Thursday, October 11, 2018

11th October (cloudy and warm and windy at times) 0 km

“Blessed are those who expecteth nothing, for they shalt not be disappointed”, was one of the quotes my mother often voiced.  I always liked this quote when I was young, thinking only of the “don’t get your hopes too high” aspect, but in later years realising there was probably another side to this quote, that if you don’t have any aspirations, you’ll never get anywhere.  But this morning, I was reminded to not get my hopes too high.
Having been thoroughly delighted with our allotted room, which had great air conditioning that I could actually figure out how to work (unlike probably every other hotel I’ve stayed at), we saw breakfast at the hotel was only 8 euros each.  Now on the road, Pete would have been apoplectic about having to pay that much each for a single meal, but in our new environment, this seemed perfectly reasonable – especially knowing how much food Pete can fit in his stomach.  So at 8am, while it was still quite dark outside, we headed to the first floor lounge for our anticipated feast.  I was craving eggs in particular as can’t remember the last time I ate one – I think it was at Tahlia’s, two months ago.
First disappointment – no eggs.  Second disappointment, no muesli.  Only cereal available was corn flakes and chocolate corn flakes.  No cut fresh fruit, only whole pieces of fruit in a bowl that you had to do all the work of slicing and skinning yourself and eat the whole piece or waste half of it.  Even the yoghurt wasn’t what we wanted – I think it was some kind of dairy dessert.  Seeing they had cheesecake, Pete had to try a bit – and it was still frozen!  So…..great hotel for staying and sleeping, but don’t book the breakfast and if you need fast wifi, forget it.  The wifi is only available in reception and the slugs over here move quicker than this wifi.

Pete here: Have to agree wholeheartedly with Julia on this. Whilst Ju had gone to the reception area to blog this morning, I had showered and shaved and in the surroundings, it was bliss. No standing about in cold open air campsite facilities. Having indulged in our improved surroundings, I wandered downstairs to the reception to find my wife. Playing over the speakers at suitable volume for a hotel was Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird”. Of course, sheer class, only what I had come to expect from this establishment. My hopes for a fantastic breakfast were raised even higher. I should let it be known at this point that at no time did I believe that a good old fashioned English Full Cooked may be on offer. That firm favourite of mine including, bacon, eggs, sausage, hash browns, mushrooms, baked beans and black pudding, with plenty of buttered toast of course, has not integrated itself into Spanish society and they are all the worse for it. However, what we served ourselves was disappointing and so the score is definitely England 1 Spain 0 and is likely to remain that way for the next five hundred years. I mean, who on earth is going to go into battle on a cold winters morning, on a breakfast of croissants or bread and cheesecake. Certainly, no one who expects to win.

For those with a tender disposition…..please cease reading.
My next and first encounter, was with the very European act of using a bidet. Now, as a boy from Liverpool, my only encounter with anything remotely as refined, was watching movies starring the gorgeous French film star….Bridgette Bidet.   To say anything in great detail about using such a device, would be crass and common, not at all the high end literature which our followers have come to expect, but may I say, the users of said device, may be on to something.

The famous flower dog outside the Guggenheim
Ju here – yes that’s our Pete, always willing to give things a crack.  Upon returning to our room I discovered I could log into one of Bilbao’s 200 wifi hotspots by opening the window, so that was a bonus.  Got the blog uploaded and then went for a wander through the middle of town, ultimately coming to the Guggenheim Museum.  Before entering it’s doors, I warned Pete I would need a strong coffee so we took a chance on the Café Abidar across the road from the Guggenheim.  Were pleasantly surprised to only be charged 7 euros for two really good coffees and two savouries.

So now we felt ready to go and see what all the fuss was about.  Lined up for about twenty minutes to pay 10 euro each and I have to say, the building itself is amazing.  We had English audio sets thrown in for free seeing as the second floor was closed as they were installing new works of art there (I was secretly pleased about that – that’s the floor with the most galleries).  The audio was quite interesting if a bit long-winded for somebody as impatient as me.  I just wanted to go and see these amazing works of art.
Other people took photos of the artwork.
We took photos of ourselves, reflected
in the artwork

Apparently there are twenty galleries within the Guggenheim and the first one we ventured into, seemed to contain many mini-galleries inside.  The first of these I thought, wow, this is quite a cool entry to see this work of art as a big rusty steel curved wall wound it’s way in a spiral into the middle.  I wondered what would be inside this gallery and got to the middle to discover…….it was empty!  I thought this was hilarious.  Pete pointed out to me the spiral steel wall was the work of art.  I think you would have to be an engineer to appreciate that particular work of art and the entire gallery was full of different pieces of rusty steel.  I commented to Pete that was obviously what they were doing in the docks yesterday as we rode through and saw guys dismantling a big rusty ship – they were actually creating works of art.
Found a few things mildly interesting, but then we came to the “My kid could draw that” section.  Honestly I don’t know how people can take modern art so seriously.  One was literally a two metre square blackboard with a small smudge of white paint in the corner.  Really?  I just can’t see how anybody can think that is art.
This artwork was entwined throughout the galleries
and at least I could see the work and skill involved
in making it, not to mention inflating and hanging it.

Then we came to Cy Twombly, or Sight Wobbly as I liked to think of him.  It was not widely known that he was the 8th womble and had painted portraits of all his siblings and two self portraits that were all on display.  You couldn’t really tell they were wombles because of his wobbly sight, so I suppose you could make up any story to fit with these paintings.  The Guggenheim had entitled these paintings “Nine discourses on Commodus” which I thought summed it all up rather neatly – a bit like Pete’s episode with the bidet this morning.
Pete here: To truly appreciate a fine piece of art, whether it be sculpted, drawn, painted or kinetic, one must first inhale deeply, place the chin in one hand, with one’s index finger climbing the cheek toward the earlobe, lean into one hip and place a knowledgeable look on the face, before exhaling slowly and then letting out a thoughtful hmmmm. This not only draws other peoples’ attention to you as the obvious art critic, with an understanding of all works arty-farty, but enables you to ramble on about the pain and anguish experienced by the artist being perused, with such understanding, that everyone sees you as an art connoisseur and stands back carefully hanging on your every word.
The real artist is Frank Gehry, the architect



Let’s face it….ya like what ya like and so it should be. What one person sees as art is another man’s rubbish. If we all liked the same things, the world would be a boring place. Strolled back to Abidar for another coffee, extra strong this time, with something nice to eat. I have to say that the Spanish love the whole tapas thing and it’s great. You get a small amount, enough to do the job, with a coffee or wine, rather than stuff your face with too much of anything. The selection of food on offer is amazing and they are working the whole day. 

Another 14th century church


Did a little sightseeing on the way back which from a  photography  aspect was worthwhile. Spent time chilling in the hotel, before venturing out for dinner.
Got seduced by the tapas thing again and were a little worried what we would end up paying.  We got a white wine for Ju and a half pint of beer for me with a tortilla tapas each.  These tortillas are not the flour or corn flat bread of the Mexican type – they seem to be potato and egg base with different flavours on top.  Very tasty all the same and we took our drink and tapas outside to eat without paying anything.  The barman would have been happy for us to run up a tab all night I’m sure – must be a nightmare to keep track of.  But after a second tortilla tapas each, we decided we’d had enough as we had a pastry each to go with our evening cuppa when we got back to the hotel.  The four tapas and two drinks set us back $20 NZ.  Admittedly the drinks were small but it still seemed like a cheap and tasty way to eat to us.  Although not as cheap as sardines.
Lots of people out and about in the evening

Rounded the evening off watching a friendly football game between Wales and Spain.

6 comments:

  1. I'm impressed you parted with cash to go inside the Guggenheim! Somebody should have videoed the moment for a future exhibition ...
    Very impressive building. By the way, that brilliantly named island from a couple of days ago - Gaztelugatxeo (lordy how would you pronounce that?) - was a setting for one of the castles on Game of Thrones

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    1. hahaha and it would have made better viewing than the video they had playing called Shadow Play which was a very grainy film about people making shapes with their hands in silhouette. I commented to Pete I'd seen better on the X Factor - he commented he'd seen better on Playschool. And he's right!

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  2. Ha, you’re like me Irena , you had to find out about Gaztelugatxeo Island and what it’s been used for. Looks quite fascinating .What did we do before Google!.
    Forgot to mention Pete and Ju there’s a bunch of skinny Hobos in the latest Live magazine , care of little bro. Couple of teenagers in their Spotswood uniforms included.its funny as I remember when Richard was that little

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    1. I knew someone would research Gaztelugatxeo for me, but my money was on Anne.....although she probably did as well.

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    2. I knew someone would research Gaztelugatxeo for me, but my money was on Anne.....although she probably did as well.

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    3. Spot on, Julia! Yes, I googled it. I also copied it into Google Translate and listened to the pronunciation. It sounded like someone being strangled.

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