Jerome and I are back in Spain, back in Bilbao, in fact, almost exactly a year from our last visit. We are nestled into the very comfortable Meliá Bilbao, a large modern hotel with all the amenities and a view over a city park, where an amazingly energetic terrier takes her early morning race-track exercise every day, leaping over tall hedges and chasing anything that can run or be thrown, friends apparently with every other person or dog she meets. We had a delightfully smooth trip over last Thursday, including being prechecked through TSA at the airport, flawless connections, friendly personnel. A $2 bus ride from the Bilbao airport dropped us six blocks from the hotel. After check-in, we reoriented ourselves to the city with a long walk, and then enjoyed dinner at Serantes III, a sister restaurant of Serantes II, which we discovered last trip. Not sure what time zone our stomachs were in, we had a simple supper of green salad and grilled local fish.
Along the way, we had noticed Las Cepas, a tiny modern restaurant that looked very inviting and to which we returned mid-afternoon for the main meal of the day: fresh gazpacho (pureed,like salmorejo, but without the bread), risotto with vegetables, grilled fresh merluza (hake), strawberry mousse, white Rueda wine (verdejo).
After a late-afternoon siesta, we met up with our good friend, Libby Dietrich, from Torrey and Sausalito, who has just finished a twelve-day pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago. We celebrated with a traditional tapas crawl, first back to Las Cepas, then to Panko (www.pankobilbao.com), then back to our hotel via Licenciado Poza, a hot tapas street jammed with Friday night revelers. We were looking for El Mugi, a highly rated tapas bar, but the crowds were so dense that we could barely move, much less find a specific address.
That was Friday, our first full day. Yesterday the three of us spent the morning at the Guggenheim, taking in a wonderfully comprehensive Georges Braque exhibit, plus the permanent Richard Serra installation, and the spectacle of a diving competition off the very high bridge that crosses the river outside the museum. Then we walked up to the Ahondiga, an ancient grain warehouse now housing small shops, a public library, and a swimming pool in a very stylish remodel. We found our Serantes II from last year, arriving just as a the skies opened in a major rainstorm, and enjoyed another delicious, long lunch. We walked back to our hotels against a tide of fans going to the Athletic Bilbao/Granada soccer game at the stadium four blocks away. Red and white striped shirts everywhere. (Unfortunately, Bilbao lost.)
Another rest, then we took the above-ground city tram back around the loop of the river to the old town, just for the fun of it. Another fairly long walk along the far side of the river took us to the bottom of an old funicular that climbs the steep hill into residential Bilbao, from which there was a glorious view of the whole inverted U of the city. Once again river-side, we found some rather nondescript tapas just because we were hungry, but then on our way down Licenciado Poza once again, we were rewarded by finding El Mugi, which not only offered wine but also vermouth, and tapas of duck liver with fresh apple, grilled shrimp encrusted in peanuts, and fresh grilled cod, all served on small slices of fresh baguette.
