At home again

When we flew home, we took a limo from the airport to our house in Bethalto. It seemed like a good way to end an amazing adventure.

Shortly after that we visited my parents, who were pretty glad to get us back in the States!

7/8 - 7/9 London

When Randy came to Spain to spend a couple of months, he wanted a car with air conditioning. The guy who leased cars to our company didn't have one, so he went out and bought a brand new car for us. I felt bad about that, thinking that when we left he would be stuck paying off this car that nobody wanted to rent. I didn't need to worry. When we dropped the car off at the airport, it never even got back to the lot; one of the managers at Continental immediately leased it back out. I guess they were just waiting for me to turn it in.

As part of our trip back to the US, we planned a long weekend in London. We flew from Spain to London on the same plane as Mario, who wanted to rent a car for us. We told him we didn't want one but he insisted. We got a Cosworth, dark maroon, very fast, and of course the steering wheel was on the right side. Randy drove it from the airport to our hotel, parked it in the parking lot, and from there on we used the tube system. The subway is a very good system, and cheap with an all-day pass. 

We toured the Tower of London. The big "White Tower" is the most recognizable part; this section is visible from the River Thames.

Inside are the Crown Jewels, displayed safely behind glass. Since no photos are allowed, I had to make do with a postcard. Funny, the jewels don't seem to shine as much in reality as they do in the postcards. 

Later we walked over London Bridge again. Before this year I didn't know that it has such pretty blue cables. 

Then we walked through London, by Westminster and Parliament.

And we walked the length of Fleet Street, which eventually leads to beautiful St. Paul's Cathedral.

Piccadilly Square is always full of people; of course, a lot of them are tourists.

We saw some charming London Pubs, invitingly picturesque.

London's iconic black Fairway cabs were everywhere.

We visited the London Dungeon. This is not old, it's a new exhibition aimed squarely at tourists, but I loved it.

We also took the “Jack the Ripper” walking tour in Whitechapel, to the sites of horrific murders and a summation of "who done it". The answer? Nobody knows.

Farewell at the Farmhouse

When it was time for me to leave Spain, the group of people I worked with took Randy and me out to dinner at the Old Farmhouse, near Asua. This was probably the best restaurant in the area. Since they didn't take reservations before 9pm we had a late dinner, but we were used to that by then. It was a great meal, and afterwards the my co-workers were kind enough to give me some presents, to commemorate my stay in Bilbao.

I am so glad I got the chance to meet these people, who made me feel welcome and helped me do my job. On one side of the table sat Jeff, Rita, Mario, Stephan and his wife, and Santi.

On the other side of the table were Edwardo, Inyaki, Mercedes, Anna and Tapia.

I will always look back on my time in Spain as one of the most wonderful times of my life, and all these people helped make it that way.

Bilbao fair

One evening we joined Rita and Tony to visit a fair, just outside of Bilbao. There were some rides and a wine booth that we checked out, but we thought it might be a good idea to skip those. 

I always like to try fair food, and this one had hot dog and hamburger stands. But the hamburgers didn't look or smell like beef, so I passed on those. I did get a hot dog, and immediately regretted that decision - it was the worst excuse for a hot dog I've ever tasted. It was greasy and nasty, and after one bite, I threw the rest away. 

On our way out of the fair we passed a booth with some local bull-fighting posters pinned up. As we walked by I was wishing I had one of those; suddenly I decide to go back and ask the guy if I could have one. He didn't speak much English but he understood enough to know what I was asking, and he generously gave me one. It became one of my favorite things. 

7/01 - emergency trip home

I got a call from home telling me that my maternal grandmother had passed away. I loved her dearly but this was not entirely unexpected. She had lived a long life and I was sure she was ready to go. But I was very worried about my mother. She was very close to her mom, and this was a hard blow to her. I really needed to be there for her. The funeral was going in a couple of days, in Missouri.

I spoke with management about this and they agreed to pay for our round-trip tickets. The company travel agent worked to find us a flight, but there was some kind of festival going on and every flight she checked was fully booked. We asked about getting a flight out of Madrid, figuring we could drive there, but there just wasn't anything that would work; anything available from Madrid required a ton of driving and bad seats that would leave me so tired that I would be useless to Mom. The travel agent finally found a couple of first class seats for us from Bilbao. Now first class on an international flight was really pricey. I hesitated to ask the company to pay for them, but I didn't have any other reasonable option. I realized I needed to agree to book that flight quickly, before someone else got it, so I said we would take it.

Randy and I packed that night and boarded the plane the next day. First class was upstairs, and we were the only people there. I learned that the food in first class is quite a bit different - the stewardess kept offering us all food and drink we wanted, including lots of vodka and caviar. And I was relieved to have enough room to stretch out in; I was able to get some sleep on the flight. I knew that when we landed we would have a long drive to meet the family, and I would need to be alert to support Mom. 

I was so glad that I was able to be with Mom; burying her mother must have been like a nightmare to her, but having her family with her made it bearable. 

It was a short trip; we flew in one day, attended the funeral the next, and the day after that Randy and I were on another flight back to Spain. Not first class this time, but that was fine.

Restaurants near Biblao

Before Randy joined us in June, four nights a week dinner consisted of crackers and cream cheese for Rita, and Oscar Meyer cheese hot dogs for me. We would eat late in the evening, sitting at the small table in the little kitchen and talking about the day. But Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we went out. I ate langouastine (they look like overgrown shrimp), Jamón Jabugo (an excellent cured ham), large white asparagus (served with thick mayonnaise). I tried squid served in it’s own ink, and discovered that “pan duro” is day-old bread. We started using "duro" as a synonym for "stale", and everywhere bread is very "duro". We always needed to ask for butter, because they won’t offer it voluntarily. I needed to ask for ice, too, and then would only get one single ice cube. Beer was never cold but white asparagus always was. And despite what Rita told us, some places did understand the “doggy bag” concept. Sometimes our dinner out was for business, like when the American bosses came to town; on those occasions we always ate at expensive restaurants because the bosses loved to spend  the company's money. After Randy joined us, we went somewhere every weekend. We seldom knew the name of the places where we ate, but we created our own nicknames for our favorite local ones.

"Our" restaurant: On the hillside above our apartment was a humble but good restaurant. It seemed to be a family business, set up in what looked like a closed-in pavilion. They had a menu chalked up in front of the counter where we ordered before we went into the seating area, which had long tables and benches. This place had the quickest, best service we found in Spain. The waiter looked like a teenager but he was unusually quick, efficient and congenial. The food was basic fare but very good, and more than enough. Lomos con potatoes was one of their best. Desserts were sherbets, frozen into the rind of whatever flavor you ordered, such as orange sherbet in half an orange rind. And they had foil bags for take-home food.

Eroski: The super-grocery store had a restaurant which served a daily menu plate and quick sandwiches, like ham and cheese. It was a good place for when we wanted a quick and reasonably priced lunch. 

El Cortes Ingles: It was the retail biggest store we went to, several stories tall, and had a few restaurants on the upper level, most of which served sandwiches. We didn't eat there often because there were so many other places to choose, but it was nice in a pinch and, like Eroski, it's main asset was that it very quick. Mealtimes are very leisurely in Spain but sometimes we wanted to grab a bite to eat so we could keep moving and see more stuff.

Pincho bars: Pincho bars were sort of like Spain's  fast food but they were much better. Each bar had a selection of pinchos (finger food), usually fish or potato-based snacks to be dipped into the thick home-made mayonnaise that we spooned out of cups on the bar. At first I was wary of eating mayonnaise that had been sitting out for who-knows-how-long, but we never had any ill effects from it. Pincho morunos, served like shish-kabobs on thin wooden skewers, were spicy and very good. The bars only had a few small tables, so most customers ate standing at or near the bar. Customers ate whatever they chose, either snacking from platefuls of pinchos set on the bar or asking the bartender for specifics. When they were ready to pay, the bartender asked they ate and charged accordingly. Although pinchos were quick and tasty, they were not cheap. For Spaniards out in the evening, the custom was to go to several bars, snacking and drinking at each one. 

Mario’s 4 star: Downtown Bilbao, close to Mario’s hotel, there was a restaurant which was supposed to be one of the best. Mario took us to dinner there one night. Randy, who likes the good things in life, wanted steak and lobster. The restaurant had a steak dinner and a lobster dinner, but not a combination of the two. Mario spent about 5 minutes trying to explain that he wanted the staff to serve Randy those two meats on the same plate. He spoke Spanish very well, but the concept seemed to be totally beyond our waiter's comprehension. Eventually he brought out two separate dinners for Randy, who enjoyed it all, although the lobster was not as good as a New England lobster. That meal cost in excess of $400 for the three of us. 

Old Farmhouse: Somewhere between Asua and Sopalana, an old farmhouse had been converted into a very fine restaurant. It was expensive and required a reservation to get a table. They did not accept any reservation before 9 pm, and dinner was not actually served until at least 9:30. Most of the tables were upstairs. They had excellent food and some of the best pâté we ever ate. We had dinner there when Kris Walters and his wife from Belgium were in town; they had driven an Audi down, which was to be rented by one of the company's big shots. This was also where we had my farewell dinner.

Little White Houses: Along the shore in Las Tamarises there was an area with several little whitewashed houses, some of which had been converted into fish restaurants. 

The fish in these was always good, mostly local fish like monkfish. They were served whole, with the tail attached and the eyes rolling in their sockets. Someone said this was to assure the customer that they were getting the exact type of fish they ordered. This was one of Rita’s favorite area to eat. Once when we went there with Steffon and the others, Steff ordered an after-diner liqueur that was truly wicked, sort of like a 200-proof cough service. 

Fondue: There was a very good cheese and meat fondue place nearby, but they took a really long time to serve it. We could never figure out what took so long, since they didn't have to cook anything! They served 4 different kinds of sauces with the beef fondue, and they had excellent salads, with Belgium endive and walnuts. We went there several times; once with the gang from work; that time we made Jon pay because we figured accountants have access to the cash.

Hotel on the beach: A newly opened hotel in Las Tamarises had an excellent restaurant. We dined there once with Tom McRaven and Jeff Pruitt. The dinner was very good, and Tom kept ordering more food and drinks for everyone. Tom had a quiet, confident manner, but then, he was the money man. The waiter kept pouring strong scotch into Randy’s coffee, which made him a little sick later. 

Miscellaneous London

We went to London so many times that I lost count, and there was something wonderful to see each time. On one visit we got a look at the museum ship HMS Belfast.

Royal Guards were visible around town, and everyone wanted to take a picture with them. I was more interested in posing with the horse than with the guard!

I loved this entrance. Why make something simple when this is possible?

Tower Bridge at night - one of the best sights!

I really like the name of this church - it's the Church of All Hallows by the Tower. This is reported to be the oldest church in the City of London.  Makes sense, it was founded in 675. Of course not all of it is that old, but they do have some bits of the original church. 

I am not much of a drinker, but I really enjoyed the picturesque pubs.

Sock money

I got to be pretty good at doing quick, rough currency conversions in my head. Spanish pesos, French francs, English pounds and Belgium francs - each had it’s own conversion rate to US dollars. I kept different currency in different socks. When we went to any country, I would just grab the appropriate sock. 

Tall Ships at the Thames Barrier

One weekend we drove to Milestone (Concord’s London office) then walked over to the River Thames to watch the tall ships sail in. This was the last year this route could be used for this event because a bridge was to be built across the river soon. We stood on the banks with Ian, Diane, Mike and Martina to watch the show. Ian was set up to take some great pictures. 

We were near the Thames Barrier; it's got a really unique design.

Ships came from Ireland, Russia and other lands. We couldn't tell them apart, but they were fascinating.

6/24/89 Biarritz, France

Another weekend, another trip! This time Rita drove me, Randy and Mike K. on a 90 mile trip, crossing the border into France. Just a little across the border, to the seaside town of Biarritz. The part we drove through was very pretty and well-maintained. 

We didn't stop in town, but I think maybe we should have stopped to see the Sainte Eugenie Cathedral. 

It was clean everywhere. And here was the first (and possibly only) place I saw a bathroom for dogs. I's called a caninet - a street corner dog toilet. Not sure how they got the first dog to use it, but after that there should be no problem!

Biarritz, like all of the French and Spanish seaside towns we visited, sits on the Bay of Biscay, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. And they make the most of their location.

It's a lovely place to relax with someone you love. Fortunately, I brought my "someone" with me! By now he was blonder than I was, thanks to all that time in the sun.

It was clean and beautiful, without being overrun with tourist stuff. Like most beaches in France, this one was top-optional. Randy and I were used to this, but Mike embarrassed us.

So I didn't take pictures of the beach; instead I took pictures of the surrounding area. 

We stayed long enough to have dinner in one of the nearby restaurants. I ordered crab, which came another tiny little crab as a garnish. Cute and good!

Portugalete, Spain

Portugalete was northwest of Bilbao. It was actually closer to our Sopelana apartment, except that it was on the other side of the Biscay Bay tributary, right across from Las Arenas. 

One of the bridges that crossed the water was an old transporter bridge that we called the Eiffel Tower Bridge. That wasn't its real name, but it was designed by a student of Gustave Eiffel, so that's how we knew it. 

Occasionally we would find our way over there, not by the bridge which wasn't used for people or cars, but by road from Bilbao. It's a pretty town to walk through, with several lovely old buildings, such as the Town Hall.

We could see the top of a gothic church, with a slender cross on top. 

This was a great place to people-watch. In towns like this, walking was the sensible way to do shopping, and it was not unusual for the plazas and sidewalks to be full.

My favorite group was this company of young men. We couldn't communicate much beyond my request for a photo, but I think they were soccer enthusiasts with a couple of Basque flags. Their love of team and country comes through loud and clear!