Tag Archives: Bilbao

Goodbye Bilbao … Hello …

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Today was definitely a very late start day. The locals were eating when we went out, which hasn’t been the norm. Maybe we are learning to relax a bit? Heh.

We wound up at the Plaza Nueva, and enjoyed our coffees and choices of breakfast food. I’ve no clue what Dan had, but my croissant was so large he had to do me a favor and finish it for me. (But the angle from which this is taken makes his treat look rather small and it really wasn’t quite like that. Honest!)

We had asked the desk if we could have a late checkout due to our later, 16:55 flight, but that was denied, but they told us they could hold our luggage for us, so that worked too. Up to our room we went, and did a variety of wasting time kind of things, and packing (but hey, I had already done that … some other person had to do a lot more. Hah!) before we went downstairs prior the checkout time of noon. We got to the desk at 11:58. No one was there. Okay, can’t be our fault if it’s after noon, but yours truly always gets uptight about time. When someone finally showed up she immediately knew our room number. I have a feeling she had us pegged for annoying tourists or something, but who knows?

Then we took a walk in a direction we had yet to go, and ended up climbing up a hill for a pretty good view! We spotted the funicular we took the other day (final photo).

Then back to the hotel. We figured we could eat at the airport lounge, saving a bit of money as well. We collected our luggage, grabbed a taxi (not literally), and took a short but somewhat costly ride to the airport. (I do wonder if Uber would have been less, and we knew we could take a train and then a bus but we went for simple and easy.)

We checked our larger bags (required not only because of our trekking poles but because this plane said we wouldn’t be allowed as much carryon luggage), and went through security in pretty much no time, even while we had to take all electronic devices and cameras out of our bags and I had to remove my sweater and scarf. But hey, shoes could stay on.

Up to the lounge we went, and food was had. Even the lounge had 0.0% beer. It appears it’s everywhere.

We had gotten to the airport with a lot of time to spare, so that meant blogging, resting, and time for coffee and sweets too.

Finally on to the plane we went. And oh my, the woman to my left, who spoke English much better than we could speak French, had a long story to tell about her car rental and getting charged for damage. She was a character, for sure.

The flight was non-eventful, and since I was in the middle seat I didn’t get photos, aside from before the woman arrived and when she went back to talk to her partner.

We landed, got out of the plane, bought an expensive bottle over water (nearly $4!), and … hello Brussels! But not for long. We had a long walk to the baggage area, collected our bags eventually, and walked to the train we needed to take. With help from a very kind young man we got tickets, first to the south Brussels station and eventually to our next destination. Oh … and three of the photos below (the last three) are of bikes … like SO many bikes. I am not sure if you can see them, but I’m hoping you can make them out. This was at the train station in Ghent, I think.

Hello Bruges!

We took a cab to our hotel, and then … hooray … after getting to our room we met up with Jan and Greg (for those who don’t know, my sister-in-law and my brother). Let the fun begin! Sadly I didn’t even think to take a photo of them or our room, but after getting to our room, the “upgraded executive room” or so we were told, we went to theirs. Now wait a minute! Theirs is much, much larger than ours! What is it? The presidential room or something?! Hmmm.

We enjoyed glasses of wine, some chips, and devoured the remainder of Greg’s breakfast sweet since we hadn’t managed to get any dinner. (Thanks, Greg!)

Now, back in our room, it is late and we are ready for bed. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. (Internet is extremely sketchy here, so I can’t promise posts will get through … time will tell.)

Welterusten!

Final Full Day in Bilbao

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We woke at our rather typical late time. It’s so funny, because Dan simply can’t sleep in at home (I can) but here? No problem! He did a bit of laundry and I contemplated my luggage: aside from two very small items I purchased there is nothing new, yet the bag is more packed than ever. I think I need to take everything out and redo it all before our flight tomorrow.

Yes. Flight. Stay tuned for our next, and final, European destination!

Once Dan was done with laundry and all we went out to get breakfast. (I wonder if I’ll feel the need for breakfast when we get back home: I really prefer to wait and eat after my walk, but is this becoming a habit?)

Breakfast was in the same place as yesterday. We found it, but only after Dan got 45 degrees off and I came to the rescue. I get a bit gleeful when Mr. Direction gets off and I figure things out! No chocolate croissant this time, but this other delight, full of butter. Not just plain old butter, as it turned out, but very, very sweet butter. Oh … and this little bird was there, as it was yesterday. Maybe a resident? (Sure, might be a different bird, but I prefer to think this is its home.)

Back to our hotel, we then packed up our cameras and readied ourselves to walk to the not-the-Getty, or “Gettyheim”, or maybe (could it be?!), the Guggenheim. (And don’t laugh, but I wanted to type Gettysburg at first. Okay. Go ahead. Laugh!)

We had an hour before out 11:30 entrance, so we didn’t exactly hurry over, and we did take some photos. The first thing we encountered were these bikes and I just think this is lovely. (Well, except some goof got her finger in the first photo!)

And the more photos … that tube like think takes you down to the Metro, I think. (We’ve not used it, but what else would it be?)

This building intrigued us and I would love to know more about it:

And more walking which did take us to the Guggenheim.

The above is for you, Lisa! 🤣

Mostly, for the interior, I’ll let photos tell the story. In the past I’ve not shared photos of artwork, as it never does it justice, but since many might not get to Bilbao, I will do so this time. I did limit myself, though, so there aren’t a zillion photos.

I really am now a fan of Helen Frankenthaler and I’m embarrassed to admit I’d not heard of her before.

Next up was the Richard Serra The Matter Of Time installation. The first one you go through is a rather lengthy bit of traveling yet when you reach the center it’s a large space. Nearly everyone I saw enter after I reached the center had a smile of surprise — it was fun to see. Others were tighter spaces all the way through, and I thought it was not only about the structures, but about the comfort or discomfort of passing by other people. Light and shadow were also fascinating.

Maybe all of that isn’t as interesting if you haven’t experienced them live and in person … I wonder! There was also a room with photos of other installations and … wait!? … on in the Bronx? It just looked like something in the street, but now I’m curious.

Okay, I’ll stop with those now (although there was another image and the info said that it was destroyed by the US government which I wondered about.)

Then we moved on to another installation. I sat down and watched. Eventually Dan went behind it and, as it turned out, he started a new trend. No one knew you could do that! (Later, when we saw it again, no one was behind it any longer. I don’t think people realize you can do that. They need a Dan to help them out!)

From there it was time for lunch. Museum lunch. That means it’s not cheap, but we did manage to avoid the more costly restaurant there and instead did the bistro. (They have a very expensive restaurant on the outside of the museum as well. Think we’ll skip that, too!)

Back out for more …

Rooms with art by Tarsila Do Amaral:

Then a Sol Lewitt which always makes me think of our daughter-in-law Lia Lowenthal, a fine artist herself, and do check out her jewelry.

Now not all art appeals to everyone, and we did enter a pop art room that just wasn’t something that grabbed me. But hey, I don’t like the Franck d minor either, so whatever. Maybe I’m clueless!

The next exhibit was a 1 minute light show in a small room.

But now I’ll just post the small remainder of what I shot inside.

Yep, that was it. We also went outside at just the moment some fog or some such thing was billowing out from underneath the sidewalk. Shortly after it stopped. I didn’t see any write-up about it, though, so I’m not sure what it was about and I’m too lazy to google it at the moment.

Side note: google … what a funny thing that it has become a verb. I just think of, “Barney Google, with his goo goo googly eyes.” I suppose I’m showing my age to some but, trust me, that song is much older than old me!

After 5 1/2 hours at the not-the-Getty, aka the Guggenheim, we then walked back to our hotel.

And a fun thing to see —

When we got back to our hotel we didn’t nap, but we relaxed and started our writing. Meanwhile, beneath us, it sounds like a saxophonist is practicing. Poorly. Some buskers are pretty good. This one? Nope. Nope. Nope. It’s rather painful, to be honest. But at least I can recognize most of the tunes. Sort of. Maybe. And to think they made the bassoonist leave. It’s not fair!

Finally … dinner! We went first to the breakfast spot and had some pintxos there. A nice place, friendly people who put up with our attempts at Spanish, and good food.

Then, to do things the proper Spanish pintxos way, we went to another place to finish up. Another big yum! Dan has been so cooperative with my photo taking and I’m grateful. Notice his exciting 0.0% beer. Again. He’s being a very good boy.

Then back to our hotel we went. (Okay, truth be told another gelato was enjoyed, but I’m not going to tell you that. Got it?)

I leave you with a goodnight photo from our little balcony.

Or make that two:

Adios!

Monday’s Story

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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!

Today’s Adventures

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Woke up on the later side today, and after doing my ever-important Wordle (the streak continues!), shower, and a bit of laundry, it was breakfast time. Since we opted to skip the 10€ each breakfast here at the hotel we went to the place about 30 seconds away and had our coffees and croissants for less than 10€ total (to be specific in dollars, it came to $9.67). Yes, sometimes we are thrifty that way.

Then back to our room we went, to decide what today should bring. It was much quieter outside, but still there is a bit more noise than in any other city we’ve visited. (The music in our breakfast spot was rather loud. Of course, typical of me, I didn’t recognize songs at all, so I googled one. Heh. Serena Gomez. We’ve seen her on Only Murders in the Building but, while I knew she was a pop singer, I’d never heard anything of hers before. Quite different than her morose character on OMitB.)

Dan checked out ideas and we settled on things and went out the door. The timing was perfect, as there was a little parade out front!

Then we followed a similar but not identical route, because we had already decided where we’d get lunch. (Sure, we didn’t eat breakfast that long before, but we only had coffee and a croissant so why not? Besides, we are in Bilbao and PINXTOS!

I took some photos as we walked, of course. This time that included a menu we saw that was of interest to us.

And then we ran across this. I don’t know what kind of weight lifting event this is, but the woman was clearly able to lift the thing multiple times. I didn’t even record the whole thing!

More walking to our destination, so a few more photos.

And then, where are we, you ask? Well, we went to the same place we had pintxos yesterday. I have to laugh at us sometimes: there are a zillion possibilities and we end up at the same place. Still, we did order from a different place, and that counts for something, I think. Oh … and we’ve noticed the use of “collaboration” several times now. So I think it means more than I think it means. Or something.

After our lunch (which, honestly, was quite light), we walked up the “not a river” for a time. And yours truly figured out she had north and south completely switched around. As always. We reached a place where there was selling going on. I saw coins, books, DVDs, and at the next stand, plants.

This man caught my eye because he was holding a clock and eyeing it the whole time.

More walking, including the Zubizuri bridge, some team that walked by (CCF?), a quick view of the Guggenheim Bilbao, and then to the Funicular de Artxanda or Artxnada ko Funicular, you choose.

We had read that the views at the top would be good. We read correctly!

We did a little walking then, and noticed so many playgrounds. I should have taken photos, I suppose, but you’ll have to trust me: we saw a good number. I did shoot graffiti, though. Go figure.

We took the funicular back down, and then made our way to Guggenheim.

This time we did go over the Zubizuri bridge which took us over “not a river”.

Okay, to explain about “not a river”. I had been calling it a river, and then Dan read that it was an estuary. I prefer calling it “not a river”, but the funny thing was that when I took the video neither of us came up with the correct name!

This is a sculpture called Las Sirgueras (The Rope Girls) and is by Dora Salazar. The rope girls used only ropes to pull vessels full of iron down the “not a river”.

We didn’t go in to the museum (we have tickets for another day), but we spent some time taking photos.

I loved seeing Jeff Koons “Puppy”.

More walking …

Then back to our hotel we went, for a brief siesta or blogging session. I wonder who did what?! But, well, someone might not have napped after all because we opened the balcony door to let fresh air. It’s much quieter here today, but then … ta-da! … an accordion arrived. We now know, since we walked by the sax player yesterday on our way to dinner, that the buskers are pretty much right below our room. We are on the second floor, so we are above them, but boy does that sound travel. (When we went up near the Guggenheim (thank you for the alert, Lisa!) we saw another hotel we had considered. It was very quiet, but we agreed we are enjoying being in the middle of it all!)

And why do I know this tune so well? Someone know?

As a sort of off topic aside, as most people know I’ve pretty much lost my hearing in my left ear. It happened shortly before our 2023 ten week trip and I’m pretty much used to it now. When we were on that long trip, I’d sometimes ask Dan, “Do you hear some sort of faint Gregorian chant or something?” He never did. My ears were playing tricks with me: when there is a lot of noise I can’t hear clearly, and somehow my brain turns the noise into the faint sound of shingling. Sometimes it’s all men. Sometimes not. It’s always some sort of chant, though. That just happened here, as the sounds down below, now sans accordion, meshed together and I heard men singing. It’s not all together bad: I do love a good Gregorian chant now and then. Later tonight it was a men’s group singing a drinking song. Yes. Really. Am I crazy? Well, of course. Am I crazier than I thought. Um … don’t answer that!

But I ramble …

Finally, dinner! Let the dinner search — a comedy, really — begin. We started out looking at a few places we saw earlier in the day, along with some I saw online that got good reviews. But no, we can’t just settle that quickly. So we walk some more. And more. And then we end up where we began, at a place I’d just seen with good reviews. (At least we got more walking in, right? But still my Apple Watch is not impressed.) There were instruments on the wall. A good omen?

When we went in we were seated, looked at the menu, and had a question about the monk fish since it looked like it was at market price. We asked our waiter. Both of us heard “fifteen” and assumed it was 15€ per some sort of weight. Fine! I’ll get that, thank you very much. Dan ordered the cod. We also got “natural asparagus”. And OH the yum factor was very, very high.

Then the bill came. My fish wasn’t 15€ per something, but it was 50€ total! Eek! Well, this has turned into the most expensive dinner on the trip. Go figure. But still, it was delicious, and in our neck ‘o the woods it probably would have cost us a total that was twice as much. Still, I think we need to be more careful and ask for clarification on things sometimes.

Once dinner was done (after 22:00), we went outside and headed back to our hotel. Sort of. Someone (I won’t name him) got turned 90° off once we entered the Plaza Nueva. Someone else (I won’t name her either) was correct in her directions. No need, though, to point out who was wrong or who was right, yes?

And now goodnight. We’ll see what excitement tomorrow brings. I’m hoping it’s not the 50€ sort of excitement, but you never know !

On The Track Again

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… and the road as well, of course.

We were up before 6:00 to be sure and get ready to catch our taxi to the train station. We weren’t able to take advantage of the breakfast today, and this is a note to myself to remember that buying breakfast at a hotel might not be the wisest move. Check your train schedule first! The station (Segovia Guiomar) is a bit of a drive outside the city of Segovia. When we arrived at the station the meter said 15€, which was more than our drive to the city. Then when he plugged in the fee on the device for using a card he put in 16.40€. Heh. I guess he gave himself a tip.

We were there plenty of early: security wasn’t even open. But that gave us a lot of time for our breakfast and then just sitting around. Looking at the board we saw our train would be late in arriving. I checked the Renfe site and if a train is 15 minutes late I think we get 25% of our payment back. I’m hoping so, since I paid far too much for this train. We aren’t on the high speed Ave train, but the slightly slower Tren Alvia. If I’m remembering correctly it can go on the high speed track but also the other, which is why we needed it, I guess.

When we finally boarded our car was at the far end … of course! According to the schedule we had one minute to get on, but there were people working on the train who were standing outside and I’m certain they were watching to be sure we all got on. It turned out Dan and I are sitting behind each other. Hm. My mistake? I really don’t believe so, but who knows. There was a man in Dan’s seat, but he quickly moved.

This is not a fancy train. The seats are in somewhat tattered condition, and it’s just less slick than the Ave, but it is a step up from some of the trains we’ve been in (and even more than a step with some in the past!). We stopped at two stations before we reached the one that is the end of the train line for us when we had to transfer to a bus.

I was checking the real time schedule and it was kind of funny: they updated the delayed train times, listing our arrival at 10:37, but still had the originally scheduled bus time up of 10:30. Believe it or not I wasn’t at all worried, though. (Just a bit miffed we had to move to a bus!)

When the train stopped in Miranda de Ebro we were all instructed to disembark so we could take the bus.

Everyone congregated near the train exit, and eventually we all walked around the block to the buses. No instructions were given so we just went to one, I got on to secure seats together and Dan put the backpacks where luggage is stored. While we sat there Dan suddenly thought to go ask and make sure we were on a bus to Bilbao. Turns out the other two buses would have gone directly, while ours was stopping in Llodio, but at that point there were no spaces on the direct buses. I watched as he talked (and laughed) with one of the train people. Turns out she has relatives in Santa Clara so he said she should visit. Apparently she replied, “Maybe in four years!” Gee, I wonder why?! (Sigh.)

The bus was a typical bus — very little room and of course no food services, but who would expect that, right? But here’s the thing: we all were in the same situation, but some of us paid for the most expensive train seats while others did not. Turns out we really should have gone cheap on this particular trip; I think this was one of the most expensive trains we had! (And of course I should probably have canceled and purchased cheap seats when we were told we’d have to take the bus. Hindsight is so darn useful, right?

And then we were off. Slower than a train, but faster by far than walking so whatever! I only snapped a few photos, as it wasn’t all that easy to shoot because of the freeway (if they call it that here) was in the photos.

We arrived in our next, and final, Spain city …

Hello Bilbao!

Getting out to the bus we managed to find our way to our hotel, a whopping seven minutes away. We couldn’t get into our room yet, but we could check in and drop off our luggage.

Then we walked to a square called Nueva Plaza. It was full of people. The center, which was blocked off by tape, was holding a “Free Palestine” event. We sat on the outside of that area and ordered pintxos and drinks. It was crazy noisy, but it was Bilbao and we were happy to be in the city. Dan had had a hankering for a Gilda (a particular favorite pintxo of his), and it was fun to finally have one.

I’m not sure what this small parade was about …

After sitting for a good amount of time we walked a bit since it still was too early to get into our room (we had to wait until 15:00). Because we had to use up more time we had to get gelato. Makes sense, yes?

And then we could get in so we went to the hotel and got our key. We went up to our room, and the housekeeper was still at work! Thankfully there were chairs by the door and we just waited there until she finished.

Then we went to get into the room. Neither of our key cards worked! Dan went back downstairs to the front desk, and I watched our luggage. Then the housekeeper saw me there and when she realized I couldn’t get in she gave me a key that did get me in. By the time Dan got back upstairs I’d gotten the luggage in the room, but we did verify the keys he brought back did actually work.

The room is large and will be just fine.

We are above a spot where there are crowds and when I opened the window it was very noisy, but when I closed it it was amazingly quiet. Good thing, since we were both pretty tired and needed short naps!

A bit later I would feel like I had to take the “amazingly quiet” bit back because suddenly some sort of music was playing and it was quite loud, as I think this video will show. And SO many people. It’s quite the lively place!

Ah … but, as it turned out, I hadn’t closed the door completely, thus it was noisier. That was a relief to realize.

After resting a bit, writing more of this entry, and hanging out a bit, we went to explore. The crowds, to be honest, are a bit of a shock after the other places we’ve been on this trip. Maybe it’s just because it’s Saturday, so we’ll see what tomorrow brings. We walked a while, just checking things out.

Right near the last photo was a building that housed a number of pintxos restaurants (if that’s what they call these little spots), and we ordered a few and enjoyed them with our first vermut. (Who knows, could be our last as well, as we are limiting alcohol consumption more than we used to.) Another Gilda was enjoyed, along with a few other things.

We did more walking, leaving the old part of the city, eventually entering an area with a lot of popular brand name stores. We were looking for a place to eat a bit more for our dinner, but weren’t having much luck, but the crowds, again, were really something else.

(The second to last photo above is of our hotel.)

But wouldn’t you know it … we ended up at the same square where we had lunch. This time we ate inside a place (yes, noisy!), and just had a few more things and our 0.0% alcohol beers.

Getting back to our hotel Dan opened the door to let some fresh air in. It was about 21:30 and the noise outside was still wild and crazy. I wonder if they have rules about how long it can go on. I’m guessing so. But I’m going to bet it’s not 20:00 when it has to stop!

But thus ends our very long day. I’m not sure, at this point, what tomorrow will bring. We have a few things on the list, but we’ve yet to decide what we’ll do. Stay tuned!

Gau on! (Basque for goodnight, I hope. I’ve read two different suggestions. “Gau on” and “Gabon”.)