Bilbao; Friday, 22 September, 2017

I was booked on a very early flight, so I’d stayed overnight in a hotel near Heathrow. The flight was so early that the time I needed to check-in was before the hotel hoppa buses started running, so I had to get a cab down to the terminal building.

It was a smooth journey through the airport and onto the plane, which started boarding early and ended up pushing back off the stand around 15 minutes ahead of schedule. It was a smooth flight and with the early departure and a bit of a tail wind we ended up landing in Bilbao around 20 minutes early.

I cleared the airport and hopped onto a bus into the city centre where I changed onto the Metro over to my hotel and went to check-in. My room wasn’t ready straight away so the hotel gave me a free coffee whilst housekeeping finished it off.

Checked in and with my bags safely stowed in my room I headed out for a bit of a wander round the town – aiming to be down at the first stop of the open-top bus in time for the next departure, which I was.

I did two circuits of the open-top bus, taking in the sights of the city before it returned back to its starting point at the Guggenheim and ended its journeys for the day.

I wandered into the Guggenheim and had a long look round the gallery, though to be honest the most interesting part was the building itself.

From the Guggenheim I had a bit of a wander back along the waterfront and then on into the Old Town where I had a look around the streets of the original part of the city.

By now I was starting to get very hungry, but it was clear that the people of Basque Country do not eat particularly early and virtually no restaurants were open, so I headed back towards the hotel into the more touristy part of the city where I was able to find an open restaurant for dinner before I headed back to the hotel and turning in for the night.