Thursday, February 7, 2008

I leave March 12!!

Experience Bilbao & the Basque Country

Time in Bilbao may soon need to be identified as BG or AG (Before Guggenheim, After Guggenheim). Never has a single monument of art and architecture so radically changed a city -- or, for that matter, a nation, and in this case two: Spain and the semiautonomous region of Spain known as the Basque Country or by its official name, Euskadi. Architect Frank Gehry's stunning Museo Guggenheim, Norman Foster's sleek subway system, and the glass Santiago Calatrava footbridge, which allows pedestrians to all but walk on water, have all helped foment a cultural revolution in Bilbao, the Basque Country's commercial capital.


I'm going to Portugal via Bilbao. I'm bookending Faro with a little time in Spain to see Sheila's city, the Guggenheim, and hopefully San Sebastian. I have a night-long layover in Barcelona on the way home, hopefully I will be able to work it out to leave the airport and dance in the fabulous enchantress that is Barcelona, even if it's for just a few hours.

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