Bilbao, Spain (September 10-11)

We're falling a bit more behind. Internet has been spotty and a lot of the places that do have wireless have limited range because of thick century old walls. We're in Sevilla now (mid-80s at the end of October).

After San Sebastian we knew we had four nights to kill before meeting some friends in Madrid. We ran through a number of possibilities: stay in San Seb another night, go to Barcelona a night early, go to Zaragoza halfway between to cut down on travel times, or go to Bilbao. After asking our hostal in San Seb if they had availability for another night, we were told that weekend was a national holiday (or puente weekend as they are known here). It's always a holiday weekend so that wasn't surprising. But this seemed to be the holiday weekend that kind of symbolized the end of summer. Hotels in Barcelona were very difficult to come by and were very expensive for Saturday night. San Sebastian was basically all cleared out. And Zaragoza? Well the Holiday was El Dia de Nuestra Senora del Pilar. And Zaragoza's church is la Basilica de Nuestra Senora del Pilar. It's their city holiday and no rooms could be found.

So we settled on Bilbao. It saved us an extra day in San Sebastian since we wouldn't have to take a day trip to Bilbao. And since it was only an hour away it was an easy trip and only added an extra hour to the bus to Barcelona.

I had been to Bilbao a number of times before while studying in San Seb. Due to location and history, it doesn't have the beauty or vibe of San Seb. But thanks to the Guggenheim it has been reinvigorated in the past 20 years or so and I could even tell a difference between my visits and 2004 and now. A lot of construction and deatiled touches are improving the uniqueness and beauty of the city.

Despite all those kind words, there's really not much to do in Bilbao (although I know a few people who would disagree with me about that). You go see the Guggenheim and you leave. The Casco Viejo is cool and the Plaza Mayor is filled with energy, but they aren't unique. The city has done a good job supplementing the Guggenheim with other museums and cultural sights, but they are plenty of those elsewhere in Europe and we were kind of worn down by generic sightseeing. Fortunately, the Guggenheim is far from generic and totally worth the trip. Because of that, it seems we didn't take many (or any) pictures in Bilbao other than at the Guggenheim.

Here's Ali with the famous flower dog.



And this is a permanent "exhibit" in which mist is spritzed from under the bridge every hour (or something like that).


And here's me looking cool with my audio guide in front of said exhibit.



And this is a small scale model of a permanent exhibit which involves a bunch of bent steel in interesting positions for walking through.



That's about it. We were pretty tired that night and it rained, so it was an early night for us. Perhaps some day Bilbao will get a better run from us.