Bilbao

Yesterday I took the girls and Jake, Alma's boyfriend, to Bilbao. The focus of the visit, of course, was Frank Geahry's famous building that houses a Guggenheim museum. Always impressive. Additionally, there was a very interesting temporary exhibit of works from Viena's Kunsthistoriches Museum. Quite ecclectic, organized around the vague theme "All the Histories of Art". The exhibit included two portraits by Velazquez, one of which was of the Infanta Margarita, who I had mistakenly thought ended up in a convent in Madrid. No! I got my princesses confused. But her fate wasn't much better: she was married off to her uncle, the empreror Leopold, in 1666, gave birth to four children and died at the tender age of 22. Anyway, the portrait is wonderful, but it's very sad to think that it was painted for the express purpose of allowing the court in Viena to see what they were getting in this arranged marriage. Poor girl! There was also a big retrospective of works by Cy Twombley, but that was of no interest to me. After the Guggenheim we took some refreshment at a little bar, then had lunch at the Café Iruña, a Bilbao landmark. Good, but not great. After lunch we walked along the river and had coffee in the parte vieja. A beautiful day.