Hotel Ripa Bilbao

... our first surfing destination to dip a toe or two into a deserted Atlantic which Lym thoroughly enjoyed, however which led Annabelle to looking like an extra from a B-grade vampire movie; this following her surfboard and her face becoming rather intimate. Enough for one day, onward to our campsite at historic Santillana del Mar.<br>

... time to walk around Bilbao. <br><br>Wow! Bilbao is fantastic! It reminds me of Bogota, only cooler. It is surrounded by beautiful hills (unless you live in Texas, then they&#8217;re mountains!). You can almost smell the sea. We had a short nap after we checked in then got up and had lunch (we showed up at a bout 2:30 and the guy told us we were just a bit early for lunch, but he served us). Sure enough ...

We drove from Madrid, got a bit lost trying to find Lurdea. We thought it is a name of a village but it is not it is just the name of the Hotel/Casa Rural.<br><br>The place is amazing. Located in the hills above Bermeo, with magnificent view of the ocean. It is clean (like really clean) and has the air of a relaxing boutique hotel.<br>

Bilbao, the capital of Viscaya in the county, with the nice weather and climate that is milder than in most other parts of the peninsula, rarely falling below freezing in winter or rising above 35 degree C in summer. <br><br>One of the best features of this place is the collection of Museums that exhibit the artifacts that well ...

... br>Safety and Setting Sail<br>Just before dinner, the Duty Officer had a safety briefing with her and went over how to put on a life jacket and what to do in an emergency. She was cute with the Duty Officer, Simon, and she had everyone laughing as they went through the safety procedures. <br><br>For dinner, again, it was just warm enough to eat alfresco on the upper aft deck. During dinner the Stewardess began to pour some wine and my grandmother doesn&#8217;t drink so she ...

Urghh long, long bus journey from Valencia. Sleeping tablets helped, but what didn't were the rude Spanish couple behind us who persisted on banging on the back of our seats all journey. They seemed angry that we were using the recline function which we had paid, and were entitled to use...<br><br>Anyway, arrive at about 8 or something where we got ...

... room looks like a palace. We awake and decide to go move the car to a more sensible (less illegal) spot and the car is missing. After a few frantic moments and a conversation with a very helpful hotel receptionist we learned that: a. Ryan parked in a police only parking spot, b. our car had been towed and it would take 90&euro; to get it out of the "grua" c. spanish tow truck drivers like to spray their ...

... hanging around them--looks very gross! As far as do´s--where we live, jeans are beyond popular. People are wearing jeans as "dress-clothes" to everything. This is just a recent fashion, and it was not that common when we were in Madrid a few weeks ago. As far as an update, the past few days I really haven´t done anything exciting. I have found some awesome recipes by just trying to cook random things from the grocery ...

Well after deciding to stay an extra night in San Sebastian for all of the festivities, Bilbao was the last stop of my 6 city tour of the north. It´s one of Spain´s biggest cities and knowing that I only had one day to explore it and make sure I saw Bilbao´s Guggenheim Museum that I have ...

After a really long haul on the bus, I made it to Bilbao. All the rooms were full in town because of a lame football game, so I ended up out in a village, spending alot more money. But, of course, every cloud has a silver lining, it was awesome being out in the country. I took a super long walk on easter morning (couldn´t find a chocolate bunny anywhere!). It was a small Basque village called El Regato, lots of Basques flags flying in people´s windows ...