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Current Info--Basque Country & Navarra

This info may be helpful to folks heading for the Basque Country or Navarra.

Sights currently closed:
Bilbao's Museo de Bellas Artes, due to a strike. T.O. is informed, and there's an announcement on the museum website.
San Sebastian's Chillida Museum. T. O. says visits can sometimes be arranged by phoning.
San Sebastian's Comb of the Wind sculpture, on the bayfront at the east end of town. Road is currently blocked.

I've found that city/town tourist offices often can provide maps of other nearby spots. (Perhaps other info as well.) Very helpful if you expect to arrive at a time when the next city's T.O. will be closed. 2 PM to 4 PM is a common period of closure, though the large-city offices tend to remain open. I think some T.O.s do not reopen Sunday afternoon.

In cities of decent size (say, Pamplona), bus stations often have ticket machines for one or more of the bus companies. I've only used the ALSA machines. They take US chip-and-signature cards, asking for a postal code. The machines have an English option, and one of the things you can do is look up--and print--schedules. Very handy if you encounter a long line at a ticket counter, though I've only seen that once. It's my impression that the machines only have infor for, and sell, direct routings, so I think you need to know about connections before approaching the machine. (Thank you, Rome2Rio.) If only one bus shows up, there are probably other options, but involving a transfer.

In smaller towns the bus schedules are usually posted near the bus stop, inside the office/station if there is one. Couldn't find a posting in Puente de Reina, so I was glad I had asked the T.O. for info upon arrival.

As mentioned in the RS book, there's an English-speaking info booth (I think basically just for bus info) at the Pamplona bus station.

The Pamplona and San Sebastian bus stations are underground and not very prominently marked. S.S. is new, so perhaps they just don't have all the planned signage in place. I found it confusing to locate even though I was pretty much standing on top of it. The station is very near Renfe at the east end of the Maria Christina Bridge. The problem is that the view of the ramp going down to the station is blocked by a large pillar as you come to the end of the bridge. Look for the free-standing building on your left, marked with an "i" (perhaps a new city T.O. location?); the ramp is right in front. At the bottom of the oh-so-handy ramp there's an escalator down to the ticket booths and buses. There's a good-sized cafe down there, too.

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We are doing this trip in late August. Are looking for ways to return to Paris from Bilbao. We will take the train down to Bayonne from Paris but wanted something different on the return. Only have one day before flight leaves.