Bilbao

Espania

Fall 1998

By taxi we arrived at the bus station and had brekkie before boarding a bus from Segovia to Vallaodid where we then took the train to Bilbao. The first half of this journey was over rolling plains, covered with shorn wheat or some other such grass crop. El segundo parte was mountains as we entered "Green Spain." And green it is.....beautiful green fields and jagged peaks. After 5 hours on the road we arrived and took a quick taxi to our hostel in the casca viejo. The Hostal Mendez in the old quarter. Being a Monday with all the museums closed and the reason we chose this day to travel, we contented ourselves with wandering about the rainy streets about us, visiting the ATM for some dough and addressing our queries about Bilbao to the tourist office. After attending to these essential needs we then selected a tapas bar to quench our thirsts.

I love a country where you can go down to the bar and order up a plate full of tongue. Breaded, fried and sauced with sauce Espanol. Great stuff ! My mamma used to cook beef tongue and as I recall, she and I were the only ones that ate it in our family. I think she would have enjoyed Spain, bless her departed little heart and I'm happy that Rosemary is pleased to enjoy tongue with me now.

The following day after having an American breakfast of sausage omelets with toast and coffee, we went to pick up our rental car which we shall have for a month and drove to the Museau Guggenheim Bilbao. This amazing edifice was designed by Frank Gehry, an architect from Los Angeles, CA and one of the best contemporary architects working on this planet today. It is almost indescribable and consists of swirls clad in titanium and great panels of glass supported by steel girders and looking like an erector set for adults gone mad. The major part of the museum is covered on the exterior by titanium sheets of 2 x 3 feet and looking somewhat like scales on a fish. Much of the interior is in stone tiles of the same size and as most of the walls are curved all these tiles were laid out and cut by computer and only fit in one space. Now that's a clever way to drive up the job cost. A beautiful, beautiful project and the reason we came to Bilbao. After leaving the museum we took a long walk across the river and took advantage of the many photo ops that presented themselves. We crossed a spectacular suspension foot bridge and eventually arrived back at our car to drive to a parking garage and there leave it for the remainder of our stay in the city. Driving in European cities is a harrowing experience and after an exchange of familiar international hand signals and much honking of horns at a traffic circle we were glad to park the car.

foot bridge

After awaking from my siesta, R told me she had made plans for our evening.....it was off to make like the Chinese and chow down and then to a cyber cafe to catch up on our correspondence. The modern world is amazing, the ability to check ones e-mail from afar is a treat. Afterwards we hopped back on the metro (a thoroughly modern subway, built only in 1989, very contemporary in design) and headed off to the cinema to see Eddie Murphy in "Dr. Doolittle" in Spanish. It is always fun to see English language movies in another language and this was no exception. We last saw Batman and Robin in Italian, and here, as it turned out, we were the only people in the theater, a first for me and it felt like a private viewing. The tube was closed when we got out of the theater but our angles were still with us. There was a young woman, who Rosemary thought disconsolate, sitting on a stoop in front of the barred metro doors. But she was not, she was our guide and she had been waiting for the bus which she told us would arrive in about 10 minutes. We took advantage of the wait and popped into a bar for a couple of ice creams before threading our way back to the Casco Viejo, to the Hostel Mendez to retire and dream dreams of leaving this city that is busily renewing itself in beautiful "Green Spain."

Another tale in life's continuing saga by Raymond Ellstad

Bilbao 2001