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Spain - San Sebastian & Bilbao
Sunday 10 February 2008 Between the train changes, a suspicious-looking character hanging around outside our compartment all night and a loud character down the hall who figured himself a train conductor constantly yelling at us for locking the door to our compartment due to the previously mentioned suspicious character, we didn’t get much sleep during the night. So when the train rocked into San Sebastian in the wee hours of the morning we were exhausted!
We stumbled through the town for about 20 minutes until we found the hostel located only metres from the beach - nice! It WAS still quite early and we were in Spain - or rather Basque country as we would soon learn - so when the hostel owner answered the door in his pyjamas we weren’t at all surprised.
Our hostel was the David Quinn Alai-Berri Hostel. It was actually a large converted apartment. We were very impressed. It was not only clean and comfortable. It had separate beds which had been specifically reserved for us - name tags and all - which we were allowed to check into early for a nap after the night
Helmets of construction workers
in the cafe near the Guggenheim Museumtrain - very rare AND they were single beds, not bunks! Free breakfast complete with not only toast and cereal, but EGGS! Free DIY laundry. David and his mother were both very hospitable. It was a similar arrangement to the Black & White Hostel in Porto where the owners lived onsite, but it was different in that here they gave you your personal space, they didn’t ‘hover’. Very comfortable indeed!
Once we checked in, we had a short nap and then headed out to the bus station. We were off for a day trip to the nearby town of Bilbao. It would have been nice to see San Sebastian first but everything is closed on Mondays in Bilbao so San Sebastian would have to wait. It was an hour long journey on the Pesa bus to Bilbao so we continued catching up on a few Zs that we had been deprived of the night before. When we arrived in Bilbao we caught a metro to the city centre and headed towards the tourist office outside the Guggenheim Museum to catch a walking tour.
Walking from the central plaza of the city we could spot the Guggenheim Museum from
quite some distance away (photo). Having found our destination and being a bit early for the tour, we stopped for refreshments at a local cafe. Stepping inside we found it to be quite a special cafe as it was where the workers were fed during the construction of the Guggenheim Museum. In memory of this, hard hats covered with well wishes and thanks belonging to the workers line the ceiling of the cafe (photo).
We continued our way to the tourist office outside the Guggenheim Museum and joined a small tour group. We wandered around the city learning about the history of Bilbao, its architecture and its people. Bilbao used to be an industrial town but with the demise of local industry the town needed to reinvent itself. The local government, businesses and local people all pitched in to reinvent the city as a service-driven city. It was truly a unique co-operative movement and it certainly appears to have been successful as the city is now thriving. Accordingly, a lot of the city has been rebuilt and some of the architecture is very modern. The most obvious and famous example is the Guggenheim Museum (photo) but there are may
other modern buildings and sculptures around the city too (photos).
About half way through the tour we noticed lots of helicopters in the sky and the guards outside the government building started getting a bit more active (photos). We weren’t sure quite what was going on because we weren’t aware of any special events that were happening in town that day. Slightly confused, we continued the walking tour, viewing some of the more classic architecture of the city (photos).
Near the end of our walking tour we arrived back in the central plaza where we finally found out what was going on (photo). Crowds of people were all walking hastily an one direction and lots of police cars we heading the same way with sirens blaring. The traffic was blocked off down the end of that street because dumpsters had been set alight and turned over in the street. The sound of rubber bullet shots echoed through the city streets. Welcome to our FIRST - and certainly not only - Basque riot!
Our tour guide very cleverly decided to end the tour a bit early in the interest of safety. Even though the rioters appeared to be
heading towards the Old Town, being in the central plaza of the city wasn’t a great place to be either. The group disbursed and we headed in the opposite direction to the riots, to the Guggenheim Museum! Not only was it in the opposite direction, but being an art museum, it had very tight security so hopefully if the riots spread we would be safe inside. Back to the Guggenheim!
Outside the museum Michael spent a moment or two getting acquainted with the huge topiary cat outside (photo) then we quickly retreated inside. The building itself was very impressive but we unfortunately weren’t so impressed with the exhibitions. The temporary exhibition was closed so we did get discount entry but it was actually the only exhibition in the building displaying any local art. The rest of the museum was filled with a permanent exhibition of The History of Art in the USA - moderately interesting but not exactly what we came to Spain to see! We had a browse around and then ducked our heads outside to see if things - being the riots - had calmed down a bit. They had, and we were off!
Cautiously we
caught the metro to the old town but were constantly on the lookout for any signs of trouble. Immediately upon exiting the metro we were met with an unexpected sight - a giant kangaroo (photo). But there was something very wrong with this kangaroo. It was wearing a cowboy outfit and waving an American flag! Since when were kangaroos American??????!!!!!!!
Slightly confused, but still cautious, we continued on our way wandering around the Old Town admiring the ancient buildings, quaint streets and traditional market (photos). We even found a gorgeous mural on a wall near the old railway station (photo). It was approaching the end of the day so we headed back to the metro station but made one stop along the way for churros and chocolate (photo) at Cafe del Arenal near the metro. Delicious, but still not up to the standard of those we tasted in Granada - the churros here were very salty and the chocolate a little too bitter!
After our treat we caught the metro back to the bus station and caught the bus back to San Sebastian. Outside the bus station at San Sebastian, guess what we found?! ......Another shop selling chocolate
and churros! It was our duty as official taste testers for The Great Chocolate & Churros Tasting of Spain to sample every product available to determine the best. Accordingly, we put or personal interests aside and did our duty (photo). However, there were very similar to those in Bilbao, too salty and too bitter. Still, nothing beats the chocolate and churros from Cafe Alhambra, Granada.
We carried our bellies back to the hostel, dropped our daypacks and headed out for a ‘night out on the town’. A brisk stroll along the promenade with views of the beach at night (photos) was just the thing to digest our chocolate and churros before a light dinner. We wandered through the old district towards the north of the city and stopped at Bar Sport for ‘pintxos’ which are similar to ‘tapas’ but more substantial and usually incorporate some variety of seafood (photos). We washed these down with beer and nice cheap wine while Michael watched the football on the screens in the bar then stumbled back to our comfy beds.
Monday 11 February 2008 Michael headed out early for a morning jog while Barbara slept in then we both enjoyed
a lazy late breakfast - OF EGGS!!! - before we headed out to enjoy the sun in beautiful San Sebastian.
We were unable to find the tourist office - yet another gong to the Lonely Planet maps! We gave up on the town and went where it was easy to navigate - the beach. We strolled south along the promenade admiring the beach which is even more beautiful in the daytime (photos). Our curiosity stopped us about half way along where we found some interesting geological features (photos).
It was a long walk along the promenade. We stopped in a deli to collect some bread, meat and cheese for a picnic lunch by the beach then we caught the funicular railway (photo) to the top of the hill to admire the view from the top (photo). Back at the bottom of the hill we caught the shuttle bus back to the hostel from where Barbara explored the neighbourhood foraging for dinner supplies. She returned and cooked a lovely meal which we enjoyed before hitting the sack.
Tuesday 12 February 2008 We woke early to see more of San Sebastian before our scheduled bus departure that afternoon.
Therefore after another delicious breakfast we walked along the promenade to the northern end of the bay (photo), where we aimed to climb the mountain to visit the statue of Christ. We spend most of out time in San Sebastian near the beach for a very good reason - it is beautiful!
It was quite windy at the entrance to the bay, but up we climbed, round and round the mountain, through the dense trees (photos) which provided nice shade on the warm day, until we finally reached the top. The views were quite nice but didn’t quite rival those from the southern side of the bay (photo). On top of the mountain was the main attraction, the big fella himself! (photos)
In the interest of catching our bus that afternoon, we scurried down the hill, through the Old Town, along the promenade, past the palm trees with funny hairstyles (photo) and back to the hostel. We thanked David for his hospitality, grabbed our bags and ran to the bus station - quite an effort considering the weight of our bags and the distance to the bus station!
Exhausted, we flopped onto our bus (photo) and then
The plaza in Bilbao
- getting very crowded due to the riots nearby we were off to Madrid! The terrain varied greatly as we increased in altitude (photos) from grassy hills to rocky mountains and the constant ear-popping kept us amused the entire way!
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