Bilbao; Saturday, 23 September, 2017

Around 2am it was clear that all the walking of the previous day had had a less than positive effect on my right knee which was woke me up in the middle of the night to express its displeasure in the form of pain. I eventually managed to get back to sleep after a couple of pain killers and a lot of Voltarol rubbed into the skin to try and calm down the inflammation.

Thankfully I’d remembered to pack a knee support in my bag for just such an eventuality, so heavily strapped up I was able to hobble down for breakfast.

After breakfast I, slowly, walked down to the riverside and caught the tram two stops round to the Guggenheim museum and picked up the morning open-top bus to do a bit more sightseeing that didn’t require any movement on my part.

Back at the Guggenheim I stopped at the very nice café by the entrance for a lengthy lunch and then, with my knee slightly less painful that it had been previously, slowly walked the half mile or so over to the Funicular railway to take the train up to the top of the Artxanda mountain and the viewing point up there for some stunning views over the city.

Having spent some time up at the viewing point I caught the funicular back down the hill and hobbled back over towards the hotel – taking several strategic bench stops to take in the view and to rest my leg.

Back at the hotel I decided it was probably best not to head back out for dinner, so instead I had what turned out to be a very nice meal in the hotel restaurant, before turning in for an early night to make up for the lack of sleep the previous night.