July 6 Bilbao
After a good sleep and a pleasant, cheap coffee and croissant breakfast, we went to the station to book our seats on the day train to Barcelona for tomorrow. Cam became unofficial interpreter for a number of non-Spanish speaking tourists and the booking officers, and we had left the station before realising that we had not asked about the bikes, so back to the station to check this out. As bikes were not welcome on the day train we changed our booking to sleepers on the night train, with assurance from the booking officer that there would be plenty of room for the bikes and luggage under the bunks. Cam was again interpreting, and Iain put the camera down on the counter while signing the bank card slip. We left the booking office before Iain realised that he did not have the camera. We had only walked about 30 metres from the counter, but when we returned of course the camera was gone. It had not been handed in, and a quick check of the station precincts for someone selling a camera was unseccessful. This was a devastating loss. The 400 photo visual record of our tour in France was gone. Sue always keeps a detailed diary, but I had concentrated on the visual record, with many photos of the route and the wonderful things that we had seen, including many shots of the stone and wooden carvings adorning the houses and buildings that we had passed along the way. It took me many hours to settle down after this loss.
After another coffee, we headed off across town to visit the Googenheim Museum. The road out of Bilbao sweeps onto a bridge high above the river and overlooking the Museum. It is a spectacular sight. The vertical and square surfaces are made of stone and the huge curved surfaces of sheets of titanium. Inside, I found the most attractive section was the sculptures of Richard Serra. The largest space in the museum houses his huge steel structures, panels of 50mm steel 3.6m high, freestanding sweeping curves and spirals through which you can walk, experiencing varying sensations as the walls are not parallel or matching, so that sometimes the walls seem to close over you, and in other places open your view up to the roof. This description does his work no justice, so I suggest that you look it up on the internet. Sue also really enjoyed the surrealist exhibition, but it didn't do much for me. There were a couple of other interesting installations, one room with a couple of dozen male figures in different stances but with the same face, positioned in groups, amongst whom you could walk. In another room, the floor was of lino in a geometric pattern of yellow and black, designed to give the illusion of box shapes, with a brass strip across the room. I was blithely walking across the room looking around the blank walls when an attendant asked me not to walk on the brass strip as this was part of the installation. I somehow missed the point. I left Cam and Sue to the joys and wonders of modern art, and went for a walk, meeting up with them later.

July 7 Bilbao/ Bilbao to Barcelona
Our train didn't leave until 10.25 pm, so we had another day to look around Bilbao, leaving our luggage in the apartment of the owner of the pension we stayed at. After a fruitless check at the station to see if the camera had been handed in, it was off to the police station to file a lost/stolen report for the insurance company. The police were very polite and friendly, but even with Cam to do the talking, we spent over an hour getting the report made. The process must drive the police crazy.
Cam and I went for a ride on a finicula up to the top of the hills surrounding Bilbao and enjoyed almost a birds-eye view of the city and surrounding areas. Sue elected to stay at sea level and walked around the Guggenheim exterior and the river front until we returned. After some lunch, we bought a tram ticket and went for a ride to the end of the line and back, meeting a Swiss couple doing the same thing.
After dinner, we decided to go early to the station to pack up the bikes in a leisurely fashion and wait for the train, which we had been told was fully booked.

After a security check of ourselves and our luggage we found our carriage and carried the bags onto the train and along the narrow side passage to our cabin. The cabin was minimal size with 6 bunks providing only room for sleeping - no sitting up in bed and reading a book! As for storing the bikes under the bunks, there wasn't room for anything but very small bags. After some consideration of a sizeable dilemma, Cam and I removed the ladder and packed the bikes and bags behind the ladder and hoped that no one else was going to arrive to share the cabin. This feeling of apprehension was repeated each time the train stopped overnight. Although the train was full, no one arrived to fill our three vacant bunks. We suspect that the booking clerk somehow contrived to leave these bunks vacant in appreciation of Cam's assistance with interpreting.
We all slept well and arrived to the humidity of Barcelona at around 9.30 am. We then assembled the bikes, Cam got a 'bicing' (community bike) and we headed for Cam and Leila's apartment mostly along bike lanes.
We hadn't seen the apartment before, and despite it being only around 80 square metres in size, the fact that it is more square than rectangle, means that it is possible for four people to occupy the apartment without getting too much under each other's feet. The flat is bright and airy, with lovely patterned tiles. Of course, it is on the fourth floor with no lift, so we are back to climbing stairs.
After a shower and a change of clothes we headed into town to meet Leila for lunch. She is an architect, and starts work at around 10.30, has a lunch break from 2-4, and then works until 8 or 9pm. Consequently, dinner is very late, as is going to bed.

After lunch we headed for the Birdy dealer to try and get a replacement for the pin I had lost somewhere in France. The pin I fashioned out of a stick found on the ground at Cancale had lasted the distance - probably some 500 kms. As we were going to go for a weekend ride into the hills at the week-end, we were pleased when a replacement pin was available and able to be fitted without too much delay.