Distraction Tour to Northern Spain -- Early February 2023

In early January, Will had his first meeting with a pulmonologist and a lung scan was scheduled. A few days later, he reviewed results with his doctor. As I recall, it was at that vist that he heard the word "tumor" for the first time. He was then scheduled for a bronchoscopy/biopsy for the middle of February. At our nightly "meeting" on our balcony, with plenty of wine and beer, we discussed options -- should he go back to Chapel Hill? -- and decided to stay the course in Portugal. Scary time but he was really feeling fine and we were of one mind about staying in Cascais.

Since we had some time before the bronchoscopy, we decided to take a trip to northern Spain to visit Bilbao and San Sebastian. We called it our distraction tour. It turned out to be a great decision.

Bilboa is the home of the amazing Guggenheim Museum. The building itself is a work of art. Our hotel looked right out on the mueum. It had a roof top bar and we enjoyed our first evening in Bilboa looking out on the museum. We absolutely loved Bilboa. It was immaculate. There was no litter or grafitti in sight. Aside from the Guggenheim, the city is filled with interesting and creative architecture. We both agreed that Bilboa is the gold standard for urban renewal. The modern buildings are fresh and yet still nod to the history as a major Basque commercial center and thriving port. It is an easily walkable city which suited us well.

The stadium is home to the Athletic Club footbsll (soccer) team. Athletic Club is a symbol of Basque nationalism and promotes only Basque players. The stadium itself is an interesting building. There is a bridge across the Nervion river that was designed by my favorite architect -- Santiago Calatrava. Along the river, there are four tall statues by the Basque sculptor Dora Salazar depicting working women, known as sirgueras, intertwined by rope. Historically, a sirguera was a woman who towed river boats to land, and the employment of women to do this in the port city of Bilbao, important for its iron industry, became very common in the 19th Century during the Spanish Carlist Wars of succession. As the men were away fighting, it was up to the women to do such heavy jobs. The employment of women was also cheaper than the hiring of oxen (!). These statues were unveiled in April 2021 and are said to symbolise the march towards gender equality, not yet fully realised for women. We really loved the Jeff Coons sculpture of The Puppy with sits just outside the Guggenheim Museum. The Puppy is 43 feet tall and covered in flowering plants.

I enjoyed the contemporary art housed in the Guggenheim more than Will. But we both enoyed exploring this amazing city. As you can see, he was in good spirits (and beer) and was enjoying our visit.

Next, we took a bus eastward to the lovely city of San Sebastian, along the Bay of Biscay. Again, we stayed at a lovely hotel, the Hotel Londres y da Ingleterra right on the beach. We wandered around town and headed up to a scenic overlook high above the city. Happily, it was quiet in the off season. I can't imagine the crowds in the summer. I know we could not have afforded that hotel!

San Sebastian is known as a foodie center. We fell in love with the pintxos, which are small snacks similar to tapas. They consist of a piece of bread loaded with toppings and usually speared with a skewer to keep it all together. I brought back a cookbook and home to experiment with pintxos back here in the USA.

The distraction worked well. We returned back home to Cascais to face the next round of doctors' appointments and tests.