May 16, 2022: Bilbao, Spain & the Guggenheim Museum

May 18, 2022 cjbishop@yahoo.com

The real highlight for this visit to Bilbao is to experience the world famous Guggenheim museum. Bilbao is in the the Basque region of Spain, an area of somewhat controversy as it has often talked of succession from Spain. It is the de facto capital of northern Spain with a metropolitan population of a million people. The city itself is the 10th largest in Spain with a population of 345,000. Until the arrival of the Guggenheim museum it was a dying industrial city. The downtown area on the river was a shipbuilding port. Its other main product was the mining of iron ore which was sold throughout Europe from the 16th century. Unemployment was 25-30% in the mid 1980s.

Jeff Koon’s “Puppy” outside Guggenheim. It is replanted with flowers in May and October.

33,000 titanium panels make up the exterior of the museum.

Outside the Guggenheim. The fog in the background is actually part of the visual art display.

Boaters on the river in front of the Guggenheim.

The arrival of the Guggenheim in 1997 revitalized and reinvented the city to what it is today-a beautiful city to visit! We were blown away. The old port and shipbuilding region have been replaced by tree-lined parks, modern buildings, restaurants, and concert halls-all anchored by the magnificent Guggenheim museum.

I asked our local tour guide how did Bilbao get the Guggenheim museum to locate here. He said: “we bought it”! Indeed when it was announced that a new location was being sought Bilbao decided to bid for it. What allowed them to do that is that Bilbao keeps the taxes they generate (rather than sending it to the head government-unlike the US) so they offered $180 million dollars to the foundation to have the museum built n Bilbao … and the rest is history. The design took two years and construction took four. It opened in 1997 so they will be celebrating its 25 year anniversary this fall. Prior to Covid over 1 million people/year visited the museum. Over the last 20 years over 20 million people have visited, 80% from overseas. In hindsight it was a stroke of genius to bid for the project.

Frank Gehry designed the structure; some say it appears as a ship. It is covered with 33,000 sheets of titanium which reflect the surrounding light. It is truly futuristic in its design.

On Mondays (when we were in port) the museum is normally closed but Regent negotiated for us the have a special entry and tour, and I think a vast majority of our shipmates chose to take the tour. We were broken up into small groups of about 20 each and led through several of the main exhibits by knowledgeable guides. Although the museum looks large from the outside it is not that large inside. It only has 3 floors of exhibits separated into major display halls. The first hall we viewed was an exhibit by sculptor, Richard Serra , called “The Matter of Time” which consists of massive steel structures formed into shapes that often confuse your sense of balance.

The Richard Serra gallery, which is huge.

Looking down at the Richard Serra art, called “The Matter of Time”. Those sculptures are mammoth.

Explaining the Richard Serra ” The Matter of Time” art.

Walking through Richard Serra’s art, called “The Matter of Time”. Note the size of those steel panels!

A moving visual display by Jenny Holzer. The back side is a different color.

We then viewed some very large pieces of art including one by Warhol on Marilyn Monroe and the Jeff Koons sculpture called “Puppy” which is a large steel structure that is covered annually by live flowers. However, the main attraction (to mostly the men in attendance) is a traveling exhibit by Norman Foster called: Motion-Autos, Art, Architecture. There are magnificent autos from the past, present and future on display-many one of a kind vehicles, including the original Aston Martin used in the James Bond movie. There were a lot of “wows” going around when we toured this exhibit. All in all, everyone seems to be impressed with our visit to the Guggenheim.

This gives you a feeling of how BIG the gallery display halls are.

Note size of art compared to the size of people.

Andy Warhol “One Hundred Fifty Muiltcolored Marilyns” (images of Marilyn Monroe).

A 1950 Porsche 356, its first production vehicle.

Another iconic design-the 1955 Mercedes Gullwing!

The original 1964 James Bond Aston Martin!

1971 unrestored Citroen DS, “viewed as the most beautiful in the world” at that time.

From there we were driven to the old town portion of Bilbao where we had free time to grab a bite to eat, shop or simply wander around. Well, we were on a mission! Today was our last day in a Spanish city and we had yet to have our traditional toast of sangria to commemorate a previous visit to Barcelona with Ron & Marlene Massa where we consumed “fish bowl” sized glasses of their local drink. Bilbao is also noted for its version of tapas called “pinxtos” bite sized appetizers. Our tour guide deposited us in the old main square of Bilbao that was surrounded by small bars that featured both! We ordered a round of sangrias, pointed to dishes stacked on the bar loaded with various types of pinxtos (guessing which ones we might like) and headed to an outside table in the shade of the square to consume both. The first sangria disappeared quickly and since we had extra time we decided to have another rather than walking around to shop. It was a wise decision and we toasted the completion of our “quest”! I do seem to recall that we went back to the ship and had a very nice nap after this tour.

Sculpture in front of convention center.

Casco Viejo de Bilbao, the old town square.

Tapas we selected. We guessed at a few not knowing what they were.

Reliving our 2009 memory of drinking sangria in Spain.

Bilbao was also on the pilgrimage trail to Santiago de Compostela.

Bilbao door picture. I try to take some wherever I go. Might make a book of them someday!

Church of St. Nicholas in Bilbao, built in 18th century.

Cocktails and trivia (do not ask!) completed our afternoon. Tonight’s entertainment was a production show by the ship’s singers and dancers, with a focus on the music of famous Broadway musicals. We all were amazed at the quality of the 3 female and 2 male singers currently on board.