Lost in translation

I've been to Italy a few times and can order a passable espresso. In France, I can just about read a menu. But I've only ever spent two days in Spain before, and apart from 'Hola', I can't speak a word of Spanish. Which has made my trip to Bilbao quite the experience. I think I've spent roughly half of my time here completely lost. Yesterday, while trying to navigate the map of the 2nd Bilbao International Garden Festival, I was trying to get to the metro station Indautxu (ha, try pronouncing that after a glass of Sangria!). I knew where I wanted to go, but blow me down if I could work out where I was. Mind you, being lost in Bilbao's Metro system is an experience in itself: it was designed by architect Norman Foster and looks like something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The garden festival is amazing. There are more than 20 gardens "as art" dotted around the city. My favourite is this one of umbrellas atop giant bamboo poles by local designer Jose Ibbarola. "I feel as if umbrellas grow like mushrooms when it rains in my city," he explains. Lucky I had my umbrella with me at the time; it hasn't stopped raining since I got to Europe!

Viva Madrid!

Oh my. I've almost forgiven the French garden designer/botanist Patrick Blanc for his no-show at the Garden Design Conference in New Zealand two years ago. He was scheduled to speak but decided at the last minute not to come any further than Australia. (Click here for this year's conference schedule; it's on in September).
Patrick Blanc has made his name designing amazing vertical gardens in urban hotspots. When I was in Paris last year I went to the Musée du quai Branly to check out his living wall, but it's nothing on the garden he's created in Madrid. Next to the new modern art museum Caixa Forum, designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron (I mention that just to rub it in for my architect friends at home who idolise them), there's a giant garden in the sky. And it's a proper perennial garden, with ribbons of hostas and astilbes and blue geraniums hanging on by their roots. It's unbelievable. The 24m high garden has been built on the wall of a former power station, using 15,000 plants tucked into modular panels. It's just plain cool.