Thursday 28 October, Santander and the ferry, Pont Aven.

We drove in to the ferry terminal and parked up. Once there you can exit the parking area via a pedestrian gate to go into the city. Sraddhabha went on a last shopping mission first and then we both went out for lunch and a walk. We heard via text that the incoming ferry was delayed, so we had longer than expected. After a pizza and salad we walked along the harbour front as far as the maritime museum, then returned via a visit to Centro Botin, an art gallery  right on the harbour front. 

There was only one exhibition on, the other hall being prepared for a new exhibition. Photos of the exhibition were not permitted, however it was fascinating. The artist THOMAS DEMAND: MUNDO DE PAPEL constructs paper models of moments of significance in recent history, then photographs them, finally destroying the paper model. The photos are massive colour prints hung in or on wooden rooms suspended from the ceiling. Amazing stuff. An example - the room Edward Snowden occupied at Moscow Airport for the first 12 months of his exile in Russia. Another - the back yard of the house in Boston occupied by the Boston Marathon bomber Tamarlan Tsarnaev, at the moment his wife left the apartment. Another - the desk from which Trump gave a press conference which had large piles of buff folders on it. The files were never referred to by him and the suggestion is that they contained blank pages. He was reported to never read briefings from staff.

The ferry eventually arrived about 3 hours late. We were among the first to board, and headed off to our cabin. The forecast had worsened whilst we were out our walk, and the ship started to roll pretty much straight out of Santander. We retired to bed after getting something to eat, and had a very disturbed night crossing the Bay of Biscay. We had a pretty uncomfortable night. The forecast had described the sea state as rough (wave height 2 - 4m) to very rough (wave height 4 - 6m) so the boat rolled and banged and creaked its way north.

Wednesday 27 Oct 2021 Santander area, Playa de Liencres

 90 minute drive from Bilbao along the coast busy highway but fabulous scenery - just past Santander to Playa de Liencres a surfers beach for the afternoon and one night car park stop . A walk along the clifftop path and Andy had a last dip in the surf . We board the Pont Aven ferry tomorrow afternoon sailing at 4.30pm, it promises to be rolling , so not looking forward to that 

Tuesday 26 October Bilbao Guggenheim. Big Day out

Camped at the only motorhome camping spot in Bilbao, Altamira, for two nights, twenty four hours each night from when u book in. The MH park is high on the hills overlooking Bilbao spread out  in the valley below, there is EHU, toilets, waste and water services and a shower if you wanted to walk 15 mins  down  a very steep hill and back up again, an arrangement with a local hostel. Cows grazed in the park next door to us.

We caught

the 58 Bilbobus just down the road from the  campsite entrance (1.35 pp) and changed to a tram at Bastura ( tren) , you pay for your ticket in a machine at the tram stop with a card  and get it stamped before you board.This took us to the Guggenheim. Everyone is very mask conscious  in public places both in and outside.

The Guggenheim had a permanent exhibition of iron landscapes  by Richard Serra on the ground floor and on the first floor terrace  and  2 temporary 

exhibitions on, one of Alice Neel painter of the dispossessed and disenfranchised , honest about women's bodies at a time this was frowned on TV from NY, she paints with great empathy compassion and really gets the points across, we are all human

The second exhibition was women in abstraction and it was fabulous, over 600 exhibits of women's work and stories of how hard they had to struggle to be exhibited at all (Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock's wife was an established artist when she met Pollock and his greatest supporter;  a male  critic on seeing her work for the first time, said I would never have known this was a woman artist). I was very inspired by the photographers Florence Henri and Barbara Karsten. Interesting to see Yoko Ono exhibited , painted as part of a public performance, Japanese    characters in black in the middle of a white board, Hichiko Happo (2014)  her performance art. 

The top tier is another 

permanent exhibition of which Kilmer  and his messages that we are all connected in the cosmos are my favourite 

The pintxos at the bar were tasty.

We decided to go back to the motorhome as we were too tired to go the museo  de

  bellas artes 

Monday 25 October on the road from Salamanca, calling in at Burgos and Haro to Bilbao

Long drive up the middle of Spain , we hoped to visit Burgos but there wasn't time from the camping stop 3 Kms out of the centre so we moved on to Haro rioja winery country where Andy tasted some wine at a big posh Bodega and opted to get his plonk from the nearby Lidl instead . We arrived in Bilbao as sun was setting 
 

Sunday 24 October - Salamanca

Sunday buses in Salamanca were infrequent, so we walked both ways, along a path and paved paseo by the river Tormes, covering about 10 miles

Salamanca centre is architecturally beautiful with buildings of a honey coloured stone.

We visited the cathedral (massive, OTT and ostentatiously wealthy ) the museum of Art Nouveau and Art Deco,( lalique , miniatures ,  Toulouse Lautrec exhibition, fantastic stained glass roof   (no photographs allowed  sadly) but a big highlight  and had a coffee in  the main square. The cathedral , University and old quarter are very scrunched up together so taking external photos was tricky .The honey coloured stone is beautiful . I  salivated at the sight of empanadas in the bakers shop window.Even the fruit and veg market hall had stained glass windows . An interesting city to explore, with a pedestrianised  river route . Beautiful walk home along the river  as the sun was setting .

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Here's a picture of the river on our way home.