"........racoon marks on my cheek.....!!" It cracks me up to think about it!

FANTASTICO, I can't wait to read the rest of your trip. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Hi All,
More on our trip through Spain...

We arrived at Sos del Rey Católico around 5PM on Sat. 4/28, just behind a tour bus full of English travelers. I could not believe how the bus driver managed to move that HUGE bus around the tight streets in front of the Parador! I had to stand there and watch! Of course when the doors opened and people started pouring out I dashed to the desk to check in ahead of them.

The rooms were just great, large fluffy towels, large French doors that open fully onto lovely views, we were delighted!

After stowing luggage we took a stroll through the small town, and visited the Torre del Castillo (tower of the castle). Everything in Spain so far had been uphill; this was no exception. We walked up steep steps, climbed steep stairs, and reached the top of the church and the tower. From the top of the tower you could see forever! The lovely colors of the distant mountains and the green valleys, the stone houses with all the flowers kept us there for quite awhile. I vaguely remember the walk back was entirely uphill as well.

The town is very medieval, cobbled streets, turrets, a very layered in time look about it. To our astonishment we found a little tapas bar! (Actually there were several.) The setting sun, a beautiful view from the balcony of this bar, a cold beer, some little snacks, we sat back for a couple of hours and mused about knights in armor, the wars and the miracles and the Catholic religion. All the while we sat there we listened to old American rock and roll. We really enjoyed looking all around us and seeing everything in sight looked ancient, except the satellite dishes. Then we noticed a busload of women unloading in front of what appeared to be a candy shop. We followed and soon had some of the best chocolate truffle we have ever tasted. (Outside of Tuescher in Zurich.) One woman asked us where we were from and said we must come to “Beelba”. It took me a second to understand she was saying Bilbao and we happily told her we were on our way there to visit the Guggenheim. She said she was happy to hear this and that we would love it there. She told us she would soon be going to visit her friend in the US, in New Mexico.
We left with a rather largish box of truffle and a bar of dark chocolate, which I have stashed in the freezer to enjoy with “Pear Williams” if I can ever find a bottle again. The chocolate truffle I’m happy to say did not make the return trip. Well…I suppose it did. I gained 5 lbs.

After the hair-raising ride through the mountains, and the drive, we decided on an early night. We ate dinner at the Parador dining room, the food was not memorable and we decided to skip breakfast there in the AM.

On Sunday morning about 8:30 AM we left Sols in the rain. Our route to Pamplona took us through beautiful farm country, remarkable fresh and dewy green, all perfectly orderly, and all the John Deer tractors so shiny green, kind of felt like Minnesota.
The roads all through Spain were wonderful, other then that one 12’ wide one.

Pamplona was not far and we arrived there fairly early. We decided to drive around a bit since it was Sunday morning and there was little traffic. What a lovely little city. Beautiful buildings and parks and not a bit of litter or graffiti to bring you into to 21st century.
We eventually found a lovely place to stop for café con leche and that exquisite orange juice that we fell in love with. All I had planned on was coffee and juice… that was all I thought I wanted…until I saw the most beautiful toasty brown wide slice of what appeared to be French toast go by on a plate, covered in what appeared to be apricot or peach jam. I followed it and in my halting Spanish, managed to order one. (with the help of a gentleman sitting on a stool next to us.) The lady behind the counter asked a question to which I nodded my head vigorously and replied Si! Si!
When this beautiful golden brown piece of food arrived covered in apricot jam/syrup, it was also covered in whipped cream! (the question). I devoured it with the help of dos café con leche. The very large thick slice of bread had a very fine texture and was grilled, had a fine crumbly surface texture and think I remember the gentleman referring to it as a Plank??? Does anyone know whay it might be called?
I figured this breakfast would need about a 25-mile walk to work off.
We walked around the center of the town for a while, debated the possibility of spending the night, but opted to head out to Bilbao instead.
Has anyone ever noticed how there are always signs guiding a traveler to the center of a town, but never a word about how to get back out?

Entering Bilbao on a Sunday mid morning, we thought, would be as easy as pie. Not true, there seems to be one way in from the highway, and everyone uses it. Everyone was also headed to the Guggenheim , to which there were many directional signs. We were swept along with the crowd and found a place to park ridiculously close to the front door of the museum.

The building is breathtaking.

We have a museum here in Minneapolis designed by the same architect, Frank Gehry. Our Weisman is located on the banks of the Mississippi on the University of Minnesota campus. Many people love it and as many think it’s awful. Both Paul and I love it and we were delighted with the Guggenheim in Bilbao .
There is no question that Mr. Gehry took Bilbao’s shipping history into account when designing the building. From many angles you can see a ships prow, a stack or a wave. The hours we sat gazing at the building was worth the entire trip.

A very helpful woman, whom we spoke with while in Pamplona, had recommended a hotel in Bilbao, the Hotel Conde Duque . It just happened to be on the opposite side of the river from The Gug, so each time we crossed the footbridge we could see the museum in a different light. To cross the river, there is a footbridge made of a marvelous combination of white cables, pulled into the shape of a sail. At night the bridge was lighted from beneath. The walkway was comprised of lighted glass blocks inset into solid concrete blocks.
(I didn’t step on the glass blocks.)
The overall effect was one of light and speed. The bridge, by Santiago Calatrava, known as the Zubi Zuri, appears as a sailboat hiked over at top speed. ( http://homepage.tinet.ie/~bilbodub/pages/zubizuri.htm )
In front of the museum is the largest living sculpture imaginable! Take the tour; it has a wonderful shot of Jeff Koons “Puppy”, all planted in ivy & petunias and violets.
Guggenheim Bilbao Museum

We spent parts of 3 days in Bilbao, so we were fortunate enough to see the Guggenheim in many different views, in rain and sunshine, day and night.

Our tour of the museum took about 2 ½ hours. The entire 2nd floor was closed for an installation. We did see the Giorgio Armani, 25 years of fashion design. There were beaded evening gowns and beaded tuxedos for women and sophisticated “body conscious” suits for men. Various periods are presented in clusters expressing motifs from throughout Armani’s career. Neither Paul nor I are very conscious of our “look”, but we enjoyed the exquisite fabrics and designs in the exhibition.
The main floor held an interesting sculpture exhibition. Huge steel plates, mazes and both florescent and halogen light installations. You know…Paul has a theory on conceptual art.
He call’s it a “Bean”.

It began a few years ago here in Mpls., at the Walker. We were strolling through the conservatory in the sculpture garden, and came upon an exhibit named
“The Traveling Bean.”
Some enterprising “artiste” had been able to secure arts funding to buy a packet of seeds, plant them… harvest them, take the seeds from the full grown plant… travel to another country… plant them… wait for harvest… collect seeds… travel to yet again another country…hmmm.

Yes, we are under-educated in the arts…

I better get ready for work, seems it's later then it should be.

More later..
LindaB

[ 05-24-2001: Message edited by: MadridMan ]

[ 05-24-2001: Message edited by: Antonio ]

[originally posted by LindaB on 5-26-01...]

5/26/01

After our visit to the museum we checked into the hotel, parked the car and began our exploration of the city, which began by finding lunch and umbrellas. We walked back to the “Puppy” and headed up the street and found our first tapas bar. It was located about ½ block from the museum on Iparraguirre. The place had all the hardhats from the construction workers who worked on the museum, hanging around the top of the room, and a number of framed prints depicting sailing boats, freighters, ships etc.
The bar had a friendly atmosphere and a lovely selection of tapas.

In Bilbao the tapas (or pinchos as they are called in the Basque country) portions are large. I loved the crab salad mounded on a slice of baguette; a ham salad served the same way and the wonderful olives. Now I know I love olives, and those thing we buy in the US in jars called Spanish olives…what a joke! Same thing goes for tuna…it is a delicious food in Spain. No matter what brand I buy in the US, it’s flavorless!
We had the marvelous dry ham with cubes of cheese served on toothpicks, a couple of small beers each, and then left to go in search Bilbaoan culture.
We walked up the avenue, admired an old church, the Iglesia de S. Jose, walked around the Plaza de Fredrico Moyua, and strolled the “Gran Via de D. Diego Lopez de Haro”.
(No wonder the Spanish people talk so fast, they have a lot to say!) We window shopped for a while, strolled through lovely parks full of passionate lovers and eventually we felt a tapas attack coming on. We dropped into a terrific bar, claimed to be the oldest in Bilboa, the Café Iruna; marvelous tile work. Café Iruna served a large selection of pinchos, we ate a very dry ham on a hard roll, an open faced tuna, layered with the wonderful Spanish mayonnaise, and a layer of shredded cheese. Paul is allergic to seafood, and I felt bad that he could not eat the gambas with the green sauce; I had to eat them all by myself.

By now it was about 7PM, we finished our beers & waddled back out to the street discussing the quantities of food we had consumed and where we should head for our next morsel and what we might like for dinner…

Our timing throughout the trip was spot on! No matter where or when, we would walk into a bar, get a great table for dinner or spot at the bar for tapas, and within 5 minutes the place would be jammed full of people. Crazy!

We walked back toward the Plaza and took a different street off of it and just strolled along with all the people who were also just strolling along. It was chilly, the windows of the cafes and bars were a bit steamy and they all looked so inviting. We found ourselves in front of a bar with a fat wooden bar man standing out front; “ Proudly Serving Cruzcampo Cervasa…we stepped in to observe the tapas and immediately ordered the beautiful Tortilla Espagnol, hot from the kitchen. It was fluffier & far more tender then I have been able to create here at home, I have a lot of work to do.
It started to rain and we sat & talked and nibbled from little plates of olives with sardines, open faced tuna with lettuce & tomato on a crusty roll, sautéed mushrooms with cheese and ham on a slice of baguette and anchovies with small hot peppers and olives skewered on toothpicks. Finally it was time to consider dinner. … aaargh!
(All I really needed was a crème brulee, a hot shower and a backrub!)

We decided to skip dinner and just stop for a nightcap on the way back to the hotel. Paul spotted a bar not far from the Zubi Zuri footbridge so we went in and came to a screeching halt! WOW…who designed this place? It was so heavily decorated with angels spouting little horns, a very large satan was painted on the wall in all his evil grinning glory, carvings of devilish little horned angels danced on the bar and the walls, even the light fixtures were adorned with little angels floating on tufts of cotton above the shades. The highly decorative painted, ecclesiastic ceiling was covered with angels and also (in case there weren’t enough already) with large plaster angels. We took a couple of stools at the bar and gaped.
We found out that if you order a drink in Spain, you get a very large pour. Paul ordered a scotch and it was about 6 oz. I ordered vodka on ice and had to tell her to stop pouring! Yikes! It took over 1½ hours to work our way through that drink and we decided bed was a very good idea.

On Monday morning, 4/30, we decided to stay another night at the Conde Duque, and to spend the day in Donestia/San Sebastian. The drive took about an hour, and at 11AM we parked our car & started grazing.
First stop was a cash machine, which wasn’t working, lines were down. We had brought along travelers checks just in case, and now we needed to cash one. The man who cashed the travelers check did everything except draw my blood. He photo copied my passport and my drivers license, spent time looking at me and my photo, made me sign in 3 places, then left the room for a while. I think he was recording my face on the security monitors. Finally, 15 minutes later we had some tapas money!
Donestia is on the Bay of Biscayne. A large crescent shaped bay, with elegant old buildings crowding for a view. Apparently this city became fashionable when the Queen’s physician recommended “taking the water” here as a medical benefit.

We spent about 5 hours walking around the streets, visiting the Buen Pastor Cathedral, watching people swim in wet suits…and eating. I remember the food in Spain so vividly. We would walk and take a picture, stop and drink a beer and eat a tapa, then walk until the need to use the WC, then stop for a beer, use the WC, then the cycle would start again.
In Donestia we found a great place for tapas. It is called Bar San Marcial, and it is located at the far back walkway off San Marcial 50. We would have missed it if I hadn’t been looking in shop windows. It was filled with people, and the bar was crowded with stacks of plates full of foods lined the bar. There were hams hanging from the ceiling, along with sausages of different sizes & shapes. We watched a man making croquettes, for every piece he put into the dough, he popped a piece of ham into his mouth.
The bar itself was decorated with tiles and dark wood and very brightly lit. We ordered a La Rioja, “Bordin” red wine and the slice of baguette with Roquefort cheese, ham and anchovy with long thin green peppers. I tried the croquettes that everyone was eating; they were so good!
We then walked along the Playa de La Concha, enjoying the scenery, and decided this would be a place we would like to re-visit. After seeing as much as was possible in the time we had, we headed back to Bilbao.

Funny thing, we were hungry when we arrived back at our hotel.

I had spotted a pair of shoes I liked, and when I remember an item for more then a day, I’ve learned to go buy it or it will haunt me for a long time. My Eagle Scout told me he thought he could find the shop again so off we went. About 10 minutes into our search, it began to pour! In no time we were soaked to the bone, and searching for a place to buy umbrellas. We circled around 2 or 3 blocks and found a little shop selling umbrellas, bought 2 and resumed our shoe search. All the while of course, stopping in for a tapa here, a pincho there… True to form, my Eagle Scout came through, he found the shop, Frontux, and I tried on the shoes. They were too wide at the heel!!! They didn’t fit…I left with a lump in my throat…they were cool.

More later

[ 05-29-2001: Message edited by: MadridMan ]

[originally posted by Eddie on 5-26-01...]

I also stopped at the Conde Duque in Bilbao in April, 2000 (the 'Art of the Motorcycle' exhibit was at the Guggenheim). We returned in September, 2000. Fernando Fernandez, the Hotel Manager was very amiable.

Did you miss the la Begonia Cathedral? How about the Casco Viejo and the 3-story market on the river Nervion? You'll have to go back! You didn't complete your assignment.

I am waiting! Where is the rest of the trip?