Museums, cathedrals, and castles

That title could be used for just about any blog post about Europe...

Two days in Spain were not enough. It's good that I've made Spanish friends here, because now I have an excuse to go back to Spain - and I have my own personal tour guides. If I go to Spain at the end of the program here I'll go to a totally different region, but after seeing the Basque Country and Bilbao, I think I'll probably like it! Plus I always like going to new countries!

It was a long drive down to Bilbao from the region where I live, and Bridget the GPS made it a longer trip than it needed to be. We stopped in Bordeaux on the way with the goal of getting lunch and seeing the city a bit, but it ended up raining and we missed the lunch hour in the restaurants, so it wasn't particularly great. Plus when we tried to leave the GPS sent us a crazy way through the city and down one-way streets - in the wrong direction. But eventually we did make it to Bilbao. And the moment we drove across the bridge into the city, we knew it was a good idea to go. The bridge abuts the Guggenheim, which is a truly amazing structure.

We came in across that bridge right there. This is a view of the Guggenheim from the hotel restaurant the first evening we were there.

And a better view of the museum itself.

So, of course, the Burkes are particularly crazy for modern architecture, but most people think the Guggenheim is pretty amazing. It's just so monstrous and almost impossibly weird. Frank Gehry based the museum on the idea of a fish, and it does almost seem like a giant, moving creature. It was pretty exceptional.

As evidenced by the pictures, we were staying directly across from the museum (and because it was Christmas-time, the hotel gave us vouchers for tickets at the museum). The hotel was pretty swanky! After about 10 minutes inside, Colleen said, "I love Spain."

She was a big fan of our monstrous beds.

Of course, the first thing we did the next morning was go to the museum. Colleen and I kept "imitating" Dad; this essentially consisted of us hyperventilating and sprinting toward the museum and saying things like, "Just look at those lines!" and taking pictures. But, as I've said, the museum was pretty great. Check out some pictures:

Entrance/street side of the museum.

Entrance and the famous puppy flower statue - which Colleen loved of course.

Some inside shots: a giant art installation (that is permanent, no surprise) and a bridge on one of the upper levels.

Looking up at the ceiling of the museum. I don't think there are straight lines anywhere in the museum.

The museum from the opposite side of the river. This also shows the side of the museum where there is a small courtyard. Colleen "sneezed" in that courtyard (Colleen sneezing is more like yelling) and it echoed off the curve of the building and scared the pants off just about everyone in the courtyard. One guy burst out laughing (as did Mom and I) and when we glanced at him, tried to cover his mouth. He was utterly unsuccessful and just kept laughing uncontrollably.

We didn't actually see that much else of Bilbao. We walked around the museum area and then went to the shopping area in the evening, where I went on a mad hunt for the store Zara because it is way cheaper in Spain than any other country. We were pretty beat from driving and everything, so we did hang out a lot instead of trekking over to the old part of town. But that was okay. Though it would have been nice to have a few more days in Bilbao - and in the region in general.

After Bilbao we headed back into France and stopped overnight in Tours (again with some unwanted "help" from Bridget. It was after some annoying detours in Tours that she got ditched). Tours in is the Loire Valley region, or the region in France that is known for all it's chateaux, or castles. We only spent one evening in Tours, so we didn't see a ton, but it's a very old city. At one point in time Tours was once the capital of France...a long time ago. And it was apparently also the site of an important battle during the Crusades according to Mark. But he tells me a lot of things. Sometimes I have to make a call about how much of it is necessary to retain - the details of the Battle of Tours did not make the cut.

Tours, however, was also the site of a very cool and very elaborate cathedral. It was also a little creepy because it was really dark. But the coolness factor outweighed the creepiness one.

Tours cathedral: inside and out.

And one of the main pedestrian roads of Tours.

And this is a giant tower built by Charlemagne (yeah, Charlemagne, like the Roman Emperor who converted everyone to Christianity and the guy who lived in the late eighth century) in honor of his dead wife.

Now I'm at the point in the blog post where I need to decide whether to continue or to cut it off until the next post. I definitely underestimated how much space it would take me to write about my vacation - but it was three weeks long almost, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I also went out on a trip today, so I have all kinds of blog posts stacking up in my brain. I think I'll finish off with a little bit about Versailles because I don't have a ton to say about it. And, yes, I know that typing out my internal thought process is terribly interesting for all of you to read.

So I don't have a ton to say about Versailles not because I'm snotty, but because there were so many people that it was almost impossible to see anything. And it was winter so the gardens weren't that impressive. If I knew someone considering going to Versailles when the gardens weren't in bloom, I would probably tell them it wasn't worth it. The gardens are at least half the reason to go to Versailles - and after going, I may say that they're 75% of the reason to go to Versailles. Don't get me wrong, the castle is unbelievable; Dad kept asking how the French monarchy got so impossibly rich. But it was unbearably crowded. It was hard to see much of anything because there were so many people everywhere. I didn't learn that much as a result as well. It's probably best to go in September when the gardens are still in bloom and people are in school. But here are some pictures that I got off the castle and the gardens:

Main entrance to the castle. This doesn't begin to show how enormous this place actually is.

The famous golden gates.

The even more famous Hall of Mirrors!

This was pretty cool...

The Hall of Battles - filled with paintings of famous French victories and battles.

The famous Versailles gardens and statues.

Can you imagine this in the spring when everything would be green and in bloom? Maybe I'll try to make it back up here in the spring! The gardens are free to get into!

So that almost sums up my trip with my family. It's everything but Paris. But I didn't want to rush through Paris at the end of the post, so that will just have to start off tomorrow's post. Which will probably get written when I'm avoiding preparing for my classes for the week. Part of my weekly Sunday routine!