Walked around, not in, the Gugenheim at Bilbao

Thought I might add these few photos as a reminder of our flying visit to Bilbao last Sunday.  Driver stopped the bus near to the Museum and we had a nice stroll round the perimeter of the museum, along the river bank.  Place was heaving with visitors, both locals and tourists, a really spectacular building.

Why change the habits of a lifetime?

Home and dried out !!  not from wet weather of course, but from the wines,  however, last night we attended yet another of the super wine tasting evenings at the Mercat Grill,  this time a South American theme with food and wines from Argentina and Chile.

Slightly fewer glasses being poured at the same time, reflecting back  to last Tuesday when Jesus was "doing his thing" and being an excellent host.

One of my other favourite treats, sadly not on the menu last night, are mushrooms,  so having spotted a Tapas bar in Logrono on the Internet which specialised in said mushrooms we set out and found it. A tiny little bar, where all they sold were mushrooms, stacked three high, topped ith a prawn and cooked in garlic butter and rock salt, brilliant.  The "boss" was so ppleased when I told him we had seen him on the web, and I managed three of his "specials" just to show there was no ill feeling.

"Fair Braw".

So,  with fine wines, fine foods, great memories, nothing else to do but drift off and "chill".

PS. not me,  not even in my youth!!!!!

There was wine, wine and even more wine!!

Sounds a bit like that old poem, water, water , everywhere, and not a drop to drink,   however, in this instance there were bottles and casks of wine, and plenty to drink.

Just returned home after a quick four day visit to the Rioja region of Spain along with eighteen other members of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland Licensed Trade Association.

We flew out on the early morning Ryanair cattle float from Edinburgh to Santander, were met by a private coach and driver who remained with us for the duration of our trip.

Will keep this bit blog as short as I can and give other stories and asn when I can manage later.

Monday morning we were taken to the Bodegas  Marques de Caceres,, where our hostess was Anne Vallejo,  and to say that we were looked after is just a bit of an understatement !!!

Day two (Tuesday) was to prove a long day,    First visit of the day was to the Bodegas LAN, hosted by Ms Trinidad Villeges, who led the tour, tasting and a awarded us with a lovely tapas buffet.

The weather at this stage decided to change as we left LAN, and we drove south along the Peage  through gathering rain and darkening skies until we reached the 11th Centuary village of Quel in the middle of a massive thunderstorm !!  BUT,  after about fifteen minutes the rain stopped, skies cleared and our hosts, Jesus Fdze and Manuel appeared.  this was to be a two part visit,  first to the ancient caves dug into the cliffs in the village and then, after tasting a couple of wines it was via the scenic route back to Logrono and to the Bodega ONTANON and Museum.    Once again a tour of this modern premises followed by more tapas and another three wines. 

Day 3 (Wednesday) and a long day is store as we were heading homewards later on.   Picked up by the bus and set off only to discover that the driver had forgotten that we had another visit first !!!  Npo worries, bit of a detour and despite being a bit late we met Sara Romeo at the Bodega  DON JACOBA, in the small village of Navarrete which is situated on the route of the Pilgrim Trail leading from all parts of Spain and Europe to Santiago in north west Spain. From where we were it was only another 576 K to go!!!

So, having said our farewells, it time to sit back and relax as out driver, and his co - pilot drove the 300 K to Santander where we flew back on he late flight arriving in Edinburgh at  midnight, all puggled.     More on our visit later.

   

Bloody weather, as they never cast a clout till May is out, and what did I do?

Plenty bedding plants on sale and of course just flying off the shelves due to the good weather,  however nice wee dose of ground frost during the week -2.5C and of course the plants are jiggered and have had to be dug up and dumped.  Should have heeded the old wives tale and known that in Penicuik we need to wait till June.

Andy Murray not firing on all cylinders yet, so case of waiting for the next tournament.

Semi final of Scottish cup today, and our William is now despondent as Hibs were beaten by Aberdeen,  now need to see how Celtic and Rangers get on tomorrow.

Friends just back from Spain on a Ryanair flight and complaining bitterly about how they were treated while waiting at airport, treated like cattle being their opinion.  From what I gather looks as though British Airways will soon be running their organisation just like Ryanair, very disappointing the way these cut price airlines are ruining the industry.

I have joined the "not another bloody election" party!

Has been said already by so many people,  just gets beyond a joke, all the papers are writing their respective stories with bias towards their respective parties,  TV full of it, radio full of it, so as I have said before, not my cup of tea.  Will no doubt do my duty and vote rather than abstain, time we had voting compulsory, although the way our immigration and education is going we would need multi lingual ballot papers and need to show some how to make an X or explain what it mean

Before I heard this news I was just thinking about the state the World was in with the many , eejit leaders in situ,  however the USA electorate voted in Mr Pump,  allegedly with a little help from the Ruskies, and now they are not talking!  North Korea has worse running the country whose ambition in life is to look after No. 1 and keep the working class well under the thumb,  mind he is not alone, and we , the UK are just plain stupid to be pouring millions into third world countries as foreign aid. But, if the USA can drop the MOAB costing £12.5 onto a cave complex to destroy thirty five terrorists,  they would have been cheaper dropping a lorry full of fertiliser out the back of the plane, when you see how many poor innocents were slaughtered in Iran last week by a suicide bomber.

Managed a run out on both the Steed of Steel and the Time Machine over past couple of days, just to keep them ticking over till I feel fitter.

Another wine night coming up in the Mercat Grill on 29th April,   South American wines and tapas, should be good.   Hopefully manage a wee bit practice next week sampling Rioja and tapas in an authentic setting, where the sun might be shining, which will make a change from our changeable climate, sitting out this afternoon, and yesterday -2.5C which kind of shocked a few of my early plants.

Was it fly tipping or a fly guy tipping, whatever, it is illegal.

On my travels today came across this pile of domestic rubbish dumped at the side of the Penicuik to Nine Mile Burn Road, just short of the junction with the A702.   Had a rummage through one of the bags and there were names and addresses on various letters, even details of one blokes driving licence.   Hopefully the litter man from Midlothian Council will be diligent enough to track down the culprits.

Why do today what you can put off till tomorrow !!!!! Seems to be most unlike me.

However having just logged in I find this is the case, no getting away from it at all.

Firstly a wee treat for the eyes, something made by Mrs B. as a special treat for one of the clients who chose the Mercat Grill as his birthday venue.

Met one of the birthday group a few days ago who said it was very tasty indeed.

Still using my NHS membership card !!!!  having had a couple more visits to the ERI and my GP.  just proving that preumonia does not go away overnight!!  kind of puts my gas at a peep as they say.

Looks as though our seasons are a bit back to front,  suspect that we had summer before Easter and from tonight's weather forecast looks ass though winter is on its way again with frost due this week so a bit of a survival test for the flowers and plants which have been blooming.

Blooming,  yes, "blooming parking ticket"  dropped through the door, or is it ?  While at the local surgery and using the car park which everyone thinks is shared by Lidl,  I had to wait much longer than expected for the nurse and GP,  so for the extra fifteen minutes I am doinged £90 or pay quick and it is £45.  BUT IS IT,  the letter arrived from Athena who administer the car parks , nothing to do with Lidl I was told in the store who just did not want to know.  Anyway, it would appear to be one of the official looking bully boy letters, which many ignore.  I did learn from the surgery that a number of their patients have been paying the money rather than ignore it.
According to the web site, Athena run these car parks for Lidl, and from what I gather there is no sharing arrangement with the Health Centre, so where do patients park as there is limited off street parking in the area?  Spoke to our local SNP councillor who acknowledged that there was very limited public parking in Penicuik Town Centre which obviously affects local businesses.  He described Penicuik as giant "Park and Ride" used by many from Peebles, West Linton, Eddleston and outlying areas who have a greater choice of buses into Edinburgh from here.