Pintxos, Massages & Secrets Spilled in Bilbao

Pintxos with a side of ship envy (them not us)

Today’s tour in Bilbao was the Pintxos Masterclass. All I remembered from booking it months ago was something about a Michelin-star chef doing a cooking demonstration—let’s see what that turned into.

While waiting for the tour to kick off, we watched Independence of the Seas dock beside us. We’d seen it in Lisbon a few days ago, but it still blew us away. It’s 2.5 times as wide and 1.5 times as long as our ship—and has 20 times the number of passengers (4500 vs 200). Ice rink, two-storey theatre, waterslides... wowsers.

Front row seats for a gourmet show

Our group (lucky Group One!) had a few familiar faces—three Aussies and two Americans from earlier tours. We took a short ride from the port in Getxo to the Radisson Hotel in Bilbao, passing through Getxo’s old town filled with stately mansions now converted into boutique accommodation.

Up at the rooftop terrace, we scored front-row seats for the pintxos prep—right by the demo table. The hotel GM welcomed us and introduced the chef, who walked us through four mini-masterpieces:

• GILDA – anchovy, olive and picked pepper on a toothpick
• Corn Talo & Tomato
• Veggie tartar – beetroot-based
• Farmhouse egg yolk on wheat stew

Even the anchovy-and-olive combo won me over—and that’s saying something. The flavour? Brilliant. The setting? Even better. We were told that good pintxos were designed to make you drink more wine. Well that worked well. While another group was stuck inside, we were out on the sun-soaked terrace with food and wine. No complaints here.

Desserts, confessions and market wanders

During the morning, someone casually mentioned the Azure Café’s chocolate mousse. Ros put two and two together—was that the one I tried yesterday when she was napping? Busted. I also learned (a little too late) that takeaway desserts are a thing. Noted for future stealth missions.

After our rooftop feast, we headed on foot to the markets. Unfortunately, being Monday, the seafood stalls were empty (no fishing on Sundays). But we did see a good range of local produce and a generous selection of pig and cow bits.

Then it was back to the ship and on to Azure Café for lunch—lighter fare and, of course, dessert reconnaissance. When the waitress asked Ros for her drink order (“Coke”), she turned to me and asked, “Scotch and coke again?” Uh oh. Turns out the mousse wasn’t the only secret I’d been keeping.

Salt rooms, snoozes and soothing spa time

Lunch was nice and it was good to have a smaller meal. (two course instead of 3 or 4…) This also gave us a bit of time to work out what we would do for the remainder of the day. We were a bit shattered from being on the go for days so just wanted to chill out a bit. We spent a bit of time in the salt room on the infrared back chairs and relaxation lounge. A guy from the US came in while we were there and he was talking about his trip to Australia. We asked if he came across drop bears … I stuffed up though, the info on google said “hoax” – so close 😉

We had booked in for a massage – meant to be for an hour, but today they were doing 15 minutes longer. We both chose the relaxation massage. I’m not sure how many times I fell asleep, but it would have been at least three as that’s how many times I remember snorting and waking up lol.

Farewell Independence of the Seas

Independence of the Seas was departing. I wanted to try out my bigger lens on the camera so I got Ros to wave to some people at the back of the ship. Funnily enough they were waving back (I could see that clearly on my camera). First picture is them waving, second is them on the ship using my normal lens.

Quiet ship, quick dinner

A lot of people on the boat were off to a concert, so there weren’t a lot of people around the restaurants. We had quick service and were ready for bed. We have an ‘early-ish’ start tomorrow where we need to be in the lounge by 9am. We would be gone all day.