Spanish Holiday Day 16

 Day 16: Bilbao and the Guggenheim Museum and San Sebastian

We had a 4:30 am pick-up this morning for an early flight north to Bilbao in Basque country.  We arrived at Barcelona airport bleary eyed and breakfastless with hopes to rectify our growling stomachs in Bilbao.  The flight was delayed an hour, so  due to our late arrival, we had to forego breakfast in order to see the Guggenheim Museum.

The Guggenheim is a sprawling modern structure, built to house large exhibits.  In the 80's, the Guggenheim Foundation was searching for a site to build a new museum in Europe.  After several false starts in other ountries in Europe, the Foundation settled on Bilbao, primarily because Bilbao offered to bankroll the entire project.  The city was an old, dying factory town (think Pittsburgh in 1965), and needed something to boost their economy. Between the jobs produced and the influx in tourism, the project paid for itself in only 2 years. Construction began in 1993 and was completed in 1997.  Since then, the city has been revitalized and is now humming.

 

In front of the museum stands the nearly 40 foot tall statue, "Puppy", the mascot of the museum.  The sculpture is covered with 38,000 individual flowers that are changed every 6 months.

The entire surface of the museum is covered with 43,000 titanium  plates ,at a cost of $130 billion . a slew of dental implants!  In the atrium, the roof soars about 4 stories with supports rreminding us of the Gaudi church in Barcelona.

The exhibits were enormous and varied.  This was a repeating message that ran ceiling to floor.

This exhibit was in the largest hall and was a series of sculptures that were produced in a forge in Spain by an American artist.  The sculptures were huge, free standing and iron, and visitors were encouraged to walk inside and touch.  We walked through the spiral  and fortunately, no one was lost.

Another hall had several pieces including this circular piece that consisted of individual pieces of slate.

There was also a tree, as a piece of art (if you look carefully behind the circle) which to the untrained eye, looks like an ordinary tree.  But since it was from Yoko Ono, it is a piece of modern art.  We didn't get it.

The entire upper floor of the museum was dedicated to a super high end car show with the first car by Benz in 1888.

Bugati

007's Aston Martin in Goldfinger

The Alfa Batwing

After leaving the Guggenheim, we stolled around Bilbao for a while passing the Sunday flower market.

We had thought we were having lunch here in Bilbao, but our guide sent us on our way to San Sebastian.  We figured it was only an hour away, and we could have an early dinner there.  After checking in to the hotel, we started walking toward the old town, 

passing the headquarters hotel for the SSIFF (San Sebastian International Film Festival), the Gran Hotel Maria Christina.  

Even saw a star going in, though we have no idea who he was.

Audi's were being used to ferry dignitaries around.  I saw this paint covered aAudi and thought someone had done this as aprotest.  

aI later found out that this was an ad for one of the movies.

We walked all over the old town looking for a sit-down restaurant that was open, but every single one was closed until 8 pm.  Jeri and I couldn't bear to eat another Tinto and Tapas dinner.  We had been up since 3:45 and had eaten virtually nothing all day, so we were all hangry and hired.  Dave and Molly opted for T&T and Jeri and I went back across the estuary (which divides the old town from where our hotel was) in search of a meal. We were fortunate to find the only restaurant in Spain that does not close its kitchen from 5-8 pm.  By all measures, it wasn't the greatest meal we had in Spain, but due to our hunger, it was WONDERFUL!

Jeri and I strolled back to the hotel, and on the way, found a shop that sold Basque cheesecake. We brought it back to the hotel for a late dessert.  It was pretty close to NY cheesecake, but a bit less sweet and drier.

We then crashed, needing sleep badly.