I'm back

dear friends I'm back from the Basque coast and first I have to say:

WHAT, NO NEW POSTS?

where is everyone?

(there are still some "day in life"-reports missing...!)

I spend 3 days in the city of Bilbao, and 10 days in San Sebastian, both in the north of Spain. the weather wasn't great (it rained for about a week and the rest of the time was mostly cloudy) but the two cities were so fine, I hardly noticed my constantly wet clothes and the cold I caught.

apart from Gene Kelly style singing and dancing in the rain, and trips to the beach (San Sebastian has 3 of them!), I also visited a few museums - so I'll give you a little report...

Bilbao is famous for the Guggenheim, but it also has the Museo de Bellas Artes, a fine museum with lots of spanish work by artists like Zuloaga, Goya, Murillo, Chillida, Tapies, and some international ones.

from October 10th, the museum will also show a selection of Antonio Lopez's work, which I would have loved to see.

the Bilbao Guggenheim of course is a landmark and has a fine collection as well.

the architect mr. gehry did everything he could to make it very difficult for people with a fear of heights like me, but I tried not to be too much of a sissy and made it to the Rothko (one of my favorite artists) on the top floor...

my favorite piece however was Richard Serra's "the matter of time", an installation of 7 giant steel sculptures you can walk through.

in Getaria, a town near San Sebastian, I visited the brand new Cristobal Balenciaga museum, another excample of challenging architecture (...), which shows the work and life of the fashion designer. very stylish!

San Sebastian has the San Telmo Museoa, and the "Kursaal", a place for culture and arts, which also is the headquarter of the annual international film festival, had a small selection of work by Marc Chagall, which, I hate to say, is not really my cup of tea - but I don't know anything about his life and the stories he was telling in his paintings - so please forgive me!

(pics: Serra's sculptures at the Guggenheim, me in front of the San Telmo Museum, Chillida's "Wind Comb" in San Sebastian)

I hope you're all having a great autumn!

love, Barbara

ps: HAPPY belated BIRTHDAY, Camilla!!

the idea of a Morran portrait book is so wonderful, and if you want me, I would love to contribute - and all the other girls from the knutselclub would too, I'm sure!