Town Hall and Guggenheim Museum, by Andrew Fiddler and Carter Kupchella

Andrew Fiddler and Carter Kupchella

The day began with a long metro ride into the city of Bilbao. We got off the train at Abando and took a short walk over to the City Hall of Bilbao. We entered the building and began our short tour. The first thing we got to see was the Coat of Arms hanging at the top of the stairs. There was one for the City of Bilbo, one for the Mechants Guild and one for the House of Austria. These coats of arms were moved here from the old city hall buildings. We then walked up the stairs to see the Arabic Hall. This hall was built with an Arabic style, similar to halls built in southern Spain. After taking a look outside from the balcony, we continued to walk through he halls and see paintings of former mayors. We then saw the mayor´s office. Finally, and most importantly, we saw the Plenary hall.

After our trip to the city hall, we walked along the River of Bilbao until we could see the Guggenheim Museum. Along the walk we had to guess what the museum looked like. Most guesses were way off, until we actually saw the museum. Everyone knew right away that it looked like a boat on the river. 
We walked around front to see the giant puppy statue. We all took pictures around the puppy and had the opportunity to walk around for lunch. After lunch, we all entered the museum and saw many pieces of art. I think the most interesting part was all of the optical illusions on the first floor. They all made us feel like we were walking around in circles for a long time, when we really only moved about five feet. After this, we continued to walk around the museum until we were ready to leave. We took the metro home and arrived to an amazing lunch.

Andrew Fiddler

Bilbao's Town Hall and Guggenheim Museum from J. Carlos Martínez

Yesterday, (Wednesday) our day trip was to the Ayuntamiento, or town hall, of Bilbao, and to the Guggenheim museum.  The difference between the Ayuntamiento of Bilbao, and the Diputación of Bilbao that we saw earlier in the week, and which is also a kind of town hall, is that the ayuntamiento is specifically to govern over the city of Bilbao, as opposed to the entire province.  The building itself was very beautiful, with enormous marble staircases, bronze chandeliers, and stained glass on the inside, and tons of intricate architecture on the outside.  After a brief tour of the building, we walked up the street to see a panoramic view of the Guggenheim from across the river.  

The building itself is a huge structure of titanium, steel, and glass that is made to mimic the shape of a ship.  Since it was about noon, we dispersed for a quick lunch, and then met by the ¨puppy¨,a giant flowered statue of a dog, for our tour.

I personally very much appreciated the architecture and design of the building itself, but the modern art inside didn't really do it for me: some I found interesting, but in general I much prefer a museum of fine arts like we will see on Friday over the type of art we saw in the Guggenheim, but that is just my opinion.  After our successful excursion, and a very hot day besides, we all piled immediately onto the air conditioned bus and journeyed back to our homes, and to the beaches, in Getxo.

Carter Kupchella