The barge returns home
She was last week’s main character. All of Vizcaya expected him to sail down the estuary on Thursday with Athletic players on board to celebrate the cup triumph. It was a historic event – we had to wait forty years – and equally exciting. He swam and had a party like few (or no one) have ever experienced in this area. And after so many parties, and there were a lot of them, it was time to return “home”. This morning the barge returned to the Maritime Museum, where it will remain until the red and white club wins a new title.
“We experienced several unforgettable days of communication between the team and fans around the barge. Now he is resting again in the Itzamuseum until we next become champions,” Athletic wrote on Twitter.
The barge, a 58-tonne pontoon, returned to the estuary last Monday for extensive repairs. From the first hour, appropriate maneuvers were carried out to remove it from the museum’s pier and put it on the water in order to avoid surprises on the appointed day. After nearly four hours of work, he hit the water again. And it floated under the attentive gaze of dozens of curious spectators who did not want to miss the moment. The next morning, at dawn, he traveled incognito and headed for Getxo, where he remained until Thursday.
And now the day of the ritual has come. From a barge. Athletic, as Cup champion, set sail again on the Nervion on his barge. A million fans on both banks of the estuary and on the red and white streets of Bilbao accompanied his passage with songs, applause and pyrotechnics. Images of a barge floating on a human stream of fans amazed the world and will remain in the history of sports. Of course, in memory of athletics.
Three days after serving as another chapeldoon, the barge returned home to the Maritime Museum this Monday. He did this to rest and gain strength for the next journey. And we all hope that this will happen no earlier than in forty years. Iribar had already told the king: “See you next year.” Who knows…