August

The first week was spent preparing the house for our home exchange.  Beccy spent some time with friends and on Thursday 5th we travelled on the train to Gatwick to meet Antoine.  On the was back we stopped for lunch at Cafe Rouge near London Bridge Station.

On Saturday Beccy had a friendly football match at Aylesford, where they were opening the new club pavillion.  She, Antoine and I caught the bus to Aylesford and, luckily, the match finished just in time for the 12.23 bus back (otherwise we would have had to wait until 1.53pm - Aylesford has an infrequent bus service).  Her team won the match 11-0 but it was a reasonably good practice game before the start of the new season.

Earlier in the day Brian had driven to Norfolk to pick up Ben and other scouts at the end of Norjam.  Ben arrived home tired and with plenty of stuff to unpack.  As we were travelling that day, Mum had agreed to let him leave his stuff at her house, I took him round and he agreed to go with her to look after Natalie's dogs for the night (he hadn't organised anywhere to stay for the night).  I didn't like only seeing him for a short time and then leaving him there but it was what we had planned.

We finished cleaning the house and left at 5.30pm for Dan and Helen's.  Brian had sorted out the car (service, tyres, etc).   After a cup of tea and a play with Alexander, Brian and I drove to Stansted Airport to meet the Spanish family who we have exchanged with, Carolina, Kepa, Jon, Itxaso and Gaitko.   They took the car and left for Rochester.  We phoned for Helen to come and pick us up to take us back to their house where we stayed overnight.

In the morning we went over to the park to let Alexander have a play on the swings, slides, and other equipment then, after lunch, Dan drove us Brian, Beccy, Antoine and me back to the airport where we caught our flight to Santander (after standing in the wrong queue and nearly missing the check in time).  We found their car at the airport and drove to the apartment in Urduliz.  We found the apartment OK but struggled to find the parking space in the garage (it was in the house instructions but we didn't manage to digest them properly).  Our exchange family didn't fare quite so well and the car wouldn't start after they had stopped for a meal in Rochester.  They phoned us and we started thinking about how to sort it out so that it didn't happen again.

Carolina had left us some pizzas and wine in the fridge, which was just as well as there were no shops open when we arrived.  We went for a quick walk around the village and found a shop that sold ice creams, cakes and bread.  With what we found in the fridge and what we bought we had a nice meal and didn't go to bed hungry.  After dinner we had a game of cluedo and went to bed. The apartment was right next to the Metro station and the trains were very regular but they weren't too intrusive.

On our first morning we drove to Plentzia to have a look around.  After a long walk around the town and an ice cream, Beccy and Antoine decided that they wanted to swim in the bay so we sat on the beach while they swam.  The sand, where the sea was washing over it, had many bubbles erupting on the surface.  These were persistent but it wasn't obvious what the gas was.

We managed to find a small supermarket in Sopelana and bought dinner and some supplies.  After dinner we went out for a walk around Urduliz.  Beccy and Antoine had found some skateboards and wanted to try them out.  They didn't find a skateboard park but managed to board on a few slopes before we headed back (it was late and they were making quite a lot of noise with the boards). The area was full of apartments (where people live, not holiday apartments).  Most people had windows open as the weather was warm, so the boards were disturbing them.

  

On Tuesday we drove to a few beaches to see what they were like.  We didn't find any that looked any more interesting than the one we found at Plentzia.  We walked towards the first beach from the top of the cliffs but got to a point where the path ran out.  Coincidentally, this was the first point from which you could clearly see that this was a nudist beach.  We didn't really want to go any further and the path seemed to indicate that others didn't either.


We found another cliff top where we sat and had lunch while watching a P&O ferry sail out, presumably from Bilbao.  After this we drove to Plentzia, found the car park for which we had a pass, and headed for the beach.  Beccy and Antoine took body boards into the sea and used them to swim out to the buoys they hadn't reached yesterday because the water was too cold (the water on the top was warmer than the tidal water coming in from the Atlantic).  I had a quick swim and found the same cold water, Brian paddled to clean off his flip-flops and then we left the beach and headed for the skate park (next to the beach and on top of the car park).   Antoine had a nasty fall and hurt both his elbows, luckily he didn't break any bones and he recovered quite quickly.

  

We returned to the apartment and had a short rest before going out for a walk to try to get to a cross we could see on a nearby hill.   The views from the hill were worth seeing and there were plenty of paths to walk and rocks to climb.  Many people were climbing the rocks, it looked like a climbing school.

We reached the top and managed to get just about to the cross.  On the way down we found a spot where there were butterflies flitting around.  By standing in the sunlight and staying very still you could get them to land on you.   Beccy and I managed to get a red admiral butterfly to land on us, although Beccy couldn't get it to stay long enough for a picture.

  

After the walk we went to the basketball court for a short game.  Beccy and Antoine beat Brian and I by 10 points to 6.  Finally, back home for omelette and pasta.

Wednesday was another nice day and so we headed again for the beach.  This time we went to find Bakio where there were more waves for the children to bodyboard on.

We drove to Bakio and found a car park, then we walked along the beach before finding a restaurant where we had lunch.  We ordered menu del dia but had difficulty finding something that Beccy would eat for starters.  One dish was 'patatas' with some other stuff that we didn't understand but she was interested in the potatoes and so we ordered it for her.  Antoine had the same dish.  When it turned up the potatoes were in a squid gravy.  To her credit she did at least try it, but didn't eat it.  Antoine managed to eat his and both were fine with the ham and chips they had for their main course.  After dessert (creme caramel), we went back to the car and got out our stuff for the beach.

The children spent a long time riding the waves and both ended up with a rash on their stomachs from the bodyboards.  Brian and I lay on the beach and tried to keep out of the sun as far as possible

After the beach Brian suggested that we walk to a little island that was connected to the mainland only by a narrow path.  It was a long walk down to the path and then a long walk up to the church at the top of the island with over 200 steps to climb.

We used the most disgusting toilets I have had to use in a long time on the way up (with no water or toilet paper) and then, when we got to the top there was nothing there (seeing the buildings we had hoped that there would be a cafe or at least a small shop but there was nothing, only a further toilet that smelt worse than the first ones.

After a short rest we walked back down.  Brian didn't want to go back on the narrow path and walked back along a road that had joined it.  The children and I went back the way we had come and stopped for a drink in a bar at the end of the journey.  We waited what seemed like ages then walked back towards where the car had been parked (Brian was supposed to be meeting us at the bar).  He had just got back to the car, the road had been a long detour.


We drove back through a town called Mungia which had a hypermarket.  This gave us the chance to stock up on supplies for packed lunches and dinners.  Following this we had another very late dinner and went to bed after midnight again.

At Bakio we had walked back to the car park and passed this car.  Ben has told us we would love a Ferrari, we wondered if he would like this one!

On Thursday we got the metro into Bilbao.  Our first stop was Arrieta where we walked across the Biscay Bridge.  This has a gondola which transports people and cars across the river at a point where many tall ships need to pass through and so a conventional bridge is not practical.




We paid for the walk across the top of the bridge, went up in the lift to the top and walked across so that we could visit the market stalls on the other side. We had good views of the river and some of the town (although the bridge is quite a way from the centre of Bilbao).

 

While on top of the bridge we spotted a large dinosaur in a park on a small peninsular then, when we were at the market stalls we saw that there were quite a few more dinosaur statues.  We decided to have a look and to have our lunch there.  We crossed back over the river in the gondola which was just as exciting as the walk and much cheaper.

On arriving at the peninsular we found a set of closed gates and a hut where you could pay to go into what was essentially a landscaped and planted area with statues of dinosaurs in amongst the trees.  The cost was €3 each and so we decided against it.  We sat outside an had our lunch instead, watching a young boy in the water crying for his mum who had swum out into the wider river.  He was standing on the bottom and trying to swim every now and then but was obviously afraid to swim and just kept crying out instead. Occasionally he ducked under the water and eventually a lady on the beach and the SOS staff ran out to rescue him, only to be told that he didn't need rescuing, he just wanted his mum!

Our next stop was the Guggenheim museum.  We took the Metro to Moyua station and walked to the museum.  The building was really impressive.






Beccy was really impressed by the giant puppy made of flowers outside and both she and Antoine were impressed by the fog that was sprayed out over the water in front of the museum.

  

There was a really long queue to get in and we noticed that Anish Kapoor was exhibiting there.  Instead of going in (the children were unlikely to be interested) we went into the cafe for coffee and coca-cola before heading back to the Metro and onto the Casco Viejo (the old town).

We did some shopping and looked around the city a little before heading back to the Metro for the train home.  The next train didn't go quite as far as Urduliz and we had to get off at Larrabasterra and wait 8 minutes for the next train to Plentzia.

Brian didn't want to wait and decided to walk (the rest of us had done enough walking and were happy to wait 8 minutes for the next train besides, Beccy had enough to keep her occupied!  Brian arrived back 35 minutes after us having walked 2.3 miles.

After dinner we played a game of Rummikub before bed.  We had to look the rules up online as we couldn't remember how to play and couldn't understand the Spanish rules in the box.

During the day we heard from Ben who reported some success in the tennis tournament in both the consolation draw of the boys under 18s and in the mixed doubles where he and Megan had reached the finals, beating the number 2 seeds.  It was good to hear from him.

Not so good was the news that the family who are staying in our house had been getting no hot water.  I sent an email back to them to give some suggestions but we had no idea what had gone wrong.  Things haven't gone so well for them.  The car wouldn't start on their first journey back, they couldn't get into the house after deadlocking the door and then they didn't get any hot water. Hopefully, things will get better!  This is the worst part of home exchanging, the worry about things going wrong at the house that mean that the exchange family don't have as good a time as they might have.  This is the first time in nine years that we have had this number of problems and it is a worry.  When you let some one use your house you want everything to go smoothly and you feel guilty when it doesn't but can't really do much about it because you are miles away.

Friday 13th was a bit of a disaster day.  It was raining and the children had wanted to go to the beach.  We couldn't find any alternative activities that they were interested in and so we decided to go to the wave beach on the off-chance that it would be sunny by then.  We went further around the coast to Mundaka but couldn't find anywhere to park so carried on to Bakio where we ate our packed lunch near to the beach and then got back into the car to escape the rain.

 

I had found a sports centre using Google and had got the address so we decided that we would go swimming.   Unfortunately we could find the area but couldn't find the sports centre.  We did, however, find a bowling alley and had two games of ten-pin bowling followed by a quick go in the amusement arcade.  Back for dinner and Beccy and Antoine went to play basketball for a while.

Notes

Everywhere we go in this area we are surrounded by eucalyptus.  It was apparently introduced about 200 years ago as a fast growing resource for the production of paper and is used for sustainable forestry management.  It seems to self-seed quite readily and there are many seedlings and young trees dotted around as well as many established stands.  You can see whole plantations of eucalyptus on the hillsides and, when you walk through the forests, although there is a good variety of tree including beech, ash, oak and others, the predominant species is eucalyptus.

There were posters throughout the metro system for a film called 'London River'.  This is about two parents each looking for their child who was in London at the time of the 7/7 suicide bombings and who has not been heard from since.  It doesn't seem to be showing much in London (only one cinema listed) but might be shown in Bilbao with subtitles if we are lucky.  Worth a look.