Trips

OAT: Northern Spain and Portugal - Pilgrimage into the Past

October 17 - November 1, 2016

        The second of our fall trips, to Northern Spain and Portugal, included visiting the spectacular Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain and visiting and walking along several of the pilgrimage routes found in those countries: Camino de Santiago and the Via Francigena. The Basque Country of northern Spain is very unlike southern Spain, in both culture and landscape. The food and wine throughout the trip were exceptional. Food and wine tasting experiences were included as well as several cooking classes where the preparation of local dishes was experienced.

Trip Itinerary

Trip Map
10/16-17	Fly from Rome to Bilbao, Spain; Guggenheim (exterior); Zubizuri Bridge
10/18	Bilbao: Guggenheim (interior); City tour: Old Town; Vizcaya Bridge; Portugalete
10/19	Bilbao: Guernica; Ados Basarte Winery
10/20	Pamplona: San Sebastian; Pamplona Cathedral Museum
10/21	Pamplona: City Tour; Roncesvalles: Hiking on the Camino de Santiago
10/22	Leon: Burgos Cathedral; Castrojeriz; Leon Cathedral (exterior)
10/23	Leon: Leon Cathedral (interior); Casa de Botines; Basilica of San Isidoro; Astorga
10/24	Santiago de Compostela: Las Medulas; Lugo
10/25	Santiago de Compostela: City Tour; Cathedral; Market de Abastos
10/26	Santiago de Compostela: Cambados; Gil Armada Winery
10/27	Pinhao, Portugal: Orense, Spain; Chaves, Portugal; Pinhao Train Station
10/28	Pinhao: Douro Valley; Quinta Da Pacheca Winery and Cooking Class
10/29	Porto: Boating on the Douro River; Palacio da Bolsa
10/30	Porto: Guimaraes: Castle of Guimaraes; Braga; Bom Jesus do Monte
10/31	Porto: City Scenes; Dom Luis I Bridge
11/1	Porto - Frankfort - Denver - Estes Park

OAT: Northern Spain and Portugal - Pilgrimage into the Past (without the extension or train ride)

Lauburu or Basque cross - the traditional Basque swastika

Sun., 10/16/16 – Rome to Bilbao, Spain – or NOT!
        Last night was a full moon and bad things started happening with last night’s dinner at La Balastra.  We had finished eating, had paid our bill and when we got up to leave, a woman stood up and fainted to the floor blocking our aisle.  Her young son began crying, a woman from another table went to take care of him, the prostrate woman started vomiting with two men trying to support her.  We managed to tiptoe around the scene and left.
        We had a 6:15 AM car hired by OAT to take us to the Rome Airport.  The driver dropped us at the terminal at 7:20.  The line to check-in at “Desk 143” must have had 1,000 people in a queue that went out of the Disney zigzag, 100 yards down the entrance hall and doubled back 50 yards, about 4 people wide.  Our plane was to leave at 9:45.  At 9:10 they called us out of line to two desks each with one computer and three staff taking at least 20 minutes per person to print a boarding pass.  With 8 of us left in the queue, 4 got passes, 2 butted into a different queue and only Marge and I were told, “the flight is closed.”  They would not give us boarding passes – no apologies – just the excuse of problems with a new computer system which they had just installed on Oct. 14.   The staff was learning the system at our expense.  After another 3+ hours in line, we were rerouted to Paris where we stayed over night in a bare bones hotel (courtesy of Air France), and ate a so-so buffet dinner.  

Mon., 10/17/16 – Paris to Bilbao, Spain
        Up at 5:30, caught our 8:35 AM flight, and arrived in Bilbao around 11.  Our suitcases were just about the first on the conveyor belt – Relief!
        Our Tour Director, Judith, arrived by taxi to meet us and take us to our hotel.  We checked in and then went out to find something for lunch.  Basque country is known for their tapas, called pintxos (pronounced - pinchos) in northern Spain, and we sat in a small shop and sampled one, a sandwich of sorts, with “long” coffee Americano.
        The clouds parted so we went for a stroll and to go photograph the famous Guggenheim Museum while the sun was out.  It is a fascinating building that we will get to go into tomorrow.

Interesting combination of goods	Cute sign
Street scene	Iberdrola building - Iberdrola Electric Corp.
Red Arch bridge and Guggenheim Tower	Fall colors across the river from the Guggenheim
Guggenheim Museum
Guggenheim Museum	Guggenheim Museum
Guggenheim Museum	Guggenheim Museum
Guggenheim Museum	Guggenheim Museum
There are several very interesting sculptures outside the museum: Anish Kapoor's Tall Tree and the Eye; Jeff Koons' Tulips and Puppy; and Louise Bourgeois' Maman	Guggenheim Museum Kapoor - Tall Tree and the Eye and Koons - Tulips
Guggenheim Museum Kapoor - Tall Tree and the Eye	Guggenheim Museum Kapoor - Tall Tree and the Eye
Guggenheim Museum Koons - Tulips	Red Arch bridge
Guggenheim Museum Maman, the spider by Louise Bourgeois
Guggenheim Museum Maman, the spider	The Puppy and the Iberdrola building
The Puppy	Firefighters
We strolled back along the river, the Nervion River or Rio de Bilbao, and looked at the Guggenheim Tower, the Red Arch Bridge, and the Zubizuri Bridge, a tied-arch footbridge.  Marge took lots more pictures of the art nouveau apartment buildings with wrought iron balconies and the old San Vicente Church.
Guggenheim Museum Towers Gate of the Honourable	Zubizuri Bridge
Zubizuri Bridge	Commuter train from the Zubizuri Bridge
Street scene	San Vicente church

      At 6 PM we had our new OAT group Welcome Drink and orientation meeting.  We ate pintxos, with Judith, for dinner.  We like the Basque “tortillas.”  They are potato and egg and maybe cheese or onion fried in a round flat shape and cut like a pizza.  They can be plain or with ham and/or cheese or whatever on top. 

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