Since we arrived in Pau, people have kept telling us that we need to visit Bilbao. It's a two and a half hour drive from our place, so although it is do-able as a day trip, we've always felt that it was just a bit for far to have enough time there for proper exploring and, also, we didn't think it would be fair on William. So, we decided that it would be our next port of call on our Basque adventure. To be fair, our hand was kind of forced. Where we really wanted to go to was Mundaka but its just a little surf town and all the accommodation was already booked up for the weekend. Bilbao, on the other hand, had plenty of room at the inn.
We booked three nights at the Occidental and headed off on Friday morning. My immediate impression wasn't good. The hotel felt like a business centre on the outskirts of town rather that our usual central-location-at-all-costs way of travelling. The hotel was spotlessly clean and very modern but we were told on arrival that kids couldn't use the indoor pool, and the outdoor pool wasn't heated. Also, the skies were grey and dreich. Suddenly, I was regretting Bilbao, and certainly regretting our hotel choice (which we'd paid for up-front.) But, you've just got to get on with things. We got our bearings and did some quick food research, heading to a local place that was seemingly one of the best Mexican cafes in town. I figured I'd be able to get something from the menu but, instead I was confronted with a menu full of dishes specifically listed as gluten free. Oh, how I bloody love Spain! They even had bottles of GF beer. The food was brilliant and I felt like perhaps this wasn't going to be so bad after all.
That afternoon, it was siestas all round before getting ourselves into the old town for some exploring and the crowning glory (according to Trip Advisor) of Bilbao gluten free foods - Dabuten Sin Gluten. After going round in circles whilst our iPhones tried to locate us in the maze of the old town lanes, we found the place. And it was shut. ARGH! As a coeliac, these situations drive me mad as it suddenly falls upon me to find somewhere to eat, and sharpish, as Iain and William are both hungry and want to eat NOW. We started on a trek, over the river, to a pintxos place called Kaia Taberna, apparently fully GF and I hoped for the best. We arrived to find the place open (a good start), and featuring a huge crossed grain logo on its window. I'd like to say that we had an amazing dinner but it was all pretty average. Although there people having pintxos at the bar, we were ushered to tables which had hand written menus sitting on them with €25 emblazoned across the page. Our lack of Spanish, and the apparent owners level of English made all the ordering quite difficult and I couldn't help but feel we were getting a bit ripped off but what ultimately happened was that we paid €25 each and he told us what we were getting from the menu. Some of it was good, and some of it was average (like the tuna which felt as though it had just come straight from a tin) and although it was great to eat in a place that was entirely gf, I was just a bit disappointed.
As we wandered home that night we happened upon two great things:
1. The typical Spanish playground. We forgot how great the Spanish are at catering for kids. Brilliant playgrounds everywhere and when we stumbled upon this one, it was after 10pm but the place was still absolutely mobbed. Such a great atmosphere.
2. A city-wide light installation programme to celebrate the city's birthday. It was mental. Light projections on fancy buildings, and then, just be absolute chance, a parade through the old town. William, as you'd imagine, was mesmerised!
On Saturday, we got our culture on. A huge day of walking to the Guggenheim museum, walking round the museum and walking back. We we shattered by the end of the day! There's loads of cool things to see outside the Guggenheim including the actual building itself and another one of those an amazing Spanish playgrounds but, as you'd imagine, the inside of museum contains some quite odd and strange installations and paintings. Iain's review of one of the major installations says it all, really; "Shite". Each to their own and all that, but I'm still glad we paid a visit. The cafe was great and deserves a mention. More gf food and great sangria! We headed home and I managed a 40 lap swim in the pool and Iain got himself to the gym then it was back to Mole for more Mexican. Great day.
We rounded up our trip with a full on Sunday Funday. A walking tour of the old town taking in pintxos, sangria, beers, gin, play parks, ice cream shops, and while walking home, stumbling upon a live band that had set up at a random square with a wee pub across the road. We duly parked up, let William dance and play football with the locals whilst we took in the atmosphere [read: drank gin]. We even got chips before jumping on the metro home!
LM :)
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