Getting to Spain + Bilbao

Leaving home - happy but knowing rain was imminent.

LEAVING HOME
SUNDAY 29th July

Well we had to wait to leave 'cos it was shining then pouring rain. We chose a bright spot between thunder-bursts knowing that, at some time or other, we'd have to ride through some rain....and....we did! Got quite wet, and a tad cross, just south of Cambridge. We pulled over at the Comfort Cafe (Fourwentways Services) and had a warming cuppa. Rest of the trip to Portsmouth was pretty uneventful - just hammering down the A1M, M25 and A3 to catch our boat.

At Portsmouth waiting to go onboard

Once we got to Portsmouth we checked in- all very easy and straight-forward. We thought there were only 3 bikes - 'cos that's all we saw - but when the staff beckoned us forward (all bikes first, of course!) about 30 roared forward and jostled for places in the queue. A bit of a nervous moment when we all had to ride down a steep ramp but bikes were then tied down by silent Brittany Ferries Staff and we toddled off to our cabins.

We did have to ask IF the boat was actually going to Spain as all the announcements were in French and English! Thought perhaps we'd got on the wrong one - not a drop of San Miguel either so that was another panic! In fact the crossing was much different than previously. No cabaret, no live music - a rather camp children's entertainer but not very many children.....quite pleasant really. gone were the drunken stags and Essex s..gs, gone too the miles of queues but plenty of places to snooze.....er.....must stop this rhyming: pretty different, smaller and more refined once we got used to it all.
Anyway, suffice to say we had a jolly relaxing crossing - very calm, including a stop-over in Port de Roscoff (another mini-panic as this was a further French trick) to change cabin crew etc. Excellent meal in the Restaurant du Port (on the boat) and only a couple of unpleasant moments on the dog-deck....walkies and, well, a hose instead of plastic bags....use your imagination!

BILBAO  1st August
We arrived this morning in Bilbao with the intention of staying a day and looking around. A visit to the Guggenheim Museum was really interesting. The building was more stunning than the exhibition but there was a floor of recent David Hockney which was good, if rather all the same....sorry art-lovers. Outside was a great statue-thing of a spider which was impressive.

Guggenheim spider - Em and Hannah can scream when they
see one bigger than THIS in Bedfield!

One of the important things is, of course, just wandering. Bilbao is really pretty with tree lined avenues and lots of places to eat, drink and be merry so trust us to arrive on Tuesday 1st August FIESTA DAY where almost everything is closed! Luckily the bars etc are open and so we had a ENORMOUS lunch with lots of beer and crisp white wine and then had to stagger back in the 3.oopm heat to sleep it off. Just got up now that it's 6.15 and getting ready for a bit of a wander through our local bars and tapas.

Here's me at lunch - there is a photo of Deb but she didn't want it posted! We're having a great time - boy it's hot at about 35 degrees on the way back to the hotel post-lunch.

ROB at LUNCH - looks happy, eh!

Mmmh! and this BEFORE the vino blanco

More tomorrow if we can get online.