Me with Puppy.jpg

"Puppy" by Dean Koontz

So I went for a vacation to Bilbao, Vizcaya, Spain this May. First I landed in Granada and went to stay with a friend in the nearby Alpujarras, Sierra Nevada. The village is called Pamapaneira:

Me Pamapaneira & Church.jpg

At night the paths in this mountainside village look like this:

Pamapaneira - passage at night..jpg

So I stayed there a few days then one night in Granada. This is the square where the Lorca museum is located:

Central Square - Granada.jpg

In the Lorca museum there is some Dali work also:

Dali painting - Lorca Museum.jpg

Bilbao:

While most of Spain is arid and almost desert-like the north is far more lush and temperate. Rainfall means there is real grass and foliage. For a Brit I think it far more suitable for any kind of long-term stay.
Bilbao is a nice, small city and does not suffer quite the same tourist invasion as do places like Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia. And then of course there is the Guggenheim Museum:

This is a great museum for those interested in modern art. I was lucky enough to get in free for some reason, because it was Friday?! but it usually costs 13 Euros. There was only one work that really blew me away, apart from Puppy, and that was a massive Marilyn Monroe work by Andy Warhol.

Personally I preferred the Musee Bellas Artes where they had a Goya exhibition on. It was the court paintings however and not the ones I like most. Still good nevertheless. This is one of the more amusing sculptures there:

Musee de Bellas Artes - Man glued to Wall.jpg

I also particularly liked this painting ( you may take photos in this museum ) :

Garden Painting - Bilbao Musee de Bellas Artes.jpg

So I really enjoyed Bilbao as a place to relax. I needed somewhere to take it easy and that is what I found. My only suggestion is that maybe only plan on staying 4-5 days. I was there for a week and did kinda run out of things to do.

Hasta la vista