Spain 2011 Day 4 Thursday May 26

Spain day 4 – Thursday May 26, 2011 – Bilbao, San Sebastian, Pamplona – 150 miles

NH Iruna Park Hotel (Iruna is name of Basque in their language) Arcadio Maria Larraona 1, Pamplona

http://www.nh-hotels.com/nh/en/hotels/spain/pamplona/nh-iruna-park.html

“Globus: This morning, travel to Bilbao, the great port city of the Basque region for a guided visit to the GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, an amazing feat of construction created by North American architect Frank O. Gehry. Stop in lovely San Sebastian, the “Pearl of the Cantabrian Coast,” before arriving in Pamplona at the foot of the Pyrenees. (Breakfast, Dinner)”

Wake up call at 6am, bags out at 7am, breakfast at 7, on the road at 8am. (this is getting repetitious) Going to Bilbao and Basque country; eventually the scenery changed dramatically from rolling countryside to very hilly pine tree covered country, with the road going through tunnels and passes through the really very steep hills.

IT’S RAINING IN BILBAO :( and we are quite sad, but out of the bus with umbrellas to walk around for half an hour until the museum opened at 10am. And it was everything we ever read about it too, really grand from outside and all around too. We had a different guide, having to split up our group again, but he was quite good, and of course the art was REALLY bizarre, except for the huge room with the Richard Serra sculptures in it, my favorite. A Jenny Holzer neon lit word display was really hard to look at. No photography of course as at the Prado, so I bought a thin book with nice pictures.

Then on to the bus and San Sebastian (Donostia in Basque), where it’s still raining, too bad as it’s quite a lovely little town by the sea. So we walked a bit with umbrellas and then found a quaint tapas bar for lunch. We met up with four other singletons like us, two friends from Colorado traveling together and two other single women, so we had a quite enjoyable lunch of some strange tapas items. It was not very expensive, even though I had sangria too of course.

At 2:30, we were back on the bus in the rain to Pamplona, through very scenic mountain passes, but very foggy out, so not much to see. Arrive around 4pm to walk through the streets where they had the Running of the Bulls. There were metal plates in the streets that could be raised to fence off the spectators. Even so the streets are quite narrow. Apparently for a small fortune you can rent someone’s balcony for the 10 minute run. This is a very quaint pretty town, lovely colors for the buildings with their iron balconies, and a rather large town square. After an hour or so back we are back on the bus for a short ride to our hotel, very nice and modern.

Dinner at night at 8:30 in the hotel restaurant was excellent, the best yet: tasty green beans first course, plus a cup of gazpacho; free Sangria for the table; then duck and potatoes, very tasty. Ice cream for dessert. I already had an ice cream midday, so this has got to stop. May have to refuse next one.