October 26

Now that we had a day of San Sebastian under our belt, we were feeling pretty confident, so we decided to rent a car for the day and head into the basque countryside. Our final destination was to be the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, but not before stopping a few times. The day was a definite success.

	The motley crew, including the 4 door turbo diesel VW Polo that I was in charge of driving. Oh, did it bring back memories of my VW days... ok well not this day.
	We stopped in the countryside to put together some hard to find sandwich ingredients. Siesta time can be brutal if we don't time it right, all the grocery stores were closed when we went to go shopping. But we perservered and found this great spot to eat.
	The spot we stopped at had a mirror for the tight corner, so I stole Annie's idea and took a couple of pictures of the reflection. Here's one of the results.
	And another (I hid myself this time).
	From a tip in the Lonely Planet, we stopped along the way at this place called the Bosque Pintado (Painted Forest). It's a pretty unique forest: an artist came through and painted the trees, but designed it so that the paintings cover more than one tree, and that you have to be looking at the trees in just the right spot to see them, otherwise the perspective is skewed and you can't make out what it is. This picture is one of the best examples; it's two motorcyclists. Notice how more than one tree was used, and the trees aren't in a straight line, so its a two-dimensional painting done in three dimensions. Very clever.
	Here's another not-so-good example, it's a red man-shaped object using two trees. In actuality a lot of the paintings were like this, where we weren't sure what the painting was supposed to be exactly. I think a lot of it is left up to the eye of the beholder. I still liked the motorcycles the best.
	Here's an explanation of the forest by the artist, unfortunately it's in Spanish (and handwritten). I would try to translate but I don't think I would come close. Would anyone like to try? Email me the translation and I'll post it on here.
	The Guggenheim Museum. I thought the building itself was the best artwork. Simply amazing, you have to see it for yourself.
	Some of the front of the museum. The flowery thing on the right is a huge puppy sculpture covered with flowers, but it didn't fit all the way into the picture.
	The museum at night. My favorite shot of the day.

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