Rushing to Bilbao

Since we had to spend the night in Grenada on the 24th in order to see the Alhambra, we had only the 16 waking hours of the 25th to get from the south of Spain to the northernmost region, the Basque country. So: we spent four hours driving to Madrid in the morning, and five more on a bus to Bilbao. In between the two spans of road, we stopped at the Renia Sofia Art Museum while waiting for a package at the post office.


Above: Giant Spider, also featured in many other places around the world.

Our impression of Bilbao was pretty limited. For one, the language spoken, Basque, doesn't look anything like Spanish. Secondly, when we arrived at 10:00 at night and started looking for a restaurant at 10:30, we were surprised to see that places were closing up. In the rest of Spain, restaurants wouldn't really start serving dinner until around then, so we were awfully lucky to find a very nice and traditional, if expensive, place to dine. They served delicious cuisine that was nothing like the food in the south. Everyone woke correspondingly early as well. Although we were up at 6:00 in the morning, and strolling the city by 7:00, the city was already bustling with activity. Also, we saw joggers, which seemed to be much extinct in other parts of the country.



The tourist highlight of Bilbao is certainly the Guggenheim Museum, which we never had a chance to explore on the inside. Still, it's most famous for its architecture, courtesy of American architect Frank O. Gehry, so we were able to appreciate some of that on the outside. It was amazing to watch the character of the building change with the rising sun, and I'm anxious to see the interior next time we're in the region.

Shortly after snapping these pictures, we were whisked off by a bus to the airport, where we caught our first EasyJet flight of the trip, through London to Amsterdam.



Architectural Links:

The Miracle in Bilbao
For more info on the Bilbao Guggenheim, check out this enthusiastic review of the building, with plenty of conceptual background.

Harvard Design Magazine
If you like that first article, have a look at my favorite architectural publication, the Harvard Design Magazine. It has lots of great writing about architectural and urban design issues.

The Bilbao Guggenheim Website
The museum's website has a brief description of the building.

Peter Miller Books, Seattle
Just in case you're looking for gift ideas for a certain male traveler, age 26, Peter Miller Books in Seattle in where I dump too much cash on design and architecture books and mags. I won't be able to afford them when I start school again in the fall, but luckily they sell gift certificates... Also, it's a great place to browse if you have any interest in art and design. First Avenue, Seattle.