Tony, Tim, Betsy & Ray's (not forgetting Geoff) 2014 Camino

19.06.14 Thursday Bilbao to Portugalete. We have a few good tapas in a bar just down the street from Pension Mardones where we found rooms for the night. The centre of Bilbao was quiet and when we got up early to walk down the estuary we found three police cars close to the open cafe at 0700. Presumably getting breakfast too. A less than average day is planned down to the final port at the end of the river where there is a transporter bridge! Still in use. Today bars are like buses you wait for one and three come along, coffe a second breakfast for some and beer are all easily available and we soon pass the Guggenheim and its flower dog. Moving on down river there are multiple bridges over bits of river, there is a lot of new development in the town - Ray who stayed in the old quarter 20 years ago is amazed at the change and development. There is little if any partial building that has stalled as we have seen in other areas two years ago. About 11:30 we get to Portugalete the bridge is visible from some way off and below the main church of the town (dedicated we are pleased to see to St Roque) we find the tourist office who stop us from going further by finding us a good little pension and giving us a map of the highlights of the town. Settled there with washing handed over to the elderly lady running the place we go for lunch. Ray and Tim bravely try pigs trotters which were very good and Betsy eats fish in record time without bone problems. On the ever present television the coronation of Felipe today is continuously covered, studiously ignored by the whole Basque population eating lunch with us. Fed we go to cross on the transporter bridge and find that for 7 euros each we can go to the top suspension of this the first bridge of its kind opened in 1893. And get a free ride back! This is too good to miss and gives great views up and down stream. A week after its openning the Infanta (crown princess) visited and crossed over seven times. Obviously she was as impressed as we are even though the stationary steam engine has now been replaced by state of the art electronically controlled electric motors. Transporter bridges were a late 19th C solution to a problem (tall ships and bridges) that rapidly ceased to exist with improved road transport and there are only two still functioning in the UK one in Warrington and one in Newport. A great triumph by Alberto de Palacio and the design calculations checked by Gustav Eiffel the greatest bridge and structural engineer of his day. We then go back up the street escalators ( it is 28 degC ) to our pension. Alas they are the wrong set of escalators! Eventually Ray who has the map with the rooms marked on it gets us back home for a well earned rest. A grand day out and totally different to our charging across the hills and dales of the Basque country. An easy 17km and little up snd dow eccept on escalators