Time in Bilbao August 13 - 16, 2022

I had never been to Basque country, so since my flight schedule allowed me to do so, I visited Bilbao for a few days.  Saturday morning I took the train from Madrid to Bilbao.  While it was relatively fast for the first half to Segovia, Valladolid and Burgos, it was much slower through the mountains from Burgos to Bilbao.  After arriving, I walked across the Nervion River and into the very busy old town section.  One very nice thing about the old town is that it is virtually free of motor vehicles, even on this three day holiday weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I got to Hotel La Estrella Ostatu, as I knew in advance, there was no elevator.  It was 26 stairs from the street to the lobby and another 20 stairs from the lobby to my room.  The hotel is older, but I had a very nice large room with a large private bath.  There was good wifi. The one missing thing was A/C - I knew this before booking the hotel, but assumed I would be fine with only a fan in the room - and I was.  The hotel rate included a typical Spanish breakfast of coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice, a croissant and tostada con tomate y aciete.

  

 

 

I saw posters advertising Bilbao's annual music and arts festival, Aste Nagusa - it begins the Saturday after I left Bilbao.

I began my explorations by heading towards Casilda Iturrizar Parque with the idea to follow the Nervion River downstream towards the Bay of Biscayne.  I passed by and through smaller parks on the way.

It was all very lush, with many flowers in bloom.

I had been told that there was a lot of interesting architecture, and I was not disappointed.

I took this photo to show the contrasts between old and new, with a cathedral on the right, the 30 story Iberdola tower in the middle and renovation of an existing building on the left.

As I entered the Casilda Iturrizar Parque, I was impressed with the wise land use planning to put a municipal garage under the park.

In the park, there was a memorial to those who have died from the Covid Pandemic.

There were also many beautiful fountains.

As I left the park, I saw signs for much of the art and sculpture for the park and museum.

I passed by the many outside exhibits at the Itsasmuseum, the Maritime Museum.

 

There were murals in many locations.

I followed the riverwalk downstream for a couple of kilometers, then returned to the Itsasmuseum and could see both the outside museum exhibits with the 30 story Iberdola office building in the distance.

 

Inside the museum, there were videos in four languages and many of the signs were also in four languages.  I learned about both the history and the geology of the area.

 I had no idea that people surfed here, but there was a major section of the museum dedicated to surfing.

There was also artwork and cabinetry from the 18th century when the 300 years of commercial rules ended.

 

As had been my experience with visiting the Naval Museum in Madrid, I got a different perspective on the Spanish American War of 1898.

I then followed the riverwalk up stream back towards my hotel.  I passed the beautiful Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Gehry.  Because of the holiday weekend, the city was full of tourists and many hundreds of them were lined up to go inside.

 

There are many beautiful bridges and much interesting architecture along the river.

There was also much work going on to set up the many temporary performance and display locations for the upcoming Aste Nagusia festival.

On Monday, I went upstream to explore.  I passed by the Erribera Merkatua also known as the Ribera Mercado or Ribera Market, a beautiful historic market - I did stop there for a coffee on my way back. 

I eventually got to the section of the rivewalk known as Paseo de las canos.  Many people of all ages were out walking, jogging and biking.

It all reminded me of the Flagstaff Urban Trail System from home, only much more lush and with the beauty of the river.

I hiked as far as the Abusa Ikastola, a very nice school, then turned around and headed back towards the old town and my hotel.

I saw this beautiful older building with the sign teaching me how the Basque language, Eruska, makes great use of the letters K, X and Z.

 Monday afternoon, I met up with Cristina whom I had met at Vaughan Town.  She was taking the week off from her job in Madrid and was visiting her mother and siblings in Bilbao.  We had a delightful three hour Spanish lunch and coffee.

And then Tuesday it was back to Madrid on the morning train.  I will need to visit more of the Basque country, hopefully a future trip will include San Sebastion and Vittorio.

Another week at Gredos with Vaughan Town, August 7 - 12, 2022

As usual, I walked to the shop at the chocolate factory every morning.  On Google, it shows that they changed their hours from 9:00 to 2:00 to 7:00 to 2:00.  Monday morning, I was able to purchase several items at 7:30 and the man at the store said yes, the hours had changed.  On Tuesday morning, Anthony and Rukshana walked with me but the store was not open and a man from the factory said it was not open until 9:00, too late for us visitors to Vaughan Town.  The same happened on other mornings when we walked into town before breakfast.  On our walks into town, we passed the local Guardia Civil office.  And as always, the walk into and out of town was quiet and scenic.

Andreea gave us a lesson in Romanian language.  Like Spanish, it is based on Latin, so there were similarities - I believe the Spaniards did a better job with deducing the meanings than we Anglos.

Of course, we had a quemada after dinner Tuesday - these are always fun events.  Here is a photo and two short videos showing parts of the ceremony to drive out the evil spirits.

 

 

 

 

During the entertainment hour, I gave a presentation about volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and the Fuller Center for Housing.  Volunteering like that made a good impression on many participants.  I sent them to the website for Global Builds with Fuller: https://fullercenter.org/upcoming-trips/

As always, we were all busy with one to ones, telephone sessions, group activities - and a plethora of phrasal verbs and idioms.  

 

Friday we took group photos and had our certificate ceremony.  From Grupo Vaughan, Anglos received a nice key chain and a certificate.

From Wednesday until Friday, I solicited and collected gifts for the kitchen and waitstaff - our group was unbelievably generous. We presented the envelope of cash during the tapas luncheon.

And then it was back on the bus to Madrid and points onward - some home, some to travel more, but always remembering out time together.  We created a Whatsapp group with many shared photos and continued conversations.