Our middle son is in Bilbao for a year to study at Universidád de Deusto, so was already in town. Luisma quickly changed his plans when he found out about this and met my son early to give him the key, let him in and allow him to stock up some groceries for us.

We felt welcome from the moment we walked into the beautiful, roomy apartment in the heart of the amazing Casco Viejo neighborhood, Bilbao's Old Town. It's full of local shops, various convenience stores and more pintxos bars and restaurants than I can count. And the best ham sandwich I've ever tasted.

When we walked in, we found that Luisma had left a loaf of some kind of almond-covered desert bread on the counter next to the stove, with a knife poised on the pan above it. A clear welcome gift to his wonderful apartment.

The pictures on the site don't do it justice. The apartment is so clean, airy and well-stocked that we kept having to pinch each other to make sure we weren't dreaming this dream vacation. In addition to sumptuous bathrooms (one with a feel of a Turkish bath), Luisma had fans in most rooms and plenty of clean, working utensils in the kitchen.

Everything worked. Everything looked great. There really isn't much more I can say about the apartment. Luisma, however, gets a special commendation. Our plane to Madrid didn't leave for several hours past the time we had to leave. Instead of kicking us to the curb, Luisma allowed us to store our luggage in the apartment while we enjoyed one last trip around Bilbao.

Even more amazing, when we were on the road to the airport and realized we'd left our passports in the apartment, Luisma immediately turned around from where he was and raced back to meet us there. He quickly let us inside and we grabbed the passport from the place where we hid them. We -- I -- was stupid. Luisma was fantastic beyond words.

A good man plus a good apartment in a good city equals an amazing stay.