Basically I will start with Bilbao is one of my favorite cities. But I am getting ahead of myself....the week before we visited the Basque country of Spain, we had a couple of interesting classes.
On Tuesday, we walked around the 22@ area of Barcelona. This area is going through a big transformation and is slowly becoming the modern area of Barcelona, as it is one of the only areas to allow skyscrapers. We saw a few of those, along with a couple of interesting parks, and a new university campus. The campus was a mix of modern and traditional style buildings.
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| One of the Pompeu Fabra University Campuses in Barcelona |
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| This building has no structural columns, it hangs from the steel bracing along the sides and top |
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| View of the modern architecture from one of the new parks designed by Jean Nouvel |
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| All the gates of the park were like this, pretty cool |
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| Park designed by Jean Nouvel had vines that grew over the roadway |
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| Windows (with glass) to the street |
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| Sculpture in the park |
The rest of the week wasn't anything too exciting, it was good to relax a little. On Thursday we did go to the MACBA (Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona), and it was interesting. I had a little of a headache and didn't really understand much of what I saw but I guess it was a good experience.
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| Piece of art at the MACBA |
The next morning, Friday, was when we made it to Bilbao. Of course the main reason for going there was the Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Gehry, but after arriving, we realized that there was a lot more to see than just the museum. This medium sized city is filled with interesting modern and traditional architecture all over the place, so needless to say we thought it was really cool. :)
Also, I want to point out that Bilbao is in the Basque region of Spain where they have there own language along with Spanish. It was so confusing because it is not even close to Spanish. I mean, the word Basque in Spanish is Vasco and in the Basque language it is Euskara. How does that make any sense?? That is why the title of this blog is what it is.... haha
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| Euskalduna Bridge |
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| Pavilion space in front of the Opera House |
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| Statue in one of the main city interesections |
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| Iturriza Casilda Park |
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| Flowers were all over the place |
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| Steel close-up |
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| Bilbao River |
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| Park Abandoibarra along the river front |
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| Cool footbridge across the river |
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| THE GUGGENHEIM! :) |
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| Quite a few steps... |
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| Main entrance |
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| So awesome! |
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| Giant Puppy of Pansies by Jeff Koons |
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| Modern hotel next to the museum |
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| Iberdrola Tower designed by Cesar Pelli |
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| Porch of the Guggenheim |
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| Spider by Louise Bourgeois |
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| Sculpture that is part of the building, made of limestone panels |
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| Inside structure of the sculpture |
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| Tram system all along the river, it was grass all the way around |
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| This picture was not allowed, but I had to take one real quick ;) Exhibit by Richard Serra, (steel) so cool! |
After the Guggenheim, we decided to walk along the river a little further to see, yet another, Calatrava Bridge, like I said before, his work is EVERYWHERE. haha This one was really amazing, it is a suspended footbridge, and you will see why it so awesome from the pictures...
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| Zubizuri Footbridge by Santiago Calatrava |
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| The cables and angles are crazy |
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| Only slightly tilted, no big deal. |
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| The last and best one! |
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| Anytime I saw the Guggenhiem I had to take a picture haha |
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| Central plaza of Bilbao |
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| Fountain in the center of the plaza |
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| Flowers on a tree in Plaza del Ensanche |
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| Plaza Desado |
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| Another example of contemporary architecture |
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| Steel sculpture |
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| Physical activities for citizens to partake in while relaxing at the park...pretty ingenious! |
This next building was really cool. From the outside it looked like a traditional style governmental building, but it turns out it was a pavilion/community center with shops, restaurants, and the equivalent of a YMCA. This building was actually supposed to be the site for the Guggenheim, but when that changed, it was transformed into a public space. Very cool.
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| Edificio de la Alhondiga |
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| Main entrance area |
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| Huge TV screen |
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| Funky columns held up the offices in the building and the seating was made up of rectangular prisms that lit up |
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| One of my favorite columns in the building |
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| It had its own interesting style |
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| Pool on the roof with a frosted glass floor! |
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| Modern building in Plaza Bizkaia |
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| Community Center for Health Services |
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| Plaza Indautxu |
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| Sculptural landscape along Gran Via |
I also haven't mentioned that Santiago Calatrava also did Bilbao's airport. It is nicknamed La Paloma (dove) because it is said to look like a dove in flight. It is very cool...
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| Check-in area |
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| Terminal/gate area |
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| Goodbye Bilbao! |
So as you can see from the sheer amount of pictures that I had on ONE city, I really enjoyed Bilbao. It wasn't overcrowded, it was very laidback, and there was great art & architecture everywhere. I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to go to Spain.
Next stop will be Paris this weekend! Although I am not a huge fan of France, I am going to give it a shot and see what happens. I am actually pretty excited about it. :)
Until next time....
Un abrazo,
Seth
Micah 6:8
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