hi everybody!!
so we are safely in spain and having a great time!
our trip over was a long one and not completely free of glitches, but nothing too impeding. we were very lucky to make our extremely tight 50 minute connection in london (we flew tampa to london; london to madrid; madrid to bilbao) but michaels bag was not so lucky. however, it arrived just a day late to our bilbao hotel. stacys bag was also late coming from madrid to bilbao, but it arrived later that night. another big error on our part was forgetting to bring allllll the important information mrs. hyman had printed out for us -- which would have been extremely helpful! we flew to madrid separate from mr. and mrs. hyman and were to meet up with them when we arrive to all together catch our flight to bilbao. however, when we arrived in madrid michael and i had NO idea what flight we were supposed to be catching to bilbao (since all the information was on the printed packet we didnt have!). we didnt know what airline, what flight number, what time, NOTHING! plus, as we said michaels bag didnt make it, and we didn´´t know what hotel in bilbao it needed to be sent (also in the very important missing packet)!
we wandered around like the stupid americans we were from airline to airline trying to explain in spanish that we new nothing at all, but we had some flight, on some airline, sometime that day going to bilbao. at this point we feel like theres also a very good chance that we´ve missed whatever flight we were supposed to be on. oh, and we couldnt call their cell phone because our phone card works in EVERY single country we are visiting EXCEPT spain - this is why you haven´´t heard from us mom! : ) รง
anyways, we finally figured out which airline and that we still had an hour or so till departure and were waiting in line to check in when we randomly found stacy and the hymans! very lucky and very exciting! we were finally off to bilbao!
we arrived in bilbao on the 7th and spent our first 3 days touring the city and near by areas.
in bilbao we first headed to see the guggenheim bilbao (residing in the famous frank gehry structure). we loved the museum, very modern art and a free listening guide to tell us all about the pieces. most of the art on exhibit was by Anselm Kiefer, a German artist who inserts a lot of historical, natural and astronomical meaning in to his pieces.
as day trips we went to the town of haro to visit a winery (named Muga) and took a tour (picture on left) - although it was in spanish so we only understood about 5% of it! - which concluded with wine tasti
ng. and we went to the town of guernica to see some 300 year old tree (picture on right) that is somehow significant to their city... something about a great battle? who knows? but a very cute town none the less. and we spent a half day in san sebastian -- a nice town on the bay of biscay with very pretty beaches, tons of fishing boats, and lots of tourists.
we concluded our stay in bilbao on the last night with a trip up a little
train thingy to a point high atop the city with a great view of the town all light up. we left the next morning for barcelona where we are having fun letting stacy do all the planning since she has been living here the last 4 months. so far, a lot of fun!
so we are safely in spain and having a great time!
our trip over was a long one and not completely free of glitches, but nothing too impeding. we were very lucky to make our extremely tight 50 minute connection in london (we flew tampa to london; london to madrid; madrid to bilbao) but michaels bag was not so lucky. however, it arrived just a day late to our bilbao hotel. stacys bag was also late coming from madrid to bilbao, but it arrived later that night. another big error on our part was forgetting to bring allllll the important information mrs. hyman had printed out for us -- which would have been extremely helpful! we flew to madrid separate from mr. and mrs. hyman and were to meet up with them when we arrive to all together catch our flight to bilbao. however, when we arrived in madrid michael and i had NO idea what flight we were supposed to be catching to bilbao (since all the information was on the printed packet we didnt have!). we didnt know what airline, what flight number, what time, NOTHING! plus, as we said michaels bag didnt make it, and we didn´´t know what hotel in bilbao it needed to be sent (also in the very important missing packet)!
we wandered around like the stupid americans we were from airline to airline trying to explain in spanish that we new nothing at all, but we had some flight, on some airline, sometime that day going to bilbao. at this point we feel like theres also a very good chance that we´ve missed whatever flight we were supposed to be on. oh, and we couldnt call their cell phone because our phone card works in EVERY single country we are visiting EXCEPT spain - this is why you haven´´t heard from us mom! : ) รง
anyways, we finally figured out which airline and that we still had an hour or so till departure and were waiting in line to check in when we randomly found stacy and the hymans! very lucky and very exciting! we were finally off to bilbao!
we arrived in bilbao on the 7th and spent our first 3 days touring the city and near by areas.
in bilbao we first headed to see the guggenheim bilbao (residing in the famous frank gehry structure). we loved the museum, very modern art and a free listening guide to tell us all about the pieces. most of the art on exhibit was by Anselm Kiefer, a German artist who inserts a lot of historical, natural and astronomical meaning in to his pieces.
as day trips we went to the town of haro to visit a winery (named Muga) and took a tour (picture on left) - although it was in spanish so we only understood about 5% of it! - which concluded with wine tasti
ng. and we went to the town of guernica to see some 300 year old tree (picture on right) that is somehow significant to their city... something about a great battle? who knows? but a very cute town none the less. and we spent a half day in san sebastian -- a nice town on the bay of biscay with very pretty beaches, tons of fishing boats, and lots of tourists. we concluded our stay in bilbao on the last night with a trip up a little
train thingy to a point high atop the city with a great view of the town all light up. we left the next morning for barcelona where we are having fun letting stacy do all the planning since she has been living here the last 4 months. so far, a lot of fun!
Posts
