9/24 -- Explore Bilbao

On the way to our first stop, the old town, we spied a glass and metal structure that looks like part of a nautilus shell set into the ground -- it is the style of all the entrances to their underground metro system, designed by a man same Foster, so they are called 'fosterites'. (Unfortunately, we didn't think to take a picture!) We crossed the bridge to the old town and learned that the city had originally consisted of seven streets, cleverly named for their  location -- High, Middle, Low. Because of all the rain that falls here, some of the sidewalks on wide streets are covered porticoes. One had modern paintings on the ceiling by local artists depicted various aspects of the history here. We went into a  large multi-story covered market and sampled an anchovy/olive preparation which Jim liked a LOT more than  I did.

A bridge over the Bilbao river. The right side by the waterfront
used to be used for loading and unloading boats for the port.

Old railroad station above the warehouses

Old streets are now pedestrian walkways

Cathedral of Bilbao.  Not as popular as the one
I didn't get a photo of....

The clam symbol is for the Camino de Santiago and indicates
you can get your passport stamped  here. Unfortunately it
was closed.

Symbol that indicates you are on the Camino de Santiago.

Underside of a portico with modern art.

Olive/anchovy things that others liked a lot more than I did

The flag says, in Basque "Bring the prisoners and refugees
home". ETA prisoners are held far from  home and their
families want them transferred to nearby prisons.

After finishing our walk along the narrow streets, we hopped on a bus to drive along the riverfront to the Guggenheim Museum. We went past a marvelous Calatrava foot bridge, the Jesuit University and library, and their one skyscraper, owned by the utility company. We also passed a beautiful building that turned out to the Athleta soccer stadium (the other 'cathedral' in the city). By the time I knew what it was, we were already passed it and we haven't driven there again so I am sorry to report  I can't show you a  picture.

The Guggenheim was designed to resemble a ship from the opposite bank, something I had never noticed in photos I have seen. Much of our tour concentrated on the structure itself as opposed to the art, though we did see an Andy Warhol installation and a collection of painting representing the early days of Modern Art. There was also a huge gallery of metal structures that we were invited to walk into.

The inside looked pretty spectacular too.

Outside from the 'front' which resembles the prow of a ship.

A arched walkway on the river side of the museum features
a release of steam each hour to symbolize the fog on the river
and also to tie the bridge next to the museum more closely to it.

A tulip sculpture on an outside viewing patio.

The bridge was enhanced from its formerly boring green span.
The tower on the right is clad in tiles on 3 sides and left open to
show the underlying structure of the museum, which is covered
with 3mm thick titanium plates. The bridge arch with half circle
cutouts was added to tie the angular bridge to the more rounded
museum. The arch is painted red with white and black stripes on
the thin sides. The colors represent the Basque flag: red, green,
and white.

When we were in this exhibition, it looked like
black LED ribbons between dark blue shiny panels.
I didn't realize it wasn't solid until we were asked to
step behind it. It has a series of repeating messages
in English and Euskera (and maybe Spanish). From
behind the text is blue and Euskara to represent the
Basque challenges.

There are over a hundred of these similar panels and this is the
first space that has big enough to show them all.

From above, the gallery with heavy metal structures you are
invited to walk into. Done by a San Francisco artist, Richard
Serra.

From there, we walked back to the hotel after hanging around to take more outdoor pictures of the museum from the bridge it intersects with. On the way back, we stopped to see the Calatrava bridge, but by then we had already walked so much, we focused more on getting back than exploration, After spending an hour getting local sim card for my backup phone.  (International data at any worthwhile speed is ridiculously expensive. For 10 Euros, I got 1GB of data, which should be more than enough.)

The museum and outer patio (with the tulips) taken from
the bridge.

Calatrava bridge. He also did the sundial bridge in Redding, CA,
the Milwaukee Art Museum addition, and the Bilbao airport.

Our next stop was a highly recommended pastry shop where we got an apple tart for lunch and relaxed for a bit before our next adventure: take a  local bus to a famous bridge, have a local liqueur, visit a church, and take the metro back for dinner. The Viscaya Bridge is built very high to allow ships to pass under it without it needing to be raised. Bilbao was and is an important deep water port and boats sailed quite a ways up the river. Because it is so high, there is no practical way for pedestrians or vehicles to use it, so they suspended a short carrier -- long enough for 2-3 cars end to end and wide enough for two rows with a pedestrian container on each side. This runs from side to side on the bridge all day when ships are not coming thru--truly ingenious!

Viscaya Bridge

Car carrier enroute.

We walked up some steep hills and discovered that several streets have escalators (only without steps) to help you on the worst parts -- like the automated sidewalks in some big airports. We located a pelota court -- a sport that originated here and was shared with Latin America -- and stopped at a viewpoint next to a Catholic church for a little nip. It was quite sweet (like Amaretto is) and much better with an ice cube.

Very faded Basque flag -- the orange should be red. For many
years, it was not allowed to be flown openly in Spain.

Pelota court, but one-sided instead of 3, so for practice only.

Recycling barrel on the street

 

Church where we got our first Camino stamp

The suspended carrier from our snack stop.

When the church opened, we went inside and got our first stamp for the Camino del Santiago (Road of St James) a famous 500 mile pilgrimage from France through Basque Country and on to Santiago de Campostella, near the west coast of Spain, north of Portugal. There is a passport we can get for all the stamp places we will encounter, as this tour is largely along southern variation of the route. We stayed a bit longer than planned because a service was starting that included communion, and several of our tour companions wanted to participate.

Then it was back across the river, hike to the metro, and take the train back to our hotel and dinner at a nearby restaurant. Dinner featured a lot of Basque specialties, which were mostly a kind of tapas on ovals of bread with fish (some raw) and other condiments like cream cheese on top. The best thing I can say about the meal was that the wine was good and the fruit for dessert was tasty. After nearly 20,000 steps for the day, it seemed sad that dinner was one I hope not to repeat (tho if it does, maybe I can lose the 5+ pounds that are annoying me....)

Folk dancing we saw briefly as we rushed to the metro
to not be late for dinner.