Contrary to popular belief, Nick isn't the only Corr who will go that extra mile for music. One of Andy's favourite bands, the Drive-By Truckers (USA), began their European tour in Bilbao which was the only date that co-incided with Andy's European tour. Thus, we were off to Spain - me just for the weekend, Nick and Andy for the week.
We all arrived Friday night and checked into our hotel before heading out on the town. For the first time in ages, Nick and I were outside without scarves and gloves, even at 9pm! We headed into the 'old town' which was classic Spanish - little cobbled streets and overflowing bars with tapas (or pinxhos, as it is called in the Basque region) on every counter. We tried a couple of different bars (and lots of pinxhos) before we found our favourite, Claudio's.
Non-meat eaters might want to scroll past the next photo...
There are 2 Claudio's - a butcher on one side of the street and a bar on the other. The photo above is actually the bar! The hams hang right above your head - so strange to us (health regulations??) but so normal in Spain. Anyway, we ordered some raciones (portions/plates) of jamon iberico (the Rolls Royce of ham in Spain, from wild pigs fed exclusively on acorns apparently), chorizo and cheese. So delicious.
On Saturday we found a cute little bar/cafe for breakfast (everywhere seemed to serve alcohol, coffee and pinxhos which changed depending on the time of day) and had some fantastic coffee and tortilla. We then headed to the Guggenheim, one of the 5 in the world, housed in a building designed by Frank Gehry.
The outside of the building is meant to represent a scaly fish (Bilbao is a big port) and the inside is full of rounded walls, creating an atmosphere of relaxation and calm. The art inside, although good, almost paled in comparison to the building itself.
The contrast of old and new, city and country -
Saturday night was more bars, eating and drinking. We went back to Claudio's which was so busy we had to take a number! We started with 78 and headed to the bar next door to wait. After about half an hour our number still hadn't come up, but someone gave us their number, so we jumped ahead to 63. After more drinks (and some awesome air guitar/drums/sax by our barman to classic rock such as Bob Segar and Mr. Springsteen himself), we had missed our number and were quickly rebuffed when we tried to get in! It was almost midnight by this stage and people were still queuing which proves how good it was. We finally got in on 92.
On Sunday we went to the Museo de Bellas Artes and wandered around taking in the sights and practising our Spanish. One of the many churches in Bilbao -
I left for the airport around 8pm, leaving Nick and Andy to kill some time around Bilbao before the Drive-By Truckers on Thursday.
