Tailgating Spanish Style

Today we head to Bilbao to meet my cousin Donna, who will join us on our Backroads bike trip through the Basque Country. Before our 910am bus from San Sebastian to Bilbao, we headed out to find food and coffee…our daily ritual. Compared to the city-wide party the night before, this Sunday morning was quiet and peaceful, which also meant nothing was open. We found a bakery with some very yummy looking pastries, but no coffee… but the friendly counter person pointed us in the direction where we could get both.

Two blocks down, we found more unhealthy pastries and hearty

coffee, which was what was needed to start the day. Even though it was only 815a, we went ahead and started the 10 min walk to the bus station, figuring there would be more coffee there that we could enjoy while we waited. We are very programmed to get to our departure point early and it is hard to break that for buses and trains who arrive right before the departure time.

Today, that was lucky as we found there was an 830a bus (not sure what happened with the 910a bus!) and we made it with no time to spare. At 831, we were in our seats and ready for the 1h20min ride to Bilbao. On the way, we passed over significant rolling hills and valleys with red roof and white-washed chateaus sprinkled in. I kept thinking…wow these are HILLS that we are going to be biking on over the next week. YIKES.

We arrived in Bilbao and grabbed a taxi to our AirBnB, where my cousin Donna had arrived the night before from Seattle via Paris. I tried to contact her, but no luck, as I was sure she was still sleeping off the long trip. We found some outdoor tables, relaxed with coffee and watched the local scene come alive. I eventually tried Donna’s phone again and she sleepily answered. We told her to come on down to the little square as it looked like a party was being set up and we had a front row seat to the action.'

We watched as tents and tables were set up all along the small street and even though it was only 1030a, the beer and wine was flowing as each tent started cooking. We were told it was a “cooking competition” and looked a lot like the barbecue cook-offs we had in Houston. We finally went back the two blocks to the apartment, which was two bedroom, bright, modern and very clean.

We relaxed for a bit, then walked along the river to the magnificent Guggenheim Museum, which is made famous by Frank Gehry’s distinctive design. We stopped at the outdoor café adjacent to the museum to split a small baguette and a couple of glasses of wine, which allowed us to take in the bustling scene and amazing architecture of the building.

Inside we took advantage of the audio guides that gave detailed information about the design and the exhibits. We enjoyed the Marc Chagall area, but some of the rest were a bit modern, eclectic and/or performance arty for our tastes. Ok some were just downright weird, such as the 12-15 tvs that just showed a hand scratching a foot. Yup….one person’s art is another’s trash, or in our case just confusion.

We wandered back towards the apartment and looked for a pinxto’s place for a snack. The cooking competition was in full swing and some of the cooking smelled really good. But, similar to tailgaiting at home, it looked like you needed to belong to the group or at least have an invitation, for which we didn’t fit either. We did find a busy little pinxtos bar and slid up to the bar, where we promptly found out that it was 410p and food isn’t served between 4-8p. Luckily, they still had wine and little sandwiches, so we enjoyed both. While there, Ken struck up a conversation with a little old guy who spoke not one word

of English, which Ken speaking very little Spanish and by the time we were done the old guy was kissing Ken’s cheeks. We bought his glass of wine and much to the old man’s distress, left for our apartment.

While in the bar, it started to rain, then rained harder then poured with some of the loudest thunder I have heard in a long time. We ran with our raincoats and umbrella’s, but still got drenched before arriving back to the apartment. It was a good excuse to do a bit of relaxing and watch the crazy rainstorm.

When a lull in the weather around 7p, we decided to try out Bilbao’s

old town, which was about a mile walk along the river. Compared to San Sebastian the night before it was very sedate, which is probably normal for a Sunday night. There were very few restaurants open, but using a Rick Steve’s recommendation we found a wonderful, quiet and very reasonable restaurant with a nice piano player.

Since anchovies are a local specialty (not the nasty kind that are in cans back home) we started with that and some grilled cheeses, which were both very yummy. With a bottle of local red wine, along with fish and steak for the main courses we had a nice relaxed meal before wandering back through the quiet old town.

Tomorrow…the bikes!!!