Yet another bridge (YAB)

There's a celebration/exhibition of Spanish military going on here this week. Apparently, the engineer corps is going to build a bridge next to the Triana bridge (the best bridge):

These floating pontoons are staged and ready to be extended across the river.

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I did a little more recreational coding this morning on my one-dimensional cellular automata visualization tool. Once I'm dong, I'll post a link here.

I also started prepping my classes for the Fall 2019 semester. It's a bit early, but I'm worried that once I get back to WW it might be challenging to find the time in the 6 weeks before the semester starts. I'll feel better if I have them mostly ready to go before I leave Spain.

Space Invaders

I spent a bit of time writing a one-dimensional cellular automaton generator in P5JS. We're signed up to do a tile painting class when my sister gets here the week after next. I thought it might be interesting to paint a one-dimensional cellular automaton on mine:

Admittedly, it looks a bit like a space invader, but I have some time to tweak it a bit. This is actually just the very tip of this fuller 1DCA:

which is definitely more interesting, but I'm not sure I could paint something like this on a 10cm x 10cm tile.

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Another hot day here in Sevilla. I took a picture of the Corpus Christi gate again:

not as ornate (or as large as the feria gate), but coming along nicely. They have until June 20th to get it worked out, so I think they'll be fine.

Bilbao to Sevilla

We had an early afternoon flight back to Sevilla today from Bilbao. It was grey, cold and rainy in Bilbao as we lifted off. In Sevilla about 90 mins later, it was clear sunny and 35C-a remarkable climate change. Bilbao and northern Spain are beautiful. If I had another year here, I might think about living up there. Everything is so green, hilly and forested.

We took the bus from the aiport. Laura got off early to go to class. I went home, emptied the suitcase, cleaned the house a bit, and went to the gym.

I also made a much-needed trip to the trashcan, but was rewarded with a lovely sunset view of the downtown:

***

With only a month left here, I need to prioritize some of my projects and see what kind of progress I can make in the next few weeks here.

San Sebastian to Pasajes

This morning we took a bus (1.5 hrs) to the town of San Sebastian about 100km east of Bilbao. We found an article about a hike from there to the next town, Pasajes, about 5km further to the east. Other than the damp weather which made some of the trail pretty slippery, it was a beautiful hike along the coast. After a sharp initial climb, we were rewarded with a nice view of San Sebastian:

Further along the trail, we had frequent glimpses of the coast and the Bay of Biscay which lies off of the northern coast of Spain:

The area we walked had numerous intersecting trails.

Eventually, we figured out we needed to follow the white/red bars. Once we realized that, we found that the trail was pretty clearly marked the whole way:

There were a lot of nice flowers along the trail:

Dropping down into the town Pasajes, we needed to take this water taxi across the inlet:
 

 It was only .8 euro and was pretty quick:


From Pasajes, we took the bus back to San Sebastian. We had a late lunch, wandered around a bit. Visited the beach:

And headed back to the bus station for the bus back to Bilbao. At one point, Laura noted we were 5 degrees removed from home: Walla Walla, Sevilla, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Pasajes. Tomorrow we wind that back down to 1 degree with a flight back to Sevilla.

Bilbao

We've been all over middle and southern Spain, but Bilbao is our first trip to the northern part of Spain. Right on the Bay of Biscay close to the French border, Bilbao is about half the size of Sevilla at around 350K pop. Surrounded by green hills, it's definitely more temperate, less dry compared to Sevilla. Our main goal for the trip was to visit the Guggenheim Museum. Situated downtown along the river, this modern art museum is nearly as interesting on the outside as it is on the inside. This giant spider lurks outside:

These large, shiny, stainless steel party favors also adorn the exterior:

 Inside there are a number of permanent and transitory exhibit spaces. I guess my favorite artist in the museum was Jenny Holzer. Her medium is text (very thoughtful text) imprinted on canvas or other everyday objects like paper, stone, or even LED reader boards:

This one was particularly disturbing. An LED reader board with quotes from Syrian refugees surrounded by a sea of actual human clavicles:

These massive steel constructions were designed to walk through. In fact, walking through them was an interesting and somewhat disorienting experience, but the view from above the hall was equally interesting:

 Every once in a while the fog machine outside fires up:

After the museum, Laura and I decided to climb up to the top of a nearby bridge to get a bird's eye view of the museum. After huffing and puffing our way up about 15 flights of stairs, we exited onto the bridge deck... right next to the elevator:

The view was worth the work though. The spider is fun to look at from this perspective:

This puppy in front of the museum is a collection of wildflowers growing on a steel frame:

Our hotel is in an old building away from the center. The hallways are like a maze going up and down stairs as they enter and exit adjacent buildings that the hotel has expanded into over the years:

The bathroom sink couldn't be smaller, but the shadows playing through the shelf above add a nice aesthetic:

This evening, we went to Plaza Nueva for dinner. Along the way, we crossed the river:

We randomly stopped at this place and had a bit of bar food and a couple of beers:

After, I had helado, but it disappeared too quickly to photograph.