(12/24/2019 – 12/31/2019)
Rei and I took Cutie (our younger son) to the Basque country of Spain during the holiday season of 2019. Cutie was in Madrid for a study abroad program a few years ago when he was in college and visited part of the area.
Day 1: Arriving in Bilbao
After a long layover in Paris, we arrived in Bilbao on Christmas Day of 2019. Hotel Conde Duque Bilbao was only a quick taxi ride away. After we checked into the hotel, we went out to find a place to have dinner. There weren’t too many choices because many restaurants were closed on Christmas Day.
The restaurant we went was right by the famous Guggenheim Museum. Even though the museum itself was closed, we could still walk around the museum ground. Ever since he read Dan Brown’s “Origin” (which included a very detailed description of the Guggenheim Museum), Rei has decided that we should travel to Bilbao one day to visit the museum, and that’s why we were here.
The weather was quite nice. It wasn’t too cold, and the view along the Estuary of Bilbao was gorgeous! There were many people walking around us — not sure whether they were local or tourists like us. We took many pictures.
Day 2: Bilbao
We got up early in the morning due to jet lag. The hotel had an excellent breakfast buffet with many choices. The Spanish churros were so tasty! After a big breakfast, we walked to the Guggenheim Museum before it was open to the public. It turned out to be a great decision, because we could take many pictures without a bunch of tourists around us.
Unlike other European museums such as Louver or Prado that focus on classical art works, Guggenheim Museum is a modern art museum. Even though we were not very familiar with the modern arts, we still enjoyed the exhibitions very much, especially Cutie, who has taken an art history class in college. We especially liked the Desoto art display, which we all considered very impressive.
Visitors were not allowed to take pictures of the exhibitions. However, taking photos of the building and taking photos on the outside terrace were okay. For many people, the architecture of the museum was actually more interesting than the exhibitions!
After the museum, we walked to the Old Town to have lunch. Our lunch was consists of pintxos — small dishes of various Basque food like fried potato balls, hams and squids.
After we walked back to the hotel, Cutie decided that he wanted to take a nap. Rei and I were frequent travelers and could adjust to the local time better, so we decided to go out to do more sightseeing by ourselves. There was a funicular very close to our hotel. We could simply walk there and take the funicular to the top of a hill. There was a park at the top of the hill, which provided an excellent view of Bilbao city! The weather was very pleasant for a stroll in the park. I saw a European Robin at the park.
Cutie was already awake and was waiting for us when we returned to the hotel. We picked up our rental car and drove to Vizcaya Bridge. Since it’s December, and the sun set early, it was almost dark when we arrived at the Vizcaya Bridge. The bridge is at the mouth of the Bilbao river. Since some large ships need to pass under the bridge to reach Bilbao, Vizcaya Bridge is not a regular passenger bridge but a hanging bridge. We purchased 3 tickets from a vending machine and boarded the gondola, which took us across the bridge to the other side of the river. We couldn’t see much during the ride due to the darkness. There were holiday lights, and it was quite festive at the other side of the river.
Afterwards we returned to the old town to have dinner at Victor Montes. Rei and Cutie really liked their dishes, but my cod fish was only so-so. We also ordered a bottle of quite expensive La Rioja red. We weren’t impressed, but at least we had tasted Rioja wine.
Day 3: Gaztelugatxe, Guernica, San Sebastian
We checked out the hotel early in the morning to drive to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, which was the Dragonstone to Game of Thrones (GoT) fans. Rei and Cutie were both big GoT fans, and therefore Dragonstone was must-see. Even though not a fan, I have seen the pictures of Gaztelugatxe and was also eager to visit the place in person.
I had booked the 11am entrance slot. However, when we arrived there, it wasn’t even 10am, and there was no entrance control yet. Therefore, we went right in. The causeway was indeed very impressive. It felt medieval. We took many photos even though the light was not ideal. It was a long climb to the hermitage on top. The place was closed in winter, but we were able to ring the bell. On the way back, we saw a lady dressed as the dragon lady Daenerys in the Game of Thrones. Rei smiled at her, and the lady was glad to be recognized.
It was only a quarter past 11am when we left San Juan de Gaztelugatxe. A short car ride took us to the Guernica around noon. It was lucky that we arrived early because all places were closed between 2pm and 4pm.
Guernica was immortalized by a Picasso painting of the same name. The place suffered a serious aerial bombing in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. Many innocent citizens were killed during the bombing. We spent an hour in the Peace Museum, which had many exhibitions about the tragical bombing.
Afterwards we had lunch and walked around the town a bit. There was a replica of Picasso’s famous Guernica painting — the real one is in the Museo Reina Sofia Madrid. Cutie mentioned that he saw the painting when he was in Madrid a few years ago. The Assembly House (with the famous Oak Tree inside) was closed for the day.
We arrived in San Sebastian in the late afternoon. After leaving the car in a garage, and the luggage in the hotel room, we walked to the beach, which was only a few blocks away from the hotel. The weather was really nice. We walked all the way to the Old Town, which wasn’t very far away anyway. Then we had more pintxos, and Rei and Cutie had more wines and beers. We had paella and shrimps for dinner. Shrimps were very delicious, but the paella was only okay. Cutie managed to do some shopping after dinner.
Day 4: San Sebastian
Rei considered driving to other nearby places for sightseeing, but Cutie did not like the idea, so we would stay in San Sebastian for the day. We walked to the Old Town to have some pastries and coffee for breakfast (the breakfast at the hotel was super expensive), and then we climbed the nearby Monte Urgull. The hike wasn’t too difficult and the view from the top was splendid!
We had more pintxos, wines and beers for lunch. San Sebastian was famous for its pintxos; the selections were really amazing. After so much food and drinks, we needed a siesta.
Later, we walked the other direction to Playa de la Concha and visited the summer palace of Queen Maria Cristina.
We originally planned to go to a seafood restaurant to have dinner. However, the hot pintxos (grilled shrimps, chicken, beef, etc.) in a place we stopped by were really tempting. So, we had dinner there instead. Cutie did more holiday shopping after dinner. Overall, this was a very relaxing day.
Day 5: Pamplona, Vitoria
We left San Sebastian in the morning to drive to Pamplona. We found a parking spot right by the bull ring. There was a Hemmingway statue in front of the bull ring. Hemmingway’s novel “The Sun Also Rises” made the Pamplona bull run world famous.
Cutie visited Pamplona during San Fermin (July 7th) the summer he was in Spain. Rei was very worried. He checked the daily injured list to make sure that Cutie was not among them. Cutie told us previously that he only went to Pamplona, but he didn’t run. Now he confessed that he did run. Twice!
“We started too early. So, when we reached the bull ring, the bulls hadn’t come out yet. So, I returned to the start to run the second time. This time the bulls were right behind me, and I got really scared. I exited to hide behind the shield so that I wouldn’t be gored by a bull.“
Cutie showed the bull run route to us. I took several pictures of him, because he didn’t get to take any photos when he was there last time. There was a count-down clock showing 189 days until the next bull run. (However, the 2020 bull run was canceled due to COVID.)
There was a tourist information office nearby. The lady at the TI recommended that we go to Ciudadela, which was an old, fortified citadel. There were some African arts exhibits on the ground. We also saw several magpies flying around the plaza.
For lunch, we had pintxos again, with wines and beers. Even though the food was delicious, we were starting to get tired of pintxos!
We stayed the night in Vitoria. The city was ancient, and the buildings were quite interesting, but there weren’t many good attractions around. Its Artium wasn’t too good. By this time, we were really sick of pintxos now. Cutie saw a pizza chain restaurant, the same one as he used to go to when he was in Madrid. He bought a piece of pizza, had a bite, and laughed, “It is as bad as I remembered!“
Day 6: Sanctuary of Arantzazu
We got up late this morning, because we were all very tired! The breakfast at the hotel was good. Then we drove to the Sanctuary of Arantzazu.
The sanctuary was built in 1960s, so it’s more “modern” compared with other sanctuaries or monasteries. There was a crypt with beautiful murals made by the famous artist Basterretxea. There was a very tall tower, but there didn’t seem to be a way to climb up.
The sanctuary is situated in a scenic mountain area with many hiking trails. We saw several hikers with backpacks walking on the trails. We didn’t have enough time for long hikes, but we did manage to walk a bit in the natural area.
Later we stopped by a small town Onati to have a quick lunch before returning to Bilbao. Because we were flying out very early tomorrow morning, we stayed in a hotel very close to the Bilbao International Airport. After we checked into the hotel, Rei and I drove to the airport to return the rental car. The route wasn’t very clear, and GPS didn’t help, so we managed to get lost before finally finding the rental car return. It was also tricky to walk back to the hotel. Google map showed a trail to walk back to the hotel, but the trail was impassable! We had to trace back to the airport and take a taxi to return to the hotel.
Since we didn’t have a car, and we didn’t want more pintxos anyway, we had a simple dinner at the hotel. We were all exhausted and ready to go home tomorrow!
Day 7: Going Home
We took a very early flight out of Bilbao airport to return home. This ended our week-long sweet vacation in the Basque country. This is our third trip to Spain. In the previous trips we have been to the Andalucia region, Barcelona, and the area around Marid. The next trip would be to walk the Camino of Santiago.
Amy 'n Rei 