Spain Extravaganza – Day 5, Bilbao:

Although we get to the Barcelona airport the next morning with an hour to spare, we arrive in Bilbao, but our luggage does not. We are told by the smiling Vueling ground representative that our bags will arrive around 5:30 PM that night and will be delivered to us…on Monday. It’s Saturday. They see nothing wrong with this logic. We are no longer praising Vueling. In fact no client of mine will ever be flying this airline (not that the national carrier Iberia is a plush option). Anyways, our only option is to linger around Bilbao for the next six hours and get the baggage ourselves. We pick up our car and head to the Guggenheim for a dose of culture.

I’m totally prepared. Besides being a Virgo and obsessively organized, this is my job. I have my brand-new Garmin GPS, pre-loaded Europe software, printed directions from Google Maps, my iPhone GPS and a Michelin map. You see, I’m in charge of navigation. I don’t know how to drive stick, and as the automatic cars were almost 800 Euro more, Andres, thankfully adept and willing, has offered to be the designated driver the entire trip. I put on my acupressure motion-sickness bands (not ideal – the navigatress gets carsick) and get ready to lead us. Certainly we can’t get lost with all this groundwork and technological gadgetry. I am wrong. We barely make it out of the parking garage. Barely into Bilbao proper. We change Garmin voices three times (Australian guy ‘Lee’ is too difficult to understand, British ‘Daniel’ is just annoying) and settle on ‘American English Samantha’. We somehow make it to the

Guggenheim mainly using signs within the city, not the trusty GPS and certainly not the directions (I’m too nauseous to look at the map inset closely). No sooner do we park then Andres realizes he doesn’t know how to put the car in reverse. Truly. It won’t slide into gear. I’m calling the concierge to cancel our wine tasting that afternoon, ever conscious of the ridiculous AT&T charges I’m incurring, and Andres is flagging down strangers, one of which gets in the vehicle and shows us how to put it in reverse (FYI: push down first). We feel oddly triumphant…our first hurdle! Surpassed!

Bilbao is a pretty city on the Nervión River traversed by a graceful bridge designed by architect Santiago Calatrava and capped by the masterpiece Guggenheim museum by the venerable Frank Gehry. A pool of water surrounds the dramatic undulating sculptural façade of titanium and steel and the back entrance is ‘guarded’ by a Louise Bourgeois Spider, a larger version than that formerly by the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

Inside, the monumental Richard Serra rolled-steel environments are serene and enveloping, and the Cai Guo-Qiang installation in the entry consisting of real cars pierced by light tubes and suspended from floor to ceiling is visually dazzling. But by far the most arresting exhibit, also by Qiang, features dozens of life-size clay figures of peasants in various poses, all paying tribute to their feudal lord. Influenced by Mao Zedong’s Red China during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76, these sculptures, frozen in various poses are haunting, literally crumbling before our eyes as the clay disintegrates throughout the exhibit’s duration.

Outside children dance around playfully timed fountains and visitors admire Puppy by Jeff Koons, a gigantic floral sculpture of a West Highland terrier. Since we have many hours to kill, we enjoy a picnic and a nap in the sun on the lawn of the museum. Returning to the car, we note an almost-flat front tire. After numerous attempts to find a gas station via Garmin, we drive back to the airport, fingers crossed for no blowout, and retrieve our baggage and exchange the car. Another hurdle – bravo! Again we’re off, onto the Rioja wine region, much later than expected but still in high spirits. Even when we get lost. Again.

I could chronicle every driving conundrum, but there are many. Once we learned to manage Samantha, the Garmin was essentially a lifesaver. I do not recommend renting one while traveling for any extended period, as they are so inexpensive now the cost of leasing from a car agency is nearly the same as buying. Plus you generally can’t reserve one if you pickup and return the car to different locations. GPS systems have come so far from the early days (I recall no satellite reception in France in 2005, heck no reception in Manhattan once in 2006) and I cannot recommend them more highly. And while I’ve only used Garmins, I have heard from experienced GPS users (not just the teenager working at Best Buy) that Garmin is the best brand.

I should also add, Andres’ extreme driving skills, enviable patience and omnipresent sense of humor ensured we never bickered (about directions) and made it to where we needed to be. All with only a rudimentary knowledge of Spanish for the both of us. Well done…