Bilbao

We are really only in Bilbao for one night so we can catch a plane to Santiago de Compostela tomorrow morning. We thought we'd have a quick look around anyway for you.

How did we get here? We took a coach from San Sebastián to Bilbao. It was a smooth ride at around 100 kph most of the way and only took about 80 minutes. If Spain is well serviced by trains, the same can also be said for its coach lines too.

We checked into our budget Ibis hotel which as usual was dependably clean and comfortable and went exploring. Jackie took herself through the Fine Arts museum and I took myself through the park outside.

 It's around 8:00 am on a Monday morning and finally the San Sebastián boulevard is deserted.

I just took this to prove it can happen, so there.

A typical street scape in Bilbao. The new and the old very casually blend here.

An old Palacio overlooks the very modern central plaza .

 A street scape of old an new buildings, surmounted by the Iberola sky scraper.

That is a 16th century church on the right.

A juxtaposition of old and new. An old church with a contemporary sculpture.

(Pretty arty-farty, huh?)

 A beautiful park set beside the Museum of Contemprary Arts.

People love to come and relax in this park. Kids feeding the swans on the artificial lake.

Lots of species of water birds call this home.

 A Grecian influenced structure in the park with a canopy of wysteria over the walkways.

A fountain playing in the forecourt of the Grecian "temple".

 More wysteria.

Approaching the Guggenheim Museum.

This Frank Leary designed structure of twisted shining metal and glass is the famous Guggenheim Museum of the Arts in Bilbao.

There are several art exhibits outside as well. Here is an Arachnid.
(Hey, I just photograph 'em, I don't explain 'em.)

Here is a giant floral puppy.
Those flowers are all real and the puppy has sprinklers on his head to keep them watered.
The artist (Jeff Koons of Philadelphia if you want to know) thought of everything.

The art extends well beyond the traditional confines of the Museum grounds.
Red Arches straddles the freeway bridge over the river.

You can get a good idea of the distorted and interestingly twisted forming of the building.
As you look at it from different angles it kind of writhes.

A very modern suspended arch pedestrian bridge across the river.

A very modern and comtempary cultural piece nearby.

And they are both within a stone's throw of this old wrought iron darling of a bridge from a 100 years or so ago.
Bilbao mixes the old with new with apparent nonchalance.

The narrow streets of the Old Town in Bilbao.

The gothic cathedral in the Old Town. 

There was a trio of musicians in the forecourt playing a bass, a didgeridoo and a contraption made of PVC piping and wind chimes. The sound was extraordinarily mellow and kinda modern jazz.

Ultra modern and innovative, doing this in front of a 16th century building in Bilbao is not incongruous apparently.