(Fifteen Pictures From Today's Visit To Bilbao, Spain)
Monday, April 26, 2010
We enjoyed another nice evening on the ship last night.
Before dinner we sat at the Crystal Cove and listened to pianist John Mentis. We first met John in 2007 and then we enjoyed his music in 2008 and once again this year. After he finished, we spoke with him for a while and enjoyed a great conversation with him. In addition to playing the piano he also take a good deal
We decided to have dinner in the room and we enjoyed a quiet evening as we had dinner and talked about the extraordinary journey and adventure that we have experienced since we left Miami, Florida on January 4. There is no other way to see as many places as we have seen in this time frame and words cannot adequately describe how interesting this itinerary has been. As we have said from the start of this journey, we have been humbled by this opportunity to see so many places that our parents could only have dreamed about and to see them through our very own eyes. Many times, we feel that our parents are apart of this journey with us.
We had planned to have dinner in the room before we received the invitation to dine in Silk Road on Saturday evening so believe it or not the dinner we enjoyed was from Silk Road. We began our meal with sushi and sashimi, and then for our entrée we each enjoyed Hot Sobu Noodles with a delicious broth, which was accompanied by some scallops. Instead of our normal dessert of fruit we splurged and had a piece of cake. The entire meal was yummy. Before we depart the ship we have three more dinners and plan to eat in the dining room this evening, Prego tomorrow, and finally Silk Road the night before we depart the ship in Southampton.
The sun did not set until close to 9:30 PM last evening so it was light out for quite a while. It’s hard to believe it was so light outside this time of the year.
We slept well last evening as we cruised to Bilbao, Spain. The seas were much calmer than what we had anticipated and we have been very fortunate to enjoy such great weather throughout this voyage. It is hard to believe that the coolest temperatures we would have experienced was in Key West Florida and that most ports that we visited have been rain-free while we were there.
Keith woke up early this morning and as usual made his way over to the Fitness Center for a nice workout. He worked out on the Elliptical Machine and was the first one to arrive there. Fellow passenger and friend John arrived a little while after Keith began his workout and the two of them had a very nice conversation. This is our third sailing with John and his lovely wife Linda and we enjoy their friendship. This will be Keith’s next to last workout, as we will likely take the day off on April 28. Anne Marie also enjoyed a very nice workout in the Fitness Center as she worked out on the Treadmill.
We enjoyed breakfast in our room and then we got ready for our first visit to Bilbao, Spain. Billbao is the capital of the provinces of Vizcaya, which is situated in the western part of the Basque country. Bilbao is the home of the Guggenheim Museum. Bilbao is also the gateway to the Cantabrico Sea. The population of this city stands at around 375,000 residents.
We had originally planned to do a tour but we decided that for this last leg of the World Cruise we would try to visit most of the ports on our own.
We took the shuttle from the Cruise Ship Terminal over to Bilbao, which is located about 12 miles from the Port. We enjoyed the drive. The town right by the port was quite charming with many homes, apartments, cafes and other stores. The architecture was quite nice. Once downtown we went on a very long walk.
The city was beautiful. We liked the architecture of all of the buildings. The weather was perfect. We walked through a number of pretty parks with nicely cut grass, flowers, fountains and/or other statues and various trees and plants. Many of the roads were lined with beautiful trees. There were lots of bridges which included bridges for motor vehicles but several pedestrian bridges.
We walked over to the Guggenheim Museum and all around it. We took in the beautiful sites. We then walked all around many other areas of Bilbao. The streets are lined with cafes, restaurants, shops, office buildings, governmental buildings, and residences. Many of the buildings date back many years.
There is no question that Spain has several beautiful cities. Bilbao is one of them. Unlike Barcelona which is very nice but has a good deal of crime, Bilbao seemed much safer to us.
Bilbao is also surrounded by beautiful rolling hills that were quite green with lush bushes. In many ways it reminded us of the beauty that one finds in Northern California during the rainy season.
We truly enjoyed the time we spend in this beautiful city.
Once we returned to the ship we went over to the Lido Café to enjoy a very nice salad entrée. We spoke with some of our fellow passengers along with some of the crew who work in the Lido Café.
In the afternoon we read, wrote and Keith played paddle tennis while Anne Marie took an hour walk on the Promenade Deck and we also enjoyed some nice conversations with fellow guests and fellow members of the crew.
This evening we will be dining back in the Crystal Main Dining Room and afterwards we will be attending a very special concert. We will post about both of these experiences tomorrow.
TODAY’S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY……
“Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.”
Keith and Anne Marie
1 comment:
Thank you so much for taking me along on this journey. I have enjoyed your posts everyday. You are a wonderful writer and manage to convey the flavor of the ports and the ship and all of the activities so well that I can almost imagine myself right there. Your pictures are wonderful too. Have a very safe trip back to your home and I look forward to your next trip.
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