Last night and day in Bilbao










 After our fabulous day with Irene the tour operator, we rested at the hotel, packed for tomorrow and worked on the blog. Around 8:30 pm we headed out for a nearby restaurant that Irene had recommended. Nick has become quite good at navigating so we found it weird that we couldn’t find the street side tables shown at their website. We eventually found it but a sign in Spanish told us what we already surmised, it was closed. However, we were able to find our way to the sister restaurant, about 15 minutes away. Irene had predicted we would not need reservations but the only open tables were out on the street. No worries, that was fine with us. They specialize in seafood so we both ordered Hake. Mine was Hake with clams in green sauce and Nick’s was crab stuffed Hake which the waiter assured him he would love. We shared a bottle of Txakoli wine. My Hake was a large filet with a few shrimp in a light herbal sauce.  Nick’s was a deep fried spiny crab shell filled with crab in a cream sauce. No Hake in sight. It was a bit strange and very rich. We ordered 2 traditional deserts and were given complimentary after-dinner drinks that reminded us of Bailey’s. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Singular Bar that Jon had recommended. Nick had an amber cervesa and I had a glass of Txakoli. We returned to the hotel and easily fell asleep  

Tuesday morning Nick went for coffee and we finished packing. Our plane is not until 4 pm so we asked for a late checkout. Alas they wanted 22 Euro for the extra hour and a half so we passed. We headed out and rode a funicular to the top of a scenic hill. We took some photos and rode back down. We walked the 25 minutes to the Market where we saw them selling fresh fish, meats (especially jamon), olives, cheeses and produce. We booked back to the hotel and checked out at 12 noon on the dot. We stowed our luggage and returned to the Guggenheim for lunch. After a lovely pintxos lunch, we wandered a bit and happened upon the Cokooncafe where we had another piece of their delicious frosted banana bread. This time the waiter explained that the frosting was crème fraiche with lemon and lime zest. It was again completely delicious.  We returned to the hotel, grabbed our stuff and cabbed to the Bilbao airport in plenty of time for our flight. We both agreed that Bilbao was the perfect addition to our Irish wedding trip.


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