Bilbao

Bilbao is a small city near the Basque coast, in the very North of Spain. It was very industrial 15-20 years ago, now they are trying to make the city look nicer and with more services, culture, infraestructure, etc. Its kind of easy to find hotel facilities, but remember it is not a big city at all. It is the most exiting event in the city for years, most of it because the show will take place in San Mames stadium, which is unusual. Actually, this is the very first time a rock and rool band plays there. The Stadium belongs to ancient soccer club Athletic Bilbao, now 100 years old. That's why they booked the Stones, to celebrate their anniversary. Only Pavarotti "played" there a month ago.

Bilbao has airport, I believe most of the European cities have connections directly to the city. Now we have the brand new Guggenheim museum, so Bilbao is becoming more and more famous and easy to find in any travel agency. Try the museum web page through yahoo, it has info about how to go there. Driving from the French border is also possible. From Bayone in France to Bilbao is about 2-3 hours drive in a good highway, nice landscape.

There are not so many Hotelsavailable, and we have to think that most of them will be already booked by the tour guys. Anyway, close to Bilbao 5-10 miles they are more towns to find hotels. As I said, Bilbao is a very small city, you can walk everywhere easily. I will do my best to find out details of the Stones in the city, which hotel are they "sleeping" at and so on.

About Vigo, is a small city in the region of Galicia, very nice landscape and so. If you look in the map, take Lisbon, Portugal, and go up North close to the coast, you�ll find it. Has airport, about 3-4 miles from the city. Unfortunatelly, I never been there before, so I cant tell you details, but I can look around in turist offices whatsoever. I dont recomend driving from Madrid, could be easily more than 6/7 hours drive, not very confortable highway. They are buses available from Madrid

Thanks to Fernando Delgado, Madrid for supplying details about the Rolling Stones in Bilbao!

See the separate web pages about Bilbao information in general.

For more news see IORR 33 mailed out in May, 1998!