The Tasty Pilgrim

Walking the Camino de Santiago I have always felt very safe. Then it happened in Leon. I walked a small street in the pedestrian area and saw a man coming right up to me. Instantly I sensed there was something wrong and I braced myself. And yes he shouldered right into me but without any success. This trick is known as dusting. You get somebody unbalanced sothat he falls on the pavement. Then you help him to his feet and dust his jacket excusing yourself profusely. In the meantime you take away his wallet and it is immediately passed on to an accomplice, who walks away with it. I turned around and shook my sticks at him. He was gone instantly. So sorry that there was no Guardia Civil around at that moment. Bilbao is a beautiful old city on the Gulf of Biscayne in Northern Spain. Got up in the morning and after a shower and a shave found a nice bar just around the corner. Here the lifestyle as to food is remarkably different. People enter the bar and have a coffee and chose from a large variety of pinchos, small rolls of fresh bread with delicious fillings. Obviously I was in the right bar, as many young ladies entered and chose a pincho to munch walking along. Had a fresh orange juice and two cafee con leche and three pinchos. If I would live here, it would be bad for my figure as I would quickly grow fat.

The river Rio de Bilbao runs through the city and left and right there are wide pedestrian walks. The main attraction of the city is the Gugenheim Museum of modern Art. Because of this museum the harbour prospers much as nearly all cruise liners dock here for a few days. I took my time to walk along the river to the museum. The river is lined with beautiful old buildings that have been renovated over the past decade. Apart from walking across the Pyrenees mountains, this was surely one of the nicest walks I had. At last I came to the museum. The building is an unbelieveable structure of steel and light marble. The Amercian architect who desinged it, must have had too many Jack Daniels when he drew it on a napkin and worked it out later. I listened to the telephone that you get to guide you through the building. When he is inspired he just draws lines and his pen never leaves the paper, as that would block the flow of inspiration. A wonderful story for the tourists who believe it, but as I know about building, I smiled. All the same, the building is weird but fascinating. Had a walk round in all the galeries on the three floors. The architect created a so called fish room. Of course I had a look, but no fish in sight and also no objects looking like it. The space was filled with wooden structured that looked more like an upturned boat. On the other two floors there were other artists with works on display.  Nothing really that impressed me except for an American Robert Rauschenberg. The video with all kinds of interviews about his life was capturing. He explains how he came to create his own style of modern art. His " art" I thought was a nice gimmick, but his interviews were great. Had salade mixta at the museum cafeteria and walked out.

Here is the piece de resistance. A colourful dog as huge as a building, covered with flowering plants. That was a masterpiece by itself. The dog was a Yorkshire Terrier overlooking the city. It is the only picture that I took here. Once I asked a pilgrim for his camera to take a picture in front of the refugio Gaucelmo. This pilgrim told me that he did not bring a camera to take pictures. You see he explained nobody wants to see my pictures. They are bored by stories of the Camino. Exactly, I thought, you are so right. Nobody is interested in your adventure later on when you get home. So from that moment on I hardly take pictures any more. But this picture of the colourful dog I am going to use for next season´s invitations. After having visited the museum I walked the town some more and found the address of the restaurant I would go to for my dinner. I found it in the lonely planet guidebook. Also found the Tourist Office and wanted to buy a tourist guide book on Bilbao. Surprisingly enough there is NO guide book ! The person designing and creating that book would get rich indeed ! Think of all the passenger of the cruise liners. Every boat has at least 2000 passengers on board. I would create such a book within one week in English and German and French and Dutch and Swedish. It would sell like hot cakes. You see Spanish people do not speak any other language but their own. Moreover here in Bilbao languages are more complicated ! We are in a province where people speak and write Basque and are very proud of it. So a Bilbao inhabitant has already the task to study two languages Basque and Catalan (Spanish). At the tourist office I received a small brochure on Bilbao and the text is first in Basque, followed by Catalan. The little section in English has some pathetic mistakes. So much room for improvement here and to create booklet of excellence would not be so difficult. Upon my return I might give it a go. After all there is a book on Santiago de Compostella and even on the Parador Reyes Cattolico next to the Cathredral of Santiago. I walked back along the river to the hostal and found a friendly internet shop. Only the computers are slow, you see you pay buy the minute......... In the evening I went to find the restaurant La Baraca specialising in paëlla. Had a fish soup for a first course. Amazing how every region creates the same meal but succeeds in something totally different. Here the fish soup was a thick brownish tomatoe (?) substance with lots of prawns in it. So far I had only tasted clear fish soups. The paella I ordered was a mix with chicken and rabbit and vegetables and fish. It was served on a glass plate and it looked smashing ! Yes, I took a photo ! I had some red Rioja wine with the meal. First time I had a sub standard wine to go with the meal. It tasted rough and sour, so I drank the bottle of water instead.

Slept very well and got up this morning at nine. I am not in a hurry as my plane will leave at the end of the afternoon. Breakfast was again at the same bar. I walked the old town some more to find the underground station and I succeeded. Then my day became and excellent day ! I passed a shop with hats and so on. The shopkeeper is very proud of his work and he even makes his own creations. For many years I have been looking for a green Spanish traditional sombrero.  So I asked if he could order one in the colour green. You know, I made a friend there ! These sombreros are made in the town of Granada. Every foreigner believes that the model is all the same but that is wrong. Every town has a different model. For instance the sketch on the bottle of a Tio Pepe sherry from Jerez de la Frontera shows a man with a black Spanish hat. But in Jerez the hat is a bit higher. My model would be a Cordoba hat ! He was so pleased to explain at length how they are made and from what material. The cheap version of is made of wool and the better one is made of rabbit fur. The best quality is made of the fur of a hare. This material makes the sombrero unimpregnable for rain or water. Of course I went for that material and the price difference is just 5 Euro. He is going to order the sombrero, modella de Cordoba, en color verte, taille 60 ! I gave him my e-mail address and he will send me a mail to inform me. He is sure that they will accept the order, as in the old days the sombrero in green was popular among the hunting fraternity.  What a nice and welcoming guy. Of course I gave him my muchas grazia and the muy sympathico ! His smile was so wide as I left the shop.

This afternoon I intend to visit the church of Santiago and another museum. Not far from my hostal there is a restaurant that serves a menu del dia for 12 Euro. I think I will have a meal there at two this afternoon and then go to the airport. After all it would be nice to end my days in Spain the same way as I started them.