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| Along the River Urumea |
It was raining when we woke up. I talked to Carol on the phone and arranged to meet with her for lunch at 2:00 pm. The hotel kept our luggage in storage until our bus departure to Bilbao later in the day. They had lent out all of their umbrellas already but the rain had stopped under very dark, threatening skies. We started out walking back toward the water via the paseo along the river. The paseo was a beautiful parklike boulevard lined with very expensive looking apartments. We saw kids rowing crew on the river. We turned away from the river into the old town and found a rare coffee-to-go place, full of women. They even had mochas for Neil. We drank our coffee in the parklike central area of Plaza de Gipuzkoa, watching a lot of little children feeding ducks and pigeons.
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| The beach from Mt Urgull |
We continued meandering on our sightseeing walk and started climbing up Mt. Urgull. The path was very green and presented gorgeous views of the beach and bay. There was a very nicely designed historical museum in the castle at the top of the mountain. It was sprinkling by the time we reached the top and we were getting quite damp. We headed back down and got to our restaurant meeting for lunch. The restaurant, however, was full so Carol took us down the street to a bar. Carol told us that it was unusual to order more than one tapas dish. The custom was to order one with a small beer (like the size of two shotglasses) and then either move on to another bar and do the same or sit down for the main lunch meal. Since foreigners, including Americans, frequent the area, the natives are used to people getting more than one tapas dish and loading it all onto a plate. We ate crammed into a counter at the front window. The outside tables were not being used because of the rain, making it crowded inside.
As lunch ended, we said goodbye to Carol and remembered to give her back her bus pass. Our overall impression of San Sebastian was one of elegance and planning - at a cost. It seemed to be a playground for the rich. We saw advertisements for small apartments for sale with no view for $500,000. Carol had told us of the complex system of public housing subsidies that allowed most people to live in the area. I did not see living in San Sebastian in our future.
Carol told us that we had to buy our bus tickets at the ticket office before getting on the bus, unlike our experience getting here yesterday with paying the driver. We walked back through significant rain to the hotel and bus station, found the ticket office with some difficulty, bought the tickets, got our luggage and, after a little confusion about the gate the bus was leaving from, were on our way to downtown Bilbao for the bargain price of 10 Euros apiece. The bus retraced the route of yesterday's bus, except that it ended up in the downtown bus station rather than at the airport.
Bilbao was described in our tour book as depressed, decayed and run down, with about one million people in the area. It seemed otherwise to us. We taxied from the bus to our hotel, Melia. The hotel was large, kind of a business hotel, and very nicely designed. Our room had a beautiful view of the river and a bridge. The window curtain, including a separate blackout, worked electrically from a switch by the bed. We borrowed an umbrella from the front desk (Neil's spanish was, once again, gently corrected by the very nice check-in receptionist. It turns out that an umbrella is a paragua, not a sombrilla which is like a sunshade.) and set out toward the old town to explore our new city.
After walking through a beautiful park, Parque de Dona Casilda Iturrizar, behind the hotel, we came out onto the Gran Via. As per usual for us, we turned the wrong direction and walked down to a big plaza with a huge monument. We had thought this to be the Plaza Major, but it was something else (Plaza Sagrado Corazon). We turned around and headed back up the Gran Via. The Gran Via was a mostly commercial area, lined with very nice stores. Although it was a wet weekday, people were everywhere. As far as we could tell, everybody was a local. At the Plaza Major, we hit some kind of large group gathering for a parade / protest. We assumed this to be related to gay pride because of a lot of rainbow colored items on display. We never really found out for sure, though.
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| Fountains in Iturrizar Park |
We got to the old part of town by continuing on Gran Via and crossing a bridge over the Bilbao river. The Plaza was similar to that in San Sebastian in size and design; lots of shops, lots of people. There were older ladies out in groups. There were children playing. I noticed a definite girl-hipster look characterized by very short bangs. As the evening wore on, the bars came to noisy life, overflowing with the young adult crowd. The general level of commotion was augmented by the arrival of the parade we had seen forming earlier in our walk. Neil and I were getting very hungry, but I could not bring myself to navigate into the noise and smoke of the bars.
We left the old section back the way we came looking for a quieter, more relaxed place to eat. We stopped at several bars and cafes, but they were full. we noted that, unlike everywhere else we had visited, the primary "dinner tapa" was ice cream! We stopped at several restaurants with exorbitant prices (Apparently there are lots of rich people in "run-down" Bilbao.) Many places were closed or closing; another surprise based on our travels. We finally found the Spanish equivalent of a Fresh Choice. I was happy with the food and the relaxed atmosphere.
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| The riverfront at night |
It was the end of a long day. We crossed back through the park and returned to our hotel. I relaxed in the tub before bed.
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