Today was a day with several serendipitous happenings, which is the part I most like about travelling, or life in general, to be honest. I headed out the door early so as to get down to the flower market in decent time to catch some photos of them setting up and before the hordes of people arrived. I was able to some good shots of the flowers and the people. When Irv and I walked down later there were significantly more people and I never would have got the shots I wanted.
Beside the flower market is more like what we would call a flea market with people selling old LPs, books, old photos, and polished stones. I stopped to look at some of the stones and spied some rings, one of which I wanted to buy for a certain granddaughter whose birthday is today. When I asked about them, the gentleman asked “Vous parlez français?” So we continued the rest of our transaction in French and had a little conversation about Canada. Seemed funny to be speaking French in Spain!
I returned “home” and Irv was ready to head out, so I took him back to the flower market and flea market. We then wandered over to where the Txin Txin Fest was still going on. Also in that square is a bandshell and there happened to be an orchestra there practising. Irv was happy to stay there while I went off in search of a nail place I had found to see if they could glue on the gel nail that had come off. It happened to be in Plaza Nueva, where we had had lunch with Luis. I got my nail repaired and couldn’t believe how crowded the square was! It was jam packed with adults and kids.
I went back to pick up Irv and suggested we might find a place on the square to have a bite. As we were walking through the square, we noticed that everyone was clustered in little groups and everyone had handfuls of trading cards and were bargaining back and forth with each other. Most of them had some sort of chart or list or graph that seemed to be a way of keeping track of which cards they had and which ones they needed. We were somewhat puzzled because the entire square was filled with these card-traders.
We opted to try different place and luckily found a table at a restaurant in the corner. I ordered a couple of pintxos that looked good and indeed they were! One was ham and the other a crab mixture with a big shrimp on top. And of course, a glass of txakoli to wash it down. The gentleman at the next table spoke English, so I asked him about the card-trading and he said it is a tradition that goes on in this square every Sunday. In fact he has fond memories of coming with his abuelo and doing the same thing when he was a young boy. It is not a commercial type of affair, more like a fun pastime for kids and grownups.
We left the square and headed back toward the Txin Txin Fest, thinking we might stop for a glass of txakoli, but the lineups for tickets were way long. But we did get to enjoy some traditional Basque music and dancing and a performance by the concert band we had listened to earlier.
It started spitting so we headed back “home” and when it looked like it had stopped, I headed out again.I had wanted to catch some shots of the Guggenheim from the La Salve bridge, but this time I took the elevator instead of the seven flights of stairs. It is a great view of the Guggenheim from that vantage point and as well I was able to get some good shots of the mural under the bridge. It is entitled “The Key”, “La Llave” or “Glitza Bat” and depicts two women in dialogue. It serves as a symbol for peace, tolerance and dialogue.The theme is “A key opens the door to peace through the word.” If only our world leaders could follow that path!
I figured since I was already up there I might as well cross the bridge and explore more in the area on that side, so I did just that. I headed over to Moyua Square to see Palacio Chávarri, with all of its windows and balconies being different as well as the Hotel Carlton, which was used as the headquarters for the Basque government during the Civil War. Ended up finding the Eduardo Chillida Plaza, right next to the Museo de Bellas Artes, which I refrained from going into, much as I would have liked to! Back over to Guggenheim, back over the bridge, down the elevator and back to the Air BnB. But who should I meet but Irv also out exploring, so we connected and did a little more exploring together.
We popped in to Zubizuri, where we had had coffee the other day, to see if we could get reservations for dinner. We did and had a most delicious meal - Irv had the cod confit with pili-pili sauce and I had the beef cheeks which were so tender. We shared a yummy tomato salad and finished the meal with a most delectable tarta de manzana. And of course a nice bottle of Alberiño to accompany the meal. A walk home with a quick video call to wish Kai a happy birthday.