Sunny Bilbao, Stormy Santander

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We had yet another damp week in Oviedo, but one lovely day of sunshine. Unfortunately, that was not the day we decided to go shopping.

We started off at the market just inside the old town. I'd never been before, but Sarah, who lives opposite the market, was a trusty guide, and when I mentioned that I wanted a ring, she became a Woman on a Mission. we trawled all the jewellery stalls, before finally returning to, in her words, 'exhibit A', and I finally chose my Oviedo ring, to partner my Perpignan one. It's a simple design, which is what I wanted (and what a lot of the stalls did not provide; rather large, gaudy things), silver, which spirals into a shell shape. Ring Mission complete! And four very soggy girls. Still, refusing to be defeated by the weather, we headed into town for a browse. Several shops later, and with successful purchases, we decided to call it quits and went back to Sarah's to get dry and watch films. While we were there, Rosy, Caroline and I checked the weather forecast for Bilbao, where we were heading the next day. Clouds and drizzle. The weather in this northern band of Spain is about as far from the 'Costa del Sol' stereotype as you can get. But it does explain why we are the 'Costa Verde', although 'Costa de la Lluvia' might be an equally appropriate name.

So on Friday, greatly looking forward to a weekend away, but without high hopes for the weather, Becky, Rosy, Caroline and I boarded the coach to Bilbao. Some hours later, we arrived to humid heat and... sunshine! We checked into the rather swanky Barcelo hotel, our luxury for the trip, but for which we paid about 5 euros more each than we would have on a hostel. Then, deciding to make the most of our good fortune with the weather, we set out to explore Bilbao. We started with lunch at a cafe in the centre, and ordered 'ensaladillas', which we assumed to be some type of salad, but instead we more or less got coleslaw on a plate. After a few mouthfuls, we felt sick, so our first foray in Basque cuisine was not a particular success.

We were struck by the Basque language all around the city. Whereas Catalan, Asturian and Gallician have many features in common, and to me, all have similarities with Portuguese, Basque is totally different, and quite bizarre. It seems more Dutch and Germanic than anything, but with the addition of lots of 'k's and 'x's We couldn't have even attempted to pronounce much of it, and if there hadn't been Spanish translations, we would have understood very little of it, whereas with the other regional languages mentioned, we could have a good go.

After our less-than-wonderful lunch, we went to explore the 'Casco Viejo', or 'old town'. Like a lot of the old towns in Spanish cities, it was very pretty, with the Cathedral occupying a central square and narrow streets leading down to the river, which separated the old town from the new. We walked down to the river, and then decided to go up to the 'Parque Etxebarria', a park on a sort of plateau above the city. From where we were, we had to take a lift up to it, as the steps were blocked off, which was the most bizarre experience. A man was sitting on a stool in the lift to take our 40c. for the journey, and tinny music played as we ascended. We had to walk across a small bridge, and then we were outside again, only much higher than we had been before. We admired the views of Bilbao and had a nice walk, before winding our way back down to ground level and taking the funicular, a smal, funny-looking train which went almost vertically up a hillside to take us even higher. From here, the views were fantastic and we spent quite a while just gazing over Bilbao, basking in the hot sun and watchung some English men on holiday fooling around in a playground.

We tried and failed to find the nightlife district of Bilbao, and it seemed like the English guys from earlier weren't having any more luck; we came across them again in the old town and one of them asked us if we knew of anywhere. We didn't but nevertheless we found a couple of places which served gin and tonics and passed a pleasant evening this way. Dinner at an all-you-can eat buffet had been a lot more successful than lunch, mainly because we could see the food before we chose it!

The next day, we started off at the Guggenheim museum, which was pretty much opposite our hotel. I lovd the building itself, and the gigantic flower puppy outside. I wasn't so much a fan of the giant metal spider, but I had a picture with it nonetheless, and it wasn't too bad. Inside, I was less of a fan. I never really know how I feel about a lot of moden art. I did really like the exhibition of Cai Guo-Quiang's work - he's the one who did the fireworks for the Bejing Olympics, but the rest of it I didn't really care much for. The others seemed to be really into it, and wandered slowly round each exhibition, to the point where I was ready to scratch out my own eyes, but once we got back out into the fresh air, I returned to a normal human again.

The weather had pulled out all the stops for our stay in Bilbao, and it was another glorious day. As the mercury climbed to 30 degrees, we sat with ice-cream and cool drinks. Once we'd cooled off a bit, we wandered along the river to see the San Anton Church, which is a very pretty building. Then we went back to the hotel to shower and relax before dinner.

Dinner that night was the best meal of our stay; the day before we'd seen the restaurant on Gran Via and decided to go there - it was called Wok, so obviously we were expecting oriental cuisine. What we weren't expecting was the best buffet of our lives. For 13 euros, we had a fusion of Japanese and Chinese (and possibly Vietnamese) foods, as much as we wanted. You could take up meats and vegetables to be fried in the sauce of your choice, and add sushi, salad, rice, noodles, spring rolls... we were all very full when we left, but it was amazing. If you are in Bilbao, go.

We had an early start the next morning in order to get the coach to Santander. I fell asleep on the coach, and when I woke up, it was chucking it down with rain. Our luck with the weather had run out. So we disembarked, deposited our luggage in lockers, and wondered what to do. We ran over to a cafe across the road from the bus station and discussed what to do. It clearly wasn't beach or boat-trip weather and it was Sunday, so all the shops would be shut. We didn't have a hotel room, as we were leaving the same day, so we were stuck. In the end, we decided to go and see if we could find an open tourist office and go from there. Luckily, it wasn't far, and it was open. Armed with a map, and some circled buildings, we braved the rain, and walked along the harbour towards the maritime museum. We didn't know what to expect from it - a few model boats maybe - but we were now in a storm - the long awaited full-on thunder-and-lightning storm - and it promised shelter. It surpassed all our expectations, even Becky's, who'd been excited about it. First we had a talk from a friendly Museum guide, then we were left to explore its four floors. We started at the top, where there were indeed model boats, but they were beautiful, and there was a lot more besides. The next floor down was a historical exhibition, which fascinated me. I could have spent hours looking at the beautiful old compasses, medieval texts, 17th century navigation charts, stunning maps and globes, prehistoric tools, examples of the sleeping quarters, the room for documenting and making drawings of new species. In the central atrium of the museum there was an impressive skeleton of a whale - its size was astounding. Then on the bottom floor, was an aquarium. It wasn't as good as the one in Gijon, but it was good. The whole museum was wonderful, I'm so glad that there was a storm, otherwise we would never have gone.

After that, we visited the cathedral and sheltered in the cloisters for a while. Then we went for lunch at a mexican restaurant, and realised that we were running out of things to do. We had about four hours to fill, in a seaside town, in the rain, on a Sunday. We looked into going to the cinema, but the only cinemas were in the out-of-town shopping centres, and we didn't want to risk the irregular Sunday bus service. So we spent a long time in a cafe, bought provisions for the journey home, sat outside for a while when the rain stopped, and then went to another cafe. We were glad to finally get onto the coach back to Oviedo, but we'd had a good day, despite the weather. It was a weekend full of surprises.

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