The Way of St. James #54

I have been in Bilbao throughout the day. I had always planned a day in Bilbao, so this is not an unplanned stop as was Zarautz.

My accommodation is in the old part of the city, in a hotel with character, if not so many amenities. The building is old, and I am sure that the stairs have seen countless feet before mine. My room faces the street, which means I can go out on my small balcony and watch the nightlife. And thankfully perhaps, I am usually so tired after each day that the people drinking and talking in the bars below will not keep me awake. For this is a civilized place, and even if people socialize well into the night, there are no shouts and screams, no blaring police sirens, or ambulances taking people away to hospital. It is all good humored.

Old Bilbao is a town of narrow streets and small business establishments. And that last explains why so much of the nightlife is on the streets, especially in these times of Covid-19. People simply don’t want to be indoors in a confined space.

Old Bilbao is also a place of many churches, and today I visited three of them. Very close to my accommodation is the church of Joan Santuen. Unlike so many of the churches along my route, this one was open this morning, and I was glad to visit. The church is richly decorated and has many interesting features. The main altarpiece is worth taking some time to study.

After that, my next stop was the city’s cathedral. It is a more modest, and perhaps more austere construction. It is dedicated to Saint James, who is of course the patron of Santiago, so naturally, there was in pilgrim garb close to the main altar.

And my final church stop of the day was the church of San Nikolas, still in the old town. Quite how the old town can have supported three such churches so richly is quite a mystery to me, but there it is. Like the church of Joan Santuen, the church of San Nikolas is richly decorated. It is well worth seeing and worth spending some time to study the artistry of the decoration.

After visiting these churches, I had decided to make my way to one of the city’s main tourist attractions the Guggenheim museum. The building was designed by Frank Gehry. I have spent some time in a building of his design in Basel, and I could see some commonality of features between that and the Guggenheim museum. There is the same use of structural steel to support an outline that at first seems improbable, but leaves you just saying “Why?”. In Basel, we used to joke that Gehry folded the drawings while the ink was still wet, and when the builders questioned it, that he simply said, “build it anyway”. The design of the Guggenheim museum is similar in that respect.

Regarding the artistic value of the exhibits, I have to say that I was disappointed. The best works are outside, especially Jeff Koons’ “Puppy”. Once inside, the exhibitions were disappointing. Art should be inspiring, but these were definitely not. My advice to anyone visiting would be to stay outside, admire the building and the works that are visible outside, and don’t bother paying the admission fee to see what is almost instantly forgettable.