Bilboa is a big city. For the Basque country. In a more global sense, it´s quite a small city. However, it does give itself big city airs. Its boulevards, plazas, vistas and buildings are on a scale comparable to anything like them that you´d find in Madrid or Paris or London. The startling thing, though, is to stand in the middle of a large plaza and look up the streets that radiate away from it. Just beyond, you can see very clearly the nearby hills and mountains, dotted with farm houses that are the countryside.
The
ikurriña, the flag of Spain and the flag of the European union.
Of course, the most famous thing in Bilao is the Guggenheim Museum. It´s what really put the city on the map and got the world taking about the Basque Country in a way that didn´t include thoughts of either quaint local custom or terrorism. This is Jeff Koons´s famous floral
Puppy which greets you at the entrance.
Behind the museum is Louise Bourgeois´s creepy
Mamá. If you stand under the sculpture and look up at the thorax-like part of the figure, you can see large, white marble eggs in a sort of sac.
Here´s a view of the museum itself. I must confess that I did not go inside. I was quite content to see the outside but I´d spent most of the day in the Museo de las Bellas Artes (which was wonderful) and wasn´t particularly curious about the exhibitions inside the Guggenheim.
Bilboa is a big city. For the Basque country. In a more global sense, it´s quite a small city. However, it does give itself big city airs. Its boulevards, plazas, vistas and buildings are on a scale comparable to anything like them that you´d find in Madrid or Paris or London. The startling thing, though, is to stand in the middle of a large plaza and look up the streets that radiate away from it. Just beyond, you can see very clearly the nearby hills and mountains, dotted with farm houses that are the countryside.
The ikurriña, the flag of Spain and the flag of the European union.
Of course, the most famous thing in Bilao is the Guggenheim Museum. It´s what really put the city on the map and got the world taking about the Basque Country in a way that didn´t include thoughts of either quaint local custom or terrorism. This is Jeff Koons´s famous floral Puppy which greets you at the entrance.
Behind the museum is Louise Bourgeois´s creepy Mamá. If you stand under the sculpture and look up at the thorax-like part of the figure, you can see large, white marble eggs in a sort of sac.
Here´s a view of the museum itself. I must confess that I did not go inside. I was quite content to see the outside but I´d spent most of the day in the Museo de las Bellas Artes (which was wonderful) and wasn´t particularly curious about the exhibitions inside the Guggenheim. 
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