Day 8 — Bilbao, Spain

When: Friday, April 27, 2007
Where: Bilbao

Bilbao was great! I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was exceeded. It’s a crazy hilly shuttle bus trip from the port into downtown Bilbao. We endured more shuttle bus chaos at the pier. If the shuttle is half full and there are FOUR other buses parked, waiting… maybe we can go ahead and leave? Just askin’.

We get off in Bilbao and head immediately towards the Guggenheim:

Brian, in a black polo and khaki shorts, stands at a stone railing in front of Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, its curving titanium panels gleaming above the river. — Brian at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Obviously I have no idea what to do with my hands.

The museum is down by the river, where they have an excellent river walk promenade. So we strolled…

A wide tiled riverside promenade in Bilbao beside the Nervión river, with palm trees, tall modern sculptures, apartment blocks, and green hills rising under a blue sky. — The river walk promenade along the Nervión in Bilbao.

… then left the river walk and aimed toward town.

Finally we stopped for a late lunch. I had paella, forgetting they leave the shrimps intact. 🦐

Not much time left after lunch, plus a storm was a-brewin’, so we headed back to the ship. The stormy skies generated an arc or circle that exhibits in concentric bands the colors of the spectrum and that is formed opposite the sun by the refraction and reflection of the sun’s rays in raindrops, spray, or mist.

A bunch of locals were gathered to see the ship depart.

Crowds of people line a stone breakwater topped by a white lighthouse at the mouth of Bilbao's harbor, with the town and green hills across the water under a hazy sky. — Locals gathered on the breakwater to watch the ship depart, Bilbao.

That was our day in Bilbao. I’ll go ahead and write about sea day #2: nothing happened. It’s a sea day.

Next stop: Lisbon, Portugal!

European Vacation 2007 Day 8

Bilbao, the Guggenheim, and a river walk promenade

Day 8 — Bilbao, Spain