The Bilbao Detour

On our second day in Spain we planned to make the short bus trip from Santander to Pamplona. This was to happen by way of a connection in Bilbao, so we decided to spend the day there. When we emerged from the cavernous Space Mountain-esque subway station in the old part of the city, we immediately plopped down at the first café we could find. There we enjoyed delicious paella, which my mother insists on pronouncing pay-ella (I don’t know who this Ella character is but I really wish someone would pay her already so that we can be done with the whole embarrassing thing) and some kind of flatbread pizza that came with a miniature hatchet-type-tool.

 

 After lunch, we explored the beautiful gothic masterpiece that is The Catedral de Santiago. At this point in the trip I was decidedly churched out, but my mom was just getting started and she absolutely loved it. Spain is such a beautifully religious country and we were constantly encountering pilgrims on the famous Camino de Santiago.

We then began the riverside walk to the newer part of the city where the Guggenheim is located. Along the way we stumbled upon a troupe of acrobats preforming in the street!

We made the spur of the moment decision to spend our last hour and a half in the city at the Guggenheim. Which ended up costing us dearly, but was still a wonderful experience. The exhibits on were Braque, Yoko Ono, and Richard Serra. Three artists whose work I adore and was very eager to see. Unfortunately you couldn’t take pictures inside the museum but we spent most of our type admiring Yoko Ono’s modern art. And I had just enough time to take a peak at the Richard Serra exhibit, though it must be said that his art is really not to be just peaked at. 

 

We ended up missing our bus to Pamplona, which necessitated a very expensive cab ride into the Pyrenees foothills. But in spite of this tragic ending, our day in Bilbao was still very enjoyable and the lessons learned invaluable for future travels. You live and you learn, right?