Spanish Adventure

Sue had asked me where I would like to go for my birthday (after we'd been to Paris for her's). I didn't give too much thought to it when I said Bilbao, for the Guggenheim museum, but it all worked out very well. There is a different feel to 'going abroad' for your holiday, when you can just drive there!

Bilbao was about 6-7 hours drive from home, but, strangely, Spain did feel different to France...doubley different as everything was in Basque as well as Spanish. This made life a bit difficult for us to find the hotel which was in the centre of the city. This was good for us to be able to walk around, but finding the street the hotel was in was a nightmare. After nearly an hour, and on the second time going around the place, I stopped to ask for directions from a security guard who was standing outside an office block. I was in the middle of trying to drag out some of my spanish from about 15 years ago, when up came a nice man who proceeded to direct me in French to the hotel. He'd obviously seen our french registered car and thought, 'I'd better help this old boy'! We didn't think too much more about this, as we were just grateful to get to the hotel. However, a little later, we went out into the town to look for somewhere to eat. We were looking at a restaurant menu when a grandad pushing his grandaughter in a pushchair obviously thought, 'I'd better help this old couple', and proceeded to direct us to a really nice restaurant. (In fact we ended up going there each evening as it was so good.) Upon reflection, I was very concerned that, now we are both 60, we must look as if we are doddery and need helping. Can't wait to see how they will treat us once we start to wear the flat cap and chiffon scarf!!!!!

But seriously, the Guggenheim Museum was the purpose of the visit and it really lived up to expectations. It is an astonishing piece of architecture and the centre-piece of a full scale redevelopment of the city. Previously the centre of Bilbao was Industry and Port, but in the 80's this all suffered massive decline and moved out to the coast and the mouth of the river. This left a huge 'brown-field' site which the local and national government had the courage to earmark for 'something completely different'.

This massive redevelopment has engendered a very positive, lively atmosphere. As part of this development the city now has a new metro system and also has installed a tram system.

All in all a short but sweet and memorable birthday!