November 5, 2003
I hated to leave our home of six days. It has been a real treat. But it is time to move on.
Laurie and I walked up to the bus stop. We were there by 8:30. The bus doesn't come until 9:00 so we dropped our bags there and went by Itziar's office to say good-bye.
We took the bus to Orio and there we had to wait almost two hours for our train. We waited in a cafe/bar and had pastry and coffee. Well, Laurie had coffee.
The train ride was about 2 1/4 hours. Which now brings us in to Bilbao. It is a pretty good size city. I don't know if many people have heard of it, but it has one of the five Guggenheim museums. The others are in NYC, Las Vegas, Berlin, and Venice.
We found a pension that was listed in the book we have. We took a room with a bath. The man didn't speak English and he seemed a little grumpy.
I asked him about a laundromat. He said that they could do wash there for six euros. So I got the clothes together and he showed me the washer. He had me put the clothes in. I don't think he wanted to handle our smelly clothes. Then he started it. I didn't see a dryer, but I did see a clothes line. I didn't know if he hangs them out or what. I tried to ask, but I just heard "manana", which meant morning. So I assumed that they would be ready in the morning. I certainly hope so. I hate to have to pack up wet clothes.
So Laurie and I went in search for the information center and internet. We couldn't find the information center. It looks like they tore it down. We did find out where they moved it to though. Next we found the internet. I spent about on hour there reading emails. Laurie had some bad news. Her car, that her son is using, is not drivable and it will cost a lot of money to fix, which isn't worth it. She was going to sell it when she got home. We were hoping to use the car to drive from Florida up to Massachusetts and visit friends along the way.
Now Laurie and her friend, Susan, will have to deal with getting a new car. Susan handles all of Laurie's stuff while she has been away. Laurie has kept her quite busy between having her credit card number stolen and used, a change in her ATM card, getting airplane tickets and now this.
For the rest of the day we tried to get train and bus information out of here to a small town called Llanes. Our Eurail pass has not been accepted on these trains and it has been a pain.
We also went to the Guggenheim museum which is quite impressive from the architectual standpoint. The building was designed by an American, Frank O. Gehry. I had heard of him when I was in Berlin from Boris who did our walking tour of Berlin. The building is only about 7 years old.
We got there at 6:00 and there was an English tour at 6:30. So the first half hour we used a handset to listen to a tape. We met the guide at 6:30. There were only 3 of us on the tour. The guide was a young woman and it was her third day on the job. She did quite well. She gave us an overview of the building and then we went into some of the galleries and she explained some of the art. Some of it I liked and some of it I didn't, but the guide was good to have because she could explain what the artist was trying to portray. The place closed at 8:00, so we really didn't have much time to see everything.
When we got out, it was lightly raining. We picked up something to eat and went back to the room.
November 6, 2003
There isn't much to write about today. We basically waited for the train that left at 1:35. It was the only train that goes to where we were going. The train ride was close to 5 hours. We arrived in Llanes. The youth hostel that we wanted to go to was closed. We tried calling the number that was left. We got a woman that spoke only Spanish. I could only get that the place was closed. So we walked into a bar and asked if there were any places to stay, in Spanish of course. Laurie and I are getting pretty good at it. The man gave us a name and directions. We found it without any problems.
Llanes is on the water. It is a bigger place than I expected. We are hoping to get to an area to do some hiking. The area we want to go is called Picos de Europa. The problem we are finding is that many places are closed this time of year and buses don't run.
The weather was beautiful today. It seemed much warmer than it has been. While I was waiting for the train, I laid on the beach soaking up the sun.
We found the hostel the man told us about. I think that Laurie and I are the only ones that are in this place. We met the husband, a nice little man. He seems very happy that we can speak a little Spanish.
We went to look for a place to eat. We saw a pizza place, but it doesn't open til 8:00. We went back to the room. Now I am just writing my notes before we got eat.
November 7, 2003
I packed my bags this morning. I wasn't sure if we were leaving, but I wanted to be ready if we were. It depended on the bus schedule.
We walked to the bus station to see if and how to get to areas in Pico de Europa. The office was not open and wouldn't be until 10:00. So we walked to the beach area. It looked like another beautiful day. From there we walked to the tourist information office which also didn't open until 10:00. Since we had time to kill we stopped at a cafe and had a bite to eat. By the time we were done, it was close to 10:00
The people at the information office were very helpful, especially since they spoke English. We got our information and maps. We were close to the room so we went back and paid our bill. We picked up our packs and went to the bus station. We still weren't sure where we were going. I said let the decision be based on when the buses leave.
We got to the bus station and the office looked closed. I asked a bus driver. It was around the corner in a small like trailer. The woman was very nice and gave me the information I needed. I felt like a pain because I kept asking for different places.
