GETTING TO KNOW BILBAO

Bilbao, Spain is an interesting city. It was an industrial powerhouse for a long time and today it's being reinvented and it's known for modern art and architecture.

Bilbao has lot of bridges over it's river – The Nerviónit. It flows about 16 km to the ocean and it's affected by the tides.

This bridge has a fun Basque name – Zubizuri – meaning white bridge. It was designed by the architect Santiago Calatrava who we've gotten to know because we used to go through a train station he designed in Zurich. And also he designed the Milwaukee Art Museum. It's easy to pick out his buildings after you have seen a few with their unique design details.

This was our hotel room New Year's Eve feast that we gathered from the grocery store (and the cheesecake store).

After our feast we went out to celebrate the New Year and watch fireworks. I had to wear four hats because nobody would wear theirs. I ended up unintentionally looking like the statue of liberty.

We ate our 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight – a Spanish tradition that Claire turned us onto after we went to Barcelona last year.

The tradition of eating 12 grapes at midnight on New Year's Eve is a Spanish custom that symbolizes good fortune and prosperity. The grapes are eaten one by one with each chime of the clock, representing each month of the new year.

It's fun.

On New Year's day we traveled closer to the ocean where there is a strange and famous bridge.

Here's the bridge – it's called the Puente Colgante or the hanging bridge.

In the photo below you can see the hanging part where cars drive on and are carried to the other side. You can also walk across the upper part of the bridge but we didn't do it because it was closed and I'm not sure Brian would have enjoyed it.

We went for a walk up a big hill to see a great view of the area. I think the river was lined with lots of heavy industry in the past but it seems to be changing. Now housing is being built where the industrial areas are shuttered. The bridge we visited is close to the ocean in the distance and Bilbao is up the river beyond what the photo shows to the left.

On one of the days Bea and Brian took a long hike to the top of the highest mountain in the area.

More beautiful views!

While they were hiking Claire and I went to an art museum and we checked out "The Puppy". The cutest living sculpture ever.

On our last day in Bilbao we visited its famous Guggenheim Museum. It's full of big modern art. Nothing is small or nuanced or twee. It's all bold and in your face art. As well as the Frank Gehry designed building itself – made up of curves and angles jutting out everywhere – shiny and smooth – complicated.