La vita è troppo breve per Dottore Gianni: Bloggo Iberico: Spring in Northern Spain 2019 3

I love Bilbao!

In fact I loved it from the moment I stepped off the train. Wonderful stained glass above the exit:

Truth to tell, I've loved it for a long time, in my mind's eye. My experience with Bilbao began many years ago, when I first heard the song "That Old Bilbao Moon," performed by I think Andy Williams? At the time I didn't even know that Bilbao was in Spain! Flash forward until the mid-1980s, when I saw Happy End. The musical was written by Bertolt Brecht with music by Kurt Weill as a sequel to their great Threepenny Opera. The sequel alas was a flop in Berlin, and is not frequently performed, but the brilliant production at Arena Stage in Washington DC, made the very best of it. Flash further forward to the day I came across a photo of the Guggenheim Bilbao in an article. Wow! Finally, after another leap forward in time, memories of the song and a desire to see the museum combined with other desires to prod me into action:Three weeks in northern Spain in 2018. Five days in that journey were spent in Bilbao - among the happiest days of an excellent trip.

I had booked a hotel across the river and only a few blocks from the Guggenheim. Immediately after I checked in and was given directions from the excellent staff, I crossed a wonderful pedestrian bridge, known as the Calatrava for its designer or the Zubizuri for...? who cares? It's a great name!)

and in less than ten minutes I arrived at the Guggenheim.

WOW!

I saved my visit inside for the following day, content for now to bask in the beauty of its exterior, extravagant itself and surrounded by statues such as this one,

which I dubbed as "Come into my Parlor, said the Spider to the Tourists." The sculptor is Louise Bourgeois, the work is Spider, one of a series, this particular spider named Maman (Mom or Mamma).

Several public sculptures can be found on the grounds outside the museum, two of them by Jeff Koons. This one, Tulips, was new to me.

the other, near the museum cafe, is among his most famous: Puppy

Another sculpture sits on a pedestal in the pool that runs along the museum. Called Tall Tree and the Eye, it was created by Anish Kapoor

I'm not sure why it is so titled, but I do see an abstract tree and eyes...do you? And does it even matter?

The river very near the Guggenheim, with La Salve Bridge and one of the cute and cleverly named Bilboats that offer frequent tours along the Nervion

After my stroll around the Guggenheim I was not quite ready to go back to my hotel, so I headed along the river in the opposite direction, towards the old town.

Cool public sculpture, the river, and at right, City Hall

The river, named the Nervion, is one of those that seems really vital to the city. Many important buildings are located on or just off it, including a great market, its football (as in soccer) stadium, and of course the Guggenheim. City Hall is just across the street from it, near a pretty and large city

The park along the river

park, the main rail station looks down over it, and the local rail station too sits nearly on top of it. The Nervion empties into the lovely Bay of Biscay several miles above the city proper. I never tired of walking along it.

And in the park pictured above, a pretty band shell/amphitheatre

I found the old town and at first sight it didn't thrill me. I ate chicken outdoors at what looked like a dive, but which served very good food.

Cafe Brasil, in the old town, where I ate well

The cathedral, in the center of the old town, was less than I'd expected (never saw the interior, as there was a 5 Euro entrance fee)

But the main old town square, Plaza Nueva, was my favorite old town spot, though it was marred from my point of view by white tents housing a special, temporary event. I'll return to it later in my Bilbao stay.

The Plaza Nueva

After that I made my way back to my hotel, once again along the central Nervion, and called it a day, though I did get a look at the approach to the Calatrava bridge, from the balcony of my room.

Next morning I made my way eagerly back to the Guggenheim, where I spent most of the morning.

Once upon a time, Bilbao was a thriving fishing town, but in more recent times its importance lessened, and the city declined in many ways. I'm not sure how Bilbao was chosen to be home to a Guggenheim, but when it happened, in 1996, the fantastic building designed by Frank Gehry in which the collections are housed, put Bilbao back on the map. Not the first time an artistic creation revived a city. There are many things to like about Bilbao, but this museum is world class and the world now comes to visit.

My experience there was amazing. The exterior you have seen above, but I'll offer one more view (probably more to come as well...) for your admiration. A closer look, at the central portion, near the entrance

The interior is equally as dramatic - what a use of space!

On entering my head seemed forced to look up...from the ground level, above, and from the second level, below.

And from the third level:

Near the top of the museum there was a terrace, from which the above structural elements shine with beauty.

Looking down from level three:

The ground level is devoted solely to a labyrinthine group of empty spaces by Richard Serra called collectively "The Matter of Time.

I wandered through several of them, took a photo from this one, below. I couldn't possibly explain what one was meant to understand from this strange set of structures, but I really enjoyed making my way through them

In doing so I became so completely disoriented that I thought I came out at the other end of the museum, only to discover that I had returned to the entrance area. I can't explain how I managed that, even today, looking back on the experience a year later.

A room near the huge installation puts things in perspective, so to speak, via this model of Serra's work. Inside the nearest space in the model you can just see some letters, Serra's notes to the people charged with carrying out his designs.

The Second level belongs to Jenny Holzer, whose work is very different from and equally as remarkable as that of Serra.

The dazzler above, thin red columns each of which have writing on them words placed vertically, all them in constant motion and set against a background of blue. Walk into a different room and you're in another part of Holzer's world, another chamber of her mind.

In that room is her "Redacted Series" which has been kept up to date, including redactions of Trump & Co, as handed to Congress. I was unable to see them, but on some nights after dark, brief expressions of all sorts are projected onto the exterior walls of the museum - wish I had!

The third level is somewhat more mundane, rooms of treasures from Peggy Guggenheim's collections, including the below photo of a Rothko and a rapt visitor, who simply did not leave off staring at it.

Robert Motherwell, Clyfford Still, Willem de Kooning and others are also on display.

Finally, I descended from the heights (in more ways than one) and stepped out onto a ground level patio overlooking the pool that wraps around much of the museum.