Spain - September 15 - Bilbao Day #1

Today, we set off for a visit to the Basque Country region of Spain and took an afternoon flight to Bilbao. Sidenote: This was our first time flying out of a London airport other than Heathrow - in this case, we left from London Gatwick. It was about six pm in Bilbao by the time that we got settled in our hotel, so we took an evening stroll along the riverfront promenade past the Guggenheim and the Maman Spider Sculpture on our way into the Casco Viejo - the Old Quarter - of Bilbao. For a quick dinner, we explored a couple of different pintxos bars (pronounced PINCH - ohs). The tradition is to sidle up to the bar, order a drink and a couple of pinxtos - small servings of traditional Spanish/Basque cuisine (sort of like tapas) - and then repeat the process at another bar or two or until you're full. It was...interesting. Several of the pintxos options were more exotic than we were expecting. For example...imagine a small piece of toast covered with a pile of baby eels (each about 2 inches long) and some unknown, mystery sauce. Others were more tame, i.e. Iberian Ham and cheese on toast. Nancy is not a super-adventurous eater, so she tried to stick with chicken (hard to find) and potato dishes (plenty of those). I tried a few things that I had never eaten before, and I have to say...I don't think I'm a huge pintxos fan. :)