Getxo, Bilbao, week two
As predicted the weather deteriorated and at 0330 in the
morning Mark was on the roof in the rain securing halyards (ropes) which were
slapping on the mast making lots of noise as the wind picked up, I was
obviously very supportive and watched from inside in case he had a problem….
The visitor’s pontoon is fairly busy with French boats
coming and going, a nice German gaffer and even an American registered
catamaran. As you approach there are big signs warning that docking is
prohibited, this is obviously the Spanish (and French) form of prohibited that
we have seen in many places which carries the caveat ‘unless you want to’.
There have been several sailing schools coming in and out, one spent a couple
of hours using us as a target as they practised coming into and off of a
pontoon. There is also a steady stream
of police, Red Cross and customs boats and even a couple of party boats which
turned up to load with a crowd who all waved as they went past.
Statue to victims of terror. |
It was definitely time for an odd job day by now so after
updating the internet it was time to get on with some cleaning and other tasks
before enjoying an explore around the top of the older part of town which
revealed more interesting buildings, mainly made from the sandstone quarried
locally and we finally found an open Correos
to send some postcards written about a week before!
A couple more rainy mornings followed, calling for a bit of
school work including some art work inspired by the trip to the Guggenheim. The
boys created some really good pieces while we waited for the sun to reappear in
the afternoon ready for us to go and have a proper look at the famous Getxo
mansions and other bits around the area.
By now Marks teeth were obviously going to need some
attention fairly soon. The office helped by sorting out an appointment and taxi
and off he went. Within two hours of going up to the office to ask for some
help he was back on the boat with one tooth sorted and the other in a small
plastic bag – fascinating for anyone 10 or younger, the tooth fairy however was
less impressed and refused to pay up.
A weekend of mainly strong winds, rain, thunder and
recovering from the dentist gave way to better weather and health on the Sunday
afternoon giving us a chance to go up in the panoramic lift, admiring the
sights of the commercial harbour, explore some different roads and enjoy the
sounds of the church bells and bird song. (In case you were wondering, yes we
did watch Eurovision and we cheered on both Spain
and the UK !)
The spot where the charter was read in the 1400's granting Bilbao city rights |
On Monday we decided to go into the city to look around, the
old area was particularly recommended. The boys enjoy hopping on and off the
metro, last week a woman had stopped us buying tickets in the metro station,
called the guard over and they both insisted that we should get the travel card
as it would be cheaper for us, the lady then smiled, waved and went on her way
leaving the guard sorting us out! We’ve got two stations both only about 10
minutes from the marina and it is a really quick and easy trip to the shop or
into the city.
The city itself is beautiful; there are lots of interesting
and highly decorated old buildings and amongst them many spectacular creations
from well known architects and designers encouraged to the city by the creation
of the Guggenheim museum. It all blends really well together to make a
fascinating city. We walked around for several hours both Monday and Tuesday
taking lots of photos and gasping around each corner at the views.
So now that we have seen all we had hoped to here and much
more, it’s time to work through the sailing checklist and get ready to move on
when the wind and weather are right.
The Guggenheim museum, Bilbao You can also follow tarquilla on facebook |
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