Smoky, Dingy, Dungeon...

San Sebastian, Spain

December 7, 2007
N43°19.542
W001°59.064

Due to the holiday weekend we had to switch from our comfy, clean pension in the town center of Bilbao to a dingy, smoky room about 1 KM from Parte Vieja, or the old section of town.

It was a long night; the thin walls did little to absorb noise from inside or outside the hotel. It sounded like the street sweepers were doing laps at 1:30 AM, right under our window, and a loud group of guys were having fun at a local hole-in-the-wall bar until at least 3:00 AM. Breathing wasn’t easy either… the ventilation in the room was so bad, at times it smelled like someone was sitting in our room smoking, the smell of cigarette smoke from adjoining rooms filled the halls and permeated the entire building. I think the place goes down as the shittiest places we’ve stayed for the money, also know as, shit-hole to dollar ratio (SH:$).

Luckily, we only had to stay in the den for one night and moved on today; thanking the heavens we pre-booked accommodations in San Sebastian, and hoping we wouldn’t have the same fate.

The local train from Bilbao to San Sebastian made at least twenty stops along the route, taking over 2 ½ hours. However, the 2 ½ hour ride allowed us time to really enjoy the Basque countryside. A light rain fell as we stared out the window at sheep and goats munching on the damp grass of the mountains, dark green rivers ran through small villages, and the final golden leaves of autumn fell from twisted branches.

Now the good news… when we arrived at our pension, we were stunned by the gorgeous views from our room. The room has a large sliding glass door that opens to a balcony overlooking the Bay of Biscay and waves crashing on the rocks and sea wall, shooting water into the air and splashing tourists strolling along Paseo Nuevo. Plus, the room is smoke free.

We’ll fall asleep to the sound of waves tonight instead of rowdy drunks… what a difference a day makes.

Just a Little Pintxo...

Bilbao, Spain

December 6, 2007
N43°15.788
W002°56.103

The Spanish typically eat their dinner standing at a counter with a glass of wine or beer. An evening consists of visiting several pintxo bars, where you can grab a small bite to eat, and wash it down with a glass of local wine. You can try one or two items at each place, normally the bar’s specialties, and then move on to the next bar for a few more bites. It’s like a continual Happy Hour with outstanding finger food; not shitty, reheated Vienna sausages, stale nachos, or deep fried jalapeno-poppers like you tend to find in the States. Over the past few nights, we avoided the urge to stay at one place and pintxo hopped along with the locals on a quest to find the best of the best.

Pintxos consist of a small slice of bread, normally a baguette, upon which various toppings are placed (fish, cheese, meat, egg, vegetables, etc.). The quality of toppings tend to vary from bar to bar (gourmet to very simple), as does the price, it all depends on the quality of the ingredients and of course the popularity of the bar.

For example, at one place we had delicate mushrooms, sautéed in olive oil, topped with crunchy toasted garlic and a slice of Serrano ham. At another place tuna was mixed with spicy gourmet mustard and topped with anchoas, or anchovies, and oregano. One more hop and we found slices of Spanish bacon with a perfectly cooked quail egg on top. Now that is bacon and eggs! There are some delicacies too, like foie gras… yummy!

My favorite part of hopping from place to place is you never have a big plate of food in front of you, but instead you just nibble. Even though we try something new at each bar, we’re still eating a lot less than we normally would, but probably drinking more wine J.

We scoped out a few more places for tonight, our last night in Bilbao. The good news is, the pintxos will only get better when we move to San Sebastian tomorrow… reportedly the best pintxos in the world!

A Jolt and Look at the Guggenheim in Bilbao...

Bilbao, Spain

December 5, 2007
N43°15.788
W002°56.103

After a very long train ride yesterday, our legs were ready to stretch out and explore a new city. We woke up fairly early and hit a local café for our daily jolt, wandered through the rustic, yet trendy, streets of Bilbao, explored the riverside walk and marveled at the architecture of the art-nouveau Guggenheim Museum.

Back to the coffee… the café we visited today has been in business since 1904, and it’s quite the operation. It has the largest espresso machine we’ve ever seen—capable of making eight cups of espesso at a time with two milk steamers, allowing two people to work side-by-side at the same time, and a green LED ticker displaying the time/date and minor café updates. Our café cortado, or espresso with a tad of milk, was by far one of the best we’ve had since Café Trieste in San Francisco.

After two cortados, a wonderful toasted croissant, and being sufficiently wired, we set out to explore the city. The main promenade, Calle Lopez de Haro, decorated with bright blue Christmas lights at night, is buzzing with activity during the day. The people of Bilbao, and those from the surrounding areas, are in full shopping mode for the upcoming holidays. The stores were packed and people filled the streets with plenty of holiday bags under their arms.

We quickly escaped the shopping scene for a more serene environment, the recently renovated river promenade. The riverfront was revamped in 2000 with clear walking and bicycle paths, plenty of runners were out taking advantage of the beautiful path, as we strolled along enjoying the sites including the fabulous Guggenheim Museum.

The sun bounded off the titanium building and its multiple angles; reflecting like light off the scales of a fish. We couldn’t help but to stroll around the entire structure designed by architect, Frank Gehry. Gehry did an excellent job incorporating a fishing theme, a prominent part of Bilboa’s economy; the randomness of the curves was designed to capture the light off the titanium sections that depict boat hulls and the scales of fish. The location is perfect—right along the river.

Our walk continued down the river toward what’s claimed to be the largest public market in Europe. We were pretty close to siesta by this time, so the fish mongers, vegetable sellers and butchers were putting away their goods, but not before we picked up some fresh fruit for lunch.

Tomorrow we’ll hit the market again, to see the action in full force.

A Long Train Ride to Somewhere, We Hope...

Bilbao, Spain

December 4, 2007

Another reason we crashed an extra night in Santiago de Compostela is because we knew we were in for another very long train ride to Bilbao. As I write this, I’m sitting on the train, the landscape flying by in the periphery; only six hours into an eleven hour day, that is, if all goes according to plan.

We each have a good book to keep us occupied, but we spent the first few hours of the trip simply enjoying the Spanish countryside as we snaked our way through mountains, along the banks of rivers, past foggy rust colored sleeping vineyards, and golden fields of recently harvested corn and wheat. We passed through several towns during our journey. Most of them small, unassuming; towns that wouldn’t look out of place in the Central Valley of California, the only distinguishing factor being the occasional road sign or advertisement in Spanish.

Luckily, this will be our last long travel day on a train. We’ll have a couple more short rides along the rails, following the northern coast of Spain to San Sebastian before heading further north and back into France. The train system in Europe makes it easy to get around, but who really wants to sit on any mode of transportation for too long? Especially when time is better spent wandering through cities like Santiago de Compostela, Porto, Sintra, or other countless memorable cities we had the opportunity to enjoy during our travels.

Camino de Santiago...

Santiago de Compostela, Spain

December 2-3, 2007
N42°52.773
W008°32.694

The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela begins near the southern border of France, in Spain’s Basque Country. People trek several hundred miles to reach the infamous town of Santiago, pray for forgiveness and ask to be blessed in the name of Jesus Christ. The rite is akin to a Muslim’s journey to Mecca, the ultimate experience.

We took the train to Santiago, we didn’t walk through the cold weather along the northern most part of Spain; however, we still appreciated the vibe within the city and the deeper meaning it holds to many. We didn’t meet anyone who completed the pilgrimage on this trip, but Ana, my friend in Barcelona, completed a shorter version of the journey a few years ago with her father. She described the warmth of people in the small towns and villages along the trek; people who took them in, fed them, and, most importantly, provided them encouragement to continue.

The old town is built around the incredible Catedral del Apostol. The massive baroque cathedral and is where the pilgrimage comes to and end. There are town squares built around the church where people congregate. There are views of the church from different angles from around town, but our favorite view was from the park where we could admire all of its beauty. The striking façade and stunning interior does not disappoint those who have walked for days. We’ve seen hundreds of churches during our travels, in fact I can say we’re “churched-out”; however, Catedral del Apostol was something special and actually made us pause… it was very impressive.

We were so moved with the energy in Santiago upon arrival, we decided to spend an extra night walking through the medieval streets, admiring the church, and sampling tapas, regional wine and cheese. It’s a perfect town to rest tired feet and refuel the body and mind after a long trip—regardless of how you got there!

Our Pilgrimage to Santiago...

Santiago de Compostela, Spain

December 1, 2007
N42°52.773
W008°32.694

Throughout our travels we have done our best to avoid back-to-back travel days. It’s tough enough hauling all gear around and spending a day on a train, bus, plane or boat, but when you have to do it two days in a row it will wear on you.

After leaving Coimbra, and unable to make it to Santiago de Compostela in one day, we decided to gut it out and endure back-to-back travel days. Luckily, the first day was a simple hour and a half train ride north to Porto allowing us time to see the city and relax along the Rio Duermo. However, the second day, which was supposed to be six hours maximum, turned into an all day affair…

It was cold, dark and foggy when we stumbled out of our hotel by 6:55 AM; ample time to catch our train from the Porto station at 7:55 AM bound for the medium sized city of Vigo, a 3 hour train ride. The plan was to connect in Vigo, where the trains left every hour for Santiago de Compostela. However, when we were 45 minutes into our train ride to Vigo, the train conductor informed us there had been an accident at the border of Spain and we would have to take a bus from Valenca. Okay, no problemo.

After an uneventful hour long bus ride from the Valenca station we made it to Vigo around noon. Not too bad… we figured we could still get to Santiago by 2:30 and would be sipping some Rioja by 3:30. We headed straight for the ticket counter and bought tickets from Vigo to Santiago. As we were about to turn away from the ticket counter the lady informed us we would have to take a bus to another station and a train from there; apparently the Spanish train problems were wider spread than originally explained, and told to wait for instructions…. hmmm.

I should mention very few people in this region of Spain speak English, so all of the conversations are in Spanish where I understand about 50% of what is being said and Marc about 25%. After each conversation we would look at each other and compare notes, trying to piece together what was being said. It felt like we were in high school and asking each other what answer we got for a particular question on an exam; neither of sure of the correct answer.

To make a long story, and a very long day short, we finally board a train from Vigo at 2:10 PM, after multiple discussions of whether we are really taking a bus or a train. The train then stopped in a small village about 15 miles from Santiago due to yet another “problemo.” After about thirty minutes without any information new discussions about another autobus began to spread throughout the train. Finally, our conductor, who we’ve come to know well, visited our car and explained that we need to vamos on another autobus. Comprende? Of course!

So… we get on another bus to another train station. We get off the bus and back on another train and finally arrive at our destination, Santiago de Compostela, around 5:30 PM. Frustrated, exhausted and giddy that our journey had come to an end, we high-tailed it to the Hotel Alameda and were pleasantly surprised with a room for 40 Euro a night. We showered, ate a light snack and relaxed for a few minutes before hitting the town around 9:00 PM.

Thank goodness the town is really quaint and charming with excellent tapas and wine bars. We already scoped out our favorite by the end of Saturday night… too bad they’re all closed on Sunday and Monday.

Other notes: I have to say congratulations to my nephew’s football team. Kyle Lowe plays for the Whitney Wildcats of Rocklin, CA. They played in the Sac Joaquin Section Division IV title game against the Oakdale Mustangs on Saturday night at the University of the Pacific. Unfortunately, they lost in a very close game. However, his team had a tremendous season and established a tradition of winning and excellence for Whitney’s very young (two year old) program. In June, Kyle will be among the first seniors to graduate from Whitney. I’m sure Kyle and his teammates will be remembered throughout the history of Whitney as the team that founded the winning football traditional. Congratulations to the entire team!

A Porto Surprise...

Porto, Portugal

November 30, 2007
N41°08.941
W008°35.136

Our train pulled into the Porto station after a short trip from Coimbra. The journey took less than two hours and since we couldn’t get any further north due to train schedules, we decided to spend the night in the city of Porto. After reading reviews in Lonely Planet, we figured we would just blow right through; however, after spending an afternoon in the decorative town, we were happy we stopped and actually wished we budgeted more time. Unfortunately, we’re running short on that valuable commodity known as time. We’ve been traveling for 10 months and only have two more months before our journey comes to an end. Six months ago we would have modified our plans, and stayed a couple more nights in Porto, but with mere days left it’s like counting change to pay for a cup of coffee… every nickel, every penny and every day is precious.

It was late afternoon and shadows were falling across the city famous for Port wine (thus the name). As we rolled down the streets one of the first things we noted were all of the Christmas decorations including an 80 ft. tree. It wasn’t dark enough to light the tree and we knew we would have to swing back by once the sun set to get the full effect of the display.

With warm light still falling, we had the opportunity to wander through and explore several areas of the city, including the riverfront promenade along the Rio Duermo. Porto is undergoing a major renovation with emphasis on restoring the riverfront, the main tourist area which was recently added as a UNESCO heritage site. We browsed through several shops selling tasty port, local artesian cheeses and a variety of olives; stocking up on some cheese and olives for our train ride to Santiago de Compostela the next day.

We found a nice table along the river and enjoyed a couple beers and watched the sun slowly dropped behind the hills. As the sun set, the twinkle of the Christmas lights appeared across the river, almost like stars on the horizon. When the sun fell so did the temperature along the riverfront. Too cold to drink another beer, we said a quick goodbye to a woman we met from San Francisco, and made our way back up the hill toward the city center and the giant Christmas tree.

The large tree was a show in itself. Every ten minutes the tree would start completely dark, after a few seconds shimmering white lights glittered against a dark background, blue stars began to twinkle, then angels illuminated and the tree would turn green. Next, the angels were swapped out for candles and wheat stalks before the tree would light up completely—one section at a time (each section approx. 10 ft.). The tree was by far the most impressive holiday light show we’ve seen to date; with the possible exception of Carlisle Avenue in Sacramento, CA.

Tomorrow we’re headed back to Spain and intend on traveling through some smaller rural towns, it will be fun to see their displays of holiday cheer.