May 31 – Bilbao, Spain

tortilla and pintxos #1

Weather – 24º sunny

Steps – 6,887

Humidity – 23%

Today’s weather was much better than yesterday – today is sunny, slight breeze, and warm – perfect for touring.

It is day 2 in Bilbao. Overnights in port are pretty rare. These days it seems like cruise lines are including more overnights in port and are making it known through their advertising. At least that is the case with Regent. Being new to Windstar, I’m not sure if overnights are usual, or new for them also.

Either way, passengers like them. One reason passengers like them is for the opportunity to do things in port at night. Typically, departure is in the evening or even late afternoon, so tours and time off of the boat are limited to daylight

lively, Casco Veijo 

hours. Us going in to find a pub in the evening is an almost unheard of opportunity on ocean cruises. River cruises…now that is another story, but for ocean cruises we are almost always onboard by dinner time.

Being that we were in port over night we had hopped there would be an organized evening tour…nope. I suppose it was good we didn’t have to choose between a football match with locals in their square and an organized tour.

second stop for food and drink

This morning we headed back to Bilbao for another walking tour of the old town, or Casco Veijo and some ‘pintxos’ (Basque tapas.) The drive in was exactly like yesterday, but the walking tour wasn’t. Some was the same, but we saw different things too. Duncan, our English guide, shared some of the same info as we heard yesterday. I always wonder how much guides make up.

After the walking bit, we stopped for our first pintxos – a piece of bread drizzled with olive oil, topped

Chris in the hot tub on the bow cam

with some hot picked peppers, an anchovy, and 2 olives – very tasty! We also had a rather large piece of tortilla. Technically, the tortilla wasn’t a pintxos – pintxos technically are traditionally something pierced with a toothpick.

This was accompanied by a drink – we both had a Txakoli, a local white wine.

Next, we wandered just a bit through the old streets to the next pintxos bar for a what resembled tuna salad on a very small baguette and a pintxos of a piece of bread topped with a large mushroom and some kind of white sauce. The drink we had with this was called a martini but wasn’t what we’d know as a martini. What I think it was, was Martini Rosso, served on ice with an orange slice and an olive – tasty.

We chatted with many of the folks on the tour with us – it is the drinking/eating tours that force you to chat with folks on the tour with you. Most people on today’s tour were American, but one couple were from Victoria.

our room attendant Edi from Sumatra

The only downside with being a group of 20 was that we didn’t fit into the small front spaces of these bars…sort of like last night, the inside is small, people just get drinks and spill onto the outside and sit on tables in the square or on the steps or just stand. Our group of 20 we sat in back rooms in both places – nice, but not very charming or atmospheric.

Once back at the ship, we weren’t interested in lunch. Chris went to the hot-tub, (if you look really cloes you can see him in the bow cam!) and I spent time icing and blogging.

Dinner tonight was a whole ship deck BBQ. I’m never a fan of these sorts of events…too many people jostling at the buffet eating food at communal tables. Chris tried to assure me by reminding me of how few people are on this boat –

turndown treat

312 max, not sure how many in reality. I have to agree that things have not been crowded. Compared with Regent (or Princess, which was our last cruise) things on this cruise have been good in the crowd dept.

As it turned out, it was busy, but very well laid out and managed. The pool area is 2 floors with the pool and surrounding chairs on one floor and the bar and other chairs on the floor above. The lounge chairs were swapped out for tables to eat at and food stations were spread out over the 2 floors, there was nothing made to order so this sped things up. There was also a walk-up wine station – this way if all you wanted was a glass of wine, you didn’t need to hunt for a waiter. There was also a roving white and red sangria station…another way to avoid hunting waiters.

Waiters for drink service are not actually hard to come by. In fact, when Chris was at our secret hot tub earlier today, a waiter passed by there to take his drink order. The hot tub is on floor 5, the bar is on level 8…that’s pretty good service!

Anyway…there were many options for food, we had a good meal (including a piece of chocolate cheese – not sure about that one…interesting, but not my favourite.)

Then it was time for the staff line dance. We did not join in.

After the deck party, everything was moved to the indoor bar. At first, it wasn’t too busy but then picked up. I have to say the musical selections have been terrific! I've still to hear Lady in Red!

Every night during turn-down we are left small treats…sometimes something sweet, sometimes a small memento. Tonight’s treat was a coin from the Guggenheim, with the Puppy on it…charming.