The Guggenheim!

We went to bed last night with no definitive plans for today other than hitting the beach. The girls had so much fun yesterday that they wanted to spend the entire day there today. At first I was on board, but as I thought about it a little more I felt disappointed that we were so close to Bilbao that it would be a shame not to at least look at the Guggenheim Museum. I´ve seen countless pictures of it and I needed to check it out for myself. Again, no pictures today or I´d let you see the Guggenheim too... you´ll just have to take my word for it that it´s pretty cool.

Admittedly I was a teensy bit underwhelmed when I first saw it, but I think it was the way we approached it from the back. It´s definitely a cool building and I think if we could´ve gotten up on the hills around it to look at it from up high it would´ve been really interesting. We didn´t go in (the line up was long and we really just wanted to look at the outside) but we spent an enjoyable few hours in the area around the museum. They had (in my opinion) one of the coolest playgrounds I´ve ever seen right outside of it and next to it was a delightful little cafe. We had a snack and then the kids climbed and played for close to an hour. The playground itself was so funky looking and really fit into the theme of the museum - and I think the girls were excited to get to play like that because the playgrounds here have been few and far between.

To backtrack a little we actually rented a car for the day to get to Bilbao. We found out it would be 1 hour 15 minutes by bus, 3 hours by train (!!), or just under an hour by car. We got the car not only to save some time but it also gave us some freedom - who knows where the bus drops you off? And what if you want to leave but need to wait for the bus? The car was great and it allowed us to really see the scenery between the cities as well as stop at a gas station that had the cleanest and nicest washrooms I have ever seen. It definitely made up for the disgusting train station one the other day!

We returned the car and hit the beach. It worked out so perfectly because the weather today was overcast and a tad drizzly so an entire beach day wouldn´t have worked so well anyway. By the time we went around 4:30 the sun was out and we had perfect weather for the hour and a half that we were there. The tide was high and the waves were great, so we wave jumped and swam, then headed back to the apartment to wash off all the salt. We have mostly packed up - we need to leave early tomorrow morning for our train to Madrid. Last stop of the trip! We have had such a great time in each of the places so far and we´re looking forward to seeing what still lies ahead.

So goodbye from San Sebastian and Basque country... on to Madrid!
PS - I am not really proof reading here in the internet cafe so please forgive any mistakes!!