Page 5 of 9
Bilbao, Spain
Big bang baby it's a crash, crash, crash
From Barcelona, I took an overnight train all the way to the Atlantic Coast to Bilbao, somewhat (for me at least) a geographic dead end deep in the Basque Region of Spain. There is one reason to go (for me at least), and you can probably figure it out just by looking at this picture.
Frank Gehry’s celebrated Guggenheim Bilbao is most certainly something. The building itself seems arbitrary (one of those words architects use to insult another building that they don’t like but can’t provide a valid reason why). although I do really like the way it engages the adjacent bridge.
The metal panels are interesting, although it makes you wonder what it might have looked like with a more monolithic finish instead.
Inside the museum (where taking pictures is strictly forbidden) there was one truly wonderful temporary exhibit: Richard Serra's Torquing Ellipses. As or more fun than any exhibit I have ever visited. The public spaces and atrium were complex (perhaps complicated is a better word) while many of the other galleries looked like they could have been anywhere.
I had a lot of time in Bilbao, sandwiched between two overnight trains from and back to Barcelona. Fifteen hours to be exact. Unfortunately my schedule had me there on a Sunday where everything except for the Guggenheim Bilbao was pretty much closed. I started at 7:40 AM, over two hours before the museum even opened, and did everything I could do to slow down, stop, kill time and not get bored. I even paid for the audio tour in the museum (which was super pretentious) just to kill more time. All things considered though fifteen hours was probably about ten or twelve more hours than I really needed here. Although I guess a nice, slow, boring day sometimes can be a good thing on an otherwise super busy trip.
As for the picture, it’s of a wonderful Santiago Calatrava footbridge, only a short walk from the Guggenheim. A good way to kill a few minutes.
Bilbao apparently is a place where big name architects can finally find some work. This is the Norman Foster designed subway which I actually thought was pretty nice for a subway, and where I paid 135 Ptas to ride one stop, which seems like a lot of Ptas for such a short ride, although that might be because I have no idea anymore how much a Pta is.
Spain is not known for the quality of its trains, so in retrospect it's of little surprise that my train from Barcelona failed to connect with a French train, stranding me for three hours in Cerbere, the first town in France on the Cote Vermillion. All things considered there's worse places to be stuck for three hours.
Visited by attacking Muslims, Louis I. Kahn and the cast of "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves" the medieval city of Carcassonne (only three connecting trains away from Cerbere) rises on a hill in fields of western Languedoc while doing the best that it can to look unreal.
The missed connection in Cerbere really ended up messing up a lot of my plans, but I still had time to walk around the outside edges of Carcassonne, which was just as impressive as promised. The inside of the city is ok, kind of commercial but with occasionally wondrous views, but the ring arounf the city walls was where the real magic happened. Possibly because of those delays (and some issues securing a place to stay overnight), I ended up at the walls later in the afternoon and had them almost completely to myself. And for that, I guess I can thank that slow ass Spanish train that missed its connection by 9 minutes that morning.
