Tryp Arenal Bilbao

Having disembarked the Pride of Bilbao, following our two day mini-cruise (the highlights of which were DVD horse races, bingo, Geordies on the lash and two memorable dining experiences at Langans Brasserie), we faced the delights of industrial Bilbao, which proved to be a fitting introduction to North Spain. Undaunted we headed to ...

... distance I can make out the Pyrenees. And just on the other side, we’ll be coming in to Bilbao. Not sure if preparing myself mentally and moving my watch to Spain-time did it, but I’m feeling quite refreshed right now despite the fact that I didn’t sleep much on the flight over the ocean. The cabin is being prepped for landing so I’m quitting now, but I’ll pick up once we ...

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 ...

... It was also interesting to see the differing mediums being used in Modern Art today.  Definitely different from the stuff we say in the Museum D'Orsay in Paris! Sakura's Highlights - Guggenheim was an amazing building.  Above and beyond what I expected - Murakami's exhibition (anime artwork) took me back to my childhood Christophe's Highlights - Realizing that it was Murakami's flowers on the Louis Vuitton bags - Frank Gehry's architecture Next stop Barcelona Spain!

... 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).<br><br>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.

... if my BO wasn't so bad ... I'm also wearing my stupid convertible pants - they're made of synthetic material for durability, but this means they don't breathe very well, and lead to a horrible affliction known as "Swamp Butt". I've done much research on this subject over the years; my findings have been disturbing to say the least (for more details, see http://www.travelpod.com/travel-photo/p wong/europe_2006/1154455320/dsc04036.jp g ...

... also herring in it so his stomach did a flip and he put it back down. And here I thought my Jim would eat anything! We then went for a ride on the funicular, which took us up to a park overlooking Bilbao. The Guggenheim looked so small from up there! It was a great view and worth the 1.70 round trip fare. Nancy and Lynne arrived around 3:00 (they had spent the night in London, not being foolhardy enough to attempt to get all the way to Bilbao in one day) so ...

... once we were full and tired we went back to our hotel and played card games and caught up on what we have been up to. this morning we overslept and missed our train. we had so much fun last night but stayed up way too late so we missed our 8:55 A.M. train to Madrid where we were then going to take a bus to Segovia, our next planned stop. the 4 of us found a place that was open on a Sunday for breakfast and had tortilla, which in Spain is fried potato ...

... your generation has had on the world, and how much english everyone actually knows b-c of our music. well, jeff and i made it home from san sebastian in time to catch a huge outdoor festival called bilbao live, which included a 3 hr concert from axel rose himself, and G&R. it was amazing. we were up close and personal with the bad. it was really cool ...