I went on a day trip today with Angela to Bilbao. Bilbao is the largest city in the Basque region. It has a Casco Viejo like Pamplona and there is also a Guggenheim Museum. We left Pamplona on the 7 am bus. We both passed out once we started moving. We arrived in Bilbao at 9:30. It was drizzling a little but to our surprise there was no snow unlike Pamplona (and Pennsylvania). We made it to Casco Viejo and started looking around for somewhere to eat breakfast. We found the Bar Cafe Bilbao. I had cafe con leche and tortilla (which is a typical breakfast made out of egg, potato and sometimes vegetables, cheese or ham). It was really good and we really like the place. The staff was really friendly there too.
When we walked out of the cafe into the plaza we encountered a celebration for Carneval. There where dozens of school aged kids in this little plaza. They were all wearing costumes and there was loud music playing. It looked like they had set up activities and snack tables too. It was so cute. We walked more and found carnival grounds. We went into a cafeteria that faced it and had chocolate con churros. As we were eating more kids dressed as ladybugs filed into the carnival grounds. We would see random children in costumes throughout the day after the Carneval celebration had ended. We picked a good day to go because there was a lot of Carneval stuff all over the city. I haven't seen anything like this around Pamplona so it was lucky we went to Bilbao today.
We got directions to the Guggenheim Museum at the cafeteria and walked up Gran Via, which is the main street in Bilbao. There was a lot of stores along it. It took us maybe 20 minutes and then we finally saw it. The Museum sits along the river where there is also a river walk and more displays. We spent about 2 hours in the museum. The top floor was closed which was disheartening because it was the private collection of Guggenheim. We basically just saw the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit which was really interesting and the things he designed are incredible! They had a bunch of 3D models which were my favorite because a few of them were lit up as if they were the real thing. It was a nice museum but after awhile you wonder how much architecture can you endure in one day. So once we had seen everything we walked out to the river walk. I really liked the walk. You got a great view of the city and it looks like a great place to run. We walked all the way back down to Casco Viejo and started looking for a place to have pintxos. After we had walked into countless bars we found one with good looking pintxos and actual space to move. It was also the winner because we got a free sample of shrimp when we walked in! Got to love free samples!
After a little pick me up snack we walked around a little bit more. Found more Carneval paraphernalia. We saw cookies decorated like Venetian masks. I will post the picture. Then we started walking on Gran Via again. Around 4 we decided to get a little more to eat since we only had the little pintxos for lunch. We ate at Corte Ingles which is basically just a mall. I just had a panini and fries even though the panini was more like cheesy bread but it held me over so...
Then finally we walked to the bus station. Our bus ride back was quicker. I think we made one less stop. We both fell asleep though. It was a tiring day. We did so much walking!! We got back to Pamplona around 8. After this I think I am going to bed!!!
Que te gusten las fotos!
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