19th June - Bilbao

Nicki reporting her last blog!

I have to start with last night. After we posted the blog and had showers and baths, we headed off to the restaurant for dinner. Before we went in we consulted our guru behind reception (Anne) about where we should eat and she recommended we try a small restaurant around the corner because as it was Sunday the hotel restaurant would have a limited menu. So we went for a short walk to the place which seemed nice but lacked a little in atmosphere, so (glad of the walk) we returned to the hotel after all. We had a lovely meal as it turned out, we both had wild boar and enjoyed the bread and olive oil and sparkling water. I had a glass of red wine, which, on trying a sip, David then ordered a bottle of. Yes, I was sitting opposite the non-drinking vegetarian who was eating wild boar and drinking red wine!! We then finished off with delightful puddings and following this instructed our waitress on what a cheese board was, and she duly asked the chef who created one for us! Overall it was a lovely meal and was the first proper meal we had had for weeks. We retired to our clean sheeted beds and slept like logs.

I awoke this morning to David saying 'what time does breakfast finish because its ten to ten!'. So I legged it out of bed to catch breakfast before it finished, which again was lovely and huge but a bit expensive, so I think I will have to go without tomorrow! We lazed around most of the morning watching TV and using the internet before heading out for a bit of sightseeing. We navigated our way to the Guggenheim Museum to find it was shut on Mondays. Great!!! Typical! Oh well, we thought, we will go to another museum. No, they are all shut on Mondays except the bullfighting museum which neither of us wanted to see anyway! Why would everything be shut on Monday?! So we headed to the centre of town and found an H&M, so we went in and I advised David on some clothes which he bought.

We started to get bored of all the Spanish boutiques after a while so we headed back to the hotel and had lunch in their cafeteria. This was after David sprinted up to the room to change into his new clothes! Our afternoon consisted of lazing around in our lovely hotel room, watching TV, using the free internet and having baths and showers again. We are now waiting for the restaurant to open so we can repeat last nights lovely dinner! It is possibly one of the best birthday/Christmas presents I have ever had!