A short walk from our hotel on Thursday afternoon led us to the restaurant Serantes II for our first dinner back in Spain. Jerome started with a delicious garbanzo soup, followed with piquillos (small, sweet red peppers) rellenos (stuffed) de pescado (with minced fish). My eggs-and-wild-mushroom appetizer was followed by ternera (thinly sliced beef) with gravy and fresh vegetables. Flan and natillas (soft custard with cinnamon sprinkled on top) finished the meal. After naps, and the delivery of our luggage, we ventured out again after dark in search of tapas. We found a great place with good cured Spanish jamón, and indulged. We slept very well that night!
Our first full day in Spain began with breakfast at the Olimpia, a local corner coffee and wine bar, with tapas set out for breakfast as well as any snack thereafter for the rest of the day and night. Have some cured jamón on a piece of crusty bread and call it breakfast in the morning (with coffee) or a tapa at night (with wine): It all works.
Our next outing took us past, and then into, the Alhóndiga Bilbao. Originally a huge wine warehouse built in 1909, it was abandoned in 1970, then redesigned in 2010 by Philippe Starck into a public space that includes shops, a fitness center, restaurants, and a public library. We were enchanted by the integrity of the original exterior with the contemporary interior. The public library was ultra modern and very welcoming. The original supporting columns on the ground floor of the warehouse have been wrapped in imaginative sculptures. I’ll send a few photos; it is hard to describe.
We had initially set out for the Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum, the primary impetus for Bilbao’s modernization from a grotty port city into the vital urban center that it is now. We finally got there, and it exceeded our expectations. The architecture is nothing less than spectacular, and indeed the gallery exhibits all paled in comparison. The one exception was Richard Serra’s “The matter of time”, an installation of eight pieces of torqued steel ellipses that must each be at least twenty feet tall. I had seen a film about its creation; to walk through it in person was an event of a lifetime.
We walked along the river promenade around into the oldest part of the city, called “Siete Calles” for its original seven streets, which are very narrow and now mostly pedestrian. We found a restaurant that Jerome had researched, and were delighted to be welcomed in by a waiter who, it turned out, loves the U.S. Although he has only been to NYC, Antonio intends to go back next year, rent a car, and travel all of the old Route 66. We warned him that he’d have a hard time finding food that compared with that of Las Delicias. Our meal consisted of a watercress salad with walnuts and goat cheese, jamón con melón, grilled striped bass, grilled hake, and profiteroles for dessert.
On our way home, we passed the train station, from which we will rent our car tomorrow before heading west along the coast. It is also the departure point for my train to Catalonia in two weeks. Reverting to our normal schedule for days in Spain, we got back to the hotel about 6, rested for a couple of hours, then wandered out again in search of our evening meal. We got lost a few times, but eventually found “La Mary” and had a light supper. We feel fully acclimated.
