Yesterday was a scorcher of a day, hitting record tempreatures. One Thermometer showing 50 degrees. With that kind of heat we were forced to drive when the tempreatures cool in the late afternoon, which in Spain is around 8pm. With the electrical system on the brink, which means no, or very little headlights, there was no way we were going to make the 4 hour trip to Barcelona before the 10pm sunset.

We decided to pull over when our headlights were so flat they were useless, around 12pm, 170km from our destination.

Through our powers of deduction we we certain that the fanbelt was the cause of the problem. We had already had the battery checked, it was flat, but still fine. That means it was either the alternator or the fan belt. The fan belt was loose, we knew that for the wickedly high pitched screatching it makes anything above an idle. The alternator seemed to charge, if only just a little when it wasn’t screaching, which is at idle, which the cooling system can handle in this heat for all of 15 minutes.

Anyway we, well, I decided to pull over into a truckstop service station, with the intention of looking at the fan belt in the morning light. This seemed like a good idea, except when ever I try to fix something on this trip it seems to compount another problem!

This time it was a water hose that forms an intergral part of the cooling system. Tightenig the fanbelt was going fine, had the top bolt loosened, was tring to get to the bottom bolt, when I must have knocked the hose. Damn brittle rubber hose. I practically touched it and it cracked, sending water and coolant everywhere.

The cracks close proximity to the end of the hose meant i could theoretically cut the end off, put it back on and we will be ok. Wrong. After doing the repair, putting everything back together, ignoring the fanbelt tightening just putting back how it was, filling the water up, double check, all good. Except, I felt to see if the hose was watertight, touch… BAM! It split again!

That was the end of my patience! Always seeming to make things worse when I try to fix them I decided to give up, call a mobile mechanic, and never try repair the van again!

When you first see the shiny titanium clad structure you are definately agasp at it’s shape. With a straight surface not anywhere to be seen, yet pleantly of sharp obtuse angles it looks so unnatural, jutting out here and there , but at the same time the subtle curved survaces produce something so organic that, to put simply just works.

It’s hard to imagine Bilbao with out the influence of the Guggenheim, since it was put out to tender in 1991 the city has put in place measures to clean up the river that runs through the centre of town, created more parks and implemented more outstanding architectural structures. All with the aim of taking the city away from it’s redundant industrial past to it’s future as a great artistic city of the world.

Finally in the museum, you once again find yourself in a state of ore. The exterior theme is continued inside, curved surfaces, sharp lines, even the exterior titanium cladding flows through to inside the building, only now it’s accompioned by plaster and glass. The transparency of the glass is used in a way that provides the visitors a direct view of the river on one side, and the cityscape on the other, hence allowing the building to intergrate into the surrounding city landscape.

Within the exhibitions, both the permanent Bilbao collection and the temporary instalations, there were many things to like. Personally within the permanent exhibition I enjoyed Hommage a Tennessee by Yves Klein Blue, Robert Rauschenberg’s Barge, and Eduardo Chillida’s Advice to Space V.

With in the biggest gallery, the fish gallery as Gehry refers to It as, Richard Serra was commisioned to fill the space. Serra is a large scale steel artist and the work he produced for the guggenheim was amazing. Not only breathtaking but interactive too. Large torqued helical walls of steel that you could get dizzy in. Waves of steel that could make you feel enclosed, open, venreble, all in a matter of meters. Leaning walls in a helical structure that give a feeling similar to vertigo with a queesy stomach, and you find yourself subconciously leaning with the curve.
Listening to the vocals to accompiany his work explained among many things his thoughts on architecture vs sculpture. He seemed quite peturbed by modern architects receding to their work as sculptures. He notes that the major difference being that sculpture requires no understructure, where as architecture is ornament, just surface to serve as scene making.

Another fantastic artist was the Bombay born, London trained Anish Kapoor. His exhibition that was on display followed the distinct theme of creating art wihout the hand of the artist. From a large cannon that shot wax blocks against a wall, to a large rotating peice that made you believe it was churning red vasoline, pigment made structures that seem to burst from the walls and floor and interactive mirrors that made you the subject. But my favorite overall was his concrete prices that were created using commercial pastry machines, combined with a unique concrete process that was all controlled via a computer similar to a large CAD controlled rapid prototype machine, albeit larger and probably a lot messier.

After we had a fantastic time both inside and out of the museum we returned to find that the car had been broken into! Damn it’s a shit feeling, knowing that someone has been through your possesions, makes you feel like you’ve been violated. Fortunately for us nothing of importance was taken, a few valued items including cash and cameras, but things like passports, which were pulled out and left on the seats, were left behind. In a strange way i guess we can consider ourselves lucky because later on, while we were filing a report at the police station, we were informed that 3 other vans were broken into in the same street, the difference being they had all had smashed windows as a point of entry. Our drivers side lock was damaged which I guess is how they got into our van, but that was easy enough to fix ourselves.
It was a devastating end to what was a great day. The one positive out of this is that they didn’t take much and it will definately teach us to be more careful with what we leave in the van unattended!

The following is quotes and information that I took down durig the visit, not really all that interesting but useful nonetheless:
Material choice is personal. Steel 40 years
Sculpture vs architecture: “sculpture requires no understructure, it is it’s own structure.” architecture is, in the case of the Guggenheim “ornament, just surface to serve as scene making, nothing to do with the tectonic structural principals of it’s underpinning.”
“Form is there stucture.”

After some searching we decided on a Berria

I wasn’t expecting much, actually that’s a lie, I was expecting it to be a wind blown mess! Tom rushed off ahead of me and when he looked back with an ear to ear smile I knew we were on to something. What we had come across was sets of lovely left hand shore breaks.

I was out in the water until I was a blue, cold, shivvering mute and I couldn’t physically paddle anymore. Note to self: water in Spain is just as cold as home… Wetsuit is 100% required!

When I finally got out the sun was setting. Pop, out comes the camera for some awesome sunset shots. Beauty, then darkness, and it’s time to continue the trip to our resting place for the night.

A cable car up a steep hill gave a lookout from the cliffs that form a point that stretches out into the ocean, and that provide a picturesque backdrop to an already picturesque town. In places the lip of the cliff actually overhangs the wall of the cliff, looking over gave you an incredible felling of vertigo.

Now all that is left is to wait for nightfall to bring cooler tempretures so we can head to Lisbon next to meet up with Shannon for her birthday on Saturday night.

Biss dann…

It is a perfect city if your an Australian tourist and want to hang out with other Australian tourists, go to Australian bars and eat Australian food.