Our plans took us next to the mountains of Northern Spain. But to get there, we took a train from Madrid to Bilbao in the northern Basque region. When we were an hour outside of Bilbao the train stopped and everyone got off, except us. We heard an announcement earlier in Spanish but no one seemed too worried, so we didn’t either. Until now. Finally, someone explained to us in English that the northern part of the train was closed temporarily and we were being transferred to a bus. Smile. It is these type of events that happen while traveling that make us laugh. How would you have reacted? We transferred our luggage to a luxury coach bus, and continued a pleasant journey to Bilbao.
Bilbao was a short stopover point on our way to the Cantabrian mountains in northern Spain for a month, then a week long self-guided hike. We both enjoy hiking and were so looking forward to the mountains. In Bilbao, our apartment had large windows and it looked out over the city.
View from Bilbao apartment
Bilbao is such a beautiful city to enjoy with modern art, good weather and food. We found we especially liked typical Spanish food. Spain is the land of paella, tapas, tortilla de patatas and sangria and all were to our liking. Paellas are native to Valencia, and were originally served at lunchtime. It is a basic rice dish, served in a shallow pan along with seafood, rabbit, vegetables or whatever else could be found. Tapas are basically small plates of food served alongside beer or wine, and help tie one over until a very late dinner time. Tortilla de Patatas are made of eggs and potatoes and sangria is a kind of fruit punch made with red wine and various citrus fruits or berries. You can see the nearly empty sangria on our table in the photo below, this time with a fish, halloumi cheese and vegetable meal.
The highlight of the city for us was the Guggenheim Museum of modern and contemporary art designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry. There are several Guggenheim museums throughout the world. The photo below is the bridge approaching the museum. The exterior of the museum is as exquisite as the interior as seen below, from the bridge. The Estuary of Bilbao meets at the common mouth of three rivers.
“Puppy” made of flowers outside the museum, fitted with a broad array of irrigation hoses by artist Jeff Koons.
Metallic Tulip Art entitled “Tulips” by American artist Jeff Koons in front of Guggenheim
“Maman” a spider by Bourgeois, Louis made of bronze, marble and stainless steel. Notice the egg sack underneath.
The interior of the museum
Interior art installation “The Matter of Time” by Richard Serra. A deceptively simple sculpture, but very interesting to wander around in.
Walking around Bilbao we happened upon this work of art made of stone entitled “coffee cups.” We had small coffee cups of this design in our apartment- they look nice, but aren’t too practical for daily use!
In one of the parks there were a few art installations, including this multi-faceted mirrored wall.
Inside the Guggenheim there was a temporary exhibition of classic, yet futuristic cars. Below is the Alfa Romeo “BAT” from 1954.
A 1936 Bugatti with riveted body.
1938 Delahaye (also shown in the feature picture on top)
Designed by former Alfa Romeo Chief Engineer Wifredo Ricart, this was the fastest production car in the world at the time, reaching 151 mph. (243kph)
A few more sights from around the city- the Olbarri Mansion was an especially pretty building.
The Santiago cathedral, built around 1397 had a wonderful courtyard with delicate carved arches surrounding.
Near our apartment there was a cable suspension bridge for pedestrians that was quite striking.
And further along the river, a sculpture by Dora Salazar.
We had chosen Bibao as a convenient stopover point for our mountian hiking, as we needed to travel with less luggage for hiking. The apartment we stayed in agreed to hold our luggage while we traveled in the mountians. (We stayed a few days with them on both ends of the trip) And, Bilbao is a major airport, which made it easier to plan our next trip to Porto. But first, one more Spain post showing our 5 weeks in the mountains.
Until then,
Deb & Tim