Day in Bilbao
Aug 21st, 2013 by willmarks
Showing up in a town with no hotel reservations can work, but it is probably better to reserve a room(s) if one or more of the following is true: a) you are arriving at 1 a.m.; b) the town is hosting its annual festival; c) it is August and you are in Europe; d) you really need two rooms with your family of 5; and, e) you want your family to maintain respect for you and your trip planning abilities. Yes, in our lovely Kia (manual transmission—I stalled about 10 times but no accidents), we drove into downtown Bilbao at a few minutes before 1 a.m. and at the first two hotels, the front desk attendants offered that semi-sincere apology with a partially cruel smile that says, “you’re an idiot, it’s 1 a.m., look in the mirror and blame it on him.” We actually lucked out at the Hotel Ercilla, which happened to have 2 rooms and at reasonable, albeit not cheap rates. The beds were comfortable, and with a great location, I would recommend it to anyone heading to Bilbao.
After sleeping in, normal as we adjust to the time zone during our first week, we found ourselves at the annual Bilbao festival (“Aste Nagusia”/”Semana Grande”, Basque/Spanish for “Big Week”). While the kids section, with face painting, arts & crafts, bubble makers, etc., was no different than that of any other fair, it was worth seeing the giant puppets and frequenting the many outdoor beer (and food) halls, not to mention the bullfights (we didn’t attend). Most disappointing was that we missed the “Concurso de Feos,” or the ugly competition, where people take the stage and make the ugliest possible facial expression.
We did enjoy our first long Spanish lunch, at Larruzz Bilbao, a few blocks from the Guggenheim museum (important to build up energy in advance of a museum of
course.) The paella was tasty but what really stood out was an amazing vegetable terrine with warm goat cheese. Service was a bit slow, only because we were in the early days of enjoying what is a traditionally lengthy experience in Spain; and the check will never come to you without asking for it, not a bad thing necessarily. Finally, while not for everyone, the artwork (see above) was nice for our family to see.
Common knowledge is that the Guggenheim museum is most compelling for its architecture and we generally agreed, with details explained during the initial sections of the audio tour; tell your kids (and your adults) that they only need to listen to the first 20-30 minutes. In addition, particularly for those interested in math (in other words, a way to make your kids care about art), Richard Serra’s large installation (“The Matter of Time”, 2005) makes for a unique stroll within the exhibition. Still, as the name suggests, it was a Matter of Time before museum fatigue set in, and we were on our way.
