Espana

Our decent into Bermeo

Museo Guggenheim (in Bilbao)

Day 1: (June 5, 2010)

Our flight from Dallas to Madrid was 4,958 miles. We arrived in Madrid at 10:20 a.m. and rented a car (a Volvo) which took us to our first destination of Avila.

In Avila we visited the cathedral and the Avila City Walls.

We drove from Avila to Segovia where we would rest for the night.

In this town, we visited the gotic cathedral and the Roman aqueduct. Both amazing sights! We even visited the fort of Alcazar.

We soon discovered that the locals don't eat dinner until starting at 8:00 p.m. We finally found a little eatier and my first meal was port fillets, fried eggs, fries and salad. Although it sounds odd, it was quite delicious.

The sun finally set at 10:05 p.m.

We settled in at Hotel Las Sirenas. It was a very small room with two single beds; the mattresses were pretty stiff. The locals partied in the streets until 4:00 a.m. which made for a rocky nights sleep. We woke up at 3:00 a.m. for one hour and then resumed sleep from 4 - 9:00 a.m. I felt well rested in the end.

Our first day in Spain was a success.

(Photos to follow).

Day 2: (June 6, 2010)

Our departure from Segovia started at 10:00 a.m. but it took us one hour to find our way outside the city.

We headed for a very scenic country drive to Burgos where we stopped for lunch. We keep forgetting that all merchants are closed between 1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. (which really limits locations for meals -- unfortunately, we ended up having to eat at McDonald's).

We headed to Vitoria (our home for the next 2 nights where we lodged at the NH Chanciller Ayala). When parking the car, I backed into a pole - no major damage just a bit of paint removal. We settled into the hotel and then headed to San Sebastian - our quaint city by the sea. We walked along the ocean to the Constitution Plaza (which was an old bull fighting ring) stopping for a Coke Light. We have found that the plazas are full of families (kids playing soccer, tag, and pretend tennis; sometimes there is live music). Locals seem to gather in the plazas for cocktails every night around 7 - 8:00 p.m. We visited Iglesia de San Vicente (open to the public and free for viewing).

This district had many restaurants that serve Tapas - we were not brave enough to try these delicacies and were not quite sure how the "system" works. We ended up eating at a local pub. My dish was a large salad filled with onions, zucchini, goats cheese, eggplant, seasame seeds, tomatoes and served with walm balsamic vinegrette dressing. My main entree was green pasta in cream sauce topped with one slice of bacon. The meal was very good.

We made the one hour drive back to Vitoria and arrived at our hotel at 11:30 p.m. Unfortunately, I could not fall asleep (I blame it to jet lag) and probably didn't fall asleep until 4:00 a.m.; this was not good; I ended up waking up at 12:30 p.m.; needless to say, I was quite upset with myself.

(Photos to follow.)

Day 3: (June 7, 2010)

Leaving our hotel at 1:00 p.m., we headed to Bilbao -the home of the Museo Guggenheim; unfortunately the museum is closed on Mondays so we took some time to take photos of the amazing structure which is made of titanium. We continued our voyage by foot into town where we purchased a bagette, some salami, and proschiutto and made our own lunch (again, all eateries were closed). We unfortunately received a parking ticket during our stay (a 12 Euro penalty which we probably will never have to pay.)

After lunch we continued our journey to Bakio and Bermeo (both villages along the water). The drive was very wooded, green, and scenic. It reminded us a lot of Tuscany.

As the day grew long, we headed back to Bilbao for dinner but could not find the restaurant we wanted to frequent so ended up having a slice of pizza to feed our hungry.
We wrapped up the day arriving at our hotel at 10:45 p.m.

So far, we have enjoyed this beautiful country and don't miss the hectic pace of the U.S.; no cell phones ringing, all citizens having good manners, no traffic on the roads, peaceful days of sunshine and very unique sights to visit).

Tomorrow we are headed to Porto, Portugal. We are going to try to visit some wine regions along the way.

Good night. (For some strange reason, the system is only letting me upload one photo - I will try again tomorrow - it's already midnight here). Adios!