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Our time in Spain has come to an end and we have made our way to Torino, Italy – next stop on the Depeche tour.  After our day in Bilbao on Tuesday, we decided on a very relaxing day in Getxo.  I wanted to get a postcard in the mail so we handled that at the post office – you don’t drop mail in mailboxes, you generally have to go into a post office and mail from there.  That’s fine – I needed stamps anyway.  After the post office, we chose to do a five mile walk for our workout.  It was fun because we went away from the coast line and walked more in the rural area before circling back along the coast back to the apartment.

After the workout and having our Torino logistics arranged, we decided to work on our Milan logistics, which will be the next stop after Torino.  We are skipping Budapest because we were there over the summer for a Depeche show and want to spend extra days in Torino since we have not been there before.  Milan was relatively easy – we found what looks to be another nice apartment not far from the concert venue and it’s a short train ride between Torino and Milan so we should be set.  Food for the day was all self-contained – bananas and cereal for breakfast, Greek salad for lunch and leftover beef stew from St. Patrick’s Day.  With dinner, we enjoyed a bottle of Txakoli which is a white wine from the Basque region.

Thursday was packing day.  That’s funny to say.  We travel light enough that we’re generally repacked in about 30 minutes or so.  We like to get our things together the day before we actually travel just to feel a little ahead of the game. The stuff we need on travel day is easy to pack in once we are ready to do so.  After that, we took the metro into Bilbao and spent the late afternoon and evening around the concert venue.  Wind2024 (a European wind science convention) was taking place at the Bilbao Exhibition Center, which is also where the concert took place so there was a lot of activity in the area.  We walked around the venue (huge convention center), we had several pintxos at Café Txalupa, and then walked up to the botanical garden to pass the time before show time.  I did not realize that I had purchased early entry tickets (they were priced quite low for some reason), so we actually went into the venue quite a bit earlier than we usually do.  We grabbed a spot in the front row but far off to the stage left side hoping to avoid how crowded it usually feels that close. It worked out really well.  The guy next to me was seeing Depeche for the first time and he had such a good time.  Very sweet guy – he ran after me after the show to give me his phone number in case we are in Bilbao again and he will show us around.  It was also fun because he spoke very little English so I practiced my Spanish a little.  But we also used Google Translate.  We had cheeseburgers before the show started and then the show was excellent.  I like seeing the shows from all different places in the arenas.  Of course it is great to be right up front occasionally.  The one thing I have a hard time with at the front is that I feel quite disconnected from the rest of the crowd.  I love watching others enjoying the show and it’s just harder to do from the front.  But seeing the band interact with each other so close and getting band interaction is also a lot of fun. 

Anyway, we knew the metro was scheduled to close shortly after the show so we hustled out right at the end and made the train we needed.  We needed to connect with another train and it was at the station when we arrived so we hustled onto it.  And then sat for an hour.  It waited for another three or four trains to come from the venue so we really didn’t have to rush as much as we did.  All’s good though – we made it home.

For Friday, our AirBnb host did not have a new checkin and she was gracious enough to allow us a late checkout.  We were able to stay until 2pm, which was great after a late night at the concert.  That gave us a chance to get a little more sleep, get our bags packed, and even walk down to the beach to touch the water.  The water temperature was in the mid-50s.  We did not swim. 

Because we are not planning too far in advance for our logistics, we found that it was rather difficult and expensive to get from the relatively small town of Bilbao to the relatively small town of Torino.  Certainly no direct flights and the best flights we could find were in the neighborhood of $800 each.  We flew from Miami to London to Paris for $350 each, so it was hard to rationalize that expense when we could go an adventure.  We opted for a 20-hour bus trip.  Part of the reason was knowing we may need to do it as we make our way around the world and we wanted to see how we would handle it.  So at 2pm, we walked to the metro stop near our apartment (stopping to get some ice cream on the way) and went to the Bilbao Intermodal station to get our 4pm bus.

The first bus ride was around five hours and took us to Bordeaux, France.  This was one of those unexpected highlights that often pop up while traveling.  We had a three-hour wait in Bordeaux for the next bus and we wanted to get a glass of Bordeaux wine while we waited.  Less than ten minutes from the bus stop, we found C Spirits.  This was a nice little restaurant where we had our glasses of Bordeaux, a gyoza appetizer, and listened to an excellent French pianist playing a variety of French and American music.  It was a really nice way to spend our layover.

The second bus ride left around midnight and arrived into Torino at around 12:30pm on Saturday after stops in Lyon and Grenoble.  The bus was fine, although it didn’t have wifi so we weren’t able to work on some things we had planned.  The seats were fairly comfortable and reclined so we were able to get some hours of sleep.  The drivers were not very friendly at all.  They blocked the first eights seats for their use and had no patience for anybody not understanding that they could not sit up there.  Part of the problem was that people selected assigned seats but the bus was laid out with a different numbering system so we all just sat wherever we could find open seats.  Sandy and I were fortunate to sit together for the full trip.  During one of the stops, I had gotten off the bus to stretch my legs and when I was getting back on there was a big backup at the door so I stepped into the restroom on the bus.  Sandy didn’t realize it and so when the bus started to pull away, she was trying hard to get the driver to stop because her husband wasn’t on board.  I knew that might happen when the bus started moving but there wasn’t much I could do.  I came out, everything was fine, but I learned that I must communicate better.  😊 After the 20-hour trip, we were still smiling.  Tired, but we did fine.  It’s not going to be our preferred mode of travel for long trips, but we know we can do it.

Upon arrival into Torino, we took a tram that dropped us right outside our apartment building.  We were very hungry and there is a bar/restaurant on the first floor of our building so we had some spaghetti and vegetables.  I was in the process of buying my Depeche ticket (Sandy is skipping tonight) for tonight when they guy next to us mentioned that he had an extra ticket and he was so generous to just give me the ticket.  I don’t know if Andrea will ever read this, but I think he knows how appreciative I am.

After eating, we went up to our apartment and found a very nice apartment – it’s quite big – if one of us is in the bedroom we are sleeping in and one is in the kitchen, we cannot hear each other.  There is an awesome terrace that overlooks tonight’s concert venue, a park, and the Olympic Stadium (where Torino FC play).  The view across to the hills on the east side of Torino is great.  We can also look to the south and just see a bit of the mountains that are on Torino’s southern edge.  This is where the 2006 Winter Olympics took place.

We rested a little, showered, went grocery shopping, and then it was off to see Depeche across the street for me and Sandy had a video chat planned with her friends, Heidi, Jonette, and Pauline.  Fun nights ahead for both of us.

Manuel (close friend from Germany) and I watched the show together from the middle part of the floor and it was so much fun.  Too often people were talking during songs, but it is what it is and we had a blast.  It was also nice to see John and Sara from Denmark before and after the show.  It’s the last time we’ll see Sara until some other time down the road.  We’ll see John and Manuel again in Milan.  I also had a chance to see Andrea again for a few minutes after and hopefully he will be in Milan along with his friend who was not able to come to Torino tonight.