starting with the little-bitiest of the kids dancing and progressing up to adults doing some pretty spectacular dancing. It was clear that these folks had been practicing for a long time for this! The weather was spectacular-low 70’s and sunny! Then back to the ship.

The parade from the town square

The religious characters + Tina

Folk dancing in the square-w/Basque flag

Later in the afternoon Rick finished his work along with some other faculty and we took off in search of local bars and more pintxos!!! It was early-only 630- 7:00 so no restaurants were open yet1 There were lovely outside seating areas with locals and their children,  dogs just happiness!! We at and drank and went back to the ship about 10-still bright daylight! And as we sat in the faculty lounge looking over the city as soon as it got dark there were fireworks!!! Perfect end to a pretty great day!!

Day 4- LaRioja wine country

We had a lovely tour of the wine country which is more mountainous and had spectacular scenery. Absolutely beautiful countryside. The winery we went to  was chosen from a blind taste test o 92 vineyards to be the wine served at the dinner for the new king of Spain! We bought a bottle (ours is 2009-the award winning one was 2008) and no, we are not bringing it back-except in our bellies!!  We also went to a wine museum and learned a great deal about wine production and had a lovely lunch with beautiful views!

Our primo vineyard-wine served to new King Phillipe

Room at the vineyard designed by Eifelle

Lunch venue

I wish we had found some picturesque views!

Wines sure grow in pretty places

Amazing vineyard building by Santiago Calatrava

Day 5- back on the ship.

Today we had what they call IPAD days (In Port Academic Day) where we sit at the dock, can’t get off and have classes. It is a little frustrating knowing that there are pintxos just waiting out there for us and we can’t get to them!!! But at least we had pretty scenery while we were just hanging out.  At the end of they day the engines started and we sailed for about 15 minutes and then we just lowered the anchors to hang out for another day. (they need so many class days and doing that avoids dock fees).  They also found a way to show the USA/Belgium world cup game last night by turning off the internet to the entire ship for the duration of the game!!  Too bad we didn’t win!!  Unfortunately when you are just hanging out at some undisclosed location the ship tends to roll with the sea and last night there was MUCH rolling. It was a little alarming at times and bottles of shampoo and other things fell over). However, we slept better than we have for most of the trip!!!

Now-off to Scotland!!!  We have 4 days to hit the treadmills and work off some of those pintxos!!!! It was also the last port in which we  raved about the food and the cheap cost of it-all the other ports have much more expensive food although Scotland and Ireland shouldn't be quite as bad and Rick is all geared up for some Guinness!