Bilbao day 3

 We started our last full day in Bilbao with a free walking tour of the old city.  What was supposed to be a one hour walk stretched to two hours with a detailed talk about Basque culture and the politics of the area.  The Basques would prefer to separate from Spain and would like to have their own country. 

After our walk we decided to take a cruise up the river past the Guggenheim to the area where the river empties into the ocean.  Good photo opps for sights along the river and the skyline of Bilbao.  

Good shots of the spider 

Some of the houses of the upper class.

Other buildings were not so fortunate.

The newest bridge across the river was made of steel and the walkway of glass.

Tomorrow we board the ship for our cruise.

The Guggenheim

 Visiting the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao has been on our bucket list for years and we finally did it.   The museum exceeded expectations.  Although some of the exhibits could be classified as weird, most are best called WOW.  The photos do not do it justice, you have to see it in person starting with the Puppy which is outside of the main enterance.

We decided to walk along the river from our hotel, about 1.5 km to the museum.  We found there is art along the way.

As you approach the museum the first work is the famous spider.

We worked our way around the building to see the puppy on its last day of flowers for the year.  They stopped decorating him for the winter on September 30 so we were lucky.

Entering the museum was a pleasure.  The fee for seniors is nine euros.  Also the food is inexpensive.  Great compared to many places in the US.  The first room we entered has a massive wall hanging that was made of crushed bottle caps.  Don't know how many million it took to make this.

Another room contained a familiar work featuring Marilyn.

There were small works too.

The largest exhibit hall contained a series of  rooms made out of sheets of iron.  As you walked through the parts of the work you were easily disoriented.  Jerry was not comfortable with it.

We spent most of the day in the museum and found it well worth the visit.

Bilbao

We are in Europe after a two day stay in New York with Jeff, Cheryl and Bennett.  In the city we saw three plays, Schmigadoon, Hadestown and Two Strangers Carrying a Cake Across New York.  All were excellent.  On Sunday night, we boarded a plane for Bilbao, Spain at midnight.  That was a long flight.

Our first day in Bilbao we took a tour to St. Sebastian, an hour drive from Bilbo.  Ancient city and, in its earlier days was a seaport. Now mostly pleasure craft.

The concert stand was built in about 1890. 

Consistora is a 1900 casino and now a new town hall.

 The city was originally surrounded by a wall and we entered the old town through what used to be a gate.

Narrow streets lead to a market square where vendors sold their goods in the early years.

The town square was surrounded by apartments of three floors with the servants living and working in the top rooms.

On our way back to Bilbao we stopped at an overlook of the city where our guide displayed some local sculpture. 

 

Tenq

 Our day in Tena started with a two hour walk through the jungle.  The Amazon rainforest is a unique ecosystem where you can see wildlife, insects, animals and plants.  The vegetation was very dense and not at all familiar to us.  

We did meet some interesting characters 

Later tonight we will do a night walk through the jungle to check out the sounds and sights after dark.
 

 

 We began our trip to Ecuador with a non stop flight to Orlando, FL.  On Friday morning, before boarding our flight south, we walked around a small lake near the Ramada hotel.  We watched at this bird was working on getting his breakfast.

We arrived back at the airport and boarded our flight to Quito, Ecuador.  We arrived at night and saw very little but could tell that this was a very hilly area.  Saturday morning we began with a city tour that took us by several churches, a high end chocolate shop, the Presidential palace and the central square.  The streets were very busy and there were all kinds of street vendors.

 We went into the San Francisco Church

 After our city tour we boarded a bus for a five hour drive to the Amazon Basin and the small town of Tena.  Along the route, we climbed to the highest point in Ecuador, in excess of 12,000 feet.  We were really in the clouds.

We stopped to see several waterfalls along the route.

Arriving in Tena we took a mile long dirt road to our hotel which consisted of several wooden cabins.  Our room was on the second floor with a great balcony and a view of the forest.  We met our guide who would be with us for the next few days.  

Dinner was great and we look forward to our jungle walk tomorrow.
 
 

Nutcracker

Again this year we were able to see Bennett appear in the local version of the Nutcracker.  He has been doing it for several years with ever increasing parts, this year as the Prince.  He really did a great job in his part.  

 

We were privileged to see professional dancers from the Dance Theater of Harlem.  Needless to say, they were really good.

Bennett has been awarded a nutcracker for each year that he has participated in the show.  His collection of five is displayed above the fireplace at home.  This year he was given the one with the sword since he was the Prince.

We also took a family picture, including Lilly the dog, as our last shot of the trip.  It is snowing but we are heading home shortly.

Black Friday

 We have been in Saranac Lake for the better part of a week and generally confined to the house.  It has been really cold here and on Thanksgiving day we got about five inches of snow.   On Friday we finally ventured out to town to get some coffee and do a bit of shopping.  Both Jeff and Cheryl found some bargains in one of the outdoors stores and we were able to get a few steps in. 

 The town and river looked good with the snow.