Woke to a dull drizzling morning, so it was umbrellas to walk to our now favoured breakfast bar. The day was lightened up by our walk past some flower stalls.
Breakfast was excellent as usual. Fresh orange juice, pastries and cafe con leche AUD 6 ea.
We had decided to bite the bullet and go into the Guggenheim, despite all the negative comments (the fact that as seniors we could get in for half price also helped with the decision making). It was a pleasant 10 minute stroll along the river to the museum.
..and once inside we were pleasantly surprised - we quite enjoyed it. There are no permanent exhibitions (well not much) and the current exhibitions were of works by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jeff Koons. Audio guides were included which made a huge difference. The info on the building was excellent, including the fact that it took one year of experimentation to get the manufacturing of the half millimetre thick curved titanium plates on the outside correct. The terrace area was very pleasant...
A number of Basquait's graffiti inspired artworks we quite liked..
..as for Jeff Koons, well make up your own mind...
Of course there was one notable permanent exhibition, that being Richard Serra's "The Matter of Time". It was monumental in size and of thick solid steel, so it was easy to understand why it was permanent. However, despite an explanation by the artist on the audio guide, we didn't quite understand the statement he was making. It was however quite fascinating walking through it with the walls towering over you.
After that IT WAS TIME FOR LUNCH!
We met up with Meg and Mark and went by chance to Restaurant Amboto. This was a Basque Restaurant caught in a time warp, both in terms of its decor and food preparation and presentation. Although the food was pretty unimaginatively presented it was well made and tasted great. The restaurant filled with locals (we being the first to walk in at 1:45pm).
Once we decided the type of dish we wanted, we pretty much left our choices to the lady owner.There were variously, gaspacho, stuffed chard, grilled prawns, crab terrine, peppers stuffed with crab, fish, and steak. We even managed to fit in dessert.
She virtually told the boys we should have tostadas de creme, and although it looked pretty dated, the taste was amazing.
We decided on coffees in the plaza, so walked there past the very relevant Santiago Cathedral...
...and enjoyed some cafe cortados, like piccolos.
We had a late stroll along the river and drinks outside the Guggenheim, but in an attempt to avoid yesterday's over-indulgence, we just had a small savoury pastry each before returning to the hotel to prepare for walking again early tomorrow.
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