Eldership 2025 Spain - Let The Photography Begin

The weather let up in the morning and we were determined to get out and 'do our thing'. 

A small bit about Bilbao. Bilbao was an industrial city through the first two thirds of the 20th century. Like many such cities as globalization expanded in the 60's and 70's, it declined and its waterfront, in particular, became a polluted, eye sore. After a disastrous flood in 1983, a massive redevelopment plan was developed and implemented totally transforming the riverfront and the city. 

A key piece is the internationally renowned Guggenheim Museum opened in 1997. Designed by architect Frank Gehry, it has been called one of the most notable architectural works of the late 20th century. 

This was our first attempt to do our 'normal' travel activity since Wife's injury. We wanted to be controlled and modest. We decided going into the museum itself was probably not a good idea as we find museums really hard on our bodies. As the building and the environs are a photographic wonderland, that's what we focused on. I'm happy to report we were out for about 2 and half hours and Wife did quite well. Some pain as to be expected, but in general she was out and about including going up and down a number of inclines. 

On To The Photos! 

 The Guggenheim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

La Punta de la Salve (the Red Bridge)

This was just a plain ole bridge until 2007 when architect Daniel Buren designed the iconic red arch that now is as much a symbol of the city as the Guggenheim.

 

 

 

 

 Mamam or Mama

 

That's the name of this statue. Not exactly my image of the 'mother figure' but different strokes for different folks.

Study of an Office Tower

 

 

 

 

 The Dog as an example of Architectural Scaffolding 

The Dog is a famous statue at the Guggenheim that is covered in flowers. Except when de-I visits.

 

 

 Reflection Mania

 

 

 

 

 Other Architecture

 

 

 

 

 All Other

 

 

 

 Moving Vistas

 

 Lunch

Wife's foot was starting to show signs of the effort and it looked like it would rain. We'd forgotten that lunch starts later here. But we found a restaurant that had a bar and was serving Pinxtos and Tapas which was plenty for us to make a meal of.

Ensalada Rusa (of course), Tortilla with ham and cheese, seafood salad, and Bodadillo (small sandwich) of Tuna. 

Eldership Spain 2025 - The Gastronomy of Free!

For the mainstream tourist that comes to Bilbao, there are two things that immediately pop as 'must do'. You go to see the extraordinary architecture as defined by the Guggenheim Museum. And you immerse yourself in Bilbao's world renowned culinary scene noted for its Michelin starred chefs and its famous Pintxos/small bites on a stick culture.

However, when your primary mission is helping your beloved partner and travel mate to regain her strength, physical capability, and self-confidence, the latter has to be put aside for another trip. We are focused on gradually building up capability. Long food tours and over eating is just not the ideal thing for one who is like an athlete wanting to return to her top performance. 

Yet, de-I being de-I, he can't totally ignore his gastronomic tendencies. And in our case here in Bilbao, we've had this lovely circumstance of an apartment with more foodstuffs in it than I have ever experienced. As I looked at it all (and knowing we were not going to be eating out much if at all) I suddenly became filled with the desire to make use of it all. Sort of like the Pewter Chef challenges of old. Only I have called this the Challenge of Cooking with Free, meaning using all the stuff here.

Let's do a little catalog.

 Here are the condiments we were gifted

 Then there was the beer and coffee

 

 There was actually a lot more beer, but I've been drinking it even though I'm not a big beer drinker because...

 IT'S FREE!

 And there is even more coffee. Originally, I brought my own coffee because Spanish coffee isn't that great. But, damn it...

IT'S FREE

So I'm drinking what's here. 

BTW that Arroz Integral is ready to eat rice. Pretty wretched actually but with all the flavorings I've got, I can make it pretty tasty. And...

IT'S FREE

 

 What can I do with all this tea? Make tea infused eggs?

 

 And what about all this chocolate? My buddy the Celebrity Historian, can tell you all about the historical connection of Spain bringing chocolate to Europe.

I've made a variety of salad dressings. The condiment array led me to make meals featuring cheeseburgers and hot dogs. More to come for sure.

Neighborhood Interlude

Our apartment building

 

Looking toward the supermarket we go to

 

Local bakery for bread

 

Eldership Spain 2025 - Edging Out Of Bilbao - Bermeo & Mundaka

Because we are treading lightly on stressing Wife's foot (pun absolutely intended!), and because the weather is not particularly nice (a lot of rain predicted), we decided that we'd do a day trip to some coastal areas near Bilbao - Bermeo and Mundaka specifically. 

Getting out of the city was uneventful. The terrain as we moved toward the coast reminded me of the Pacific Northwest. It is way wetter here. Greener. And there are incredibly steep and twisting roads. 

Arriving in Bermeo, we immediately started to look for a place to park by the waterfront. No such luck. HOWEVER, we were able to engage in one of our FAVORITE travel activities...getting lost in incredibly narrow, Old World, city streets. Fortunately for us we managed to extricate ourselves before hitting a dead end on a road no wider than our vehicle, or going the wrong way down a one-way street (actually that's not correct. I think we did that.)

We finally found ourselves out of Bermeo town and decided to head to the nearby 'scenic beach' of Mundaka. We were more successful here in actually finding a place to take some photos. We did try to go into Mundaka town and had the same lack of luck finding parking that'd had in Bermeo. 

I'd decided I'd had enough of driving in the semi-rural Basque coastal countryside so we headed back to Bilbao. Here we managed to miss a key turn on the road back to our apartment and plunged right into the center city. I only ran three red lights. However, we despite our team navigating effort, we managed to have around 6 'recalculating' moments as we missed turn, after turn, until we MIRACULOUSLY suddenly were at our apartment. We finished off our driving day with a classic 35 point parking to get into our parking place while my car's proximity alarm is beeping incessantly so you have no idea of what part of your you might be close to hitting, and you keep inadvertently going into manual mode with the transmission instead of reverse. Fun, Fun. Fun.

I'm pretty proud of ourselves. In our very first day we managed to cram in all of the Euro driving craziness we usually encounter during a whole trip! Super twisty mountain roads? Check. Getting lost in incredibly narrow Medieval type streets? Check. Incredibly stressful driving through the middle of a large city while getting totally lost? Check. Insane narrow parking garage experience? Check. 

And (honestly) Wife and I were for the most part pretty even keeled. This is not our first rodeo and we've worked very hard to be a good team. 

Fotografika  

 Scenes from our apartment in Bilbao

 

 

 We Surrender! Finally getting out of Bermeo and finding a place we could stop and figure out where to go next.

 

Mundika

 

 

 Study of a Surfer

 

 

 

 Looking back at Bermeo Harbor (the pictures don't capture how incredibly windy it was at this viewpoint.

 

 Un Poco de Gastronomia

In Madrid, our go-to airport hotel, the Hotel Nuevo Boston, has a surprisingly good kitchen. 

I am a lover of Ensalada Rusa, a version of potato salad with a variety of vegetables and canned tuna fish. But I'd never seen a version like this where, the tuna was served as a starring role (FYI canned fish is considered a high gastronomic form in Iberia). This was a really luscious version and I was glad to have tried it.

 

 I also ordered a tagliatelle with mushrooms that had three different kinds of mushrooms. It was also quite good.

 

Eldership Mission Spain 2025 - Resting And Readying Away Missions

Saturday, we were done with air travel but not yet at our first real stop of the trip. It's a four hour drive from Madrid to the Northern Coastal city of Bilbao in Spain's Basque area. 

Driving a ways after a long air journey is not an enjoyable task, at least for me. Despite it being a relatively short distance, I needed a couple of stops to let my body rest and to refocus my attention. Fortunately, there was little in the way of traffic once we were out of Madrid. We had accurate GPS coordinates for our Airbnb. Our host has been very communicative. We made it to the building exactly when we said we would and she was there to meet us. 

Our host is a throw back to an older, simpler Airbnb time when most properties were lived in at one time by the hosts. Rather than the 'self check-in', she showed us everything in the apartment and made sure we settled. As she even made sure we had something for breakfast as supermarkets are closed on Sundays in Spain. 

Even so, I made a quick walk to a supermarket that is only few blocks away to get some more provisions as we didn't want to do much other than rest up and especially give Wife's foot a rest. One of our goals in returning to places/countries we are familiar with is to enjoy a different environment without actually having to move to it. This is definitely becoming true for us and Spain as my quick trip to the supermarket confirmed. It might be a different chain, but the general layout, and offerings are familiar so I didn't waste time looking for things they don't have and (mostly) found all the things I did want.

It was a grey day with rain on and off. We talked to children around the world. We had a big salad for dinner. We did laundry. I will do a post on the apartment itself, which is very comfortable. 

The weather on Monday is not supposed to be much better than today. We are very focused on bringing Wife's foot and overall walking strength along gradually. Unfortunately that means we will probably miss out on a lot of the classic things one would do in Bilbao (the Guggenheim  Museum, wandering the old town, food tours, etc.) but we knew that when we came. We have checked out a number coastline towns that we think will be good for photography (like we did when we were salvaging our Swedish trip right after the injury). Our plan is to scope them all out tomorrow so we know where we want to go when the weather improves starting Tuesday.

Eldership Mission Spain 2025 - A Study of Wheelchair Services

There were many questions if Wife's foot would be healed enough for us take this trip. Ultimately, we decided to go even though she will have limited mobility because we couldn't stand the thought of another travel season coming and going with stuck at home. But we knew that the amount of walking required with all the plane changes our trip required was out of the question. Therefore, Wife made the unpleasant decision to make use of wheelchair service throughout the trip. Unwittingly, this gave us an opportunity to experience the wheelchair service in four different cities on two continents.

Reserving through the Airlines

We were flying on two separate airlines, United and Turkish. Although both had online ability to request assistance, only United's worked. I had to call Turkish to get the reservation made. However, credit to Turkish, they sent a confirmation by email so you had a record of the request.

Although you make your request through the airline, the actual service is provided by the airport. Wife had opted for the lower level of service as she is capable of walking for a certain distances and can make it down the jet bridge herself. First up...

Albuquerque

Our home airport did a good job. Our wheelchair assistant met us minutes after we'd checked in. Albuquerque is a pretty small airport so she had no problem getting us through security and to our gate in plenty of time. 

Chicago O'Hare

Here again the whole experience went quite well. We were met as soon as Wife was out of the plane by our wheelchair assistant. He efficiently got us to baggage claim and as an added bonus, the service includes getting us to the one hotel that is on the airport property itself. He brought us right to the hotel check-in. Nice. 

Departing the next day, this time checking in at Turkish Airlines at the far out Terminal 5. Once again we were met right away after checking in and whisked through security. (Side note: both in Albuquerque and in Chicago, I had issues getting through security. in the past it's been Wife. Just my turn.) We were early so went to the business class lounge for a couple of hours. It was a short walk to our gate so we didn't have the wheelchair come back.

Istanbul

 This was a wheelchair experience of a completely different nature. We were met at the gate by an assistant in a mechanized wheelchair. He took us rapidly to a holding area where we waited a short while until we were put on nine passenger cart. Then we were whisked away to another holding area. At each hand-off, they took pictures of our boarding passes and us. At each pick-up they confirmed our information again. 

We were only in the waiting area a short while. Because of our long layover, we were going to the Lounge. Another of the mechanized wheelchair transports (think of them as souped up Segways) came. In this case they insisted I take one as well as there was no way I could keep up with the on foot. So we are tear assing through the crowded terminal like some kind of Formula Wheelchair Racers. They take us, IN THE WHEELCHAIR CONTRAPTIONS up elevators and literally into the Lounge. And they tell us we will be picked up exactly at this same location at the time the plane will be boarding.

This seems odd to us. Why wait that late. But sure enough at EXACTLY the time the boarding was scheduled to begin, they show up. It is another hellbent race through the terminal and they take us right into the gate area where no one has boarded yet. 

The whole system was pretty impressive.

Madrid

Here everything fell apart. It was like the polar opposite of Istanbul. We didn't park at a gate so again Wife endured the truck that comes to the plane, lifts up so you can get on, then lowers and take you to the terminal. Here we are put in another holding area. Only here the system is people going around writing things on paper. And those doing the assisting are gradually walking in to take people away. They asked if Wife could do some short walking. She said yes. They proceeded to have her go through the whole passport control and get luggage without ever putting her in a wheelchair though she did get all our luggage and moved that. 

One additional note, we were renting a car. I was concerned about Wife making the long walk to the car. Our rental agent, came out with us. Put us in a close in area. Went and got the car herself and brought it to us so Wife wouldn't have to walk so much! 

The de-I Guilde to Air Travel Planning - Part Five - A Real Case Study

So how does the de-I methodology play out in real life? Wife and I are just launched on one of our Eldership adventures. We are staying overnight at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, doing a self-transfer to a flight that will take us to Madrid, Spain. Let's go through the entire planning process for this trip.

Step One - Where the heck are we going?

We knew we were going to spend the month of October back in El Campello. But we wanted to add something additional to the trip. I have always wanted to go to northwestern Spain and Toledo and suggested we make them add-ons to our agenda. Our ultimate agenda started in Bilbao, Spain, went through Toledo, and ended up in El Campello.

Step Two - First Schedule Attempt

The first screen is looking at absolutely direct travel. In this case the idea would be:

• Fly from Albuquerque to Bilbao Spain
• Drive from Bilbao to El Campello stopping in Toledo
• Fly from Alicante (nearest city to El Campello) back to Albuquerque

  It would have been nice but the price of the flights was prohibitive and a one-way car rental was costly too. On to the next step.

Step Three - Focus on a hub

In this case the nearest hub was Madrid. I checked out rental car cost picking up and dropping off from Madrid. It was far more affordable. Now I had to research round trip travel to Madrid. I used the same methodologies I've explained to you in previous posts. Sure enough, I was able to find a flight itinerary on Turkish Airlines out of Chicago that for two people was $3,000 less than anything comparable. But it would require a self-transfer in Chicago and an overnight stay on both legs going to and coming from.

Step Four -  Lock in the savings with points

I still had to get us to and from Chicago and had to deal with the overnight segments. As I have status on United Airlines for life (long story of accumulating frequent flyer miles of an entire business career), I almost always look to fly from hubs that I can reach from Albuquerque on United. Chicago is one. Using the points to pay down price strategy I explained earlier, I was able to cut the cost of flight to Chicago in half. The most convenient airport hotel in Chicago O'Hare is one where I had points as well. So we were able to get tonight's room for points. I will still need to purchase a hotel in Istanbul for the return. Overall I expect to keep $2,000 of the savings I got from doing the self-connect. 

Eldership Out Of Drydock! Next Mission - Return To Spain

We are warriors. True soldiers. Firm in our duty and commitment to ElderFleet Command. But standing on the bridge of Eldership as we (that would be me as our crew consists of Wife and I) piped aboard the return of our wounded Captain (this week) Wife, back, free from her boot, ready to travel again, a tear formed in our (my) eye. It was good to have her back. 

It was equally good that I was here at all as I have been serving time for my felony assault on Wife with a suitcase in Sweden causing her broken foot in the first place. However, the bureaucrats of ElderFleet Command HQ ran the hard numbers. No de-I onboard, no crew, no alternative Captain, no ability to man the Eldership. Hence, I have been given a release for good behavior with my rank and privileges returned.

Official lift ff will be this Wednesday. Mission cameras have been checked and batteries charged. Brandy and bourbon bottles filled. We will be implementing the very travel practices discussed most recently in this blog. We'll fly to Chicago and overnight. Change airlines Thursday morning and fly to Madrid, Spain via Istanbul. Not the most direct flight, but an incredibly good fare. 

Both Wife and I are very excited to be doing what we truly love once again.