Wow Bilbao is a stunning wee city; the largest in northern Spain, home to a million people, surrounded by mountains, forests, beaches and rugged coastlines. It also has a Guggenheim museum (one of eight around the world), which has become a massive tourist drawcard since it opened in 1997. I went this morning and it was amazing, as much for the titanium, stone and glass building and the art installations around it as for the work inside. It’s only 10 euro for a ticket, or there are a lot of sculptures outside that you can experience for free. Inside, the exhibits are quite interactive and you’re encouraged to walk through and touch several (but not to take photos). My favourite was a giant maze of long thin translucent plastic ribbons that you can walk through, using your hands to part them as you slip between them. Outside is a giant puppy made of flowers, a fire fountain that in the evening shoots flames from the water (I’ll go back to see this later), a giant spider called Maman (which means mother in French), and (my favourite) a fog sculpture that fills the pond on the river side of the museum with thick swirling fog every hour. It would be well worth coming to Bilbao just to go there, plus the city is really lovely, it’s flat and easy to walk around, the pintxos bars are full of tasty things, and the high today was 18 degrees 🙂 So nice.
Giant flower puppy 🙂 
made with pansies 
walk through sculptures 
small scale model 
sneaky photo 
the fog sculpture 
is beautiful 
Maman 
empanada 
fancy pintxos 
yum 
ice cream roses at Amarino 
Ironically the open 25 hours shop was shut 🙂 🙂