A Jolt and Look at the Guggenheim in Bilbao...

Bilbao, Spain

December 5, 2007
N43°15.788
W002°56.103

After a very long train ride yesterday, our legs were ready to stretch out and explore a new city. We woke up fairly early and hit a local café for our daily jolt, wandered through the rustic, yet trendy, streets of Bilbao, explored the riverside walk and marveled at the architecture of the art-nouveau Guggenheim Museum.

Back to the coffee… the café we visited today has been in business since 1904, and it’s quite the operation. It has the largest espresso machine we’ve ever seen—capable of making eight cups of espesso at a time with two milk steamers, allowing two people to work side-by-side at the same time, and a green LED ticker displaying the time/date and minor café updates. Our café cortado, or espresso with a tad of milk, was by far one of the best we’ve had since Café Trieste in San Francisco.

After two cortados, a wonderful toasted croissant, and being sufficiently wired, we set out to explore the city. The main promenade, Calle Lopez de Haro, decorated with bright blue Christmas lights at night, is buzzing with activity during the day. The people of Bilbao, and those from the surrounding areas, are in full shopping mode for the upcoming holidays. The stores were packed and people filled the streets with plenty of holiday bags under their arms.

We quickly escaped the shopping scene for a more serene environment, the recently renovated river promenade. The riverfront was revamped in 2000 with clear walking and bicycle paths, plenty of runners were out taking advantage of the beautiful path, as we strolled along enjoying the sites including the fabulous Guggenheim Museum.

The sun bounded off the titanium building and its multiple angles; reflecting like light off the scales of a fish. We couldn’t help but to stroll around the entire structure designed by architect, Frank Gehry. Gehry did an excellent job incorporating a fishing theme, a prominent part of Bilboa’s economy; the randomness of the curves was designed to capture the light off the titanium sections that depict boat hulls and the scales of fish. The location is perfect—right along the river.

Our walk continued down the river toward what’s claimed to be the largest public market in Europe. We were pretty close to siesta by this time, so the fish mongers, vegetable sellers and butchers were putting away their goods, but not before we picked up some fresh fruit for lunch.

Tomorrow we’ll hit the market again, to see the action in full force.