Hola Bilbao

Tuesday 8th July

In fact I’m not in Bilbao as it’s 14 km up the River Nervion but it’s as close as you can get I’m in Getxo and very nice it is to, its where the rich Bilbao residences have beaches houses. I stripped down the alternator to find it was terminal so I found a Volvo dealer close by in Las Arenas and managed to order a service exchange unit which should be here before I leave on Thursday.
I don’t know what you think Bilbao is like but it’s not what I thought at all, I’m here because I really want to see the Guggenheim Museum building that’s it really and I thought it would be an oasis surrounded by industrial decay but the Council of Bilbao have done a really fantastic job. 15 years ago Bilbao was a declining city which had been reliant on ship building, coal exporting and metal recycling, the river was an open sewer and you’d only come here if you got off the car ferry from Portsmouth on your way to somewhere else. They have spent a fortune doing up the historic centre, putting in a fantastic new underground Metro system from scratch which has been designed by Norman Foster no less, a new Tram system which runs on rails imbedded into a grass strip and looks weird in fact as an fan of cheap quality public transport they have a system unrivalled in the UK. The old infrastructure of cranes and warehouses have been converted to flats and offices, 450,000 people live here and it’s a city that feels optimistic.
Finally it has the Guggenheim Museum building designed by Frank O. Gehry which is truly astounding I am almost speechless; it is just so beautiful…. It is perfect and you can’t get better than that. Sadly the contents are not as good as the Guggenheim Museum that Debbie and I visited in Venice but who cares, the thousands of people who come every year don’t seem to mind.
The other good thing about Spain is the “Menu del dia” a fixed price 3 coarse menu which changes every day includes wine or water and is fantastic value. I called at one of many and for 11 euros I had a bottle of decent Rioja, a four bean and fried potato starter, half a chicken with salad, I declined the dessert but finished off with an espresso. I left a little fatter, a little tipsy and happy to be in Spain.