From Lisbon to Bilbao it’s only a 2 hour flight. Landing in Bilbao to visit the Basque Country seems to be the easiest way to start your journey. The flight was about an hour late due to propeller problems. They took us to the gate on a bus (always the bus to the plane at Lisbon airport) where we saw the workmen messing around with the propeller. They immediately took us back to the gate where we waited a bit before reloading…on the same plane. Pray.

Bilbao is “The Guggenheim.” There’s a few other things to see such as the old town and, of course, pintxo introduction. You can put anything on a slice of thick French bread and call it a pintxo: cod and padron pepper, duck and sautéed onions, weird little spaghetti fish and sweet onion. Also a ravioli on bread. Not sure about the ravioli but it was recommended. I think it was blended squid smooshed into a ravioli and put on top of bread. Tasted OK until I bit into a little eyeball…evidently not smooshed enough.

The Guggenheim is well worth seeing from the outside and the inside. An amazing fabric/balloon/mobile structure filled the inside space. It’s arms covered the entire inside space and was pretty incredible.

There was also a great Chagall exhibit focused on the war years (WWI). Very well done but NO PICTURES! I managed to get a few….just forgot you know.There was also a Serra monster work

And Ah Wei Wei had several works on display including Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn. In fact I thought their modern art and electronic exhibits, even though minimal, were one of the more interesting aspects.

Though the outside is otherworldly, the inside is a strong complement.