Mundaka Hotel

... pincho that Paul had and a (believe it or not) anchovy/cod concoction on bread that I had. I’ve really been venturing out on the fish thing this trip. I even had cod for lunch!!

Tomorrow we leave Bilbao for a hotel a bit in from the coast into the Picos de Europa, a beautiful, mountainous area. We should be in by late afternoon. Look for photos of the coast and the mountains next.

Cheers!

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.

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.

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.

One of the best features of this place is the collection of Museums that exhibit the artifacts that well ...

... is astounding. The only flat surfaces are the floors. The outside is clad in titanium. Words do not do it justice.....look at the pictures. The inside was equally spectacular but we could not take photographs. The building outshone the majority of the art work unless you are a fan of self indulgent video installations!!

... but much of the rest of the contents is just a bit too modern for me. Its the sort of art that challenges you to think what is art, which unlike most people I don't think is a bad thing, but only in small doses. One of the floors was closed when I was there being prepared for a new temporary exhibition.

I ate at the Guggenheim. To be honest I probably wouldn't have bothered had I not booked it some weeks ...

... rip current running along the cliff and past the harbor entrance. At a large rockpile, you paddle right out into the bay and set up on the peak. The wave rolls in and peels off a long left-hander all the way in to the sands of the rivermouth. At the end of the ride, you plane across the whitewash until you are back in the rip, then ride it back out to the peak or hop out. Beautiful!

... somewhere you want to stay. True is relatively near the tube into the city (a cab ride of about £5) but it's not worth it. We left and didn't pay for the night we stayed there (I'm not sorry).

We also came to the conclusion that we needed a car so hired one to drive us to San Seb. Spent a another day in Bilbao seeing the obvious Guggenheim.

... managers, journalist, etc. For example Kelly Slater stays in France and comes every morning. The next day the competition was canceled so after a brief visit to Mundaka we went to Sopelana, a classic surf beach in the north shore of Spain, we had some beers in the bar enjoying the warm day that was to be October and then went to have lunch bacalao a la vizcaina, a typical fish from this part of spain. In the afternoon we went to Bilbao, the ...

... to watch the Atlantic Ocean become a lake. The boys took solace in a couple of cold beers at a bar overlooking the small harbour in town. The main town square is quite small and from there numerous narrow alleys spread in all directions. The roads are a maze with one way streets, two way streets and streets that you couldn't even fit a car down. No Frisbee today, and with the boys leaving early the next day the days of power ...

... and Andy was visibly peeved! So we had a couple of beers and a walk along the cliffs and drove on with no real plan until we found ourselves along some little country lane leading to a beach near a place called Ea at midnight. Woke up early Monday morning to stunning surroundings..I had a big walk while the sad surfless one slept! We cooked up fruit pancakes on the BBQ´s and enjoyed a tranquil morning with nature until a bus load of school kids on ...