The architecture of Salamanca is fantastic (if you like old) and new vistas are around every corner. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting a city break.
I packed and got back on the road by 9:30 as I wanted to get to Bilbao by early afternoon so that I'd have time to visit the Guggenheim museum. Emily guided me towards motorway, but she was playing up. Maybe she's not liked being bounced around for 3 weeks, but she now only talks to me in one ear. If I re-seat her in her cradle she often improves, but music comes and goes. At least her directions are (on the whole) correct.
Then something weird happened. As I was cruising along at about 80 I suddenly had an extreme stinging pain in my left ear. Initially I thought a wasp had got inside my helmet and stung me, but this was not the case - Emily had electrocuted me! I unplugged my earpieces so she couldn't zap me again.
At a petrol stop I took a look at the cable which showed some bare wire. However, the voltage used by the ear monitors should not be enough to have given a shock. All very strange. I put a tab of duck tape over the exposed wires to ensure it didn't happen again. Emily still only spoke in my right ear.
It was enough for me to listen to an audio book I'd downloaded though and as I sped towards Bilbao Terry Pratchett's Thud! was expertly read to me.
I already knew where I'd try to find a room in Bilbao and luckily the Formula 1 had one. It's a cheap and cheerful cell, but it get's me ready for the room on the boat.
I dumped my gear, got changed and jumped back on the bike to go to the Guggenheim. My first parking attempt at the back of the museum was vetoed by an over zealous security guard, so I shot up a side street, parked, and then walked back along the river front.
There's a tremendous amount of building going on here as well as major road construction. The scruffy port city is now getting a very modern, very cosmopolitain district.
Entry to the museum was €8, reduced because the entire second floor was closed. The museum is housed in a spectacular building of glass, titanium and rock. Each material is used to form complex curves that weave together. It is very impressive. 
The first exhibit I viewed consisted of waves and scrolls of 2 inch plate steel set in a massive curving hall. The steel formed curving walkways that carried sound a deceptively long way. The steel walls were rarely vertical confusing the senses as you walked between then.
I walked along one large scroll as it wound like a spiral towards its centre. At one point I was sure I could see a large black doorway into a dark cental void. I stepped forwards. BONG! I'm sure I could here the guards sniggering. I'd interacted with this piece more than I'd intended.
I'm sad to say that nothing else in the entire museum (save some video art) even came close to moving me. In fact much of it was just crap. One piece was a bunch of boarding cards sandwiched between two pieces of glass set on top of some bubble wrap. On top of this were cigarette ash trays stolen from the armrests of airline seats. These were then joined by a metalic chain.
The electronic talking guide that your given when you enter bleated on about the artists life journey and how each boarding card and ash tray interweaved with their existence. Wot a load of crap! It was a bunch of nicked ash trays, some steel rope and boarding cards. The glass would be better made into windows and the bubble wrap used to ship the whole lot back to the artist!
I debated ploughing the GS through their glass front doors, dumping it on the floor and writing the blog address in black marker on the stone floor. The mud has been artisticly applied and all the squashed insects depict life's intricate struggle between existance and extinction. I think a quarter of a million sounds about right. I'll await your cheque Mr Guggenheim!
I left glad that the entire 2nd floor had been closed! Perhaps I'm just a philistine?
My hotel is near some of the out of town shopping centres so I've spent the evening grabbing some food and buying a few last minute gifts.
The weather looks set fair for my crossing and also for keeping all my mud stuck to the bike. A bit of Morocco will now be forever in Hove.
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