Bilbao, Spain

Our very smooth 1 hour flight from Lisbon to Madrid brought us back to Spain at about 9:45 a.m. Tuesday morning. In no time, we had collected our bags, got our rental car and were on our way driving north. It was a bit of a change in weather coming from sunny, warm Lisbon to here. Northern Spain's coastal area has a climate and topography which is very similar to the Pacific Northwest, so when we arrived in Bilbao, it was cool, probably around 50, with lots of gray clouds and some mist. Felt just like home, actually!

Our main reason for coming here was to visit the Guggenheim Museum, which is one of those places that has been on my "bucket list' so to speak for some time. The main reason most people go to visit the museum is to see the building itself, but the museums exhibits were really interesting too. Designed by Frank Gehry (who, as our Northwest friends know well, also designed the Experience Music Project building) is really a sight to see. It was built in 1997, and houses exhibits on 3 floors. it is covered in titanium sheets on the outside, which according to the information we read on Gehry, are meant to look like fish scales, as he's always had a fascination with fish. The other REALLY cool thing that I just loved was the 30 foot high spider sculpture in front of the museum......must have something to do with my obsession for B rated horror movies. If you're interested in reading more about the Guggenheim, click here.

After spending about three hours there, we were pretty worn out, so we returned to the hotel to relax a bit before heading out to dinner.

Today, we walked around Bilbao's old town, which is probably one of the cleanest and prettiest town centers we've seen. The sun also made a stronger appearance today, so we got some better pictures of the river and the museum as we explored more of the city. Like Porto, we give extra points to Bilbao - as we were reading a map trying to get our bearings, a very nice guy came up and asked us if we needed any help. The second time yet on this trip!

Tomorrow morning we head out bright and early to drive down to Granada, which is about an 8 hour drive south. Let's hope we head into some warmer weather as we head down that way!