I can proudly say that I went to Bilbao, Spain, before Bilbao became hip.
When I announced that I was going in 1995, Bilbao was so unhip that my friends said:
Why do you want to go to Bilbao? It’s a gritty port city.
Why do you want to go to Bilbao? There’s nothing there.
Why do you want to go to Bilbao? It’s a faded industrial city.
Only my brother understood. He said:
Bilbao! There is a song about Bilbao!!!
The song is in German, lyrics by Berthold Brecht and music by Kurt Weill. It was the opening number in “Happy Days”, a musical that was a flop and closed after seven performances in Berlin in 1929.
The Bilbao Song is strong, stark, and unrelentingly nostalgic. It wistfully describes Bill’s Beer Hall in Bilbao, a place where you could be yourself and you could get anything you wanted.
When I went to Bilbao, I did not go looking for Bill’s Beer Hall because it is fictional. I saw that the city was faded and gritty. Huge cranes for unloading ships dotted the skyline. I ate in a restaurant. I left after spending a day there. I felt satisfied because I had been in the city in the song.
CLICK HERE to listen to the song in English (2 minutes), sung by Andy Williams
When I was in Bilbao, I was unaware that they were building a new museum. It opened two years after I was there. The museum is a branch of the Guggenheim, and was designed by superstar architect Frank Gehry.
The Guggenheim is shaped vaguely like a ship and curves along the riverbank. It is covered in titanium and reflects light that bounces off the river. One of the main river bridges goes right through the museum. It is spectacular.
Nowadays no one calls Bilbao faded; it is vibrant. Bilbao has become hip and is a main tourist destination.
Bilbao once had a song. The song drew one tourist there. Bilbao now has a museum. The museum draws thousands of tourists there.
Architecture has the power to transform.
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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath. Price = $11. You can purchase a copy at http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com
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