Adios Spain and buon giorno Italia

We only spent one night in Bilbao - mainly to see the Guggenheim Museum. It was a very short but successful visit. We caught the bus from San Sebastian (about 1 hour and 20 mins) oh and let me say again how much I love bus travel! (I really am turning into my dear departed Dad - I can feel a camper van holiday coming on as I write!).

Still lovers in love after all these months - at the Guggenheim

Spent a very enjoyable day at the museum - really is a fantastic building - very visitor friendly; fantastic modern art exhibits and beautiful setting by the river. We walked to and from our hotel to the museum - we struggled a bit on the way back - partly because it was raining and partly because we are both feeling quite tired. We stopped off at a shopping centre to escape the rain and not even a big shoe sale could get me motivated!

So we finally bid farewell to Spain - we spent our last night in Spain watching Spanish cartoons and eating chocolate biscuits because we were too tired (or lazy depending on how you look at it). LOVED, loved, loved Spain. 

Great food, lovely friendly people (apart from the slightly over boiled old ladies who promenade in San Sebastian), easy to move around. It was great to experience the differences between the regions - its a bit like travelling between different countries - people are very patriotic about their own region, language food and culture.

Floral dog - outside Guggenheim

Spider sculpture - river side of Guggenheim

We have now arrived in Florence - and we are having difficulty not speaking our few words of Spanish to the Italians - oh very confusing. Cafe con latte not cafe con leche; due bierre not dos cerveza; gracia not gracias or grassy arse as we say it! The journey from Bilbao to Italy went very well - up to a point. We caught the bus to the airport - no problems; checked in and had breakfast; flight left on time and was a pleasant flight. We arrived in Milan on time; caught the train to the central train station - even realised we had to validate our train ticket (strict 40 euro fine if you don't  - sowe found out later); arrived in central station and purchased our ticket for Florence - had time for lunch and caught the train on time. Lovely Jubbly - train from Milan to Florence was  just under 2 hours. About 200 metres from Florence SMN station our train broke down. We proceeded to sit on the tracks with no air-conditioning for an hour and a half until they pulled us into the station - 200 metres!!!!!!!  anyway arrived safely so all's wells that ends well……

The never ending train journey!