Blogging from Bilbao v2.0
Ahhh, insomnia is a curse sometimes.
It is currently 1:35am Wednesday my time, 735pm Tuesday your time.
We are currently en route to Bordeaux, France. The seas are not as rough tonight as they
were on Sunday night into Monday. There is a sway here and there, but it is manageable.
Let's see, what to tell you (and by proxy, myself, as I am using this as a travel journal as
much as a posting board.
Bilbao was neat. As I hope you can see from the picture that I posted, there is an amazing
view from this one hilltop of the city and the surrounding mountains/hills. There is a lot
of "rust" color in this city from a distance, but I didn't see that close up. I think its
because a lot of the roofs are terra cotta that it gives that impression.
Traffic in Europe is amazingly weird. They have all these roundabouts that are so
confusing. In England where they drive on the right side, the roundabouts are backwards
from Spain where they drive on the left side. I wouldn't survive "The Amazing Race" and
switching from one type of driving to the next.
There was a lot of pretty things to see in the old quarter of Bilbao. There are a lot of
terraces that open into the alleyways, and people all have a lot of pretty colored flowers
hanging around out there. There is a lot of old architecture, but its not standard Spanish
because it is in the Basque country and has a lot of Celtic and English origin. Therefore
there was no "standard" architecture to be seen throughout.
The Guggenheim museum was amazing up close. I thought it would be unimpressive, but the
whole thing is made up of titanium plating, and when you see that up close, I must say it is
really cool.
The tapas were not my thing, but I ate them and they were interesting. One was a small
crusty bread with prosciutto on it. The other had a seafood salad made of "taca" (some type
of crab-taste-resembling fish), egg, potatoes, sweet fruit (like pineappleish), and then a
fileted shrimp on the top. Again, not my thing, but I am not about to lose the experience
here.
The food on the boat overall has been good, but there have been times where there is nothing
good available. They make a lot of use of fish here in some really odd concoctions, and
usually if there is one unappealling thing, the whole buffet is also unappealling. We
haven't gotten into the restaurant yet because it has not anything that we are looking
forward to. My mother is looking forward to Formal night on Thursday so she can get some
lobster. She missed it the other night when we were sick.
I slept well last night, but not enough. After all the walking in Bilbao, and 4 ping pong
games with the maternal unit (so far we are 2 and 2), I was very tired, so I took a nap.
She left me sleep for 2 hours, and of course, now I have insomnia.
We saw an excellent comedian tonight. His name is David Copperfield (the "unusualist", not
the illusionist as he is billed). He was fantastic - I was laughing really hard and
everyone really enjoyed him. Apparently he is actually somewhat known in Britain, he was in
some show or another over the pond.
When she went to bed around 1230, I went to the hottub for about 45 minutes. No one in
sight, but thats because its chilly out. Didnt bother me. Also, consider the demographic -
90% of the passengers are older than dirt, so they were probably all in bed by 9:30 tonight.
So tomorrow is another day of walking. I bought a few souvenirs, but London is going to be
REALLY expensive later this week, so I need to watch the wallet. That's how it always is
for me - I end up buying stuff for everyone else and have nothing to show for it myself.
This time, I am getting car stickers from each port to put on my car.
Speaking of cars, its amazing how teeny tiny all the cars are here. Their gas prices would
equate in london to about 8 dollars a gallon, but I daresay we end up paying more for gas in
a week just from mass consumption. I didnt see a single SUV from Heathrow to Southampton
this weekend. Relatively the same in Bilbao.
The people were pretty in Bilbao. There accent and look almost reminded me more of Italian
rather than Spanish heritage.
On a final note, I am trying to take some very unique pictures for this trip. I am not
doing your classical landscape shots (though some of them are), I am really trying to do
some unique stuff with camera position and subjects. Here is a link to one of the ones I
did - I laid the camera almost flat on the ground, and I pointed it up a wet slick walkway in front of the Guggenheim. I think it turned out nicely.
Click here for picture...
I anticpate spending Memorial Day doing photo editing, so look for pictures on Monday night.
I am thinking about you all. Take care!
It is currently 1:35am Wednesday my time, 735pm Tuesday your time.
We are currently en route to Bordeaux, France. The seas are not as rough tonight as they
were on Sunday night into Monday. There is a sway here and there, but it is manageable.
Let's see, what to tell you (and by proxy, myself, as I am using this as a travel journal as
much as a posting board.
Bilbao was neat. As I hope you can see from the picture that I posted, there is an amazing
view from this one hilltop of the city and the surrounding mountains/hills. There is a lot
of "rust" color in this city from a distance, but I didn't see that close up. I think its
because a lot of the roofs are terra cotta that it gives that impression.
Traffic in Europe is amazingly weird. They have all these roundabouts that are so
confusing. In England where they drive on the right side, the roundabouts are backwards
from Spain where they drive on the left side. I wouldn't survive "The Amazing Race" and
switching from one type of driving to the next.
There was a lot of pretty things to see in the old quarter of Bilbao. There are a lot of
terraces that open into the alleyways, and people all have a lot of pretty colored flowers
hanging around out there. There is a lot of old architecture, but its not standard Spanish
because it is in the Basque country and has a lot of Celtic and English origin. Therefore
there was no "standard" architecture to be seen throughout.
The Guggenheim museum was amazing up close. I thought it would be unimpressive, but the
whole thing is made up of titanium plating, and when you see that up close, I must say it is
really cool.
The tapas were not my thing, but I ate them and they were interesting. One was a small
crusty bread with prosciutto on it. The other had a seafood salad made of "taca" (some type
of crab-taste-resembling fish), egg, potatoes, sweet fruit (like pineappleish), and then a
fileted shrimp on the top. Again, not my thing, but I am not about to lose the experience
here.
The food on the boat overall has been good, but there have been times where there is nothing
good available. They make a lot of use of fish here in some really odd concoctions, and
usually if there is one unappealling thing, the whole buffet is also unappealling. We
haven't gotten into the restaurant yet because it has not anything that we are looking
forward to. My mother is looking forward to Formal night on Thursday so she can get some
lobster. She missed it the other night when we were sick.
I slept well last night, but not enough. After all the walking in Bilbao, and 4 ping pong
games with the maternal unit (so far we are 2 and 2), I was very tired, so I took a nap.
She left me sleep for 2 hours, and of course, now I have insomnia.
We saw an excellent comedian tonight. His name is David Copperfield (the "unusualist", not
the illusionist as he is billed). He was fantastic - I was laughing really hard and
everyone really enjoyed him. Apparently he is actually somewhat known in Britain, he was in
some show or another over the pond.
When she went to bed around 1230, I went to the hottub for about 45 minutes. No one in
sight, but thats because its chilly out. Didnt bother me. Also, consider the demographic -
90% of the passengers are older than dirt, so they were probably all in bed by 9:30 tonight.
So tomorrow is another day of walking. I bought a few souvenirs, but London is going to be
REALLY expensive later this week, so I need to watch the wallet. That's how it always is
for me - I end up buying stuff for everyone else and have nothing to show for it myself.
This time, I am getting car stickers from each port to put on my car.
Speaking of cars, its amazing how teeny tiny all the cars are here. Their gas prices would
equate in london to about 8 dollars a gallon, but I daresay we end up paying more for gas in
a week just from mass consumption. I didnt see a single SUV from Heathrow to Southampton
this weekend. Relatively the same in Bilbao.
The people were pretty in Bilbao. There accent and look almost reminded me more of Italian
rather than Spanish heritage.
On a final note, I am trying to take some very unique pictures for this trip. I am not
doing your classical landscape shots (though some of them are), I am really trying to do
some unique stuff with camera position and subjects. Here is a link to one of the ones I
did - I laid the camera almost flat on the ground, and I pointed it up a wet slick walkway in front of the Guggenheim. I think it turned out nicely.
Click here for picture...
I anticpate spending Memorial Day doing photo editing, so look for pictures on Monday night.
I am thinking about you all. Take care!