June 27 - July 4
I. Bilbao, Spain to Deba, Spain
Hospital/immediate care center on the way to Bilbao (Chicago Bulls??):
Some cool photos of Bilbao:
Two days in a row I stumbled upon "street music." This was some sort of fundraiser for the "Walk on Project." Not sure what that is. But they had a whole riverfront fair with games, food, a zip line and this 10 piece jazz band (in the distance).
Cool spider outside Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum.
Some great graffiti/street art, including this 3-4 story high piece.
Bilbao has a free architecture museum which has a glass bottom swimming pool on the top floor that looks down at the first floor. My pictures do not do it justice, use your imagination.
Lots of gay pride posters and banners. I am unsure if this is in response to the Orlando shooting or there is always this display.
Love old churches and cemeteries. This said it was the entrance to a cemetery...but there was no cemetery. Maybe there used to be one.
This is what happens when I order lunch in Spanish. Thought I ordered a hamburger. In their defense, there is a hamburger included with this heart attack plate. Also came with ice cream. #fatamerican
Nice balls:
Marlene, Brian and Julie arrived. 3 more bikes to assemble. Julie's bike with Brian coaching from couch of our AirBnB.
Brian tackling Marlene's bike:
Our AirBnB in Bilbao had these umbrella/canopies to hang drying laundry under. Funny to see laundry hanging out 6 floors up.
Beers in Bilbao with Brian and a member of some boy band in the background:
Some large flower-dog-statue in Bilbao, Spain.
Possibly the coolest merry-go-round ever! Notice the hand crank to operate it.
Cool house on the Bay of Biscay, only had a footpath to it...what a view they wake up to.
Bike repair near the Bay of Biscay. The first two days saw us repair/adjust Julie's headset (handlebars), gearing, switch seats, remove a fender that was rubbing and I ripped off some piece of plastic near the rear cassette that was also rubbing. Think we got the bike in proper working order....
View from our campground outside Deba, Spain - over looking the Bay of Biscay.
If you look closely, France is in sight. This turned to be a very steep ride. We did the first 40ish kilometers in one day and then finished the ride to San Sebastián on the next day (which turned out to be rainy).
Some photos from this stretch:
Stopped in this seaside town (Getaria) for a rest.
Resting by a bank:
Julie and Brian looking for the nearest bar:
First injury: Julie fell and skinned her knee on day 2 riding as a group. But..she got back on and rode another 25 miles (mostly uphill). #spiritaward
Marlene pointing to yet another church. No shortages of churches and cathedrals in Spain.
Look how angelic my sister is in the church.
A unique depiction of Jesus - speared and curly hair. Never seen this version.
Donkey close-up...he was laughing at us as we tried to biked up a steep hill.
Rainy but short bike ride into San Sebastián.
We heard music upon getting into San Sebastián. Turns out there was a Crossfit competition going on by the beach....with a wedding in the background....with a motorcycle rally driving by. The wedding party was not happy with the music and noise from the Crossfit competition. But it was good people watching for us.
After camping and biking in the rain, we checked into Hotel Terminus in San Sebastián. Here are the bikes lined up outside the hotel while we check in...Marlene and Brian in the back.
Intimate street art in San Sebastián.
Bike parking only:
We visited a really cool wooden boat building museum. http://www.albaola.com/en
Back story: Brian is a shipwright who does a lot of work at the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle. A few years ago, he met a guy named Markos who was from San Sebastián, Spain and was interested in starting a similar museum in San Sebastián.
Well the museum is in existence and they are currently involved with a lengthy project (years) to recreate a whaling ship from the 1500s. We visited (unfortunately Markos was out of town - coincidentally in the U.S.) The whaling ship used to sail from northern Spain to New Foundland to hunt whales and bring the whale oil back. It sunk in the late 1500s near Canada.
The guys at the boat center are building an exact replica (down to the rope, fasteners, etc...) and plan to sail it to New Foundland when complete. They will sail it as it was in the 1500s (clothes, food, etc...). The scale of the project is huge. Here are some pictures of what it looks like:
Brian talking to Peter who is a carpenter from Florida. Peter has been volunteering/working on the boat for two years.
The hull/frame
Museum sign:
Bird's eye view of the work area:
Poster of original ship
Scale model of the original ship. Hard to imagine they are going to create a huge version of this:
Look alike alert:
Walking back from the boat museum, I spotted this poster in an alley...
...which looks exactly like Phil, the life partner of my niece Laurie. The "real" Phil:
"real" Phil and Laurie together:
Waves crashing onto the sidewalk in San Sebastián.
More graffiti/art.
III. San Sebastián, Spain to Bidart, France
Looking down at some city on the way to Bidart.
Jules after a long climb....
Marlene seeking shade...
That is France across the river!!!
We took a short, 5 minute ferry across some water way to enter France. No immigration or passport check in Europe.
