El Norte (Día #3): Bilbao, and San Sebastián…

Even though we started off with a brief stop in Getxo, Bilbao was the real first stop of our day…

The capital of the province of Vizcaya in the autonomous community of País Vasco (Basque Country), Bilbao is known for many things: excellent gastronomy, world-class shopping, and, obviously, this:

…The Guggenheim!!…

Granted, technically this is only one of the several Guggenheim Institute Museums located in the world (with others in Venice and New York)–but no matter!!…If you like contemporary art, then this museum’s the place for you…

…Puppy…

…I enjoy thinking very deeply…

Our next (and last) stop of the day was San Sebastián–my other favorite city of our excursion, and another well-known town of País Vasco…

When we arrived, we took a trolley to the top of a mountain, where we got spectacular views…

An interesting site was El Peine de los Vientos (The Comb of the Winds [even though it doesn’t look like a comb at all), a set of sculptures in the Bahía de la Concha (Bay of the Shell) created by celebrated Basque artist (and former footballer) Eduardo Chilliada, who made them to honor San Sebastián, his beloved birthplace…

For the rest of the evening, we just went around walking and exploring the city–which is just so gorgeous at night…

Not to mention, the bangin’ tapas I had that night–Note that San Sebastián is the city in Europe with the most restaurants that have Michelin Stars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin_Guide)–meaning, extremely high-quality food…I had, amongst other things, morcilla (a type of blood pudding)–and yes, it was delicious…

So yeah, it’s official–and I swear to you this: I, Betty Joe Alexandria Virginia Ogburn, will marry some rich man on the point of death (sorry, Marta, but I’ve had this sort of thing planned) for years and have one of many houses here, because like The Kooks sang:

So, tell me: Have you ever been to either Bilbao or San Sebastían???…And if so ¿qué te gustaron (what’d you like)?…