Day Unknown: Bilbao

Time has kind of smudged into a blur for us. It has been, in a word, a whirlwind.

A few days ago we had a full day in Bilbao with absolutely nothing on the schedule, except an afternoon visit to the Guggenheim museum. So we wandered and explored this beautiful city, rode along the bike path that follows the Nervion river, and enjoyed coffee and wine in the afternoon. Then to the museum.

Maman. Entre to the Guggenheim in Bilbao

We have been to the Guggenheim before and it wasn’t a disappointment this second time. There were new artists on display and I especially liked the big exhibit of Oskar Kokoschka, the self-proclaimed Austrian degenerate artist. He was prolific from the early 1900s through the post-WWII period and wasn’t really recognized until the 50s and 60s. His work is striking, to me at least.

 

Self Portrait of Kokoschka

Here is a video and some photos of a few of the many hundreds of exhibits.

 

 

 

 

 

 There is really so much to see in this museum that it could take a week. Absolutely amazing.

An artist whose work cannot fail to impress or at least provoke some reaction is the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. She is in her 90s and is still painting and creating her work, much of which focuses on death and afterlife, but a lot of which is more mundane. We liked what we called the “Happy Room,” which is a small mirrored room that the give you 1 minute in and which is filled with colored lights. It is fun but I’m not sure of the ethereal high-art angle of the work.

 

The Happy Room

 

 

 I looked forward to once again exploring the physical sculpture done by Richard Serra. We had strolled through this monstrous work before and did it again this time. The scale of the work is impressive and as you walk between the masterfully arranged and shaped sheets of metal your brain is disoriented and tells you that you should be tipping one way or another. It is really awesome.

 

I could spend a day in this physical sculpture. It is fascinating

 

But art goes only so far to nourish the soul; food is also necessary. Lorie had a hankering for paella so we found a place in the old quarter and tucked in. Jon had scallops and Lorie and I had a paella plate. It was delicious. We had a nice alborino with it.

 

Scallops

Paella

Albarino

 

Fast forward to Saturday, the first day of the Tour de France. Our apartment in Bilbao was over-the-top fancy – we had made the reservation over a year ago. But it was situated over a busy piazza with numerous bars, and it was pretty noisy until early in the morning. No harm done as we were on the street early to get a good spot to watch the race as it moved past. We were in the “neutralized” zone (where the race had not technically started yet) and had a great view of the “caravan,” which is the fun floats and stuff that come by before the racers. The people in the caravan throw out all sorts of swag and merch, and Lorie and Jon both got hats and Lorie got a Basque flag.

 

Have I mentioned that folks in Basque country are absolutely crazy about cycling. The streets were lined with throngs of folks aiming to cheer their favorite local riders on, and to enjoy the race. Over the length of the 185 km stage today there must have been a million or more people lining the roads. They absolutely love bike racing. And they love the local racers, many of whom are some of the best climbers in the world. That’s no wonder since it is so hilly here and since the hills are so bloody steep!

 

After the caravan and the neutralized peloton went by, we went back to our apartment (a 1 block walk) and watched the race on TV. Our plan was to scurry up to the finish in time to watch the riders come across the finish line. So at about 1500 we headed up the hill on foot. We soon realized that maybe we should have headed out earlier – geez, the roads were thick with fans and the race barriers were lined with three or four rows of fans. We walked to as near to the finish line as we could go, but got stopped at about 100 m from the finish. We wandered back down to the 500 m mark and lined up behind a nice Basque family who all had the wonderful genetic trait of being short. Ha! We had no problem seeing the road.

 

We were unable to get live updates of what was going on in the race, so our friend Tim texted updates to me from the comfort of his place in Olympia. He was up early...What a guy! We were in the know, and we let our height-impaired Basque neighbors know what was happening. It turns out that they were about 2 minutes ahead of us in their knowledge but since we don’t speak one single word of Basque, we had no idea. It was great fun in any event.

 

We watched the racers fly by and were soon informed of who won. It was a very exciting stage and very unusual for a first stage in a Tour de France. Pretty cool and a bunch of fun.

 

 

Lorie's Sider

 

We tried to sneak down the hill back to our neighborhood as quickly as we could but got stuck in the huge crowds. It took quite a while to get home and by the time we got there, beer was calling. We stopped in to one of the bars that are below our apartment and had a “Bilbobeer.” Lorie had a “sider” (cider), which is famous in this part of the world.

 

Tomorrow we’re heading back to Donastia to watch stage 2 of the race. We’ll again ride the Euskotren, so it is an easy day for us. Heck, we haven’t ridden in 3 days and we’re getting lazy.