Blogs from Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain, Europe - page 14

Finally we´re beginning to thaw out!! Arrived in Bilboa this morning at 10:15am. We had to be at the airport at 6 am so we went to bed early last night. Stayed at Harwich Hill Farm in Bishop´s Crossing near the Stansted airport. A beautiful place. Got to sleep on real bed for the first time in a week. When we got there the first thing the innkeeper said was ´´would you like some tea.....now that´s england. So disappointed we couldn´t rent a car because of the bank holiday, would have liked to see more of the counytryside closer up, but since it rained all the time I guess it doesn´t matter. The gardens at the Inn were breathtaking..yes they take their gardening very seriously here. The pace is up for sale 1.5 million pounds if ... read more

I left for Bilbao, Spain in the early afternoon of Tuesday. I arrived in the city center around 3 o’clock and headed straight for the Guggenheim Museo Bilbao from the bus stop. Upon first walking up to the Guggenheim museum, I am greeted by “Puppy” the 42-foot tall West Highland Terrier made completely of flowers (around 60,000). “Puppy” is the creation of Jeff Koons. The museum is absolutely striking with the limestone and titanium collaboration, which assumes the appearance of glistening fish. I went straight through the main entrance without wandering around the structure because I saw a queue of children lining up to enter the group tours part and did not want to compete with a large group of children for gallery space. I strolled right in and declined the use of the audio-tour tapes ... read more

The sudden change to dual names on the 'next station' display on the evening train from Santander to Bilbao marks the transition to the Basque country, well that and Frank Sinatra being piped through the carriage speakers for some reason. It appears that the Basque and Galician languages are both based on the premise of crow-barring as many random Zs, Ks and particularly Xs (and that's a whole 10pts...) into any otherwise perfectly pronouceable word. Before leaving Santander I gave my trusty umbrella an appropriate burial in a convenient bin - it served me well but had become a bit twisted and was trying to pull chunks of hair out if I let it get too close to my head. Almost came to regret it seeing the streets shiny with water as the train pulled ... read more

Sorry to the lot of ya for dropping off the face of the planet(althought I am not sure any of you noticed since it was halloween weekend) ...i have been in la la Basque land. I was hoping to celebrate Halloween in style in Madrid, but I ended up staying longer in Baque country (despite already having paid for my hotels in Madrid). So my last night with the girls I met in Barcelona was Saturday. Since this was a four day weekend, there were TONS of people out. BY the way, if you ever think you are overworked, move to spain. They work only 210 days out of the year. can you believe that!!! Anyways, since this is the vacation hotspot of Spain, it literally was like Mardi Gras. You COULD NOT MOVE in the ... read more

Woe is me! My iPod, my best friend during all my travels, betrayed me! Or rather, lack of sleep and an uncoordinated hand did me in. I've accidently deleted all the pictures from my birthday and then some! So in a desperate and futile attempt to relive the day before my birthday, the day of my birthday, and the morning after my birthday, I'm back at travel blogging. I had some great pictures of A Coruña. A little city near Santiago de Compostela on the northwest coast of Spain. The morning of September 23, I had taken a walk to the Torre de Hercules at 4 AM. If you have to ask what the hell I was taking a walk at 4 AM for, then I'll have to tell you. I got drunk the night before ... read more