Bilbao: our last night in Spain

We arrived in Bilbao about lunchtime, so after a quick picnic lunch in our hotel, we wandered off to visit the Guggenheim Museum and a nearby playground recommended by people on the cookery course in San Sebastian.

The Guggenheim 

The Guggenheim is a striking riverside building; the 'scales' glisten in the sun. Walking around the outside is worthwhile to view it from different angles and to see the various external sculptures. Our favourite was the giant spider.

Eleanor and the giant spider

Inside we were lucky to see David Hockney: A Bigger Picture, an exhibition of his Yorkshire Landscapes. Some are huge and spread over a large number of canvases (some 30ish!). We both found a few that we could happily hang on our walls, should we find ourselves with a large amount of spare cash one day.

The Richard Serra installation

Eleanor and Leo had loads of fun running through a Richard Serra installation of iron spirals. They were kind of like a maze or spiral tunnel. Quite something to be inside.

We raced around the other rooms and sped off to the playground after that as the excitement got a bit much and we had scratchy children on our hands.

In Spain restaurants often don't open until 7.30/8pm for dinner. Not easy when you have two hungry children who are used to being fed by 6.30pm! As we have cooked for ourselves fairly regularly it hasn't been much of an issue, but in Bilbao we had our first (and last) real experience of how tricky it becomes. As a result we had our only disappointing meal in Spain. Not bad in a week!

The following morning we dropped the car off at the airport before flying to Florence via Barcelona. We loved our time in Spain and will be back one day.

Unfortunately, the airline managed to leave our pushchair in Barcelona. The first real hitch we've had so far. While it is annoying to have to collect it from the airport, it is better that than one of our bags being left behind!

On the upside, we are now in Florence starting the next leg of our journey.