The next day found us in Bilbao, Spain. Yes, this was a really busy cruise. We left town and wound our way up through the hills, often on one-lane roads. Really, we'd come around a corner with the bus and screech to a halt, facing opposite direction traffic. Lots of hand signals were exchanged and someone backed up into a driveway or wherever they could find to let the traffic pass. It was fair, though, we backed up a couple of times, too. Our destination was a place called Torre Loizaga, an estate owned by the family of Miguel de la Via, who benefited very greatly from Franco's modernization plans. He owned a quarry and Franco needed construction material. With his fortune, he bought cars. Mostly Rolls Royce cars. And so, the family now has the largest collection of Rolls Royces in Europe. See the museum's website at www.torreloizaga.com
This is really a private collection of automobiles, but Mr. de la Via hit a snag. In Spain, or at least in this part of Spain, insurers will not cover classic cars. The only way he could get them insured was to open the collection as a museum. So, it's a museum, complete with restrooms, a snack bar, and a gift shop, but it's only open on Sundays for a few hours. In hindsight, he said that he should have started an insurance company.
This is a huge collection!
This one was purchased from a wealthy gentleman from India. How about that horn?
Later, we drove into Bilbao past the famous Guggenheim Museum with "The Puppy" out front. Look it up for yourself, we don't take pictures through bus windows. Or coach windows either. We did walk around the old Quarter Casco Viejo where there was a festival taking place. It was wild, but fun. Here's an example of a typical Bilbao street (shooting over the heads of the revelers).
Next came Ferrol, Spain. We drove to La Coruna and walked through the old town. La Coruna is called the crystal city because of the sun glinting off these typical buildings.
And there is still a convent with cloistered nuns.
And then a photo stop at the Tower of Hercules, built by the Romans in the First century. Originally it was lower and wider, and underwent several modifications over the years, finally being coated with the current facades in 1788. This started out like our visit to "Jesus of the Andes" in Rio. The clouds kept sweeping over the tower:
But then, the clouds cleared and behold!
After Ferrol, we stopped in familiar Porto. We hopped on the shuttle and went into town to see if our favorite liquor store, Cabaz do Infante, was still there. It was exactly as it had always been, right down to the cashier, who looked at us and seemed to recall seeing us before. The only difference we found was that a couple of the employees spoke some english. We bought port. Of course.
On to Lisbon, and this time we got the dock that's closer to the main shopping area. We skipped breakfast and headed in for a brunch of Rissol de Camarao, Bacalhao fritters, and Pasteis de Nata. We even brought back some Portuguese belly busters to have for breakfast the following day, which was going to be a long one.
The long day was a trip into Seville from Cadiz, Spain. We added to the goody stash with sugared almonds, Iberico pate, and tortas from Ines Rosales. www.inesrosales.com. These are wonderful with some French duck mousse or terrine on them.
And then, finally, a day at sea. Next stop Barcelona to turn the boat. Again. And go to lifeboat drill. Again.
