Britta's Europe Photos- Bilbao/San Sebastian

Continuing on with Britta's photos- a big pedestrian bridge (with traffic below) that crossed the river at the south end of the city center. It was very curvy.

On the train to small town outside of Bilbao, to go see buildings.

A park/playground area. Kids like running up these slopey things.

Futbol stadium we came to see. The name of the town and team was in giant letters in that white part.

We got on a bit of the field. See how the seats are all multi-colored? Makes it sorta look like the stands are always full :)

We were asked to pretend there was a game out on the field.

A photo like I would take.

The woods where Dave climbed up one of many trees he climbed during this weekend. Me picking gravel out of my waffle-soled shoes.

Dave doing something silly, as usual. He had decided to walk up and over this hill, and there was a fence on the other side...so he found a hole to climb out.

Here was the church we also saw in this small town, completely white but for the stained glass windows up on the right, with a long sliver of window on the bottom left, making the wall seem to float.

The windows. No designs, just color.

Along that upper right side is where the colored row of windows is. You can't even tell from the outside! Britta likes taking these skewed-angle photos for some reason :)

Somewhere else, another photo I'd take myself. One of these things is not like the other...

Back in Bilbao, the new library, next to the existing. No way my camera could capture this entire building from so close up.

More of the new library, past the street, in towards the interior plaza.

Us looking through the water that's flowing over the glass, to see if we could see into the basement below.

A great shot down the river before we went to a large plaza and had drinks.

Drinks. Lots of Estrella, if I remember right. Spanish beer. It means "star".

Later that night, we were hungry. Really hungry, in fact. We found a tiny corner pizza joint that was DELICIOUS. Ordered a pizza or two, sat down in the park, and inhaled it. It was kinda greasy. But it was awesome. And like the only food available at that time of night. Shawna, Nate, John and Katie in the back, Dave, Me.

A freestanding bathroom on the sidewalk. That we're pretty sure goes more or less right into the nearby river, but who knows.

Up the pedestrian bridge over the river, to get our first view of the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum. Nice bridge, too.

Good group photo. Museum in the background.

Me and Kat- a birthday photo for me, in front of one of the coolest buildings I've ever seen.

This bridge goes right across the river to the museum- and yet, from this angle it looks like we're in Japan...to me, anyway. That red arch looks like an anime cartoon character.

Another sweet bridge.

The same sweet bridge. What a cool picture! The deck is built out of glass blocks.

Britta stole my usual idea of taking a picture of people taking pictures. Me, Jason, Kat, and most of Jessica's back.

We (Dave) hoping that since all the water was fed through one pipe, if we blocked off a bunch of the other openings gushing water, that one of them would shoot really high. It sorta worked- aside from spraying water on ourselves because the pipers were a little too big and high pressured to get our hands over the ends tightly.

Us descending WAY down into the subway. It was the deepest one I've ever been in, anyway.

Todd, me, Shawna. Having our lunch. I brought a sandwich from our hotel, who specifically told us we couldn't take any of the breakfast food out of the little dining area. Yeah sorry, if its gonna save me 5 euros on lunch, I'm making a sandwich. You can deal with it. The lady at the desk even said there was a camera and that her boss would yell at her later. So I was sneaky about it. In the background there is part of the Guggenheim, and a giant teddy bear made out of flowers.

Descending into the museum from the plaza.

The Richard Serra art installation, of sheets of Corten steel that weighed a few tons each. Their curvature kept them standing up. That's a plug outlet on the floor (the bronze square) so you can see this space inside is the size of a small room.

Later that night, my birthday dinner. We went to a Mexican place, kinda funny to do in Spain I think. Tasty. A bit expensive. Thanks to Jessica, Alex, Kat, and Shawna for joining me on my birthday. Oh and Britta :) Who took the picture.

Me, Shawna, Britta.

John, Dave, and Nate joined us from the cool-guys table when I got my dessert- I forget what it was, but Dave used his lighter to give me a little flame to blow out.

And then we went to the corner store, got some tall-boys, and sat in the giant windowsill drinking them and hiding from the drizzling rain. Shawna, Dave, Me, Jessica, Alex, Kat.

From Britta's room, the view of the river and the hillside beyond.

And again during the day- looks quite different! We could see the train go by, which was the train we took at one point, up in the hill.

We went to San Sebastian. More rain. Katie doing her hair or something, I forget. Me keeping her dry. I didn't care about being wet. I thought it enhanced the experience of walking the grounds of monolithic sculptures by someone who was dead and gone.

What a great stone arch.

Crazy amount of wooden beams holding this thing up at different angles.

Me trying to see what's in there.

A cross and a window. That's all I have to say about it.

Todd, Me. Waiting to move on.

Before we got out at the coast in San Sebastian, to see more of the same guy's sculptures, by the water. It rained more. S

omeone is roaring at the camera.

Us at the waterfront plaza.

Nate, John, Dave, Me, Shawna, Alex. I forget what was down there...oh YEAH, a TON of tiny little crabs that blended into the rocks.

The theater near the waterfront (but a different waterfront in another part of the city).

The seats had slats that absorbed roughly the same amount of sound as a person sitting there, so that the theater would have the same acoustic properties empty or full. Clever.

The lobby area between the facade and the actual theater space in the middle.

Uh, the girls bathroom, I guess. Worthy of a picture. Once again, BRITTA was taking these :)