Category Archives: Spain

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Postcard from the Guggenheim, Bilbao

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We flew into Bilbao with no real idea of what to expect. All we knew was that we had a hire car to collect on the edge of the city. The weather was fine, and our hotel room not available until the afternoon, so we decided to visit the Guggenheim.

Our first sight of the art museum was from the bridge as we entered the city. The museum’s titanium bulk rose up beside us but we had no view of the whole. That we saw for the first time after parking the car, and even then we could see only what our approach would allow, much of our view taken up by a giant, plant covered puppy, designed by Jeff Koons.

The sun was bright. The day was hot. We were tired. Rather than go into the museum to stare in a daze at works of art, we decided to walk around the outside, recrossing the bridge to get a view of the building from the far side of the Nervion River.

It was like unwrapping a parcel, one layer at a time. With every step the museum seemed to unfurl another sinew, its shape changing from crumpled paper, to majestic ship depending on the shadows and our bearings.

Our route, back over the river by another bridge, wound us around to the main entrance where we could not resist touching the scales of the giant. As we gently stroked one flank, a young man ran over to do the same, his excitement so great that sparks seemed to fly from his fingers as he touched it. He was a student of architecture, over from Peru, and beaming at just being there.

Here is a link to an article that tells you more about the museum, which turned 25 a few weeks after our visit.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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This week’s plan – postcards from the Basque Country

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Towards the end of last year, we had days with leave that had to be taken, and no days with space for leave, or time to plan.

A kind friend in Spain did a little research for me. She pointed out that the north west of the country needed a chance to recover from terrible wildfires, and patiently offered a few suggestions about the north east. I followed those up but discovered we were too late for the obvious places, so our search drifted even further north into ‘el País Vasco‘, where it seemed there were still options available.

I’d never visited the Basque Country before, but I’d always wanted to. It and its troubles, have been part of my understanding of Spain. They had coloured my Spanish studies at university, the violent separatist group ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna – Basque homeland and liberty) insisting on attention. In 2011 the violence officially ended. In April 2017 the group said it had disarmed. And the following year – 2018 – ETA announced that it had disbanded.

Now, in 2022, we had the chance to visit, to savour the cooking my professor had talked so highly of.

In a few frantic hours we’d booked our flights into Bilbao, reserved a car and found a small hotel in a fishing town, Lekeitio. Our stay was to be for four nights. We knew nothing about the town, other than what we could find online. This included two significant facts – Lekeitio is one of the most important fishing ports on the Basque coast, and it is prone to be wet and windy.

As we packed our bags I wondered what both would mean for our September visit.

Here is a link to the blog that drew our attention to Lekeitio in the first place

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023