Bilbao BBK - 10-11/7 and around Bilbao

As the festival started later in the evenings, we spent the heat of the day relaxing in the van and trying to catch up on a bit of sleep. As Friday night rolled around we were ready to set off up the hill again. We'd been an hour out as I didn't realise there was a time difference between France and Spain lukily we arrived just as the Kaiser Chief's kicked off their set. They sounded good and they were getting a good response from the growing crowd. Jane's Addiction were up next, we'd not seen them since Adelaide Big Day Out (I think 2003??) but they seemed to be getting into it a bit more, it might have had a lot to do with Perry Farrell's disturbing red jumpsuit/catsuit (he also slipped into a bit of 'jazzercise mode'). Dave Navarro doesn't look like he's aged at all and was possibly wearing the same outfit he wore in '03, namely just leather pants. Echo & the Bunnymen were our last stop for the evening and they sounded really good, unfortunately we didn't stay for the whole set as it was getting quite late and cold by this stage. Asian Dub Foundation, Primal Scream and Placebo were the headliners for our final night at BBK Live. ADF were good but not great so we spent a bit of time walking around the festival site. It was quite small so it had a good atmosphere, also helped by the smaller amount of attendees, around 10,000 or so. I've been waiting to see Primal Scream since we were in the UK on out last trip but their shows always sold out in record time. They played pretty well, covering songs from all over their career. Placebo probably put in the most effort of the night. They were also the most polished in terms of performance - impressive. Our late return to the van after the festival was hampered somewhat as we managed to get on the wrong bus, taking us to another part of the city. Fortunately we could stay on board, return to the festival site and get the right one. It added about half an hour to the return trip which we didn't really need at that point but it couldn't be helped. On Sunday we set off for a walk along the riverside to have some lunch near the Guggenheim Museum. We had a bit of fun deciphering the lunch menu as our Spanish is improving at a snail's pace. We both ended up with a nice meal. Afterwards we had some good advice from the local tourist office on where to stay next and then we went to the Guggenheim. There's a great living sculpture out the front named 'Puppy' which is made up of flowering plants, the photos might describe it best. Inside the museum we took the audio guide which discussed the inspiration behind the design as well as some of the choices in materials, it's a very impressive building. Some of the pieces on the ground floor were commissioned specifically to fit the spaces so they are really impressive. No photos unfortunately as they are not allowed inside but you might see some if you check out the link. We spent a few hours wandering around the museum, we didn't really like the work of the artist in residence on the second floor (personal taste the only reason here) but the permanent collection on the third floor was worth seeing. We set back to our van in the late afternoon to head off. Upon leaving we needed a push start from a team of travelers camping nearby. After that, it was only a short trip to a caravan park in San Sebastian, it featured nice grounds and park facilities (clean showers). The next day was marked by some heavy rain which was a bit average as we'd just washed pretty much everything we owned. Not to worry though, the Spanish sun sorted it all out the next day. We had some more campers wanting to party near us again but in the end I'm glad we didn't have a go at them as they helped us push start the van despite their hangovers.