Birthdays and awaydays

Coming up to that time again, another year on............I have to be honest here, birthdays are not my favourite times. I tend to get slightly introspective and while not being shockingly aware of my own mortality as I was when my son was born,  I am certainly concious of time passing....

  This time I am lucky, I am living in a country that is new to me, I have the love and companionship of my wife, and we live on a boat.........Life is good. The future doesnt seem to consist of more of the same, it is that undiscovered country that lies ahead, its exciting.

We have a few weeks left before we join Dave and Carol on Hocus Pocus on our first ocean crossing, in the meantime we are still enjoying exploration on the small scale.

we decided to use our Barik cards to take a trip on one of the funicular railways that climb out of Bilbao. Appaerntly the local name for Bilbao is " The Hole", as it is amost completely surrounded by mountains.

The views from the top of the Hole are stunning.

There are several high level walks that begin from the funicular stations, just my kind of walk with all that tedious climbing up eliminated.

As everywhere around Bilbao you just trip over art. We admired this particular piece for several minutes before walking behind it and noticing that when backlit it is a representation of a fingerprint. No i have no idea either....

 

Of Course we also were trying to get Dark Tarn shipshape for winter, and a fair bit of time was spent painting and getting her ready for a three month winter sleep alone, we have re-jigged the cleats on the pontoon and her mooring lines, so all is prepared for the expected winter surges. Rust has been eliminated from decks and fittings, fresh gloss and non slip deck paint has been applied and headlinings cleaned, engine serviced and minor faults fixed.

So it was party time, Halloween again........we set off to the next bay along for lunch.

we discovered some hippys on the beach had spent ages making a rather neat if seasonaly out of kilter alpine village, complete with snow. Rather neat! However my wife requires food so we repaired to the beach Hotel and sat down at a table only to be told we should have booked so vacated to the next restraunt along "La Terrace" for lunch.

after lunch we continued along the beach to the old fishing village for yet more alcholic beverages and another "selfie".

here it is.........

I believe we patronised a couple of bars here before climbing the steep hill to Algorta.

Obviously after such a steep and winding climb a drink was in order.

The selfies were geting a bit rough around the edges at this point, 

Also,l I had been using the marvels of modern digital technology to speak to my old boss, who wa telling me how neatly I had evaded the huge problems that local authorities were facing at home, or rather their employees were. I also managed to speak to various members of my family. It was late afternoon and as Lynne and I sat on the balcony of a bar in Algorta I realised I was 58 years old and incredibly lucky, the sun set in a glorious display.....

we wandered back down to Getxo and crossed the wonderful transporter bridge to have a drink and Pinxos in the Grand hotel.

This is a fine establishment and is a relatively new discovery for Lynne and I as we had previously considee that it may be a bit too posh for the likes of us, we were wrong and its now a regular haunt.

After a few drinks on the balcony, after all it is only the end of October, not properly chilly and it does provide a lovely view of the Ria.

We moved on to our heavy metal bar of choice, where you can drink a bottle of strong beer for the princely sum of 1€ while listening to Death metal played really loud...

To be honest by this stage in my birthday celebrations things could have got a bit messy but luckily we happened upon a bar we had never been in before, not really that difficult as there are hundreds!

However this one had a disco type thing going on and I was at the stage where I would dance to anything, suffice to say we were made very welcome and we requested some Manchester tunes.

along with some very large Gin and Tonics...................it all gets a bit hazy after that. Best gay bar in Portugalete, and we didnt miss the last bridge home.

After a few days recovery time it was back to  the grind for the wee jobs. however we did walk out to the north coast again.

Isnt it fabulous? The waves just off the point are 3-4 metres, there are 20+ surfers in the break,  the beach has naked sunbathers on it as the air temperature is in the mid 20s.

its the middle of November.................

Im 58 and a very lucky guy.......................and I really must thank my wife for getting me home!