We were delighted to have Celia's Dad, Geoff Winkler, come visit for 10 days starting on October 8. He landed early in the morning in Madrid and took the fast train to Zaragoza. Before he barely had time to adjust, we had him off and traveling to Bilbao and San Sebastian the day after he arrived.
In honor of the Pilar holiday and festival, Colin and Kelsey had a 5 day weekend. Pilar is the patron saint of all the Hispanic people, and loads of visitors travel to Zaragoza from all over Spain and beyond for the 10 (yes, 10) day festival. With the extended holiday and much of the festival action happening in our backyard (including concerts, fireworks, street shows and more), we took the opportunity to get out of town for a few days and head north to the famous Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and then on to the equally notorious beaches of San Sebastian.
Photo: Back view of the Guggenheim facing the river
Photo: Outside the front entrance of the Guggenheim with 'The Puppy' in the background by Jeff Koons
For us, the most interesting part of the Guggenheim was the architecture. Designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, it was built as a revival of Bilbao and Spain's Basque Country. It sits alongside the Nervion River, which runs through the city of Bilbao. It opened its doors in October 2007, has welcomed over 10 million visitors, and boasts that it's one of the most successful museums to date.
While impressive, it's modern style was occassionally humorous to our untrained eye with some exhibits including art work that we were pretty sure Kelsey could have created a few years ago. In particular, the flagship artist, Anish Kapoor tickled our funny bones. Kapoor has some impressive works to his name including "The Bean" in Millenium Park in Chicago among others, but the focus of his work at the Guggenheim are red wax creations. Kapoor explained in the audiotour, "I like using red because red is redder than blue is blue or black is black." Huh?
Photo: Work by Anish Kapoor. Canisters of red wax are shot against the wall every 30 minutes
Photos: Geoff, Celia, Colin and Kelsey outside the back of the Guggenheim
Photo: Richard Serra's The Matter of Time (this labyrinth-like exhibit was very interesting)
Photo: Outisde El Perro Chico where we had a fabulous dinner the night we arrived in Bilbao
Unfortunately, during this time, Parker was fighting a rough intestinal bug. It finally got the better of him and he wound up heading back to Zaragoza on his own via train. Celia stayed with her Dad and the kids and took a day trip to San Sebastian. SS is in the northern Basque Country, on the southern coast of the Bay of Biscay and its picturesque coastline makes it a popular beach resort town.
After spending the previous day touring the museum, the kids were eager to have more freedom and play on the beach. The weather was a bit wet and chilly but that didn't stop Kelsey from putting on her suit and swimming. Colin had a fantastic time playing in the sand writing the names of the various places we call "home", Zargoza, New Hampshire, California... The beach had a fabulous display of sand art.
Spaniards don't like to go barefoot as they see it as unhygenic and somewhat crude. When I took off my boots to walk the beach and then continued to roam the area with barefeet, I received many stares and strange looks. Most of the beachcombers were walking in their fashionable boots.
Photos: San Sebastian and the famous, La Concha Beach
After the beach romp, we toured around the old part of the city (Casco Viajo) and enjoyed the fabulous tapas in San Sebastian. The tapas at this restaurant were like art work (may be better than some things we saw at the Guggenheim!)
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