Spanish holiday part 1: Bilbao

Bilbao balconies, September 2018

At last I've found a minute or two to write something about our holiday in Spain. It was a lovely holiday, and if I'd knuckled down to write straight away I'm sure my account would reflect the vivid colour and atmosphere of the week away. Now that we've all been back for a month it feels as distant as any historical event.

There was Lola II, Mr M, and J from family JJL&J. Another J from that family spent the evening with us at Lola II and Mr M's house the night before we left, but she went home rather than to the airport the following morning. The flight was as uneventful as all the best flights are. We hopped on a bus to Bilbao at the other end, and Mr M led us to the door of the apartment where we waited for the owner to come and let us in. It was located right in the thick of things in the old town, surrounded by shops and bars and cafes. J and I each had a room overlooking the street; Lola II and Mr M had a room further inside the apartment. These details became significant later on.

Because it was lunchtime, the first place we went was the produce market. Half the floor area contained cafes selling all manner of pintxos - delectable mouthfuls of flavourful combinations of meat, cheese, fish, pickles, veg and salad. Although we didn't know it at the time, this was the most delicious meal of the entire holiday - not that other meals weren't good, but this was particularly fine.

It had become clear by this time that Mr M was in need of head protection, so after he'd invested €4 in a fashionable hat we wandered along the river as far as the Guggenheim museum. Saving that treat for the following day, we took advantage of a funicular railway to go up to a viewpoint with magnificent views of the city as well as a bit of sculpture, and stopped at a cafe for refreshment. Later we picked out a restaurant near our apartment that served local Basque cuisine. It tasted fine, but in my opinion both the Basque restaurants we tried could do with offering more vegetable accompaniment (although I suspect that Mr M was perfectly happy with the veg quota).

That Saturday night was memorable. It would have been nice to keep my window open, but below in the street the crowds eating and drinking in the bars and cafes were having too much fun. It would have been nice to keep the window closed, but it was very hot. I settled on keeping it open in the knowledge that the bars would close eventually, which they did, and I managed to doze off... until the stragglers came through, shouting drunkenly and kicking cans and breaking bottles as late night drinkers tend to do. Then came the street cleaners, merrily calling to one another as they dropped cans and bottles on top of other cans and bottles in their bins. Last were the street cleaning lorries, making more noise than all of the rest put together.

Lola II and Mr M woke refreshed from their unbroken night's sleep, wondering why J and I were sleeping so late. I did manage to get a few hours' sleep, and we let J sleep on until he emerged at about 11 o'clock (unused to waking so late he'd looked at his watch upside down and become very confused).

After breakfast we headed off to the Guggenheim museum where we spent the rest of the day. We all found something interesting to look at. I am not very good at Art, but my favourite item was in the very last room we saw - a small helicopter covered with pink ostrich feathers and upholstered in pink and red plush, which I now discover is an artwork entitled Lilicoptère, in an exhibition by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos. (When I own a pink feathered helicopter it will be called Lolacoptère.)

The second night was much quieter, but we had to get up early to catch a train to our setting-out point for our pilgrimage along part of the Camino del Norte to San Sebastian. Watch out for the next exciting part in the Spanish holiday series!