Not every walk along the beach results in a modernist masterpiece, let alone one set in the ocean amid crashing waves.
After a refreshing walk along the esplanade at Ondarreta Beach in San Sebastián, Spain, I persuaded the family to maintain walking until we reached the western end of La Concha Bay. There, anchored within the rocks and pounded by the waves, was “El Peine del Viento” (The Comb of the Wind) by Twentieth-century Spanish sculptor Eduardo Chillida: three nine-ton sculptures covered in rust. They resembled monumental claws or claws reaching out, attempting to connect, a robust symbol of Basque strength through the ages.
It was also an indication for my husband and 11-year-old twins Freddie and Frida that we’d spend the weekend on the lookout for art in unusual places.
The Basque region, with its wildly verdant and green landscape and proud heritage, has long been a spot I actually have desired to visit with my family. So in February we spent three crisp, sunny, culture-focused days driving from San Sebastián to Bilbao with a number of worthwhile stops in between.
On the second day my kids didn’t want our adventure to finish.
San Sebastián
Entering town earlier within the day, passing the ornate buildings along the last stretch of the Urumea River before it reaches the ocean, Freddie found San Sebastián “pretty cool” as he spotted groups of children carrying surfboards heading for the beach, as they dodged the fur-clad shoppers hurrying down the sidewalks. With its world-famous food scene, film festival and stunning nature in a crescent-shaped cove, San Sebastián can cater to a wide range of holiday makers with very different tastes. Even in February, the beach was bustling with activity, though only surfers in wetsuits and dogs chasing poles ventured into the water.
The city’s museums buzzed with the same mixture of youthful energy and European appreciation of the old fashioned. snuff bottle, an enormous multi-purpose art space in a former cigarette factory, featuring exhibitions, film series, and big open-air lounge spaces – some with ping pong tables and other entertainment. It’s a spot where kids can experience the culture that is available but still have room to run around. There’s also an in depth library, a pizzeria, and a student-run LABe restaurant on the highest floor of the Basque Culinary Center, so it may possibly be an all-day experience.
On a rainy day, Tabakalera generally is a lifesaver for a visiting family. But it was sunny during our visit, and town’s cathedral, with its vast expanses of jewel-colored stained glass, was especially beautiful. This summer we’ll return to San Sebastián – each to swim on this beautiful bay and to see lantern, a monumental sculpture inside an abandoned lighthouse on town’s picturesque Santa Clara Island. Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias excavated the structure’s floor and recreated the geological features of the underlying rock in bronze. Reached by boat, it is just open from June to the top of September.
Unexpectedly, the so-called San Telmo Museum, which we thought could be a show of regional pride turned out to be the highlight of our trip and just like the city itself had something for everybody. Although you enter through a small, minimalist pavilion of glass and concrete, the museum is built around a stunningly beautiful Gothic cloister with intricately carved stone arches. I opened a side door to a dark and moody chapel and was delighted to find huge murals by one in every of my favorite Spanish artists, José Maria Serta, whose best-known works were sometimes painted in gold or silver and are more commonly present in glamorous interiors comparable to Rockefeller center or palatial homes of rich clients as an alternative of gloomy convent chapels.
Around the corner were shining armor, swords, clubs and other weapons that Frida – now in love with all things medieval – explained to us in all their deadly blood.
Freddie’s most typical query upon entering the museum is “Do they’ve any cars?” Indeed, this museum did it – nice ones from the 70’s (together with scooters and bicycles). The vehicles highlighted the role of the Basque Country within the modernization of Spanish society from the Sixties to the Eighties, in the ultimate years of Franco’s dictatorship and the start of democracy within the country. Traveling back in time, a display of greater than a dozen examples of the oddly elaborate Seventeenth-century linen headdresses traditionally worn by married and widowed women left Frida embarrassed enough to declare (not for the primary time) that she would never leave married.
At the alternative extreme of this potpourri is regional art Chillida Leku, an area dedicated to the work of only one artist, Eduardo Chillida, whose monumental sculptural works – including variations on “El Peine del Viento” we saw on the beach the day before – are (or often stand in front of) the important piece of art in museums world wide. In the Eighties, the artist acquired the property – which is situated near the town of Hernani on the outskirts of San Sebastián and features a Sixteenth-century farmhouse – to create a compendium of his works installed each indoors and outdoors for pastoral contemplation. And even when two kids were running across the grass and attempting to scare one another by coming out from behind the artist’s massive yet elementary easy sculptures of steel, stone or concrete, Chillida Leku (leku means “place” in Basque) provided delicious hours of just that. I used to be particularly struck by the way in which a number of the largest carvings branched out at the highest and appeared to reach for one another but never touch one another like so many nearby ancient trees.
In a beautifully restored stone and wood farmhouse, Anabel, the gallery employee, got us all talking in regards to the sculptures and provided many desirable details in regards to the artist, comparable to the undeniable fact that he had been trained for years by a neighborhood blacksmith – which explains why a few of his early of works contain elements of agricultural tools.
Driving west
The seaside village of Getaria, about half-hour west of San Sebastián, could also be small, however it gave the world two titans who modified history in a technique or one other. The first was Juan Sebastiáno Elcano, a Spanish explorer who was the primary to circumnavigate the globe in 1522 after Ferdinand Magellan died midway through what’s now the Philippines. He returned to Spain after about 1,200 days at sea, returning with just one ship and only 19 men (five ships and about 265 crew left Spain in 1519). He is a famous hero in his homeland, but is essentially unknown outside of Spain, where credit for the journey belongs almost entirely to Magellan.
In contrast, one other native son of Getaria has a reputation that’s widely known and has grow to be a world brand. Cristóbal Balenciaga – a designer whom Christian Dior, Coco Chanel and other designers considered, in Dior’s words, “the master of us all” – was born here in 1895 to a neighborhood fisherman and seamstress. As an adolescent, he had clients among the many Spanish nobility and eventually the royal family. He moved to Paris throughout the Spanish Civil War, where his talent and client list became legendary.
With great pomp Cristobal Balenciaga Museum opened in Getaria (in the previous palace of his most ardent client) in 2011, bringing a rare world of high fashion to this quaint village. Many of the stunning dresses on display were donated by Princess Grace of Monaco; the American philanthropist Rachel Mellon, generally known as Bunny; Balenciaga’s friend and protégé Hubert de Givenchy; and other beau monde figurines. It’s fun for teenagers to play within the dimly lit galleries with fancy clothes from one other age. This 12 months’s “Balenciaga Character” exhibition focuses on the essence of his designs and what made them so modern and delightful that other designers felt almost compelled to emulate him for many years.
How many UNESCO World Heritage sites will be reached by automobile? Heading further west from Getaria, we bypassed the middle of Bilbao and drove straight to Las Arenas, a chic seaside enclave where the Nervión River meets the Bay of Biscay. Our goal was to see (and use) Vizcaya Bridge, a pioneering form of suspension bridge inbuilt 1893 and recognized by UNESCO in 2006. It was designed by Alberto de Palacio y Elissagüe (who also designed Madrid’s iconic Atocha railway station). The task was to create a link between the towns of Guecho and Portugalete on opposite sides of the river without impeding the shipping traffic that was crucial to Bilbao’s booming steel industry. The Palacio’s modern design was not a roadway, but a suspended gondola that today carries around eight cars and a very good variety of pedestrians across the river in a single minute – as exciting for my husband and I because it is for the youngsters. The deck supporting the gondola is greater than 150 feet above the water, so even today’s tankers, aircraft carriers and a number of aircraft have managed to get under it.
When it opened there have been fixed fees for pigs, cattle and funerals – today it’s just cars, scooters, bicycles and pedestrians (€1 or simply over $1 round trip for pedestrians). As we approached the soaring tower on the Portuguese side of the river, Freddie squeezed my hand and said, “This is the most effective day ever,” words he also uttered amongst the large sequoias in Sequoia National Park in California.
Bilbao
Since designed by Frank Gehry Guggenheim Bilbao opened in 1997, town occupies a vital place on the European cultural route. Many kids will go crazy for the large flower puppy, a big petunia-based sculpture by Jeff Koons that stands in front of the museum. If you are heading here in the summertime, it’s value knowing in regards to the nearby “aqua park”, a fountain with alternating streams of water spouting from the bottom, where children and adults can cool off within the midday heat.
Whatever exhibitions are on display (there’s a fantastic Joan Miró painting exhibition through May 28 specializing in the artist’s early years in Paris), a ride within the glass elevators in Gehry’s winding, curved central hall is sufficient to keep most youngsters completely satisfied. Don’t miss the long gallery of monumental spiral sculptures by Richard Serra; exploring the labyrinthine spaces created by the circular steel partitions is, I discovered, an escape from the youngsters’s home.
Before we arrived on the Maritime Museum in Bilbao, Itamuseum, we were quite exhausted and told the ticket agent that we could be out and in in half-hour. Eventually the guards needed to escort us out at closing time because we were so busy with the displays of vintage ship models and paintings of historic shipwrecks. There are also more modern exhibitions on surf culture and the role of the river and sea in Bilbao’s development, in addition to what town is doing to adapt to global warming and preserve the ecosystem that has been its lifeblood. In warmer weather, a small dry dock in front of the museum allows visitors to explore the different sorts of ships used on town’s waterways.
Like San Sebastián, Bilbao has its own extensive multi-functional cultural center Azkun Zentroa Alhondigaa former wine and olive oil warehouse that stood empty for 30 years until the architect Philippe Starck converted it right into a library, exhibition space and gym, where there are two indoor swimming pools on the roof, each of which will be used for a number of euros a day.
And splashing around within the pools designed by Mr. Starck – one in every of which has a glass floor overlooking the galleries below – counts as a cultural activity, no matter age.
