Cudillero

Cudillero is a tourist hotspot. This is evident from the large car park to the west of the village so that only essential vehicles are allowed in the village.

The first sight is of the enclosed harbour so not very photogenic.

It gets better as you turn towards the east.

Mustn't forget to advertise the name of the village.

After that it's a short walk to the main Plaza de la Marina.

Our guide is on the far left, giving some instructions over the PA.

No doubt visitors outnumber locals during daylight hours.

This mural is in front of the steps up the  Casa Consistorial (Town Hall).

Which is this.

A map showing the routes to the elevated vantage points for the village.

At this point I got lunch at a restaurant before deciding on one of the walks.

After threading my way through narrow paths going past people's houses this is the view I got.

A sea of tiled roofs. I think the camera had difficulty joining the horizon.

This one is a little better.

I had just enough time to take another walk to another viewpoint overlooking the harbour.

The lighthouse at the point.

A wide view.

Walking back to the bus.

The enclosed harbour at the start looks better with the tide coming in.

My interest in EV chargers again.

And then it was off to our final destination for the day. 

 

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is one of the reasons visitors come. It didn't exist the last time I passed through Basque Country over 30 years ago.

It occupies a scenic spot on the Nervión. But it wasn't so scenic before when it was a port area.

It's a modern and contemporary art museum with a changing collection of exhibits and retrospectives inside. The outdoor pieces are more permanent.

One of them is Maman by Louise Bourgeois, a bronze spider, a tribute to her mother, who was a weaver. It seems it is one of 6 bronze copies around the world. The original steel sculpture is now at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

People also come to see the titanium skin of the museum.

The footbridge across the Nervión is also attractive.

Murals on the other side of the river.

It took me a while to find the official entrance. But I didn't mind as I enjoyed perambulating around the museum. I might also have been early for my time slot, but that wasn't checked; the slots are a way to spread visits more evenly.

Helen Frankenthaler was an abstract expressionist painter.

This was a modern display of vertical scrolling text.

Barbara Kruger is a conceptual artist and collagist. Her works address cultural constructions. She works across several media.

This exhibit used displays of huge texts.

I didn't take any notes but no matter, a search finds that this is Lo profunda es el aire (How profound is the air) by Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillada. It's sculpted from a single block of alabaster. It's a permanent exhibit.

Some works are integrated into the architecture. This is Soft Shuttlecock by couple Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.

This is The Matter of Time by Richard Serra. The work is designed to be walked through, experiential art. The panels oxidise more over time, deepening the rust.

At the floor level it looks like this.

An outdoor terrace with a couple of works.

It was a very pleasant day.

A couple of displays connected to computers generating, or perhaps hallucinating, architectural designs.

The museum is also the permanent home of Jeff Koons' Puppy, a copy of which was on display outside the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney some years ago. His works have been criticised as kitsch. No doubt they are crowd pleasers.

Unfortunately Puppy was under maintenance so all I have is this photo of the poster covering the site.

I have an interest in EVs so I took a picture of a charger in the parking area.

Well, viewing all that art was hard work, so I rewarded myself with an edible sculpture as it was a warm day before walking back to downtown and catching a tram back.

And those are all the photos from the day. I guess the rest of the day was mundane. 

Arrival in Paris

Charles de Gaulle airport won't be on my list of preferred entry points to Europe. The public transport RER B connection to the city is creaky, a service that stops at minor stations, because it's really a service for residents. I bought my e-ticket with a mobile app though I'm not sure the time spent installing it was worth avoiding a vending machine.

However if you are headed away from Paris on a TGV line, then there is a TGV station at the airport. So since I was headed in the direction of Bordeaux, I could have skipped the city. But I did want to glimpse Paris. The last time I passed through was on my way home after visiting Portugal, Brazil, and Spain in 2009.

I had picked a hostel in the Montparnasse district for a stopover before heading southwards. I probably could have made the connection from plane to train with a bit of risk but I needed to catch my breath. Besides I wanted to view Paris from Tour Montparnasse, the highest viewpoint in the vicinity.

By and by I ended up in the Luxembourg Gardens. It's a pleasant piece of green space in the city.

It was a clement autumn day and I think the school term hadn't begun yet as I saw lots of young people in the streets, so there were a lot of people in the park.

It was a little past lunchtime so I found an inexpensive falafel shop on a main drag no less. The owner seemed pleased that I wasn't from his normal demographic but willing to be adventurous with cusine.

The area is full of famous gathering places. Here is Le Dôme Café.

Nearby is La Rotonde. I'm sure I've seen these names mentioned in connection with 20th century creatives.

Cafe Odessa doesn't have a Wikipedia entry so maybe it isn't historic.

My experience though is that famous joints usually levy a price and could be tourist traps.

I liked the cheerful front of Theatre Edgar. Its website says that it's dedicated to comedy.

Pedestrian path on the median strip of Bd Pasteur.

Exploring the residential area to the west of Gare Montparnasse, I took a picture of this EV charger as EV infrastructure interests me.

I liked the modern look of this apartment block.

I'll put the visit to the top of Tour Montparnasse in a separate post as there are many pictures.