A what-enheim?

In an effort to make this vaguely interesting, I'll try and keep this to 5 mins of reading tops. Blogs are meant to be updated a little more often than we do, so when we do blog we tend to have a bit to catch up on.

Last weekend we spent in Bilbao which is here, in the North of Spain. We went on the recommendation of Jason and Tracey who had a good time there as well as the fact that we loved Spain when we were there almost a year ago and this would be our last chance to go.

It was quite a cool city and a great blend of old and new. It has the newest Guggenheim Museum, of which there are only four in the world. The building is incredible as you can see from the photos which I've now put on our photo site and from the picture on the right. Some of the displays were cool but the building was the highlight.

We also timed our trip well as we were there for Carnival, where everyone dresses up in crazy outfits (like on the left here) for no particular reason and just parties on the streets of the old town.

The highlight for me (and Jane I'm sure too!) was going to a Primera Liga game. We saw Athletico Bilbao and Villa Real play a 1-1 draw. Very cool indeed. The crowd provide plenty of entertainment as they all chew nervously on sunflower seeds and then at half time, pull out their bocadillos (baguettes) from the tin foil and munch away.

I could write more, obviously, but won't bore you with details. The photos tend to tell the story just as well anyway. It is a bit sad to know we're not going back to Spain again as it is a cool place with a great culture that seems to be strongly family, friends and food-orientated (our 3 great loves!). We love their routine with eating and how laid back they generally are about time. We will certainly miss authentic tapas and pintxos, not to mention the sangria. But that is Spain now done. Time to think about the trips that are ahead when will take in France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria etc etc etc. At the moment we're tossing up between a couple of weeks in Eastern Europe or Egypt. Tough choice to face hey?

Other news:
* we celebrated our one-year anniversary of being away when we were in Spain. Don't worry family, it was half-celebration and half-wake.
* training is going ok in the marathon and I'm nearly half way there for sponsorship. Please jump on and donate if you haven't donated already. Thanks to those who have, you've been very generous.
* booked tickets to see Foo Fighters in Hyde Park with Dave M, who lands that day!
* other trips planned: 22-26 March in Les Arcs (French Alps) to visit Mark and hopefully learn to ski. May sometime we're off to Berlin for a weekend.
* only other trip to plan is the one home. We will be travelling for around 3.5 months so quite a bit of planning to do, particularly the tail-end when we'll be working in Asia.