MADRID TO BILBOA

WEATHER: Hot and 31C – I think this is going to be quite constant

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: The town of Segovia

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Sore feet from finally being able to wear my jandles

BUYS OF THE DAY:  Antibiotics for my killer throat – 5.10EUR for 12

WORD OF THE DAY: - No Hablo Española – I don’t speak Spanish – no shit…….

An early start this morning from Madrid at 8am.  Luckily I had packed the night before, so it was a matter of getting my sorry and tired arse out of bed, fed and onto the bus.  Breakfast at the hotel is pretty magic, and I seem now to be getting a routine of a bacon and cheese sandwich and a glass of juice.  You could go crazy with other hot foods, cereal, pastries etc… but I would be big as a house if I did that for 16 months!

We drove for 2.5 hours to get to our first stop of a town called Segovia.  I must admit I haven’t read any guide books or looked up any information on the cities we are going to, so when I do get to a city I have no preconceived ideas on what to expect, so it is always a surprise.  This could be a good thing or a bad thing, as if I found out I missed something I would have wanted to see, it is a bit late, but I am relying on Rach ( and all my guides / tour managers for that matter) to point out the must see’s.  A little blind faith, but it is just impossible for me to research all the cities I am going to and that is my excuse.  So far it has worked out okay so far and at the end of the day I only have myself to blame anyway.

So back to Segovia, this town had a lot of ‘wow’s’.  The first thing that you saw when we got off the coach was the massive aqueduct from the Roman period.  It is in near perfect condition and was so tall.  It was amazing to see and something totally unexpected.  I have seen aqueducts before, but certainly nothing as grand and in as good as condition as this one.  Rach took us on a walking tour, through pretty much the old city.  You know the skinny, cobblestoned, windy roads that are either pedestrian only or will fit one car, old stone buildings and not knowing what was around the next bend.  I love these old cities.  We popped out at Plaza Mayor, which is one of the many squares in Segovia.  Here it had a MASSIVE church that was pretty amazing looking from the outside, with the Goth look and gargoyles looking at you from above.  The last part of the walk was to a castle overlooking a valley.  They say that it was this castle and not the castle in Germany that inspired Walt Disney to base his castle for Disneyland on.  But I am sure if you ask a Spaniard it is theirs, ask a German and it was theirs.  Either way it was a pretty impressive building.

Free time for an hour, so Marc and I chilled in a café with a cold drink on the plaza, got my antibiotics from a pharmacy (my throat is still killing me) and some window shopping heading back to the bus.  See ya Segovia, you were an awesome surprise.

We then travelled another 2 hours for our rest stop and Jose to have a break.  This is where we did our usual ‘Contiki’ introductions.  Mostly people from USA, Canada and Australia with the main profession once again being in the medical area.  The funniest embarrassing moment was when Yvonne got up.  She is an anesthetist assistant and her most embarrassing moment was ‘when she gave a patient a paralyzing drug rather than a knock out drug’ to only follow with an ‘only kidding’ follow on.  It was HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!

A further 2 hours of winding roads got us to our final stop of Bilbao (said Bilbo).  Located in the mountains, Bilbo has an interesting story.  To cut a long story short Spain has a massive history of inhabitants including the Moors and the Romans over the centuries.  As Bilbo is in the mountains, no-one could really be bothered to come all the way up to claim the cities up here, so in effect they have not been affected by who was in power, they just kept on carrying on.  So this gives them their own language of Bask, this is their first language and then Spanish is a second language for them, even though we are still in Spain.  Weird right.  Apparently the Bask people have been recorded as being here before the first records were written if that makes sense.  There was a crap load of history that Rach went through, so I am just trying to water down the outline for Bilbo!

Anyway Bilbo is a pretty city with lots of trees and greenery.  Apparently it hit hard times back in the 70’s with a lot of people out of work and leaving the city.  So the government needed to do something to save the city as such, so in 1994 they built the Guggenheim Museum for 150 million euro’s to try and get people and tourism back to the town.  A big gamble, but it has paid off for them and it employed 45,000 people and has made billions back in return.  It is amazing to see the Guggenheim from the outside, made from steel (an industry of Bilbo including fishing) and also titanium, the shape of the building is pretty amazing.  We decided not to go in, and decided to walk along the river, cross a funky looking bridge and paid 1.80EUR to catch a Funicular 300m to get a bird’s eye view of Bilbo.  It was an amazing view.

Dinner was an included meal at a local restaurant.  It wasn’t a big hit with the group unless you like fish, fish and fish.  The starter was a tuna and potato soup, which I actually enjoyed with main being a piece of cod on a fish and pepper (capsicum) sauce.  It was a little too fishy for me, and lot of others and then some funky cheese, jelly and walnuts for desert.  All local dishes apparently, so I don’t think I am a huge fan of Bask food.  The service was a little lousy as well and it took 3 hours to get it all served.  With a lot of tired people, it was a little too long, but we got through it, and some super human people went out for a few drinks after this, well not this rubber ducky, straight back to the hotel for me to get some office stuff done while there was free Wi-Fi.  Blog updated and photos downloaded and uploaded. A massive day, but also a rewarding one as well.

I also have to make a quick point on the Spanish pillows.  They are long and skinny, like a body pillow and they are the comfiest pillows I have had to date.  They aren’t like pancakes and they are just right.  I keep meaning to mention them and keep forgetting.  Love the Spanish pillows!

Off to Pamplona tomorrow via San Sebastian for the day.  It is has been built up as a great beach destination, with some of the kids booking on for surfing lessons.  With the weather the way it’s been it will hopefully make for a great day.  This is Bec’s old haunt, her and Carlos lived here for 12 months, so I will be arriving armed with the must see’s from an ex-local and I am going to try and get to the bar where she used to work and order a drink for her.  Thanks Bec.

Buenos noches…….