Author: bbpeck

Bob and I left Bilbao on a rainy Monday by Flixbus.  We got a great price — $79 for both of us.  The bus was new and the seats were comfy but while GoogleMaps told us that a car ride from Bilbao, Spain to Porto, Portugal would be 6 hours our bus ride was scheduled (and did take) about 12.  Yea, a whole lot of butt-in-seat time with a crew of four who did a whole lot of VERY LOUD talking to each other or their cell phones.  We didn’t get many announcements for stops either, including the one we took to put more air in the tires and wash the bus.  They did announce the “20” minute stop for lunch which actually lasted 50 minutes cuz what’s a good, long lunch without a smoke after?  On the very upside, we got a great tour of the gorgeous northern Spanish coast and countryside — see below.

Anyhoo, it makes for a great story, and we arrived safely into Porto about 8.  It was close to 9 by the time we walked to and checked into our accommodation, so we ended up grabbing dinner at the restaurant next door where we were staying.  There, we had a good time trying to order from the proprietor in a mixture of English, Portugese, and Spanish.  He was very nice, and Bob made a new friend, as he does in these situations.

The next morning we decided to walk to the Porto Beach, as we had not visited that area on our visit in September of 2016 prior to our Olhao, Portugal house sit.  On the walk towards the coast we ended up walking from sun into coastal fog at the beach that didn’t clear until about 1:30.

We spent almost 4 hours of our first full day in Bilbao at the Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Gehry.  The ticket came with an audio guide that provided information on both the building and art.  This is the 20th anniversary year for the museum.



After the museum and again the following day, we continued our exploration of the city including two self-guided walking tours — The Gran Via and Rationalism.  Both days were rainy, but it was more of a heavy mist than downpours, so pretty easy to negotiate.

 After our explorations on the town level, we headed up into the hills to get a view from above.

Bob and I flew from Valencia to Bilbao, Spain on Vueling Airlines, a European discount carrier.  The flight was just over an hour, and we were able to easily travel to and from the airports on public transportation — to the Valencia airport by metro and from the Bilbao airport by bus.  After arriving into Bibao city center and a 20 minute walk to our pensión in Bilbao, we were ready to start exploring what looked to be a beautiful city on a gorgeous day.

Bilbao is located in the northwest portion of Spain in the Basque region.  It has a population of about 345,000.  It has a strong economic history centered on its port, but we loved it’s amazing architecture and the multiple levels on which the city is built.  While we knew about the Guggenheim Museum, there are interesting buildings all over the city.  There are also pinxhos — a little bite of food that are very attractively crafted and displayed.   We hope to return.

We started our visit with a boat ride on the Bilbao River which feeds into the Cantabrian Sea and the Bay of Biscay.  The ride gave us a great way to quickly see the beautiful promenades and architecturally interesting buildings on either side of the river.  The boat narration included the names of the architects for many of the buildings and the awards each architect had one (no pressure designing anything for this town).  We just really liked the attractiveness of the buildings and area and the mix of both historical and modern.

Some highlights of the boat ride —

 

After the boat ride, we did a little walk around both the old and new sections of town.  We we’re charmed.



Bob and I split from Split (sorry, had to do that) on Sunday, September 17, by plane to spend four full days in Valencia, Spain.  I had studied in Spain during the 2nd semester of my junior year in college and have wanted to return ever since.  After (gulp!) 30 years the city seemed familiar yet very, very different.  It has grown up very nicely.  I lived with a local family while in school.  I don’t know if there were tourists then, and I just wasn’t aware (too busy with college extracurricular activites), but it definitely has its share of tourists now.  There is also a lot more to see now.  I also loved the increased ease of running–and the number of runners.  And don’t get me started on the paella!  

Since this time around we were staying in an apartment on the edge of the Old City, we spent some time exploring this active area.

The next day on our walkabout we hit the Mercado Central, or Central Market.  It was a great mix of produce, breads, meats and cheeses, as well as prepared foods.  We decided we couldn’t leave without buying our meal for that night (gazpacho and a Spanish tortilla) since everything looked so good.

Other points of interest in the Old City —

 

 

Some other buildings, etc. in the Old City that caught our eye —

One of the Valencian festivals that I remember most from my time studying there was Las Falles.  It’s a two week-long festival that commemorates Saint Joseph, although I mostly just remember it as time to stay out late, eat free paella from neighborhood pans (we each carried around our own spoon), the monuments built for Las Falles, and the end of celebration fires.  Las Falles refers both to the celebration itself as well as to the monuments that are constructed (and later burnt) for the celebration.  The Falles are built around that year’s theme and consist of Ninots (figures).  Each year a committee recommends a set number of Ninots to be saved from the fires.  The one(s) actually saved are those that receive the most votes from the public.  Bob and I visited the museum that houses the saved Ninots and provides an overview of the festival.

One free museum that we happened upon on our walk around Old a town one day was The Corpus Museum also known as The House of the Rocks.  This building was bought by the Valencia City Council in 1446 to house the ceremonial carts (rocks) used in the city’s annual Corpus Christi festivities.  The festivities take place on the Sunday closest to the 60th day following Easter (per papal instructions from the XIII century).  The carts are Valencia’s emblem of their celebration.  There are currently 11 rocks that have been elaborately crafted over many years, with the oldest completed in 1512 and the newest in 2001. They are brought out of the museum for viewing on the Friday night before the official celebration.  The Sunday festivities consist of thrwe different parades throughout the day on Sunday.

Since we had seen the beautiful beaches and coastline in Croatia, we had to see what Valencia had to offer.  I also wanted to walk back from the beach on the road that I lived on as a student — the Avenue of the Port.  We walked down through the gardens (see prior post) which got us very close to the beach through the lovely arts and sciences complex (see next post).  It was a lovely day, but I didn’t recognize much from “my” old street — I guess 30 years and some urban renewal efforts will do that.

The City of Arts and Sciences is a cultural and architectural complex at one end of the garden of Túria.  It was designed by Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela.  It was inaugurated in 1998 and has become Valencia’s number one modern tourist attraction.  The complex consists of a number of buildings including — The Hemispheric (IMAX, planetarium, and lasrium), the Prince Philip Science Musem, the Umbracle ( open, landscaped structure with a Walk of Sculptures and outdoor art gallery), the Oceanographic (largest oceanographic aquarium in Europe), the Queen Sofia Palace of the Arts (opera house and performing arts center), a bridge, and an agora (a covered plaza which hosts concerts and sporting events).

Bob and I walked around most of the complex and did a paid tour of the Palace of the Arts.  We also stumbled upon a Big Head Bonanza!

Another memory I have of my time as a student in Valencia was crossing the River Túria, which we called the dry river since it was pretty much just sand and dirt, the river having been diverted in the 1950s to prevent flooding.  The riverbed wasn’t much to look at and wasn’t serving any useful purpose though the bridges across it were nice.  Since I left, the city has transformed the riverbed into the Jardin(es) del Túria, or the gardens of Túria, a large urban park.  It is 9 kilometers long and runs from a park near the zoo to the new, modern arts and sciences complex.  The gardens have 5 kilometers of running trails (loved them, as do the locals as they were busy), exercise spaces, playgrounds for kids and adults, and sports courts and fields along with beautiful trees, flowers, water features, etc.  The gardens are crossed by 18 bridges of varying historical times and many of the city’s major museums and monuments run alongside of the gardens.

To start our last day in Split (and Croatia), Bob and I walked out of the residential area in which we were staying and away from Old Town to the westernmost part of the city to view Bene beach.  This is a popular beach for locals and is located at the edge of the large Marjan Hill Park.  We walked into the park on the road which was filled with lots of runners as well as families headed to the very small children’s amusement park located near the beach.

After walking around the beach, we headed into the park to climb to the other overlooks of the city that we hadn’t yet visited.  The trails were narrow, rocky, and not well marked, but it’s amazing the locational data stored in Google.  Bob has downloaded off-line ability with Google Maps, and it continues to be a handy resource.

From the overlook, we walked back down the hill on the southern side to visit the Ivan Meštrovič Gallery which is housed in his former summer villa.  Meštrovič lived from 1883 to 1962 and is a renowned Croatian sculptor.  He spent the last years of his life in the United States where he worked as a professor of sculpture for Syracuse University and then NotreDame.  We had not heard of him before our visit but where quite impressed with his work.

 

The Meštrovič gallery overlooked the sea, so after viewing his work in the gallery and a church down the road, we headed to the nearby harbor to explore more closely what we had seen from the overlook.

I think I had noted earlier that Split is in the Dalmatia region of Croatia.  Ever since I had learned that I had been watching for Dalmatian dogs.  I finally saw one — and doesn’t he (or she) look regal!

Split is home to Diocletian’s Palace which is an ancient palace built for — wait for it — yep, a guy named Diocletian.  He happened to be the emperor of Rome at the start of the fourth century AD.  The site is quite the tourist draw, but it is actually more of a village than a palace as there are a number of structures within the outer walls.  The structures inside were originally intended for about half for Diocletian’s personal use and half for the military.  Currently, the buildings are used by the locals for their personal residence but also for hotels, restaurants, and retail shops.  We had a map that provided an overview of the street-by-street layout with some history to help guide us through the maze.  We spent a good half day in the “palace” with hundreds of our closest friends.  It was an impressive structure and well worth the exploration.

 After completing our tour of the palace, Bob and I strolled along Marmontova, the pedestrian street, and surrounding area.  This is just a few blocks from the palace.

Harbor

A graffitied quote we liked —