Getxo and goooooolll

I started today with a visit to the Basque Museum. It’s a beautiful building, but there’s not a lot there. The one item that caught my attention was a voting box. Apparently the Basques ran their fishing as collectives from mediaeval times and they voted on whether to put to sea.

The second visit was to the markets by the river. These were distinctly local in comparison with Barcelona – as evidenced by the numerous body parts on sale. Pigs ears anyone?

The main game today, though, was riding down the river to Getxo. The river in Bilbao is bordered with walking and cycling paths, and, as is the way of rivers, is basically flat.

So I had a lovely ride, apart from a spot where building works forced me on to the road. It’s not the most picturesque river – being quite industrial – but it was still a great ride.

In Getxo I checked out the beach and wondered at the deeply suntanned people. Then I had lunch in a restaurant looking on to the transporter bridge that makes Getxo famous. The menu del dia lunch was large enough that I didn’t feel that the ride there and back entirely worked it off.

I spent this evening in a bar watching Spain v Austria with the locals. I swear the Spanish commentators can drag out the word gol for over a minute.