Bilbao 08-12-08

Our last day in Bilbao was really only a half day, so we took the Transborder across the river, walked around a bit, and then took it back across and walked down the beach a ways. After that, Borja's dad treated us to the lovely Basque pre-lunch ritual of bar fingerfoods. After selecting whatever looked good, keeping a tally in our head and munching until we'd had enough, we paid the bartender and went off in search of ice cream. Oh ice cream. You are so good. We won't mention the terrible ice cream policies maintained by the Dutch. They make me too sad. ;)

Here are a few photos also in video form. Enjoy!

And, for close ups, here are the photos. ;)

Bilbao 08-11-08

I just discovered that I can make slideshows/videos with Picassa, so I made one! These are the photos from our first day in Bilbao. I hope you enjoy!

(if the photos stay up a little too long, that's because the time has to be the same on all of them, and I timed them based on whether or not I could read them and still look at the photo)

If you want to see any of the photos in better detail, here they are without comments:

Bilbao Architecture 08-10-11-08

Most of this is just really cool Bilbao architecture, and has nothing to do with anything other than that I liked it. =) Unlike most modern cities in the US, I think Bilbao has wonderful examples of beautiful modern architecture that respects what has come before rather than attempting to slough it off. On the other hand, it has examples of blatant disregard and disgust for the old, as you can see in the modern looking church below.

The second photo is of some official looking building that here acts as a representative of attractive modern architecture. There were more buildings like this, but apparently we didn't take pictures of them. 0=)

The building on the far right was really freaking cool, but it's hard to tell just how cool it is. It sort of looks like there was a building between it and the building behind it, but that building has now been removed. So this one very skinny building was just standing all by itself in the middle of everything, but unfortunately the shot doesn't quite capture it.

The statue portrays the Basque hero (whose name I have now forgotten) conquering Neptune, the god of the sea. It's a monument to Cosme Damián Churruca y Elorza who according to the translated version of his Spanish Wikipedia page did some stuff relating to seafaring. =) Andy's going to love that one.

The church that we didn't get to go into because it was too late. =(

Andy decided that when we build our dream home, it will look like the first photo before. I have decided it will either look like the middle one or the the top floor and a half of the third one. Who do you think will win?

Bilbao Lamp Posts 08-10-11-08

Bilbao had a LOT of different kinds of lamp posts ranging, like it's architecture, from the lovely and ornate to the ugly and modern. Some of these, such as the last three in the set below, don't even look like lamp posts, but Borja assures us they light up at night. I had wanted to go back to the second set in the evening, but forgot.

The first two are from the river between the Guggenheim and the university, while the third is from an ugly modern building, which you can see in the background and the fourth is from the old port of Bilbao.

This first lamp post is pretty cool, so definitely click on it to see more detail. The second is on the side of the church that we couldn't enter, because we arrived too late. And I don't remember where the last one was taken. =)