Bilbao

Maman by Louise Bourgeois
There are seven permanent Mamans in the world.
This one in Bilbao being one of them.

As you know, I went to Bilbao last weekend with Karin so I am going to blog about our first day in Bilbao right now. We arrived in Bilbao late on Thursday night, so we got all of Friday to explore the city of Bilbao. We were fortunate enough to stay with Karin's friend, Lenny, who is from Germany and he was studying abroad in Bilbao, so he showed us around most of the morning and afternoon. We tried going to the market first, but it was closed, probably with it being Constitution Day and all. But we laughed because we said maybe they (Basque country) shouldn't recognize it since some of the Basques what to separate from Spain. Ha. Anyway, we just walked along the river and got quite a few pictures. They had a Christmas tree up near the city hall, which was great to see. The "most famous" bridge there (I don't really know if it's that famous, I'm just assuming) is Zubizuri (which means White Bridge...boring..). It was designed by Santiago Calatrava, the architect who designed the Milwaukee Art Museum and the City of the Sciences and Arts in Valencia. Karin and I are becoming pros at recognizing certain architects work. :) For example, a Guggenheim museum is in Bilbao and we said "Hey, it looks like that amphitheater in Millenium Park in Chicago," and sure enough we looked it up later and we were correct--same architect.

Zubizuri

The bridge looks cooler when you're on it

Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

The following link is a video clip from The Simpsons making fun of Frank O. Gehry, the designer of the Guggenheim and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion: Frank Gehry as featured in The Simpsons

Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago

Sculpture that resembles The Bean in Chicago.
Just looked it up..same artist, Anish Kapoor!
Man, Karin and I are getting good with this art stuff. :)

We walked around for a little bit longer. We saw the soccer stadium, which seemed to be under some major construction on one half and we went through a brief art exhibit on feminism, because it was free. Ha.

Soccer stadium in Bilbao where Athletic Bilbao plays

Karin looking at art

We were tired of walking around so we got some pizza and went back to Lenny's apartment for a little bit, then we left again to go catch a ride on the funicular to get a view of the city. We had perfect timing, because we got to see the sun setting behind the mountains. :)

Bilbao :)

Guggenheim Museum

Once we got back down from the top of the hill, we went back to Lenny's place and ate dinner and that night we went out to some bars. That's not really my scene usually, but it was actually really fun because the place we spent the majority of our time at was more of a restaurant, so we could sit at a table and play games and enjoy each others company. Whereas some places are dark, have too loud of music, no tables, and it's just annoying. So, overall we had a great night and that was the end of day one in Bilbao. :) Keep your eyes open for my blog on San Sebastian and day two in Bilbao. :)