Bilbao- another wacky Gehry building

Seattle has the Experience Music Project (EMP) museum about two miles from our home. It sits at the bottom of the tall Space Needle, the top of which is easily seen from our deck. The EMP building is hard to explain- it is a wild, multicolored curved building that looks like someone smashed a giant guitar on the pavement. Built less than ten years ago, it is a landmark in Seattle. The EMP architect, Frank Gehry designed the Guggenheim Museum here in Bilbao, Spain at about the same time as he worked on our music museum. This museum is larger and sits along the edge of the water in what was apparently old port industrial. It is really a gorgeous site today. Tomorrow we will tour the insides and see about all of the fancy art work it houses.

Last night's dinner in Tudela was in a very nice restaurant. We ate Spanish style, with a shared ensalata mixta (iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, white asparagus and canned tuna with olive oil and wine vinegar on top), a shared plate of green beans and ham bits, a shared appetizer of grilled shrimp complete with heads, etc. then individual mains of steak. Combined with bottled water (after all, the locals think drinking tap water is akin to drinking from the toilet), wine and coffee this meal set us back about the same price as a night in our hotel. What a splurge for the cheapo Handrons. It was very nice. Our hotel desk clerk made the reservations, obviously assuming that Americans can afford a dinner of that price range. Dinner was served at 10:00 PM, and we were back to our room at the early hour of midnight (yes, Leanne, you heard correctly).

We were up at the Spanish wake up hour of 9:00 when all of our hotel neighbors started their showering and shouting, and by 10:00 we were on the road again. Our intention was to find a hotel in a small town in the wine country. Never happened. The towns were either too small to sport a hotel or too big to feel like a small town. Eventually we gave up the search and headed to Bilbao, our intended hotel for the following night and decided to spend two nights here. We had no idea that this was a bank holiday, with four days off for all good people of Spain, so hotel reservations are not easy to come by. After parking near the aforementioned Guggenheim museum and walking around to nearby hotels and the information office, we eventually hit the phones where we started dialing for hotels, starting with the most expensive and working our way down the list to the two star hotel where we now have the last room available. As we made our way here through the maze of one way streets our opinion of beautiful Bilbao changed a bit. We got to see its seamier side. Not that it is horrible here or anything. We have the "Fantasy sex shop" directly across the street, so it is an entertaining neighborhood.

It took us half an hour to find the hotel after missing a few of the tiny turns that would have made it the reportedly ten minute drive from the museum. We parked in front and checked in. Our friendly English speaking desk clerk advised us to bring the bags in here because it is easier than carrying them to the parking lot in the car and trekking them back. That should have been a clue that the parking lot was not an easy walk. Nor was taking the bags up three flights of stars. Thankfully we have been traveling light (leaving the heavy bags we are carrying for Caitie in the car). After stowing the bags in our room (two twin beds, pergo floor, Ozzie and Harriet bedspreads, etc.) we caught our breath and went downstairs for instructions on stowing the car. He pulled out a two page instruction sheet and map to tell us how to unlock the garage door, and how to illegally back up on our one way street to the previous corner in order to get to the street behind the hotel where the parking was. He failed to tell us that the parking lot entrance wasn't directly on the street behind, but required another turn and lots more illegal backing to get our car to the entrance. Then, a few tight, tight turns inside the lot and three floors down and we were parked in our prescribed spot. It sure is nice we aren't driving a car of our own.

We ate a picnic dinner in our room tonight with supplies from the deli and bakery on the corner near the sex shop. It beats another expensive late night. Tomorrow we have the entire day to visit the museum and the city, as we don't leave for San Sebastian until Sunday. Thankfully we have reservations there, so we have no trouble locating a room on this holiday weekend, although who knows how hard it may be to find.

Our discount room is only 65 Euros, so we are saving money. I will let you know tomorrow whether we listen to cat fights all night.

Peace,
Deanne