7 May - Back to the Pais Vasco

With sadness, we left Ascain and headed back to Spain, first along a small road that took us
from Hendaye to Irun and then the autopista towards Bilbo. Our target was a few coastal
fishing ports. Eventually getting to Bermeo, we tried to get to a church and shrine built on a
small island but ran into a closed road that was really closed (moving those plastic water-
filled barriers to get around supposed road closures is something I learnt from the French).

We headed out to Bilbo's port of Getxo at the mouth of the Nervion river. The main attraction
is the Puente Colgante transporter bridge, Designed by a student of Gustav Eiffel, it provides
a crossing across the river to connect the two towns while allowing large ships to pass
underneath, all without destroying majors parts of the towns on either side or making the
bridge users climb high up. How was this accomplished? By using a suspended gondola.
Over a 100 years old, the bridge is still used 24/7/365. You can go up and walk across the
span for EUR 5 as a tourist or go across on the gondola as a foot passenger for a few euro
cents. Car capacity was 6 and however motor bikes and scooters could fit in. It was just
over an Euro for a car and two pax. Eerily smooth and quiet crossing as the motors were in
the carriage over 100' above. It's unique enough to be a U.N. World Heritage site.


Puente Colgante


Allows ships to pass under


View of the gondola from above


North end of the bridge No roadways necessary to demolish the old town


I decided yet another agroturismo stay would be nice so I picked one to the west of Bilbo.
Using the highways, we took the right exit for the town of Alonsotegi, went onto a side road,
that became even narrower, before becoming unpaved and winding up a small valley
enshrouded in mist. The PoA noticed some movement and soon we saw 4 young cows
coming our way, and go past. Then we passed this red-faced out-of-breath man who looked
at us with a look of "why are you looking at me? My cows just ran away".

So there it was, Ordaola. Appearing out of the mist like the Bates Motel would if it was there. After some fussing because the owner apparently hadn't communicated our reservation to
his receptionist, we settled into our room for the rest of the day. Dinner was offered so we
took it.

Going to the dining room at the appointed time of 9, we walked into a dark room where the
receptionist was waiting. Some lights came on and we were seated. Dinner started with
soup and bread, followed by fried eggs, ham and chips. I almost thought I was in the U.K.
and green salad. Dessert was some rather stale ice cream novelties. Breakfast was the
uneaten bread for the previous night, toasted. At least it wasn't packaged.

Heading out to Bilbo, we had the Guggenheim museum in our sights. Bilbo is busy at any time and there isn’t much parking available around the museum . The nearest was at an upscale and new shopping mall down river from the museum. The museum itself is probably more interesting from the outside than inside. The permanent exhibits are rather limited and we were not sure that we “got it”. Certainly our hosts at the Cd’H in Tosse didn’t think they got it either. The highlight exhibition that was plastered in shop windows all over town was one of Takashi Murikami. Let’s say it’s a good thing Europe has more open view of sexuality than North Americans. Yes, his Lonesome Cowboy and Hiropon statutes were there.
Lunch was at the shopping mall (discounted parking with purchase).


Murikami advertisement

The Spanish don’t do food courts the same way as is done in N. America. All the outlets there were proper sit down and serve, and the prix fixe lunch was with water or wine (they must be available at the same price if bottled here). That was the last whimper following 2 weeks of good eating. We had an early departure next morning so it was back to the Tryp Sondika (and we got the proper directions to get back to BIO this time!).


Recommended Reading

Cadogan publishes a guide titled Bilbao and the Basque Lands. They also have overlapping guides. One's Northern Spain and the other is Pyrenees and Dascony or some such for France.

Michelin's Atlas des Routiers is the map to use for anywhere in France (except cities). We used the Atlas Turistico Euskal Herria for the Basque country.

Routard's Chambres des Hotes is a great guide for good places to stay in rural France, and
the Restos book a guide to places to dine.

www.nekatur.net has a directory of agroturismos in the CAV - the site now is much better for
locating accomodation than 6 months ago. Spanish Navarra's tourism site has a similar
guide.

Sweet Promised Land by Robert Laxalt, published by U. of Nevada Press, is a good read
about the author's father's return to the Basque country after 47 years' absence. Other
books by Laxalt (brother of former Nevada governor and U.S. senator Paul Laxalt)
are good too.

Of course there's Mark Kurlansky's Basque History of the World, and the related Salt and Cod.