9th-11th July
Bilbao

Had a minor panic at Malaga due to the lateness of Vueling. I was booked to stay at Basque Boutique (BasqueBoutique | Hotel en Bilbao, País Vasco | Basque Boutique), which is something of a virtual hotel with no front desk etc. Of course I had not read my emails properly and had discovered that you are supposed to email them at least 48 hours before for access codes, which of course I had not done, and that they stop answering emails and phone calls at 8pm. Happily they replied to my panic stricken email promptly so I was all set

Minor disadvantage that the taxi had to drop me off about a block away as the old town streets are pedestrianised but I suppose you can't have it all

I had the double room immediately to the left of the sometime reception desk:

Online reviews complained about noise levels from the street outside. I'll concede there was a bit but nothing that kept me awake. This was however a midweek stay and it's possible that weekends may be worse?

There was a private bathroom with shower. I was unsure what to make of this signage:


There was a common area with coffee making facilities but no tea and nothing along those lines in the room

I headed out for a wander around the old town:








Eventually settling for dinner at one of the pintxos bars in the Plaza Barria



I wasn't really sure what to choose and was feeling strangely antisocial so asked the waiter to bring me a selection, which worked well
They had Kalimotxo on the menu (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalimotxo), but even after asking about 5 times he adamantly refused to bring me any as apparently it's "disgusting", so I ended up with txakoli (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Txakoli) instead and now will need to go and buy red plonk and coke in order to sample the Basque cultural icon



For desert, he still didn't want to bring me the Kalimotxo, and wasn't especially keen to serve me Carolina cake either (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_(pastry)) but eventually relented on that point. I ended up drinking something called "Orujo de hierbas" instead which was pretty rank


Mildly sozzled, I made my way back to the hotel via a corner shop with the intention of buying some red wine and coke, but the only had the red wine in larger quantities than I would like so I abandoned that plan

The next morning it was time for a pleasant stroll along the river to the Guggenheim



Tell me this shouldn't be BilboBusgins??




I had originally planned to take in the Guggenheim but since my interest is primarily the architecture of the building rather than the art itself, I balked at paying an exorbitant amount for admission and instead had breakfast there




In the afternoon I took in a couple of Basque cultural centres, which mainly left me more confused than I was before
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azkuna_Zentroa
https://www.euskal-museoa.eus/es/informazioa/non_gaude


Phillipe Starck designed Azkuna Zentroa cultural centre

Euskal Museoa

Wandering back I made my way to the Artxanda funicular, because it's not really a European holiday if there isn't a funicular railway involved

View from the Mirador

At this stage I realised, as is so often the case in my life, that I had ....ed up. I was intending to visit Grua Carola and also the Vizcaya bridge, but had failed to spot that, while the bridge runs all night, the touristic viewing deck closes at 8pm. I also didn't really want to be walking through an industrial part of town by myself at night so hot footed it via tram and then train post haste


Grua Carola


Vizcaya transporter bridge


The metro ride back gave an opportunity to check out Norman Foster's designs for the subway entrances


And a final chance to see the magnificent Guggenheim at sunset/dusk




11th July 2019
BA2685
BIO-LGW
1055-1150
11F

It was a fairly early start for me to beat the traffic and spend a bit of time checking out the airport, which architecture buffs amongst you will know is another Santiago Calatrava designed piece


Note strike protest banners in background

The Bilbao airport strikes were scheduled for 7th, 14th and 15th of July so once again I missed out- just!

As always I forgot to pay much attention to the lounge, although the view of the building from it was rather good


Boarding was unusual- down some stairs, through immigration (with priority boarding groups invited to push in front of the general line- nice!!) and onto buses
Furthermore it appears I flew G-MIDO and lived to tell the tale


This was my first time flying BA ET since BOB so very little comment on the service to be made. I had an empty seat next to me and an exit row so not a lot to complain about. We also landed on time!

I had snorted to myself when the lady at Bilbao check in put the priority tag on my bag and of course this time was no exception- my bag was one of the last onto the carousel
The queue for Avis pick ups was also a total zoo, with a very "computer says no" lady who was doing nothing but only prepared to make an effort if i was Avis preferred (I'm not)
But eventually I was on my way and onto the M23 (side note: how is there not a civil war in the UK at the moment??)- I was astonished how bad the traffic was, given it was mid week and outside rush hour, the trip to Hampshire took about 4 hours!!


However the river Itchen was as always lovely


A pleasant few days were spent spotting planes at my brother's house in West London and catching up with various friends

some lost Canadians