Bilbao

Juan and I spent a great, but way too short, weekend in Bilbao. We flew out on Friday night and made it to Bilbao just in time to grab a drink in the main tapas area near our hotel. We walked around a little bit and headed back to the hotel for a good night of sleep.

Saturday morning we woke up and headed out for a full day of sight-seeing. Our very first stop was the street where Juan's grandmother lived. It was fun for Juan to see, in back-to-back weekends, where his grandfather was from (Gijon) and where his grandmother grew up (Bilbao). We took some pictures in front of their apartment building before making our way to the Guggenheim.

The Guggenheim is an awesome museum on both the inside and outside!

The first thing you see when you approach the museum is "Puppy", a huge dog covered in flowers.

As you walk around the museum you pass a playground with big water geysers (I reallllly wanted to jump in!!) and several interesting sculptures. Some of my favorite sculptures included the giant thumbprint and the huge spider.

The museum is right next to the river, so the architect, Frank Gehry, tried to blend it into its surroundings as much as he could. There is a shallow pool of water that runs from the river banks and up to the building. Mr. Gehry also decided to incorporate the existing bridge into the museum façade by placing giant sculptures on top of it.

Interesting side note: Frank Gehry also designed the Stata Center at MIT. It was fun seeing the resemblances. (http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2004/10/frank_gehrys_mi.html)

The Guggenheim is covered in titanium sheets that are .5mm thick!! Yeah, that's 1/2 of 1 millimeter - about the same thickness as tissue paper. I was a little shocked when I heard that on the audio guide.

There were several cool exhibits inside the museum. It is mainly a modern art museum. They have everything from huge sculptures to watercolors. Juan and I both thought it was interesting that they decided to host a Russian art exhibit. A lot of the art was really interesting - with a huge focus on the political unrest of the past centuries. As part of the exhibit there were several rooms of really really old Russian art - it didn't really seem to fit in with the 'modern art' feel of the rest of the museum. Oh well :)

After the museum we went to get some lunch! We ate at Guria, a traditional Basque restaurant. We didn't know what several items on the menu were, but we have good eavesdropping skills, so we listened at what the table next to us was ordering. We heard them order something called "pisto", so we thought we'd also give it a shot. Pisto is a very traditional Basque dish made with a little bit of egg, onion, and peppers. It was delicious!

With a little coaxing from the waiter, I ordered a 'sampler platter' of bacalao. It was just bacalao prepared with four different sauces. They tell you to eat going clockwise from 6:00 - the sauces get more flavorful as you reach the fourth fish. Juan ordered his favorite - squid in its ink… He said it was one of the best he's ever had (and he's had a lot…). We both saved a tiny bit of room for some dessert. I ordered lime sorbet and Juan got arroz con leche. The chef also sent out some little sugar cookies and chocolates. I guess we still looked hungry ;)

After lunch we went to the hotel to put on some cooler clothes and made our way to the subway station. We took the subway over to the old part of Bilbao. We walked around the streets a little bit and made our way up up up hill to the Basilica de la Virgen de Begoña.

This church is where Juan's grandmother prayed every day while her husband was fighting in the Spanish Civil War. It was a really beautiful church on one of the highest points in Bilbao. It was really neat to sit in the church and think that this was the same place that his grandmother sat so many times.

We walked around the church grounds and the area at the top of the hill. There were amazing views of all of Bilbao.

We started hearing some pretty loud music coming from the bottom of the hill and decided to go and check it out. We found an elevator that took us down to the bottom of the hill (an elevator would've been nice for the way up!!). We followed our ears to a fun little concert. The band was actually really good - even though they were singing in euskera and we couldn't understand a word. We hung out at the concert for a while and walked around the nearby neighborhood.

We also stumbled upon some traditional Basque dancers. We sat down and watched them perform for a little while. I was most impressed by the woman who was playing the flute and the drums - at the same time!!

Talk about multi-tasking! It's actually considered one instrument in the Basque country and is called the chistu-tamboril vasco.

While we were watching the dancers we discussed our plans for Sunday. We decided to take a bus over to San Sebastian (about an hour away). San Sebastian has amazing beaches, and Juan didn't bring his suit, so we went shopping at the Corte Ingles. I just can't stay away from that store!

Saturday night we walked back to the tapa area for dinner. On our way we passed by the Athletic Bilbao soccer stadium and took some pictures. Juan's great-grandfather was President of Athletic Bilbao for several years, so I am sure that the soccer club was a big part of his family's life in Spain!

We woke up on Sunday, packed, checked out, and headed to the bus station. It was a very nice bus ride through the country and along the coast. When we arrived in San Sebastian it was HOT. Really hot. We decided against going to the beach for several reasons - the largest being that we already checked out of the hotel and wouldn't be able to shower before our flight and that we only had a few hours to explore the city.

We regretted our decision almost immediately after we stepped off the bus. It was hot - we were dripping in sweat - and the beaches were beautiful.

We walked all along the Playa de la Concha and then took the funicular (a little tram) up the side of Monte Igeldo. We had no idea what was on the top of this hill, but thought it was probably worth a look if they had a funicular going up there J Good logic, I know.

Well, we got up to the top and found that there was a little carnival up there! It wasn't much, but it was fun. We had a little hammer hitting contest - Juan won - barely.

We also climbed up to the top of an old light house that was on top of the hill. I definitely think we were at the highest point in San Sebastian. We had a great birds-eye-view of the whole town.

We took a lot of pictures before making our way down the lighthouse, down the funicular, and back over to the beach. We grabbed a hamburger, vegetable sandwich, chips, and drinks and enjoyed our lunch by the beach. We then had to walk back over to the bus station, hop on the bus, and ride back to Bilbao. It was a very short, but awesome trip!

We had to catch our flight back to La Coruña, so we headed to the airport when we got back to Bilbao. It was an incredible weekend trip. It was great to see places that actually have significance to the family. It was fun to see where people were from and where grandparents walked around during their youth. We've really enjoyed our last few weekend trips because of the family connections. We're really happy we were able to visit these cities.