5-12-11 San Sebastian to Bilbao to Fuente De

Breakfast at the hotel is befitting a fine hotel, like a Sunday brunch buffet in most other places.  There was an extensive array of fresh fruits, pastries, cereals, smoked salmon, sushi, eggs, Iberian ham, and other things that looked good but I didn’t know what they were.  This morning, among other things, I had a small cup of custard which made my eyes roll back in my head with pleasure. 

My humble plate - one of them

On the way out of our room, I checked the rack rate: 610 euros/day!  It was a nice room.  The bathroom had a shower and a bathtub and 2 sinks. The room itself was very large and had a balcony that overlooked the river in front of the hotel.         

          We departed for our next leg at 8:30 am.  San Sebastian was a nice stop, particularly because of the many tapas bars all clustered together, and the nice beaches.  I wouldn’t want to be here during their international film festival or during the summer when the town is packed to the gills. 

          We cover a lot of ground on this trip, which means several days spent mostly on the bus.  I don’t mind the travel days because I can read a book, send and receive email, work on my trip journal on my net book, or nap.   I could even surf the internet on my android phone, but haven’t done that.  We also stop periodically for rest breaks or a nice lunch (paid by Tauck), or several hours at a tourist site along the way.

          Our main stop today is at Bilbao to visit Frank Gehry’s famous Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.  It was completed in 1997 and transformed what was a small, dirty, graffiteed, smelly city into a significant tourist destination, all due to the museum.  It cost a fortune to build, but the town recouped the cost in 2 years.  Interesting fact: Gehry designed his LA concert hall before he designed the museum in Bilbao but Bilbao got organized and the money faster and built their building before LA did. 

          I had seen photos and a documentary of the museum before, but it is a work of art that one has to personally see, explore and feel.  We arrived just before it opened so were able to see it for 2 hours without big crowds.

I’m not a museum person.  The first time we were in Paris, Marge insisted that I go through the Louvre, so I consented, but for only 30 minutes worth. She mapped out a 30 minute dash that took me by the major pieces in the allotted time.  When we were in Madrid, I spent my time at the Prado in the lobby reading a book.  I do, however, enjoy architecture and public art, so most of the time in the Bilbao Guggenheim was spent thinking WOW!!  For the most part, only straight surfaces on the inside and outside are the floors; the walls and roof curve in ways that set it apart from any building I have ever seen, including Gehry’s LA concert hall.  Unfortunately, no photos are allowed inside the building.

The materials of the walls of the building (titanium, glass and stone), their non-linear shapes, and the way the sunlight changes the shade of the materials depending on the angle of the wall, help make the building unique. 

The art piece I liked the most was on the first floor, called The Matter of Time by Richard Serra.  It consisted of a series of rust colored walls about 15’ tall, arranged in circular, conical and wavy arrangements that were interesting to walk around, in between and into.  Then when we were on the 2d floor, there was view of that gallery from above that gives the viewer a different perspective of what they walked through on the 1^st floor.    Here's a link to a photo of the piece: link to The Matter of Time

 The building looks different and spectacular from almost any angle you look at it from the inside and from the outside.  

          There are several giant and colorful art pieces outside of the museum that would be significant on their own right and add to the artistic value of the museum. 

Marge's photo of a big spider about to eat a jogger

Marge's photo of the elevator shaft in the museum

Marge's photo shows that the museum has very few straight surfaces

Marge's photo of dog guarding the museum

The front of the museum - the entrance is off the photo on the right

The entrance to the museum

          We had lunch after a couple hours drive to Parador Gil Bas in the town of the same name.  I had a veggie appetizer, in an attempt to eat healthy, and taggliatelli, which was not very tasty.  I also had diced fruit with a scoop of orange sherbet.

          After lunch we drove on, and after a while were driving through a beautiful gorge/park called Picos De Europa to the Parador just outside the small town of Fuente De at 7 pm.  Dinner was at 8:30 pm.  I had a small bowl of mushroom & leek soup, which was tasty but not divine enough to finish.  My entrée was a boneless osso bucco, which was very good, but more than I could eat.  Dessert was 6 chocolate truffles on a bed of whipped cream, which was delicious, but I couldn’t finish it since it was 10:30 pm by then.  

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