Bilbao, Spain – May 1, 2022
What a trip this has been! Inn to inn for 8 nights with 2 extra in Bilbao & 2 more in Santander on the northern coastal beach!
Our trails will weave through 3 provinces and the Picos de Europa Nat’l Park, thru villages, farms, and ancient shepherded paths.
From Home:
I’ve been back from the 8 day hike in Northern Spain for 2 days. My sense of time is readjusting to the 6 hour difference between there and here as load after load of trekking laundry circles the machine cylinder, zippers clicking, wash water swooshing, and hot air humming through the dryer. Stacks of mail fill the dining room table. The frig is basically empty; maps, notebooks, and travel receipts lay about inviting me get organized, pull together a story, create some sort of record of the tour: a trek through three northern provinces of Spain: inn to inn on shepherd trails used for centuries by Basques peoples.
The area we explored includes the simply stunning Picos de Europa National Park south of Gijon, north of Santiago de Compostella, and west of the two cities we will explore: Bilbao to start and Santander to finish up.
OK, Here we go:
artwork hanging in concourse between connecting flights …
Connecting through Paris, we find illustration art in the airport halls – imaginary magazine covers for a fictitious 2050 publication! a nice diversion. Our flight to Bilbao will take less than two hours.
The Guggenheim
The Guggenheim will be the first thing we see entering the city. The Hotel Miro is perfect: meticulously clean; directly across from the Frank Gehry masterpiece (1997), and only three blocks from the Belles Artes Museo, reopened after multi year renovation. We schedule breakfast, included, so we won’t crowd the dining room.
Views of the Jeff Koon’s sitting “Kitty” created with flowering plants looms in the entry plaza where the light, the number of people, the energy changes hourly.
Lovely parks encircle the museum. The exhibitor this year is “Motion: Autos, Art & Architecture”. Popular for all ages and interests, I have pix of all of the galleries.
Designed in 1930’s this Bugattoi was never produced commercially. Stunning!.
Richard Serra’s cast steel installation provokes exploration. The room is huge!
The building actually seems to resonate through the day, reflecting shadows, sunshine, rain drops, night lights. We see them all in our 36 hours here!
Springtime in Spain!
The trip is a first post-pandemic rescheduled tour planned in 2019 for the four of us who then wanted a hiking excursion. Now, years later, we knew not at all what our strengths would be nor how our 70 something energies and abilities would react to time change, to new foods and unexpected travel challenges and the big question: could we do all the treks – 10 miles per day. We spoke directly with each other about taking care of oneself, not competing and yes, enjoying what ever would unfold. We are: Michael, who I think you know is my husband; his first cousin Sandy, (their mothers are sisters) and Ellie, his wife. We do remember being married about the same time, but our lives have not overlapped , except on rare occasions when those mothers coincidentally invited us all in town at the same time.
The first trek turns out to be through the city of Bilbao. We refuse the idea of a taxi! We step count in preparation for the 8 days of trekking. Ellie and I find the Spanish shoe chain store, Pikolinos. We do enjoy a nice, too nice? restaurant the first night, but find the 9 pm dinner hour, strictly observed, a challenge. We overcome an overcharge by the waitress; correcting the bill the next morning with the Manager.
The meat arrives barely cooked; the zig zag silver tray is a grill right on the table!
Our way to cope tomorrow will be tapas! Viva tapas!
There are infinite great views to find in Bilbao. Sculpture everywhere: bridges count!
We walk so far that Sandy gets a sore leg from the hard pavement, and on a long stretch of a staircase, Michael knocks his hand into a bannister and mildly sprains his finger. This start could look better.
This woman is one of 4….always people posing around them……
We find all sorts of historic buildings, including the opera house in the old town and aim for a new view, the Library to find an impressive auditorium on the second floor and a display of authors who are 100 years in 2022. This includes Virginia Wolf!
Simply beautiful!
I haven’t even started on the trek! Oh my. I’m out of steam. It’s time to take another nap! Ahh. Time change! More to post very soon.
Thanks for reading.
Ramelle
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