Bilbao, Spain

A city that completely transformed itself in the past century.

Bilbao is home to one of the three open Guggenheim museums in the world. It is known for its architecture. Inside there were many displays by American artists as well as a beautiful visual poetry piece called “Fainting Spells” by an Indigenous American artist, Sky Hopinka.

We took a walking tour of the old city and learned that Bilbao used to be a huge industrial port city but changed its image with the Guggenheim and other transformations in the 20th century.

I thought these were very funky gargoyles!

Delicious pistachio croissant that I still think about.

The architecture in the city was so vibrant and full of character. Our tour guide told us that there was a great flood in the city in the late 1900s and you can see marks of water levels on some buildings.

I love all the pigeons in every city of the world, but this one had a certain personality I could not ignore.