This was part of our Spain Basque Country (2019) Trip. Cutie (our younger son) joined us on this trip.
(Click here to see all our trips.)
Ever since he read Dan Brown’s “Origin” (which included a very detailed description of the Guggenheim Museum), Rei has decided that we should travel to Bilbao one day to visit the museum, and that’s why we were here.
We got up early in the morning due to jet lag. The hotel, Hotel Conde Duque Bilbao, had an excellent breakfast buffet with many choices. The Spanish churros were so tasty! After a big breakfast, we walked to the Guggenheim Museum before it was open to the public. It turned out to be a great decision, because we could take many pictures without a bunch of tourists around us.
Unlike other European museums such as Louver or Prado that focus on classical art works, Guggenheim Museum is a modern arts museum. Even though we were not very familiar with the modern arts, we still enjoyed the exhibitions very much, especially Cutie, who has taken an art history class in college. We especially liked the Desoto art display, which we all considered very impressive.
Visitors were not allowed to take pictures of the exhibitions. However, taking photos of the building and taking photos on the outside terrace were okay. For many people, the architecture of the museum was actually more interesting than the exhibitions!
After the museum, we walked to the Old Town to have lunch. Our lunch was consists of pintxos — small dishes of various Basque food like fried potato balls, hams and squids.
After we walked back to the hotel, Cutie decided that he wanted to take a nap. Rei and I were frequent travelers and could adjust to the local time better, so we decided to go out to do more sightseeing by ourselves.
There was a funicular very close to our hotel. We could simply walk there and take the funicular to the top of a hill. There was a park at the top of the hill, which provided an excellent view of Bilbao city! The weather was very pleasant for a stroll in the park. I saw a European Robin at the park.
Cutie was already awake and was waiting for us when we returned to the hotel. We picked up our rental car and drove to Vizcaya Bridge. Since it’s December, and the sun set early, it was almost dark when we arrived at the Vizcaya Bridge.
The bridge is at the mouth of the Bilbao river. Since some large ships need to pass under the bridge to reach Bilbao, Vizcaya Bridge is not a regular passenger bridge but a hanging bridge. We purchased 3 tickets from a vending machine and boarded the gondola, which took us across the bridge to the other side of the river. We couldn’t see much during the ride due to the darkness. There were holiday lights, and it was quite festive at the other side of the river.
Afterwards we returned to the old town to have dinner at Victor Montes. Rei and Cutie really liked their dishes, but my cod fish was only so-so. We also ordered a bottle of quite expensive La Rioja red. We weren’t impressed, but at least we had tasted Rioja wine.
Amy 'n Rei 