Day 49: Guggenheim Museum

No UNESCO for today! Only thing we had planned was to visit the Guggenheim museum, one of the city's key attractions. We headed there fairly early, about 10:15am and just after it opened. Quite a few different things to see! It's entirely modern art, from about 1910 onwards. Lots of works by well-known modern artists including Picasso, Warhol, Basquiat, Pollock and others.

Stopped briefly for a spot of lunch in the museum cafe around lunchtime, fairly expensive for what it was but not too bad I guess. Kept going after lunch through the Abstract Expressionism gallery which was quite interesting, but unfortunately I had to leave around 2pm as our Mercedes finally needed to go back to the depot. We'd tried to extend the rental further but Avis have a maximum 30 day duration, making us out of luck.

So off to the airport I went! Thankfully only a 30 minute drive, and relatively painless to get in and out of the rental office. But the best part was that when I mentioned to the car return girl that I was picking up another car, she asked if I wanted to keep the Mercedes! Uhh, yes! So after about 15 minutes of paperwork and signatures I drove back out of the same car park in the same car! Funny how these things work out sometimes. Lucky too, since I'd forgotten I needed to fill it with fuel before returning it.

Met Shandos back at our apartment where we relaxed for the next few hours before heading out for dinner later on. People eat a bit earlier here than in other parts of Spain, the whole idea of heading out at 11pm doesn't seem to happen as much. Maybe because of the colder weather? Kitchens still often don't open until 8pm, but there's always pintxos a la barre (at the bar) to snack on before you can have pintxos calientes (hot).

We visited 3 different spots and had a couple at each, along with a drink. Afterwards we were hoping for dessert at the same bar as last night, but alas they weren't doing coffee and we didn't feel like having another alcoholic beverage, so we found a gelato place that sold cakes and coffee and perched up. Schnitzel is very welcome everywhere here too, unlike other parts of Spain. Portugal just seemed to have a blanket ban on dogs in indoor dining areas, but unless it's a nice restaurant here nobody seems bothered. People are less uptight about it as well, if he barks he startles people but you don't get the endless filthy glances like in Australia.

Back home to bed before another travel day tomorrow, our days in Bilbao are at an end!Read more