Friday, August 20, 2021

Bilbao, Day 2 of 2

Walking Route: from apartment to Guggenheim and back with stop for lunch, about 4 miles

Ima fed us a breakfast of fresh-squeezed zumo de naranja (orange juice), cafe con leche (coffee with milk), tostada (toast), and gelatina (jelly). We chatted about children, grandchildren, her cat, our dog, and Bilbao. Fun.

Then Ken and I put on our walking sandals and headed out into the sunshine to the Guggenheim. What a beautiful day to see that silver structure shine. We enjoyed the exhibits but especially the building itself, and the walkway along the estuary to get there and back.

Now an afternoon/evening of rest and trip planning. We still have not received QR codes documenting permission from the French government to stay in France August 24 and 25. I emailed the hosts for both nights, and they said it will not be a problem for us to stay with them, so we are going to go ahead with our plans to continue up the coast to Saint Jean de Luz next Tuesday. We may not be able to get into any French restaurants without the QR code, but we think we can buy food in a grocery store. And we hope we don't get arrested. :)

All the photos below are from the Guggenheim, designed by Frank Gehry and opened in 1997. Ima told us that before the museum opened, Bilbao was a dingy industrial town. After the museum opened, architects designed other beautiful contemporary buildings, and the government built the promenades, cleaned up the city, renovated the parks, and focused on tourism. The city is now a popular destination for people on holiday. We saw mostly Spanish tourists in our day wandering around the city.