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Bilbao!

Greetings loyal travelogue followers, from this very cosmopolitan city in the Basque region of northern Spain. We’ve had yet another amazing day seeing new horizons…

Before I dive in to tales and photos of our day here, I want to give one last shout out to Rafael and his Casa del Organista hotel in Santillana del Mar. Everything about the place impressed us, and we’d like to urge anyone who might be tempted to stay there some day!

We were met this morning by Simon from Iron Donkey, who picked up the bikes and very kindly drove us to Santander to catch our bus to Bilbao. He was a jolly Englishman, who even offered to go into the bus station with us to make sure we could get on the bus with only the email receipt on my phone (it was no problem).

Once on the bus, it was only a little more than an hour and a half to Bilbao, and Jorge & Meredith’s bus showed up about 15 minutes later. We walked to our hotel about three blocks away, dropped our bags and headed for the Guggenheim.

I’m sure most of you have already seen photos of Frank Gehry’s masterpiece, but if you haven’t, you’re about to! What a structure…

That one was taken near the entrance, and gives you a good sense of the contrast of glass and steel.

The above was taken from an upper patio where we had a quick bite to eat…

On the interior, stone and glass dominate. The elevators all ascend within those crazy glass-sheathed columns.

One of the major features of their collection is a huge multi-faceted (literally!) Richard Serra sculpture A Matter of Time.

Mal & I had a wonderful time walking beneath almost every inch of those incredible rusted steel monoliths. It’s truly an awe inspiring work of art…

After exploring the rest of the museum for a while, we headed back outside to investigate all the angles (!) of the building and its surroundings:

Then it was time to head for the old town center, and look for some good pintxos (tapas) bars for dinner!

I can’t seem to resist these extraordinarily unique and colorful streetscapes:

Jorge & Meredith enjoyed showing us some of their favorite sights, like this expansive art center with 43 individually commissioned pillars, each a original design. Here’s one of my favorites:

Nearby we definitely found the hot neighborhood for pintxos. Here we have a typical bowl of olives and a raciones of jamon iberico. Tasty!

And just to prove how hoppin’ the neighborhood was, check out the street scene as we headed for home!

I keep wondering how each day can top the last, but somehow they do. Tune in tomorrow for the report from San Sebastián!

One last ride (and it’s a wet one!)

It was raining steadily when we got up this morning, and ended up continuing all day. The good news is that it was the shortest ride of the trip, and we were prepared, so it was just one more adventure!

This view from our room was taken after breakfast as we were finishing packing, and the rain had let up momentarily…

As we rode along the coast, we were presented with some maravilloso views, but it was wet enough that I didn’t want to risk taking a lot of photos. Here’s a couple anyway…

It was barely a twenty mile day, but with lots of short ups and downs as we wove our way along the coast. Several times over the last few days we’ve both commented on how much the countryside in this area reminds us of Northern California. Of course the eucalyptus plays a big part, but the rolling hills and craggy coastline are also very familiar.

We were on the bikes by shortly after ten, and it took us something around two and a half hours to make the ride, so it was close to one when we were settled in our room back at the Casa del Organista here in Santillana del Mar. We got out of our wet gear, took hot showers (ahhhh…) and relaxed for a bit.

Mallory then asked the owner about how to get to the Museo de Altamira, and he joked that we’d have to drag the bikes back out, as it was about 2 1/2 kilometers away. Seeing how the rain was still falling steadily, we grabbed a couple of umbrellas and headed out on foot. The Museo is on top of a hill, and as we neared the top, I nabbed this rainy vista:

The Cueva de Altamira is a fascinating Paleolithic cave, discovered in the late 1800’s, that has spectacular examples of cave art from 14-36,000 years ago. The actual cave is now closed to the public in an attempt to preserve it, but they’ve built detailed reproductions down the most minute detail. The english translations on the displays were pretty funny, but it was very entertaining nonetheless.

Once back in Santillana, we walked the cobblestone streets some more and did some shopping. I couldn’t resist this view of a tourist we all know, standing in the Plaza Mayor…

Lastly, here’s a view of the outside of our hotel:

We’re both feeling quite blessed by how the bike tour went. We probably couldn’t have had better weather, and aside from some minor bike issues, we did splendidly. We definitely learned how helpful it is to be in shape for this kind of tour. We’re not even sore!

Tomorrow morning, Ignacio, from Iron Donkey, is going to drive us to the bus station in Santander, where we’ll catch a bus to Bilbao. We’re very excited to spend the next couple of days exploring the Basque country with Jorge & Meredith!

An eventful day!

Before I get into today’s adventures, a few words about dinner last night. We had a splendid meal at a little place just down the street, but were the only ones in the restaurant. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s not ‘high season’ here or what, but we’ve been the only people in the restaurant the last few nights.

We ordered the Menú del Día again, this time for two, and it was very local-oriented. The first course was a slab of the very strong local blue cheese, called Cabrales (for which the town is named). Next was the Asturian version of mountain stew, called Fabada asturiana, consisting of fava beans and lots of different meats in a terrific broth. The last course was roast Cabrito (baby goat). The only thing I remembered to photograph was the stew (which might be just as well!):

Anyway, it was another great example of the unique food in the Picos. Complete with a really nice bottle of local Rioja wine, we went back to our hotel fully sated!

This morning dawned the cloudiest of the trip, but at least it wasn’t raining yet. We were shooting for an earlier start, but it was still 10:15 by the time we were on the bikes.

We decided to take the more challenging option for the first third of the ride, and it was serious climbing for the awhile. The clouds hung low over the surrounding hills, but the scenery was still very nice:

All day it looked like the rain was coming just over the next (or last) hill, but it held off for us. This shot demonstrates it well:

As we got closer to the coast, we thought maybe the ups and downs might let up a bit, but it wasn’t to be! At one point, as we were climbing along through a dense eucalyptus forest, I took a peek over the wall on the downhill side of the road and saw this:

What a sight! A little further on, after winding in and out of glimpses of the ocean, we came to a scenic overlook. Though we were only about 12 kilometers from San Vicente, we decided it was a good spot to enjoy our daily picnic lunch of sausage, cheese and fresh red pepper (pimiento):

And the view wasn’t bad either:

We figured we better get a self-portrait before it was too late as well…

Not two kilometers after we hopped back on the bikes, I heard a funny noise, looked down, and saw that I had a flat! This time, it was my back tire (not fun to fix). It was finally starting to sprinkle, but I got it fixed lickety-split…

The worst part is how bad our pump is. It takes forever to fill the tire, and that’s after you wrestle with it to make sure it’s attached right! Who’d have thought we’d have two flats in five days!? I think mine was a bad tube, since it had leak-sealing goop in it when Mal tried to fully deflate it to stow it in my handlebar bag.

Anyway, we’re now ready to head to dinner (I’m starved!), so it’s hasta mañana for now. Talk to you from Santillana del Mar tomorrow night, after our last ride!