Bilbao/Bilbo (Spanish/Basque) sits astride the Nervión River (also known as the Bilbao Estuary in Bilbao) a short distance from the sea. This was our second time in Bilbao, and we enjoyed it as much or more than the first.
The photo above is us at the Funicular Park, which we travelled to on the funicular (funny how that works) originally built in 1915. The view of the city and surroundings is spectacular. The famous Guggenheim Museum is a prominent feature, but Bilbao is so much more than that.
It helped that grandson Max and his wonderful womanfriend Maddy live and work in Bilbao, and are fluent Spanish speakers. When they were not working, they were our local guides, taking us to their favorite places, including pintxo bars. ("Pintxo" in Basque means "spike," derived from the fact that many of them are served on toothpicks or skewers.) Eating them is simple, and tasty, as demonstrated below (the pintxo is a "Gilda" made with olive, anchovy and a spicy pepper). (The GIF gets kind of annoying, so continue reading to get it off the page!)
We relaxed in a very nice apartment just above the popular medieval section of the city, Casco Viejo, which is where Max and Maddy live. We did not feel compelled to do a lot of tourist things because we had been to Bilbao in 2016 (see that post here). We re-visited the Fine Arts Museum (Bellas Artes Museo), a favorite, and were not disappointed. A major exhibit right now is items from the museum collection that have been restored, and a number of items had accompanying information, in photos and videos, of the restoration processes. There was also a major installation, Thirteen to Centaur, consisting of huge inflated tetrahedrons that speak to the empty, newly renovated gallery rooms of the museum. I questioned this installation at first, but then really started to get into it, literally and figuratively, because there are places where you have to squeeze past the inflated object. Here is a photo album of the installation.
We also re-visited the Guggenheim Art Museum, and frankly, we both felt that the architecture is more interesting that the exhibits (maybe we were just tired?).
We also had a few "sick days" while in Bilbao. We tested negative for COVID, so it was just some normal bug that got us both. We did not go to San Sebastian or the beach at Bay of Biscay as planned because of our sick days; however, that was fine, our goal was to relax and enjoy being, not always doing.
The highlights, of course, were the times we spent with Max and Maddy when they weren't working, and getting a glimpse of their life in Bilbao. And to top it off, grandson Jake and his wonmanfriend Amanda from Los Angeles arrived in Bilbao the day before we left. And then granddaughter Sophie and two of her closest friends since childhood (and who we've known since they were born), Lily and Violet, arrived for a visit. So we had 2 grandsons and 5 granddaughters in Bilbao for a day! What fun.
And yes, there are photos. A small album from this trip is here, and a larger album from 2016 is linked from the post mentioned (and linked) above.
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posted by paul
Leo DeCaprio has a smaller entourage than you and Sherry.
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