A full night’s sleep is never a guarantee even at home, but on trips I might sleep straight through maybe once or twice. I recall being awake an entire night once in London, in fact. I’m used to it, so it certainly doesn’t stress me out. This past night I thought to get up and look out the window for a night view of our little part of Bilbao. A much quieter scene out there! And it had rained.
When I woke up “for reals” (does every kid say that?) and we got dressed we went out to see what we could find for breakfast.
Several places, including yesterday’s spot, weren’t yet opened: seems that before 9:00 not all places are up and running. No surprise to me, since I’d read about that. I did a google search on “coffee” though, and yes, just down the street was a place that would work. So we had our coffees and, this time, chocolate croissants. Then it was back to our room to ready ourselves for a little train ride.
Yep, heading out for a day trip. I had read about a fishing town that might be a pleasant trip, so for 7€ we got on the train and had about 1 1/2 hours to sit and relax.
Our destination was the last spot our train would stop, so there we were … hello Bermeo!
Never heard of it? Same here. But I just searched on, “What to do while in Bilbao” and it was one of the suggestions.
We got off the train, fortunately having saved our ticket since we needed it to exit the station (this is common, but something I have a tendency to forget on occasion). Then we walked.
Eventually we walked along the jetty. Now you know me — fear of heights and all that! — so with no railing at the edge I stayed close to the wall. I also didn’t go up the stairs that would put us even higher. (Dan later went up and said it really wasn’t worth it, so I’ll take him at his word.) It looked like walking the jetty back and forth a number of times is a popular thing to do in Bermeo. We saw a number of people doing that. Lazy us only walked to and fro once. But it was lovely. It was also warm, since it shielded us from any wind and the sun, even with some clouds in the sky, was hitting the wall and making it even warmer. I had been prepared for wind and rain!
After that outing we went back to look for lunch. And yes, it took us a while. We just weren’t sure what was open, what had food rather than just a bar, and whether any English would be spoken at all so we were hoping for a menu. The first place we finally thought would work turned out to be closed just then. So on we went.
Eventually we found a place. No English, no menu, but we know how to point and we know how to say “dos”, and we also know how to ask for beers. So we were set.
As we ate the TV was playing (without sound) some sort of game show. What a mystery it is when a show is in (silent) Spanish! We pulled ourselves away from the mystery of a game show eventually, and headed out to explore more. Maybe I’ll let the pictures tell the story as I so frequently do.
We had a bit of a climb (and I must say I so enjoy these climbs now!), and there was a lovely view.
Also at the top there was a wall full of text and photos about the whale industry. I shot photos of the whole thing, but I’ll just share a few here. I was hoping that, at the end, we’d see something that explained that whaling isn’t as popular now and why, but nope. Just the wonder of whaling. (The one that said “Whales never abandon their calves. This is an advantage for whalers,” was rather sad in my opinion.)
Then back down the hill we went.
And back to the train for our ride back. We weren’t quite sure how to buy the tickets (not sure why it was more confusing than the other station), so a man who spoke no English who worked there helped us. Sort of. He had us buy the card that will then allow more trips if we load money on it. It cost is a whopping 22 cents more than the first ride! No biggie, but it did seem funny to me. Both of us fell asleep on the train at some point — trains do that to me a lot of the time. No need for a siesta back in our room, I suppose! I only took a few photos from the train.
We exited the train station and, because we were so well behaved, we treated ourselves to gelato. I’m sorry but we have no photos for you: we gobbled it all up!
Then, as we were walking back to our hotel, Dan heard music and started to say something which I missed but I suspect was something like, “Am I really hearing a bassoon?” And yes, in fact, he was. I tried to take a video but as I was starting to do so the police drove by and the bassoonist had to stop to talk to them. We are guessing he didn’t have a busker license because he then began to pack up. Too bad, but as Dan said, “Play a bassoon, go to jail.”
And finally, back in our room we went. For quiet time … except I opened the balcony door and a busker was singing (amplified) and eventually Dan had had enough and closed the door. Of course we could still hear him, but it was much more subdued.
It was nearing 20:00, so we went out to see about dinner. We first passed a place right next to our hotel that Dan said got stellar reviews. We thought we’d try to get reservations for tomorrow. No dice: we were told they weren’t open tomorrow. So we asked about tonight. Only outside seating was available, and the street wasn’t one on which we’d like to sit for a meal with their prices. So off to the Plaza we went, and for under $30 (yes, dollars … I get notifications from our card and they translate into dollars) we had ourselves some pintxos and drinks.
After that we ambled a bit and … uh-oh … we wound up at “A Slice of San Sebastián”. Oops. That was really going a bit too far, considering the gelato from earlier. But I took one for the team and ate most my slice. Dan, being the kind man that he is, helped finish mine for me. He is such a giver!
Then back to our hotel, and on the early side! As I type this it is only 9:43. Amazing. Tomorrow the <strike>Getty</strike> Guggenheim awaits! (The Getty/Guggenheim thing has now become a bit of a joke since I tend to use the G names interchangeably. No clue why.)
Ciao for now!
