ALMOST GOODBYE SPAIN

　
　
Our time in Spain is almost over-we have seen so much and yet only a small part of this beautiful friendly country. Lots of stories…..
the little village which seemed comprised only of elderly with walking sticks!
in this pic (you might need a magnifying glass!) an old man passed us riding his bicycle with his walking stick tied to the carrier! At this point, he stopped outside the bank, untied the stick and hobbled into the bank. Today I tried a cycle ride-my thighs couldn’t handle the hills-so I deduce the old man is fitter than me!

the fresh mountain water spouting out of a man made fountain in the middle of a clearing -we thought we’d found the perfect quiet spot for our lunch….and then car after car of locals from the village below arrived to fill up their big containers - and what cold clear delicious water it was.

In all the cities and towns we have visited, we loved all the green spaces, gardens and walkways beautifully planted down the centre of the boulevards and at night filled with the locals, either walking or sitting at an outdoor café.

We are now in Basque country and have learnt a thing or two about Basque sentiments. Nadal was not their pick and they cheered when Djokovic won!

It seems that Spain has more holidays than we ever imagined! Whenever we reached a new area, that day or the next was a public holiday. Typical scenario today -we arrived on the outskirts of Bilbao last night,(more about where we are staying further on) headed down to the city and Guggenheim today and it seemed awfully quiet for a week day - it’s a holiday!!! Everything was closed EXCEPT the Gugg - we loved the building, the setting, the tapas in the cafeteria and only some of the art.

How's this- Jeff Koon's live garden dog! It sits in front of the Guggenheim.

So Alan found us a golf estate to stay on, on the outskirts of Bilbao-odd place, to say the least--we can’t quite work it out but the receptionist cum jack of all trades is an absolute delight. Halid is always smiling, so so helpful and always seems to pop up whenever you need something and lucky for us has a smattering of English as we can’t speak the other 4 languages he speaks- Berber, Arabic, Spanish and French-makes us feel pretty useless. Oh, and I nearly forgot-I LOVE the pillows they use in Spain- long and flattish-if only I could schlep a couple back-so comfortable.

and this is the pic behind our bed! It's huge-"The Spider"-the original sculpture sits outside the Guggenheim on the river side. Hope I don't wake up in the middle of the night.....

The real reason we are staying here!