Bilbao.
Early last month, I went to Bilbao with my parents for a little over a week. My mother was there for a conference; my father and I did the conference's "accompanying persons" program.
It was really great, and I can't do it justice. Stray notes:
- We stayed at the Barceló Bilbao Nervión, which was the only hotel that the conference people suggested (aside from staying in the dorms of a local university). It was a surprisingly nice hotel (I mean, surprising for me, since my parents handled all the arrangements), and very nicely situated (right on the river, and a short walk from various points of interest, such as the old city, and such as the Guggenheim Bilbao). We did a bunch of day-trips, but no overnight trips.
- The conference's "social program" (which is for both attendees and accompanying persons) included a visit to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, which was great. I'm not a big fan of modern art, and neither is either of my parents, but the museum itself is cool, and there were a lot of cool things there. The Case folks reading this will, of course, remember that the Guggenheim was designed by the same architect who designed the Peter B. Lewis building, and the resemblances go deeper than just the mass of curvy sheet metal that covers the whole top of the building. (Incidentally, my father made the connection on the very first day when we arrived, as we passed the museum on the way from the airport to the hotel. Also incidentally, after we'd been inside, he commented that he wasn't as impressed with the architect himself as with the engineers who took the design and actually made it possible. Heh.)
- Bilbao has one skyscraper, the Iberdrola Tower. It's not as tall as some skyscrapers elsewhere (if suddenly transposed to Cleveland, it would be the fourth-tallest building there; if to Seattle, the tenth-tallest), but since there's only one of it, with the surrounding buildings all being normal-sized, the effect is quite startling. I could see it from the window of my hotel room.
- Bilbao is the capital of the province of Biscay. I had thought that that meant that it was the capital of the Basque Country (an "autonomous community", which - I now know - is roughly the Spanish equivalent of a U.S. state), but it turns out that Biscay is actually just one part of the Basque Country. Historically, although there was (more or less) a single Basque language and culture, there was never a single Basque state.
- The accompanying persons program included a visit to the Biscay coastline, including the towns of Bakio, Bermeo, and Gernika (a.k.a. Guernica). ("Coastline" being subjective, perhaps. Bakio and Bermeo are on the coast - with beautiful views - but Gernika is not much closer to the coast than Bilbao, each being several miles inland.) Gernika does not look very much like the Picasso painting that takes its name, which is probably for the best. The province's parliament is at Gernika, and the parliament-house is really quite lovely. We saw the famous Oak of Gernika; its current incarnation is quite young, but has apparently contracted the same illness as the previous incarnation, so will probably have to be replaced fairly soon. The Oak was historically a place where people would go to make agreements and take oaths, so when the parliament was established, they placed it by the Oak and had their rulers take oaths there. The tradition in the Middle Ages was for their rulers to take oath with their hand on the law-books, but with the ruler kneeling and the law-book held higher than their head, as a symbol of the rule of law - not what we usually associate with the Middle Ages. Also, if I recall the explanation correctly, when Castile took over Biscay, the peace agreement granted various forms of freedom and autonomy to the Basques, but because the Castilians had difficulty with this concept, the only way they knew to implement it was to declare the entire Biscay population to be nobility.
- The accompanying persons program also included a trip to Donostia / San Sebastián, which was gorgeous. Fortunately, my mother had been there last year, so she wasn't jealous about missing it this time. :-) My father and I saw the old city (where we had lunch at a restaurant named "Gott" in the plaza where they used to have bullfights), the river, the coast (including a sort of stone area that's designed with spout-holes from which the water can spray you), and the Museo San Telmo (where we learned about Basque historical culture, some of which was more interesting to my father - he was very interested to see that one of the historical gravestones had a Star of David - and some of which was more interesting to me - I was entertained to learn that Basque women used to wear their hair and headdresses in fancy ways with interesting swoops and points, until the Catholic Church banned that practice because they thought it was phallic).
- The social program included a trip to Burgos, which isn't in the Basque Country, but rather in Castile and León. (In fact, it was once the capital of the Kingdom of Castile.) We did not see much of the city; rather, we had a tour of Burgos Cathedral, which was enormous and interesting, and then we went to the Museum of Human Evolution, which was . . . also enormous and interesting? Not in quite the same ways, though. Incidentally, Burgos Cathedral has a Star of David in one of its windows, which apparently was an expression of gratitude to the Jews of Burgos for having donated the money for that part of the Cathedral to be restored.
- We stayed an extra day after the conference ended, and took a day-trip to Santander, just for the beautiful beaches.
- Late in the trip, we went to the Basque cultural museum in Bilbao, which had some interesting exhibits. Among other things, we saw some giants from past editions of the annual parade of giants (and not just giants: it also has people who just wear giant heads as masks, though of those we only saw pictures, not any actual giant heads).
- Language-wise, I was disappointed at how little Basque we encountered. Permanent signage generally had Basque as well as Spanish, but temporary or informal signage (daily menus, notices that a store was closed for a few weeks, most kinds of ads) generally had only Spanish. That wasn't so surprising in Bilbao and Donostia, since they're decent-sized cities, but in places like Bermeo I expected more Basque. On the other hand, I did get to practice my Spanish a lot. (In many cases, I think that the other party's English would have been better than my Spanish, but I have no regrets!)
- Also language-wise - most of the museums had little or no English, which I found surprising and annoying. I did my best to translate for my parents, but my Spanish is not that great.
- One of the joys of traveling with my parents, especially my father, is that we had ice cream almost every day. :-P
It was really great, and I can't do it justice. Stray notes:
- We stayed at the Barceló Bilbao Nervión, which was the only hotel that the conference people suggested (aside from staying in the dorms of a local university). It was a surprisingly nice hotel (I mean, surprising for me, since my parents handled all the arrangements), and very nicely situated (right on the river, and a short walk from various points of interest, such as the old city, and such as the Guggenheim Bilbao). We did a bunch of day-trips, but no overnight trips.
- The conference's "social program" (which is for both attendees and accompanying persons) included a visit to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, which was great. I'm not a big fan of modern art, and neither is either of my parents, but the museum itself is cool, and there were a lot of cool things there. The Case folks reading this will, of course, remember that the Guggenheim was designed by the same architect who designed the Peter B. Lewis building, and the resemblances go deeper than just the mass of curvy sheet metal that covers the whole top of the building. (Incidentally, my father made the connection on the very first day when we arrived, as we passed the museum on the way from the airport to the hotel. Also incidentally, after we'd been inside, he commented that he wasn't as impressed with the architect himself as with the engineers who took the design and actually made it possible. Heh.)
- Bilbao has one skyscraper, the Iberdrola Tower. It's not as tall as some skyscrapers elsewhere (if suddenly transposed to Cleveland, it would be the fourth-tallest building there; if to Seattle, the tenth-tallest), but since there's only one of it, with the surrounding buildings all being normal-sized, the effect is quite startling. I could see it from the window of my hotel room.
- Bilbao is the capital of the province of Biscay. I had thought that that meant that it was the capital of the Basque Country (an "autonomous community", which - I now know - is roughly the Spanish equivalent of a U.S. state), but it turns out that Biscay is actually just one part of the Basque Country. Historically, although there was (more or less) a single Basque language and culture, there was never a single Basque state.
- The accompanying persons program included a visit to the Biscay coastline, including the towns of Bakio, Bermeo, and Gernika (a.k.a. Guernica). ("Coastline" being subjective, perhaps. Bakio and Bermeo are on the coast - with beautiful views - but Gernika is not much closer to the coast than Bilbao, each being several miles inland.) Gernika does not look very much like the Picasso painting that takes its name, which is probably for the best. The province's parliament is at Gernika, and the parliament-house is really quite lovely. We saw the famous Oak of Gernika; its current incarnation is quite young, but has apparently contracted the same illness as the previous incarnation, so will probably have to be replaced fairly soon. The Oak was historically a place where people would go to make agreements and take oaths, so when the parliament was established, they placed it by the Oak and had their rulers take oaths there. The tradition in the Middle Ages was for their rulers to take oath with their hand on the law-books, but with the ruler kneeling and the law-book held higher than their head, as a symbol of the rule of law - not what we usually associate with the Middle Ages. Also, if I recall the explanation correctly, when Castile took over Biscay, the peace agreement granted various forms of freedom and autonomy to the Basques, but because the Castilians had difficulty with this concept, the only way they knew to implement it was to declare the entire Biscay population to be nobility.
- The accompanying persons program also included a trip to Donostia / San Sebastián, which was gorgeous. Fortunately, my mother had been there last year, so she wasn't jealous about missing it this time. :-) My father and I saw the old city (where we had lunch at a restaurant named "Gott" in the plaza where they used to have bullfights), the river, the coast (including a sort of stone area that's designed with spout-holes from which the water can spray you), and the Museo San Telmo (where we learned about Basque historical culture, some of which was more interesting to my father - he was very interested to see that one of the historical gravestones had a Star of David - and some of which was more interesting to me - I was entertained to learn that Basque women used to wear their hair and headdresses in fancy ways with interesting swoops and points, until the Catholic Church banned that practice because they thought it was phallic).
- The social program included a trip to Burgos, which isn't in the Basque Country, but rather in Castile and León. (In fact, it was once the capital of the Kingdom of Castile.) We did not see much of the city; rather, we had a tour of Burgos Cathedral, which was enormous and interesting, and then we went to the Museum of Human Evolution, which was . . . also enormous and interesting? Not in quite the same ways, though. Incidentally, Burgos Cathedral has a Star of David in one of its windows, which apparently was an expression of gratitude to the Jews of Burgos for having donated the money for that part of the Cathedral to be restored.
- We stayed an extra day after the conference ended, and took a day-trip to Santander, just for the beautiful beaches.
- Late in the trip, we went to the Basque cultural museum in Bilbao, which had some interesting exhibits. Among other things, we saw some giants from past editions of the annual parade of giants (and not just giants: it also has people who just wear giant heads as masks, though of those we only saw pictures, not any actual giant heads).
- Language-wise, I was disappointed at how little Basque we encountered. Permanent signage generally had Basque as well as Spanish, but temporary or informal signage (daily menus, notices that a store was closed for a few weeks, most kinds of ads) generally had only Spanish. That wasn't so surprising in Bilbao and Donostia, since they're decent-sized cities, but in places like Bermeo I expected more Basque. On the other hand, I did get to practice my Spanish a lot. (In many cases, I think that the other party's English would have been better than my Spanish, but I have no regrets!)
- Also language-wise - most of the museums had little or no English, which I found surprising and annoying. I did my best to translate for my parents, but my Spanish is not that great.
- One of the joys of traveling with my parents, especially my father, is that we had ice cream almost every day. :-P