You can't come here without visiting the Guggenheim in Bilbao...

...although Leah says she has at least two friends who spent significant time here without paying any attention at all to the museum.

She herself visited here in 1997, shortly after the museum opened. Today we took a fast, comfortable bus from San Sebastian to Bilbao, through rugged green country that reminded us enormously of the Pacific NW. In Bilbao, we were able to try out two other means of convenient public transportation - first the tramline, which runs from the regional bus terminal to a stop near the museum.

The Museum is only part of a general rehabilitation program for the area of Bilbao where it is located. There is a wide promenade all along the river that runs through town, and at several points stroller can cross from one side to the other over interesting bridges (the most recent designed by Calatrava.)

The museum itself holds up well (though Leah the metalworker is worried about the condition of the elaborate metal facade.) Inside, we visited the permanent collection, including a number of large-size painting from the 50's and 60's. An enormous room is filled with cor-ten steel sculptures by Richard Serra, in a combination of spirals and arcs and mazes that can delight or intimidate, depending on your mood.

I've always thought of Serra's work as bombastic, intrusive and much too large for comfort. Today, in this space that is perfectly suited to his massive, yet playful constructs, I began to change my mind.

Two other large exhibits currently at the museum are the "Gluts" series, by Robert Rauschenberg, and a retrospective of sculpture by Anish Kapoor. Each exhibit is phenomenally varied, intriguing and thought-provoking, and we felt especially lucky to see the Rauschenberg.

After all that art, one can sit on an outside terrace with refreshments, and think about the vision and energy that created this new focus for a long-established city.