As we head closer to Southern France the accommodation costs go up - sorry Rachel and Luke, we are doing our best!! The observant among you might have noticed our locations in Spain end with The Canary Islands. They are part of Spain and not on the itinerary for this Ski Trip! Maybe in 20??
Another note about driving. Spain ( can’t remember if Portugal did ) has lots of roundabouts but often with a pedestrian crossing controlled by traffic light. So stopped in a roundabout for a red light has been a fairly common occurrence.
Wednesday morning we were fairly keen to get on the road fairly early. We wanted to get to Bilbao, park The Skimobile, have lunch and visit The Guggenheim and then check in as we could not check in until after 2pm. We had another lovely morning drive through hilly picturesque countryside. The drive was a bit over 100km and took a bit over 2 hours. We often were next to the sea and then up on hills. Plans are great but you need contingency plans. Once in Bilbao we could not find a car park near The Guggenheim, so ok we will find the hotel and its connected carpark and ask if we drop our car off early. Bilbao, like most cities we have been in has a lot of one way streets so after a bit of ‘ of this way, that way ‘ we found a park on the road and Simon walked to the hotel. Yes, your room is ready and we have upgraded you. To get to the 2nd entrance go right, right, right then left - easy! Simon went back to the Skimobile and went right,right, right, left ( not allowed to go left but we did) and we were at the Gran Hotel Domine Bilbao with Hotel Porter 1 all ready to unload and Hotel Porter 2 Ready to park the car.
It was definitely lunchtime as breakfast in Santander had not been that filling. We had lunch in the hotel cafe and then popped across the road to The Guggenheim ( Remember Simon said they like central locations ) The Guggenheim is a most impressive building the art inside was much more varied. With entry you got an earpiece which gave you descriptions of various bits of art as you wondered round. Some of the descriptions were like a politician speaking - made no sense. Each to their own!
The one Simon liked the most was The Great Blue Anthropometry (1960) by Yves Klein, who perfected a technique that allowed him to delve into this idea: he used naked models as "living brushes" ( pinceaux vivants ) that created marks and tracks under his direction. Imagine rolling around in a puddle of mud! The blue, International Klein Blue (IKB) was developed by Yves Klein and registered as a colour. We spent an hour outside in The Guggenheim cafe reflecting on what we had seen plus a bit of people watching.
Outside The Guggenheim was Puppy, by Jeff Koons a living garden statue in the shape of a puppy. It was stunning from a distance and impressive up close when you saw it was lots of individual plants.
Also standing outside The Guggenheim, next to the river was MAMAN, a 9m sculpture of a spider made by artist Louise Bourgeois.
We returned to the hotel for a wee rest before heading out to find some Tapas. We walked along the banks of the River Nervion that runs through Bilbao and to an area full of wee bars. Not sure what we ate but they were all quite tasty. It’s often a matter of pointing. These sort of bars would not be allowed in NZ as people are often sitting on bar stools with a wee bit of the bar counter room for a glass and plate in front of uncovered plates of different Pinchos.
Thursday morning and Simon went for a run along the banks of the River Nervion. It was another stunning spring morning and on his way back Simon found a nice patisserie and got some croissants for breakfast. We were conscious of not wasting our Ski money on hotel breakfasts!
Thursdays destination is Donostia San Sebastián where we are spending our last 3 days in Spain before heading into France.
2025-02-16