Bilbao

Day 1 of foul-weather excursions took us to Bilbao, the largest city on the Spanish side of the Basque region and the largest city overall in Basque country.  Bilbao's been described as the "Pittsburgh of Spain," and though I haven't spent much time in Pittsburgh, I'm guessing this is fairly accurate.  The town is pretty ho-hum.  Not so pretty, not so exciting, and it was a Saturday and most downtown shops were deadsville.  Snore.

What Bilbao does have is a Guggenheim Museum.  Yeah, the Frank Gehry one.  You can see it looming at the end of the street here.

But before I get into the Gehry building, let's talk about something happy:  Jeff Koons' "Puppy"!

Spring was good to Puppy, as he was in full bloom.  He looks out at Bilbao, welcoming visitors to the monstrosity of a museum.

Oops.  Here I go.

I have been the opposite of a fan of Frank Gehry since watching the documentary Sketches of Frank Gehry some years ago.  His paper crumpling techniques did not inspire respect from me.  I was more impressed by the skill it took for the people in his office to translate his childish renderings into something that could actually be made, ugly as it may be.  I will give all the props in the world to the people crunching the numbers and running the programs to enable something like this to be built.  But I have few good words to say about the aesthetics of the building itself.

For me, it is a confused jumble.  There were parts I liked (like the glass walls, reflecting back on themselves and the landscape outside), but generally the whole thing felt really haphazard and incoherent.  The sandy granite tiles in atrium were more reminiscent of an office building in suburban St. Louis.  And then there were curvy white drywalled areas.  And the glass walls.  And stairways that were hard to find and didn't take you where you wanted to go.  I don't know, I just didn't like it.  It wasn't warm.  It wasn't interesting.  It was confusing and felt thrown together.  I don't know how so many damn critics can be in its thrall.

Back to happier things, here's Jeff Koons' "Tulip."

Looking out from the back terrace.

Another view from the back terrace.  

As for the contents of the museum, the collection of Serra sculptures is bar none.  (More on that later.)  And there was an exhibit of David Hockney's landscapes that I enjoyed more than I would have thought.  The exhibit included some of Hockney's iPad landscapes, and it's pretty impressive what the ol' boy can do on the new technology.  Google it to see more.  

I'll leave you with this shot of a dog waiting for his owner to finish her gelato with the Guggenheim in the background.

Bayonne and Biarritz

An old friend had recently graduated from MBA school and was hastily planning a last-minute trip to Europe, backpack-style just like we did when we graduated from plain ol' college so many years ago.  Would I be in Paris and also would I like to meet him somewhere for a weekend getaway?  Yes and yes!

We took the weekend getaway first, taking a quick flight down to Biarritz.  We rented a car, which was immediately a giant point of stress for me as I hadn't driven in over 6 months.  (We struggled with the insurance question at the counter, opting only for the "basic"insurance.  [Oh, how many times have I been in this situation, only now it was in Europe = worse.]  I kept trying to put our limited coverage out of my mind, but there it was creeping around every traffic circle.  (What do they have against stoplights, by the way?)  During the first few hours of driving, I was the vision of a nervous wreck--knuckles white with grip, veins in neck bulging, everything tight and tense.  But thankfully I had a good navigation buddy who didn't mind over-stating things to me in a tone suitable to talking someone off a ledge, and there weren't any wrecks.

Despite our initial inclinations to drop the car off early (I wanted it GONE), we were grateful to have it for the weekend because the weather was cool/cloudy/rainy.  So instead of chillin' on the beach in Biarritz, we drove down the coast to Spain.

We hit the city of Bayonne just after arriving.  Bayonne is famous for its ham, as well as for its history of bullfighting.  It's less touristy than Biarritz, though it is equidistant from the little airport both cities share. 

The Nive River in the middle of the city.

There was a brocante on, so we stopped and had a gander.

This is the Cathedrale Sainte-Marie de Bayonne, which has a lovely cloister built around a courtyard full of headless statues and large stone tiles that are actually gravestones.  It's always a strange feeling to look down and realize you're standing on someone's remains.  Whoops.

We checked out a few stores in Bayonne (and bought a paper cone full of freshly shaved meat... noms), walked by the rugby field, and then headed to Biarritz, our HQ for the weekend.

This is the fancy little town of Biarritz.

Biarritz is a classy little surf town (with not one but TWO casinos) on the Bay of Biscay on the Atlantic.  The brave souls on the beach are few, as the weather was generally uncooperative and cool.  

Roses were in full bloom on our visit.  They were everywhere!

This creepy cemetery was on our walk from the hotel to the beach.

I spotted this kitteh family on one of our walks.  Two kittens and an especially intense momma (second from left).  I wanted to take them all and have a little kitty troupe, but they're pretty lucky living in Biarritz, even if they're only squatting in someone's garden.

I liked Biarritz alright, but I no doubt would have been smitten if the weather was good and we could have strolled around in swimsuits and sandals.  It's part of the Basque region, which runs from France to Spain and is the land of pelote (in the US, the most well-known version of which is Jai Alai), fresh seafood, part of the Pyrenees, esplette peppers, kalimotxo (a drink of half red wine/half cola), pintxos (the Basque version of tapas), a predominant use of the letter X, wild ponies (pottok), sheeps' milk cheese (like Idiazabal), and the cutest damn typeface in the world.

More Basque region to follow.