SAN SEBASTION – Spain (Tues 20 Oct)

We left Navalcarnero this morning still discussing the bullfight that we had seen two days ago, we were just wondering what the population of Spain thought of this sport or whether it was just followed by a small percentage, when we passed by what appears to be a brand new bullring built in Navalcarnero, just a few meters down the road from where we were staying. I guess if they are still building these things, then that answers our questions. They wouldn’t build them in these smaller towns if they didn’t have a following. Shame on them.

Our first port of call though was the Madrid airport to cash some travelers cheques. As an aside, if you are thinking of traveling forget travelers cheques, they are a waste of time. You pay a fee when you buy them and then you are charged another fee when they are cashed (despite them already being in euro). And then finding somewhere that will accept them and cash them is another matter. Despite telling you before you leave home that you can cash them anywhere in the world, they are closing their offices all over Europe, with only a handful left. They are more hassle then they are worth.

Finding the right place to go at the airport was quite a mission, this place is huge, with terminal four (where we needed to go) separated by 10 kms from the rest of the airport. Fortunately we had googled detailed instructions and found it without too much trouble. What they do have is a good electronic parking system. At terminal four there are five parking ‘modules’, each with about six levels of parking. As you drive through the parking area, they have an electronic board telling you how many parking spaces are available, not only in each module, but also on each level of that module. Very simple and very effective.

Once we had everything sorted out we hit the road again, we had about 500kms to drive today. But it was a good day fro driving as it rained all the way.

We stopped at Bilbao on the way to see the Guggenheim Museum. Once you manage to find your way around this strange city, the sight of this building really is the icing on the cake. It was evidently inspired by fish ‘n’ ships, two of the mainstays of this city. Personally I found the strange contours and curves of this building to be more like the waves of the sea, but I can see how the large titanium plates that make up its surface could be seen as fish scales. Whatever your interpretation, it is a very cool building, which dominates the area that it sits in. As you enter the building you can’t help but be impressed by the size, height, and the complex array of catwalks that seem to wend and weave their way around the interior of solid walls and glass. When you look at this building, in this city, you can’t help but ask the question … why here? I guess they had their reasons, but there really doesn’t seem to be any other reason to come here.

Unfortunately the contents of the interior in our view, left a little to be desired. This is a huge, purpose built gallery, that has been open for about 12 years now, and yet the majority of the works inside made us question who defines those items as art. There is no way to say this without upsetting someone, but we felt that the majority of the contents of this gallery was … well … crap. They make a point of saying that they support ‘up and coming’ artists, but who defines it as art.

There were a lot of multi media items there like: A video focusing solely on Zidane throughout a whole game of football. A video of a dough factory with various women pushing and squeezing dough. There was a video compilation of three singers including Michael Jackson (not original footage). There was a documentary about a bankrobbery. Hmmmm … art? Not so sure. More like a collection from a collectors archives and very bad home movies with hand held camera. Perhaps that is why Lonely Planet discusses the building and doesn’t mention the content.

However there were three small rooms (in the entire galley) that did redeem it slightly with paintings by Picasso, Chagall, Jackson Pollack, and some other great works. They were very cool. Particularly because they were often their early pieces, before they found the style for which we now know them. Who knows, perhaps some of the artists behind the videos I have mentioned may become great once they find their niche.

From here we headed to our destination San Sebastian, where we arrived after dark, in the rain, in a city that is renown for its lack of parking. We are staying in a small Pension in the central city (pedestrian access only) just to compound the issue, but we found it easy enough and tumbled into a welcome bed.

Just to finish on a strange note, we finished the day watching ‘Monk’ on TV, dubbed in Spanish. From the strange to the weird.