Trip to France, Spain and Portugal

Mike and Judy Henderson
September 1 to September 25, 2017

I'm going to leave the map on each page describing this trip so you have an idea of where we are.

9/8/2017  The cruise from La Rochelle to San Sebastian was mercifully smooth.  We arrived outside the port of San Sebastian early in the morning.

We had to wait for the pilot boat but it eventually arrived to escort us into the port.

The predictions were for hot weather but it was pretty cool as we approached the port.  Peg and Rich are bundled up fairly well.

We entered the channel that would take us to the port.

There were some beautiful homes along the channel.  I understand that San Sebastian is a very wealthy city.

After docking we took a bus to the city.   Our first stop was the Miramar Palace, built for the Spanish king and queen and overlooking La Concha Bay.

The bay is magnificent.  This a picture I found on the web.

Then we took the bus to the old town, stopping close to the Hotel Maria Cristina.  It is an elegant hotel.

The hotel was the scene of some fighting during the Spanish Civil war (1936-1939) and those fire fights left bullet holes in the exterior of the building.  The hotel has left the holes as a memorial.

Very near the Hotel Maria Cristina is an underground shopping center.  We went into it, not to shop, but to use the restrooms.  Some examples of meat and cheese stalls.

Along the streets of the old town are many cafes with outdoor seating.

We went down a side street to the Basilica of St. Mary of the Chorus.  (picture taken from the web - it was better than the one I took.)

Then we walked around the old town until we came to Constitution Square.

Around the square are apartments with many doors, each door marked with a number.

Although bullfights are no longer allowed in this part of Spain, years ago the square would be temporarily modified to create a bull ring.  Each door indicates where a "box seat" was located.  Today, an apartment is four doors wide. Our guide said they were very expensive (like most housing in San Sebastian).

Then our walking tour was over and we were on our own for about an hour.  Judy and I went to Hotel Maria Cristina where they provided free Internet access to us so that I could upload the blog.  Thank you Hotel Maria Cristina!

We finished in good time and then wandered to the bus meeting place, along with most of the other passengers (some stayed in the town and returned by taxi).

Here are Jay and Gordon waiting for the bus.

And Judy conversing with some of the other passengers.

Then it was back to the boat and a nap.  We departed San Sebastian about 10pm.

9/9/2017 We arrived in Bilbao about 7am this morning after a night of heavy seas.  Thankfully, most of the passengers were probably in bed by the time we hit the heavy seas so they weathered it fine. It's much easier to put up with the pitching and rocking and rolling when you're in bed, than when you're trying to walk around the boat.

Here we are departing for our tour of Bilbao.

On our drive to the city, we passed the famous Vizcaya bridge of Bilbao, also called the Puente Colgante.  The "bridge" is not really a bridge but is a suspension gondola that goes from side to side about every eight minutes. It can hold six cars and several dozen pedestrians.  And get this - it was built in 1893 and is still in operation.

Here's a better view of the "bridge".  The following three pictures were taken from the web.

Here's a shot showing the gondola in transit across the river.

And if you're brave enough, you can go to the top of the bridge and walk across.  There are elevators to take you up and down from the top.  It's claimed that you get a marvelous view of Bilbao from here.

The first stop on our tour of the city was at the top of one of the mountains surrounding Bilbao, giving us an overview of the town.  It's very built out and crowded, constrained by being in a valley surrounded by mountains.

This view of the river shows it winding through the town.  In the past, ships came up to the city. As larger ships were utilized it became impractical to keep the river dredged deeply enough for them, so the port was moved to the mouth of the river, where we're docked.

We can see the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum, which we will visit later today.

We left the mountain top and proceeded to the old town to take a walking tour.  It was raining lightly but stopped shortly after we arrived in the old town.  We stopped at the Iglesias de San Nicolás but didn't go in.

During the tour there wasn't that much to photograph.  But we passed the Bilbao Cathedral where a wedding was being held, and I photographed a few of the people attending the wedding.

We returned to the ship for lunch and then made another trip to town for a visit to the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum.

In front of the museum was a giant cat sculpture with real flowers growing out of the sculpture.

Here we are waiting to enter the museum.

Photographs were not allowed in the museum galleries, but were allowed in the atrium, where I took this shot.

There were a couple of installations outside as well.

These are supposed to be water lilies.

And just a side comment, Guernica is about 35km from Bilbao.  I would be interesting to see Guernica one day just because of the famous Picasso painting about the bombing of Guernica.

Our adventure continue here.