The Great Euro Trip of 2022 Pt. 4

 

San Sebastian is a popular tourist stop and it's easy to see why.  A beautiful place.  These shots are from an amusement park above the city.

Again, our intrepid duo.

And from another part of the city... 

You can't escape Jesus...

And his church...

San Sebastian features Miramar, the escape residence for a past Queen of Spain.  The story is long and complicated (and involves royalty currently avoiding prosecution by residing in Dubai).  Clicking on the signs hopefully will fill you in.

On the "main drag" of old San Sebastian, I was surprised to find all these flowers in bloom.  The weather had been cold and rainy, so thank you flowers for your persistence.

San Sebastian hosts a number of Michelin starred restaurants.  We couldn't afford one of those, but we did have a wonderful meal on our last night at this modernist dining establishment.

Now off to Bordeaux...

The Great Euro Trip of 2022 Pt. 3

On the road to San Sebastian...  a brief stop in Getaria.

 Getaria is a small, quaint little fishing village, known for a famous dressmaker (I missed the dress museum and went walk-a-bout).  And it was lunch time...  we are talking FRESH here...

I loved the narrow streets...

And the dress designers house, found by random chance...

Not a fashion maven, I was unaware of Cristobal Balenciaga, but click on the link for more info.

Getaria also features a prominent, if not large, bastion. 

Then there is the wonderful shoreline.

A welcome stop on our bus to San Sebastian.  Pretty good gelato, too!

The Great Euro Trip pf 2022 Pt. 2

 Day trips from Bilbao edition:

First, to a memorial park above the city.

The Basque area was hit particularly hard by the fascist Franco regime during the Spanish civil war and WWII.  Lives lost are commemorated by this "thumb" sculpture and memorial.

Then it was off to Guernica with its replica of the famous Picasso mural, another memorial to the fallen, and inside the Basque area government hall.

The Basque area enjoys a special relationship with the country of Spain (notwithstanding the separatist movement).  Residents of the area pay taxes to the Basque government, who in turn pays a share to the Spanish government for the country's expenses.  Most signage in the area is in both the Basque language and Spanish (and some English).  Then there are the Catalonians...   Spain has it's share of issues, that's for sure.

Following the river from Bilbao to the sea, there is another area on the other side of the river with a long history.  A UNESCO site is the old bridge transferring people, and later autos, between the two river banks.

We had lunch at a nice cafe with some wine sampling.  First, a beautiful, high quality paper napkin graced our table.

Then a sampling of local wines.  Rioja is the standard red of the region.

Back to the center of Bilbao, and it's time for the big attraction...  the Guggenheim Museum!  My feeble pictures can't possibly do justice to this magnificent structure.  But here's a couple shots anyway.

And a couple inside.

And our illustrious duo...  keeping our masks handy...

Outside is the famous puppy sculpture...  pronounced "poopy" by the locals.

The day ended at a fine cafe in the old town section of Bilbao.  We were served by the best waiter ever.  The Victor Montez, with an interesting history (click on the link) is a great place to enjoy a meal (and opens early for those of us not used to Spanish meal times!).

That ends our time in Bilbao.  Off to San Sebastian.

The Great Euro Trip of 2022 Pt. 1

 

Flying in the face of any new COVID variants, we began our long scheduled Euro adventure in hopes that the plague had abated enough for us to survive.  We signed up for a river cruise way back in the middle of the plague when cruise lines were desperate for travelers.  As a result, AMA river cruises gave us 3 free days in Bilbao and the Basque Country.  After trying to negotiate the COVID protocols for travel in 3 countries (many hours of uploading VAX cards and registering on web sites), I was off across the Atlantic.

I met Miriam (who had been teaching in Lyon) at Schiphol in Amsterdam to fly from there to Bilbao.  I paid some extra bucks for an upgraded seat so I could get the famous KLM lunch.  I had experienced this lunch previously and hoped KLM hadn't cut back on services.  And I was rewarded!  Check out these pics of my lunch on the way to Bilbao.  Other airlines gotta up their game!

The box...

The meal...

Such a wonderful presentation.  I love this airline!

We arrived at the beautiful, modern Bilbao airport.  The airport is small and easily negotiated (not. like Schiphol!!!).  More on the architecture later.  The city itself is quite wonderful, with an old town and also with a very modern posture.

A view from our hotel of the park along the river

The soccer stadium (the major design structure of most European cities) and a new office building:

Just down from our (NH) hotel, was a wonderful footbridge across the river.  

The bridge, along with the airport, was designed by Santiago Calatrava, and therein lies a story.  It rains a lot in Bilbao, and parking for the airport had no connection to the terminal... creating frustration for travelers.  And the foot part of the footbridge was done in glass, so people could see the river below them, but the rain on glass created much slipping, sliding, and injury, so the glass was lined with an opaque material that allowed traction in the wet.  This led to a lawsuit by the architect.  And so it goes...

A couple more important features found around Bilbao will appear in the next installment of this blog series.  Stay tuned!

Dead Dog or Dog Tired?

Maybe just a nap...