Moving on to Spain

Leaving Geneva

Today I leave Switzerland for Spain as it is a good stepping stone towards Colombia where I’m ultimately headed.  I was lucky enough to get a cheap flight to Bilbao with Easyjet Switzerland, where I’ll then slowly make my way to the west to catch my flights to Colombia.

I woke up refreshed after a good sleep despite the hot weather yesterday.  It cooled down through the night and I had left the windows open.

I took the bus to Geneva airport as it involved less walking than taking the train.  The train station was further and there’s walking even within the station.  Leaving at 0815, I got to the airport about 3h before my 1150 flight.

Even though I had no luggage to check-in, curiosity prompted me to take a look at the bag-drop queue.  It was long and I had certainly chosen the right baggage options for the flight.

The airport seemed to be divided into two zones.  It was a breeze going through airside to my zone with automated boarding pass scanners and high-tech x-rays which meant that laptops and LAGs didn’t need to be removed from bags.

I was airside within 20 mins of entering the terminal building, looking for the best lounge to use.  I chose the Marhaba lounge, thinking it might be the best due to its Middle Eastern connection.  It may still be, but the offering was pretty minimalist:  some cold cuts, bread rolls, fruit and a few nibbles.

One and half hours in the lounge went quickly.  With a 15 min walk to a very far gate, I ended up running the last part, as it was now the “gate closing” time as per the boarding pass.  Airlines tend to scare passengers with generous timeframes like that but I wasn’t taking a chance.

Reaching the gate, boarding hadn’t started yet.  But it did after 5 mins and I pushed ahead of the queue to board first as I had priority boarding as part of my luggage add-on product.

The Easyjet A320 was comfortable with non-reclinable seats that seemed adequately reclined already.  I heard the cabin manager disallowing an old lady with crutches from taking the aisle seat in row 1, saying that it was like an exit seat requirement.  It’s interesting to learn of the fine points of safety that differ amongst airlines.

Onboard, everyone was masked as an airline requirement, even though Switzerland itself has removed all Covid-19 requirements.  Hardly anyone is masked indoors or outdoors in the country, even on public transport.

The all-male crew were nice to passengers, giving napkins to people who were eating their own food.

Settling into Bilbao

We arrive a little later than the scheduled time of 1325, due to long ground time at both ends of the flight.  The first thing I noticed in the arrival area was the signage in Basque and Spanish languages.  Yes, this is Basque country.  The language appears so completely different from Spanish.

I joined the queue for the bus to the city only to see the sign that tickets must be purchased inside.  By the time I rejoined the queue, I had missed the bus and had to wait briefly for the second one.

While waiting, I noticed that it felt cooler than Geneva here even though it’s a similar temperature of 30 degC.  The breeze felt cooling whereas that wasn’t the case in Geneva.

The second thing I noticed in the country is that mask usage is still high in Spain and compulsory on public transport, but not indoors.

The bus ride took 25 mins rather than the 45 mins that I had expected.  My hostel for the night is the university residences at San Mames.  Due to poor signage, I had to wander around and go to the wrong place before finding it.

The room was my travel heaven.  It came with a fridge, cooktop, convection microwave, huge workspace with lots of storage, private shower and toilet.  The shared facilities downstairs were pretty awesome too.

It was laundry day for me and I thought I’d work out at the gym while that was in progress.  Wrong!  I ran into problems with the coin and card payment for the washing machine and later even had to go buy water to get change for the tumble dryer.  It was 2h30 of constant monitoring, effort and troubleshooting.  If all had gone smoothly, it would have just taken an hour.

Exploring Bilbao

I had hoped to catch up with Mikel and Puri whom I met in Kashan, Iran a few years ago but they were both busy.  With my laundry done, I headed out about 1745 by taking the metro to the old city.  It wasn’t a bad time as the weather was pleasant now.

Walking around the old city, I found the cathedral.  It didn’t interest me enough to warrant paying an entrance so I continued to the Ribero area where I found an eating hall that may have been a market hall at one stage.

Feeling hungry, I was drawn to the pinchos at EUR2 each.  Sangria wasn’t too dear at EUR3.50 either.  I ended up having five pinchos and called that my dinner.

I walked off my dinner along the river before cutting inland through the city centre looking for an ATM.  Most were charging obscene fees of EUR4-7 per withdrawal.  I finally found a local regional bank ATM that didn’t charge any fees.

Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum was by the river further along, so I headed there for a look before reaching my hostel around 2000.  There was still plenty of light as the sun sets around 2150 currently.