Bilbao (3 nights) — Usual and Ordinary

We were a little panicked about the trip to Bilbao - Bob was up most of the night with the suspected food poisoning (which will forever remain a mystery - we shared and ate the same things, and I was fine. But it only takes one bite, I guess.). We could not get a late checkout from the hotel, so didn’t have much choice but to get to the bus and head to Bilbao. Sat in the front of the bus, with a bag ready, just in case, and thankfully he made it through just fine.

Bilbao bus station is a 1.5 miles from the bus station, so we decided to take a cab to the hotel. We followed the signage at the station to what we thought would be the taxi stand. This led us - and many other passengers - to a locked door, with a button on the wall and vague directions. It took 5 of us to figure out that you pushed the button to call a cab. There was an intercom-type system that only seemed to work intermittently, so you had to listen for the door to buzz and unlock, and then you could go through to get a cab…but it seemed only one cab at a time showed up, with long waits in between. We gave up and went outside the station, and followed signs to a taxi stand around the block, which was much quicker and easier.

Once we got to Hotel Bilbao Plaza, we both collapsed for a chunk of the afternoon before walking over to Old Town and finding an Italian restaurant a few blocks away from the hotel.

Tile mural of Picasso’s “Guernica,” in Guernica

The next day, Bob was feeling well enough that we took the train to Guernica (very easy). Nice weather, so we walked all through the town (very cute) and the Monday Market, and then went to the Peace Museum (museum dedicated to peace, but also has some good information, displays and videos of the 1934 bombing of the town), saw the Basque Tree (symbol of Basque Independence), the tile Guernica mural, and more.

Back in Bilbao, Bob wants soup for dinner. Well, we are in stew country. We settled on a restaurant called Txoko, in Old Town, for some risotto. Nothing we ate in Bilbao was amazing, I have to say, but we were limited by what Bob thought he could stomach so I am not sure that’s an accurate reflection of the food scene there.

Another beautiful day the next day, and we walked along the very pedestrianized riverfront to the Guggenheim. I had read that the collection there was mainly secondary works by modern artists, and this is perhaps true but there’s something about seeing art inside a work of art that elevates the whole experience.

And while my feelings are decidedly mixed, and generally unkind, about Jeff Koons, “Puppy” is very very awesome:

But “Maman” (Louise Bourgeois) is maybe cooler:

We had lunch not far from the museum at Sua-San, where Bob was finally able to find a vegetable soup on the menu. After a short tram ride, we decided to check out the train station for our very early train the next day. And it was good we did, since we discovered there were two train stations, and were directed to the correct one.

We had dinner back in Old Town, at Rio-ja, which was pretty mediocre. I had a “pintxos” paella, which was less than ideal (more on paella experiences later).