Bilbao, Spain

Today we are on our way to Falmouth on the southwest coast of England. Yesterday we were in Bilbao on Spain's northern coast on the Bay of Biscay. This area of northern Spain and southern France is Basque country. The Basque people have their own culture, language and even a unique DNA. Street and other signs are generally in both Spanish and Basque.

The port where the ship was just into the Bilbao River but the city of  Bilbao is about a quarter hour bus trip up river. Therefore we took the bus into the city. Unfortunately the bus dropped us off in the downtown shopping area (think Rochester's Main Street from the Four Corners to East Avenue) so to get any of the things we would have liked to see it was quite a hike. As a result we walked some of the picturesque side streets and some of the parks and squares. One of the squares (its name escapes me) is in the photo. After a while we took the bus back to the ship for a very enjoyable afternoon. It was in the 70's and sunny so it was nice out in our balcony.

In the afternoon we played Bingo and won again. Unfortunately there were not a lot of players so the prizes were small. The game we won we had to share the prize with another winner. Our winning portion was $19. We had paid $20 for our Bingo cards. So, is a minus $1 a win? I don't know.

Before martinis and dinner we did our daily stop in the casino. The Prinsendam does not have a very large casino as it has only about 700 passengers and most are not big gamblers. There is one craps table, one roulette table and three Black Jack tables. There are a quite a few slot machines but most of those used are the penny and two penny slots. Nancy and I always play the penny slots because a five dollar bill will take quite a bit of time. We are not big gamblers.