We woke to another day of blue skies and glorious sunshine and our plans to get up early and head straight in to Bilbao were scrapped in favour of a lie in and lazy breakfast.
However later than expected but feeling very chilled out we boarded a shuttle bus into Bilbao. A return ticket is €12 and the journey takes 20 minutes. We had planned to get the train into the town, but decided for €12 the coach was the perfect option.
There is so much to see and do in Bilbao and with the coach dropping you off minutes from the Guggenheim museum, which was unfortunately closed today. However the building itself is well worth a visit with thousands of feet of metal that reflects the light and sun in the most spectacular way.
If you are travelling with children there is a park right next to the Guggenheim museum.
This is a wonderful spot to sit with a coffee overlooking the river but also has a view of the park for a much-needed pit stop.
Bilbao is a wonderful place for shopping which Joe made the most of as he hunted out the Bilbao Athletico club shop. Because when you are 12 you can never have enough football strips! I was lucky enough to find a department store that sold Jo Malone for a little retail therapy whilst Chris rolled his eyes at us.
We head to the Old Town for a spot of lunch and with very little grasp of Spanish guessed at lunch, you can’t play safe in when travelling can you? However we lucked out and enjoyed a delicious lunch and glass of wine as Joe started to moan that he wanted to go back on board the ship. This is our problem with cruising; the boy’s shelf life off ship is limited, they love life on board. And there may not be many kids on board, but he is still having the time of his life.
Last night we decided to dine at the Lawn Club Grill,
Which is one of the speciality restaurants on-board Celebrity Silhouette.
The concept is genius as the lawn club is an interactive restaurant; where you can choose to cook your own dinner of have it made for you. Of course Joe wanted to make our flat bread starter, and the restaurant team were wonderful with him as he prepared our starter.
The Lawn Club serves the most delicious steaks, salmon and seafood kebabs and is such great value as you can eat as much as you want and have it cooked just how you like. And the interactive nature makes it so much fun.
The night was rounded up watching Wynn Evans and the Stomping Ivories. Both shows were amazing, Wynn’s voice is just beautiful and he was hilarious taking of the effect of the go compare advert and how he was voted the most hated man in the UK because of it, but you know what? His talent and warmth and honesty was incredible and he had the audience in stitches with talk of his antics, he really could be a stand up comedian.
The Stomping Ivories is a band we will see whenever they play as they are blooming incredible. Their talent is mind-blowing. Joe is keen on playing the keyboard and we are currently looking for a piano teacher for him. He is mesmerised by their faultless skill and mega cool factor. I am so glad we got the opportunity to bring Joe on this cruise as it really has accelerated his love for music. And with him have no access to music instruments in his music lessons at school (I know figure that one out?) this opportunity has been wonderful.
See what we got up to on day 2 here.
