Day 41: Bilboa

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Driving along the slower roads heading east we passed through some wonderful small coastal towns including with postcard houses, rolling hills, cliffs and winding roads. . Between the cliffs are clean, sandy beaches. After calling in to too many large towns and cities crowded with traffic, we tentatively arrive at Bilboa, Spain which is one of the larger port cities which gets a weather mention on BBC news. Melbourne doesn’t rate a word.

The first hotel we enquire at has vacancies and reasonable rates, and it gets better..He gives us a bigger room, breakfast included AND to other side of the hotel opens out to the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum! We had no idea how large and imposing this museum is; standing over 5 storeys of metal angled and pitched reflecting the changing times of day, tall panels of glass and surrounded by large installations, the most famous being Koon’s Puppy, This sculpture of a terrier sitting is completely covered by a patchwork of flowers and Kodak would be making a fortune out of this instillation. Next door to the Guggenheim is an area for families with squirting water fountains for the children to jump through, a cafe and huge playground!

other side of the hotel opens out to the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum

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Our hotel, to Billy’s delight and our surprise, was five stars without the expense! It was ultramodern with glass panels. A tower of rocks centred up to the top floor, a tiered indoor water feature of black marble for glass wear, plates and cutlery positioned on it artistically. Billy thought this made a great dishwasher..we should do this in Edithvale! As the car was valet parked we looked forward to a whole day without the Peugeot.

Bilboa, an old port city is centred around the original cities with plazas surrounded by magnificent buildings and churches, and avenues that spread out from roundabouts that were centred with flower gardens and fountains. Despite its size, Bilboa never felt crowded as it was well planned to begin with. The traffic didn’t toot or drive crazily, the Bilbao buses were numerous and the pedestrian crossing “green man” actually had legs that walked and this is Billy’s exciting news for you all!! Cool hey?

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We walked to have dinner about 9.00pm in the main plaza where, as no real surprise, most cafes had people drinking and smoking, with little kids running around the wide plaza centre wither with a ball or just chasie. Billy was into that quickly! We were told people eat late, but how late? Maybe they go home and have cheese on toast? It was Sunday night so some places appeared closed. Walking back to the hotel we found a pizza place and ordered two no worth mentioning pizzas at 11.30pm. On our way home we were surprised to pass a huge residence that was guarded by a number of officers carrying wearing hand guns and carrying machine guns that look like uzi-submachine guns. We really behaved ourselves walking past them! Good night and we look forward to buffet breakfast on the roof top terrace and visiting the Guggenheim.