Attack of the giant spider

No apologies for the cliche shot of the Guggenheim. I just love this building, and Louise Bourgeois' spider.

We actually set out to go for a walk this morning as the weather looked quite plausible. However it was abruptly cut short due to the path through the former iron ore mines being closed for repairs. The sky was clouding over too. So quick change of plans -- back to the flat, switch from country to city mode, and hurry to the bus station to catch the bus to Bilbao.

Once there, we were nicely in time for lunch. I'd done a quick TripAdvisor search before we set off; I know a lot of people have doubts about the reliability of TripAdvisor reviews, but I filter reviews carefully and am rarely disappointed. Once again my first choice was spot on. La Viña del Ensanche is a very traditional, buzzing tapas bar with a modern twist. Feeling lazy, we just chose the tasting menu -- a total of six different dishes and two desserts. As we finished and wondered whether it would be rude to lick the plates, S said, "The worst of that was the croquetas." "But they were the best I've ever had!" Exactly, but every course was better than the last. The pork cheek, slow-cooked until you could eat it with a spoon, was in a sauce so intense it was almost like savoury jam. And when we got to the fruit gratin with cheesecake ice cream, well, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Total with a bottle of pleasant Navarran Chardonnay and coffee: 74 euros. "A bargain!" I cried. Yes, that's what I said about yesterday's 22-euro lunch. But this was more than three times better; it was on another planet.

Happily satiated but not overfull, we got a little post-prandial exercise by walking to the Guggenheim.  The sun had come out, so we had a quick photo session before going in. We were last here in 2010; at the time we felt the building was far greater art than any of its contents, and our opinion has not changed. But I still spent nearly an hour in the massive steel sculptures by Richard Serra that are in the big fish-shaped hall (see first extra). The curves make them Tardis-like, much bigger inside than they are outside, and you lose all sense of scale as you walk through the internal spirals.

There's a temporary exhibition of Louise Bourgeois' Cells on, so we looked at that but weren't over-keen on it, and skipped all the rest. A coffee, a walk through the park back to the bus station, and we managed to grab the last two seats on a bus that was just about to leave, much to the chagrin of those left standing at the stop, so it was a very efficient journey home.

I have about 50 photos left from today's haul, but no time or energy to process them, so this and the extras are my favourites, as they came from the camera. My 2010 photos are on Flickr.