Thursday, July 8 – Bilbao: [Deb here] We were sad to leave France and the seaside resort of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, but were happy to drive over the border to Bilbao, Spain to visit the Guggenheim Museum which we’d last seen about 6-8 years ago.
The main hall is devoted to a series of Richard Serra’s sculptures:
Here I am inside one of the sculptures:
and a shot taken above the exhibit space of all of his sculptures:
Of course, we couldn’t leave without taking a photo outside of the Jeff Koons’ puppy (with freshly-planted flowers providing the color):
and a new outdoor sculpture:
We had originally planned to drive for 3 hours and to stay in rural Spain overnight before arriving in Barcelona. We enjoyed the scenery and the vineyards of the Rioja region, but then embarked on some pretty stark and uninteresting territory which didn’t seem promising for locating a bed and breakfast. After knuckling down and sharing the 5 1/2 hour drive, we made it into Barcelona after 10:00pm and “winged it” with great success. By 10:30, we had secured a room in a small hotel in the center of Barcelona (a quiet residential neighborhood) for 80 euros per night.
After settling in and asking for recommendations at the front desk, we walked over to the “cerveseria” for a late supper of delicious herbed lamb chops and ice-cold beers before retiring. I KNOW THAT I’M IN SPAIN — EVERYONE IS SMOKING IN THE RESTAURANT! Haven’t seen that for several years in France and Italy.
Some octopus done in the local style:
Around France 
B,
Please find out about new octopus recipes. My Greek one is good, but looking for variety. Secrets about tenderizing the meat before grilling!
Surprised that Northern Spain was “boring”. Aren’t there the same mountains as Southern France?
George T.