Bilbao and the Guggenheim Museum

Yesterday afternoon (Thursday), we had an excursion to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao during the afternoon/evening.  It takes about an hour and 15 minutes to get to Bilbao from Santander.  It was a gorgeous bus ride through the mountains.  Unlike Texas at the moment, everything in northern Spain is green!  As the bus wound its way through the mountains and into Bilbao, we caught some gorgeous views of the ocean along with some ¨pueblos¨ (smaller towns). 

Bilbao is huge and there are MANY building in the center of Bilbao.  The students were anxiously looking for the Guggenheim as we were approaching what seemed the final stop.  For those of you who haven´t been to the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the outside of the building is similar to the band shell in downtown Chicago in Grant´s Park...but much taller.  Once we approached the museum, there were not questions about which building was the museum.  The students walked their way through the Guggenheim making comparisions to the Prado in Madrid.  Two completely different styles of art.  The Prado is full of classic art work and the Guggenheim was a little more modern, with a lot of ¨out of the box¨ thinking. 

The excursion to the Guggenheim in Bilbao ended up being a fun trip for the students.  They were able to see some more of northern Spain and learn something new.

Tomorrow it´s Los Picos de Europa.  We can´t wait to see their faces when they arrive in the Picos...it´s gorgeous...maybe even more so than the mountains in Colorado.