Tradition has it that getting rid of colds, tonsillitis and other throat ailments is as simple as wearing a cord blessed in San Blas for nine days. The trick seems to work, at least if you attend to the hundreds of people who every February 3 go to the church of San Nicolás de Bilbao to hear mass, buy the traditional donuts and marshmallow candies at the street stalls and get enough laces multicolored to protect the whole family. Half an hour's drive from Bilbao, in the beautiful town of Abadiño, honors for the saint include a traditional agricultural and livestock fair.