We Hit Spain (with a Thud)

Monday, June 4 – Day 7 (Dublin to Bilboa via Vitoria & Miranda de Ebro)

The Ryanair flight was scheduled to depart Dublin at 6:10am, but the doors were closed and we were taxiing down the runway at 6:05am. It was amazing!! US airlines could learn a lesson or two from this Ryanair company. We landed in Vitoria, Spain at 9:10am (15 minutes ahead of schedule). Unfortunately, Rich and I spent a little too much time getting situated and accidentally missed the ONLY bus that goes from the airport to downtown Vitoria each day. We hailed a taxi and 16 euros later were at the downtown train station.

Here we encounter our first taste of Spanish hospitality. With our Eurail pass in hand, we approached the ticket counter and requested a reservation on the next train to Bilboa (we could tell from the train schedule that all of the trains out of Vitoria required “reservations”). The station attendant very abruptly informed us there was NO WAY to take a train from Vitoria to Bilboa, and we “must take bus.” He then shooed us away from the counter (not that there were any other customers waiting to buy tickets - just that he did not want to deal with us anymore!) Disappointed and a bit dejected, we stepped away from his window and returned to our maps and the schedule on the wall. This attendant’s information did not seem right to us based on the train maps and schedules we had…so, we examined our information carefully and decided to take another approach. This time we went up to the information counter and tried to ask if our assumptions were correct. After 20 seconds, we were again shooed from the counter and left to our own devices. We checked and double checked the information we had and the schedules posted and decided to get on the next train to Miranda de Ebro. We approached the third and final attendant and asked for a reservation on the 10:08am from Vitoria to Miranda de Ebro. According to our information, a train originating in Miranda de Ebro would take us to Bilboa…we just did not know when or how long it would take! Finally, this attendant sold us a ticket and we were on our way.

We arrived in Miranda de Ebro at approximately 10:40am and quickly rushed to the train schedule posted on the station wall. Fortunately, it showed that our instincts were correct (and the jerky station attendant was WRONG)... Unfortunately, it also showed that the next train to Bilboa was not until 2:40pm which meant we had 4 hours to kill in this random city... With our backpacks, we walked away from the train station and into the edge of town in search of a good lunch spot. After about 45 minutes of hopping from café to café with no signs of lunch fare, we settled on piecing together something from a local grocery store. With fresh bread, salami (not called that in Spain), queso, and potato chips in hand, we found a park bench and settled in for a picnic.

We finally arrived in Bilboa at about 5:00pm (a VERY long day following our night in the Dublin airport). We were not certain where our hostel (called a pension in most of Spain) was located and very much wanted a good map of Bilboa, so we set out in search of a tourist information office. One hour later, with no map and no luck finding the tourist information center, we gave up and decided to follow the cryptic website directions to the hostel. They actually turned out to be quite good and by 6:30pm we were checked into our VERY nice room (though it did not look like much from the outside – shown here)…

Tuesday, June 05 – Day 8 (Rábago)

After our mad dash tour of the UK and Ireland and our challenging arrival in Spain, we decided to sleep in a bit this morning. Some time after noon, we headed over to the train station and rented a car. With a Eurocar (the car rental company) map and a Google map in hand, we headed for Rábago, Spain. Here I impersonate the classic shopping mall directory with a “You are here” gesture… Just about 175 kilometers (that’s about 105 miles) west of Bilboa is the VERY small town. This sign announces your arrival in Rábago… (and we were so happy to find it after getting slightly lost on the back roads). Then about 300 meters up the road (that’s about three football fields), this sign announces you are leaving Rábago…

I don’t know EXACTLY what we were expecting, but Rich and I agreed that the town was MUCH smaller than we imagined. There is a beautiful old mission style church which Rich posed with here… And here you see the bulk of the other town buildings behind me…Also, there is a cave called Cueva El Soplao (either in Rábago or JUST outside) which seemed to attract a lot of tourists. Since we were there and the signs indicated that they were open, we decided to take a drive up the mountainside to see what the hype was about. Here is a picture (self portrait) of Rich and me outside the entrance to the cave…

The countryside was beautiful and we stopped a couple of times on our way back down the mountain to take pictures. With a landscape reminiscent of parts of the British Isles, they call this area “Green Spain.” Here Rich poses with a gorgeous valley behind him... In the distance the ringing of cow and sheep bells echoed on the wind as the animals wandered the hillsides. I wish I could say that the mountain air was fresh and rejuvenating, but with all those cows and sheep, I’ll let you imagine was the mountain air was like…

As we descended the mountain, we paused at the top of the hillside over looking Rábago and took this picture… which we believe provides a birds eye view of the entire town of Rábago, Spain!