May 30 – Bilbao, Spain

Guggenheim exterior

Basque Flag

Weather – 21º

Steps – 15,776

Humidity – 20%

Bilbao (pop. 950,000) is the largest city in Northern Spain. This is a first visit for both Chris and me. Gijon and Vigo were also first-time visits for each of us.

impressive buildings

The main attraction of Bilbao for us (especially me) is The Guggenheim Museum. This is a museum of modern and contemporary art in the old town of Bilbao and
has been open since 1997. The building itself might be the most interesting of all there is to see in and around the museum and there were plenty of interesting things to see. The building was designed by Frank Gehry, a Canadian architect.

these were all over one building

When we were inside, we were led to some main exhibits by a museum guide. First, we saw and walked through “The Matter of Time” massive steel pieces intended to make the viewer a bit dizzy…it did.

The museum’s collection isn’t huge, but we only had about an hour with the
guide, and another 30 minutes on our own – that was almost enough time, but we could have used about an hour more.

train station

Not only is there art outside the museum, but there is also art outside…a huge flower covered dog, a giant bronze,
marble, and steel spider and a tree made of huge, mirrored balls.

Guggenheim interior

Before we got to the Guggenheim, we had a panoramic tour from Gitxo (pop.75,000) the town where we are actually docked at – described by the interwebs as “a mostly affluent residential area”. Very near to the water of Gitxo are large houses that our guide, Marina, called palaces.

Once in Bilbao, we follow Marina as she leads us through the narrow, old streets of Bilbao. Bilbao’s

giant flower puppy

old buildings are large, ornate,
and beautiful. The old part of town is busy despite the early time of day. I’d guess the people out are mostly like us – tourists, both from their appearance and their behavior, no one seems to be headed to work or school.

"The Matter of Time"

We’ve been on many an early morning walking tour that are always slightly disappointing, because shops,
restaurants, and bars aren’t open. Even when not in Spain…unless a place is for breakfast or coffee, 11 is too early. No matter…as usual, we can do plenty of looking. I’m not sure how tomorrow’s tapas tour will turn out when we will be back at the same time to eat.

Back at the ship we were between times for food, lunch was over and food at the bar wasn’t quite on yet. We found the cocktail of the day – a Hugo Spritz, and waited until the time when we could place our orders of chicken sliders and a burger.

"The Matter of Time"

Chris wanted to see if we could find a place to watch a soccer match in the evening. We walked into Gitxo and found a small square with a few bars. A couple of these had TVs outside – most places have little inside seating area. There are many tables and chairs outside, and you go into order drinks or food.

tapistry room

This is a very locals areas. We could easily have been the only tourists there. I didn’t hear any English. The table nearest to us had 3 men and little kids, the kids were stationed in the middle of the square with food. The kids wandered
back and forth between their station and their dads. Eventually one of the dads bought them bags of candy. By the second half of the game, the moms had arrived. There were other kids around. The whole square culture was interesting…bars, drinks,
kids, dogs, the game, food. Everyone looked like us. No kids were on phones – there were phones around, but the kids were too busy eating candy, petting dogs and tearing around.

great sliver balls

Guggenheim exterior

After the half hour walk back to the ship, partly along the residential streets of Gitxo and partly along the water it was about 9:00, so we ordered room service dinner.

We had to warm up too. Although the temp was 18º, we were chilly. All in all the weather was pretty gloomy today