Thursday, July 01, 2004

Recent trip to Bilbao


We have been for a week in Bilbao, Espania. Very nice city. One of the hightlights is definitvely the Guggenheim Museum.
We took a flight with Happag-Llloyd Express directly from Stuttgart to Bilbao. This went without complications. Handling basically was as with all other flights. As we had our little son Orlando with us, we had concerns if he could handle the flight, but he slept through.
To limit luggage, we left his nappies at home, being sure, that it would be easy to find some in Bilbao, but it proved harder to be than we thought. We were looking for a supermarket, but had no luck. We finally bought a fairly expensive pack of nappies at a department store.
Supermarkets like Eroski are all a bit hidden.

The Guggenheim really is a good show and a great architectural piece.

We also spent three days on the beach. Getting there is easy with the Metro (the stations were designed by Sir Norman Foster), which is cheap (3 Euros for a day ticket per adult). They also have complete GSM coverage in all tunnels.

Bilbao seems to have changed a lot in the recent years. There are new buildings all around and a good walk along the Nervion River.

Life in Bilbao is really different from what it is in Stuttgart (or Germany in total). There are bars and cafes all around, while we only saw one Burger King and as many Mac Donalds and Pizza Huts. In the evening, virtually everyone is standing in front of a bar, eating some Tapas (fingerfood) and having a drink. For lunch, the restaurants offer "menu de dia" with starter, main course, desert, water and wine and an esspresso for as much as 8 Euros with big portions at good quality.
Also shops tend to be open less than eight hours a day with a big break ("siesta") in between 1pm and 4pm.

Pictures are available at the picture page.

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