Over the border and on to Bilbao

Tuesday 14th – Wednesday 15th April

We enjoyed a pleasant breakfast in the hotel then called a taxi to take us to the airport, not to fly, just to collect the valiant steed that would be taking Don Pressote and Sancho Singapori around Spain. It was a nice car, brand new with only a handful of miles on it and built in satnav which made life easier.

We loaded our luggage and figured out the sound system so that we could stream music and podcasts from our phones, important things first. I was at the wheel and we headed out of the airport, remembering to drive on the other side of the road and made our way to the border and in to Spain. Bilbao is about an hour and a half drive from Biarritz and it’s all major roads so pretty smooth going. Spain has some really good motorways, well maintained and quiet as they often have tolls to pay. These vary by some unfathomable logic so every now and again there is a toll booth where you have to pay some amount of money that didn’t seem to be particularly related to distance. These booths proved a source of amusement for me as Raj was constantly unable to get the car close enough to the machine to pay without having to open the door and partially get out. Short people eh?

Bilbao is on the northern coast of Spain and seemed a mixture of a city. We were staying at Sercotel Coliseo, a rather nice hotel in the centre of the city which we were eventually able to find after navigating the incomprehensible maze of one way streets and poor signposting. We freshened up and then headed out to explore the city on foot, roaming the streets pretty much at random to see what there was to see. The part of the city we were in was much like any other European city, nothing much to see in the way of historical interest and basically all shops, restaurants and offices. We made our way down to the river, the area around which has had some serious investment to tart it up and there is a very pleasant walk down the bank which led us to the Guggenheim Museum. All around the museum is interesting artwork and the building itself is architecturally interesting. We stopped at an outdoor cafe for a beer and to listen to the jazz band that was playing, a very pleasing way to spend an evening. We then headed back towards the hotel and found somewhere to eat, a more difficult proposition than you would expect due to some odd opening hours of the restaurants. The Spanish tend to eat later in the evening than we are used to, but opening hours are entirely random, as we found out when basically everywhere was closed. We finally ate at a kind of cafe bar place which had the obligatory leg of ham on the counter, who knew that drying ham and slicing it thinly made it extra delicious?

The following morning we went out and found a pavement cafe to have breakfast, good coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice is a great way to start the day. We then loaded up the car and set off for Madrid where we would be staying for two nights at the Acta Madfor which was just on the edge of the city centre. This was our first big stretch of driving at around four hours including a stop on the way, but again the miles flew by and we were soon in the capitol of Spain to see what it had to offer.