Above: Dancers swirl around Plaza de Santiago in Casco Viejo on a fall night.
There is no nightlife in Spain. They stay up late but they get up late. That is not nightlife. That is delaying the day.”
Ernest Hemingway
Better leave it to Ernest Hemingway to explain Spain’s nocturnal habits, for I rarely witness late nights outside our home in South Austin or apartments when we travel. That’s why it was particularly pleasurable for the Basques of Bilbao to bring the party to a plaza directly under our balcony. If they did indeed stay up late, they were polite enough to pack up the accordions and finish the celebration elsewhere.
Below represents a random unpacking of snapshots from our stay in Bilbao – a city resuscitated by the reclamation of its riverfront from its industrial past and a bold, massive investment in art.
Postcards from Barton Springs 