Bilbao Spain - Jellen's Adventures

We’re in Spain, our 9th country. Our ‘rest’ day in Toulouse yesterday I think was just a combination of the realization that we were on our way out of France, and that we really don’t have anything picked out between here and Lagos that we had planned to spend any time exploring. I don’t think we even really planned to spend as much time as we did in France, it just seemed to work out that way.

Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the province of Biscay and in the Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the eleventh largest city in Spain, with a population of 347,342 as of 2024.

Our stop here was filled with wonder. Our Hotel Mercure Jardines de Albia is right near the river and a short walk to the Guggenheim Museum.

We started with an amazing breakfast.

Everything is so fresh including Valencia oranges – exactly what’s needed to help fight a head cold.

And, baby olive oil and Nutella

We watched the news for some weather, why do they ignore Portugal? I know they have a history. I wanted weather but NO!

The Spaniards are so friendly and welcoming. Hola, Buon Dio sounded refreshing.

After breakfast, we walked to the river and headed towards the museum. The artworks started before we even reached the museum.

As I was preparing to photograph these statues, a man, speaking Spanish, pointed to a plaque on the ground with a QR code on it. It was in Basque and I couldn’t read it, so I snapped the pictures and kept going.

Later, back at the hotel, this is what I was able to translate off the website linked to the QR code:

The women of the Ria de Bilbao were the working women who, at the end of the nineteenth century, pulled barges and other kinds of boats from Abra to San Antón by means of a rope or a cirga.

The work was carried out not only by oxen, but also by men and women, and their physical strength replaced the traction of animals at intervals in a river where they could not navigate. The goods went up to Bilbao along the river to the docks of Sendeja, Arenal, or Arriaga.

Cool spider, or something from War of the Worlds!!!

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art. It is one of several museums affiliated to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and features permanent and visiting exhibits of works by Spanish and international artists. It was inaugurated on 18 October 1997 by King Juan Carlos I of Spain, with an exhibition of 250 contemporary works of art. It is one of the largest museums in Spain.

The whole complex is so visually stunning it’s hard to describe. Your mind continuously tries to connect it to something; an animal, plant, or other formation that you might have seen, except, it doesn’t really fit into any of those categories.

Inside, the exhibits are just as interesting and very unique. To get a sense of scale, look at the people.

Some fun too

OK, don’t look too close at the people 🙂

An exhibition show by Refik Anadol in a room that flashes photos and pictures and all kinds of colors and shapes.

Then we were introduced to Barbara Kruger (born January 26, 1945), an American conceptual artist and collagist associated with the Pictures Generation. She is most known for her visual word art that consists of black-and-white photographs, overlaid with declarative captions, stated in white-on-red Futura Bold Oblique or Helvetica Ultra Condensed text. The phrases in her works often include pronouns such as “you”, “your”, “I”, “we”, and “they”, addressing cultural constructions of power, identity, consumerism, and sexuality. Kruger’s artistic mediums include photography, sculpture, graphic design, architecture, as well as video and audio installations.

After seeing this exhibit we can’t believe we did not know this amazing woman. WE DO NOW!!

This was wrapped around an open square. Below a room full of very powerful words.

We want to learn more about Barbara Kruger. There were a few powerful videos we’d love to share, but we can’t upload on the blog. She’s my new favorite feminist powerhouse.

We stepped outside see a different view of this architectural marvel and check on the vendors.

As we walked back up the riverwalk towards our hotel, we were surprised to see that darn mermaid had followed us 🧜‍♀️

We thought you had probably had your fill of old churches and buildings from ages ago, so it was fun to be taking pictures of more modern architecture.