August 31, 2016. The crowd noise below us on Calle Licenciado Poza is growing towards it's late-night crescendo as the bars and tapas joints fill with happy people. Counters stacked high with small plates of pintxos (peenchos - small sandwiches), fish, seafood, and meats tempt the cheerful and hungry throngs, and glasses of cerveza and vino are passed to outreached hands. Evening in Bilbao, Spain; delightful.
It is our last night in Bilbao. We are mostly packed, the dishwasher is loaded and awaiting the final few dishes in the morning, we have checked in for our flight to London tomorrow. We have spent 5 nights here; 2 in Hotel Miro' and 3 in a beautiful, modern apartment rented to us by José. [footnote 1] The apartment is on the 5th level above ground level, and has an ample deck outside looking down on the busy street. The street noise can be loud, but not always intrusive or obnoxious; unlike the drunken college-boy yelling at night in our Portland neighborhood!
We have seen a lot of Bilbao in our 4 full days here. The central city is very walkable, and we found that most things we wanted to see or visit were within a 30 minute walk, or a short ride on the marvelous subway. We understand that Bilbao didn't used to be this way, that it was a gritty industrial town until the shipping and steel businesses died off. The city reinvented itself as a cultural and tourism mecca. with perhaps the most famous attraction the odd and wonderful Guggenheim Art Museum, designed by Frank Gehry and his team (and their computers).
above: the Guggenheim Museum, from the river, and the La Salve bridge.
In the few days we were here, we have: enjoyed the Guggenheim and Fine Arts museums, taken the 1-hour boat tour of the city on the Nervion River, walked along the riverfront public space, walked in the old city, Casco Viejo, gone to a small live theater performance in the hotel library, enjoyed the numerous public plazas, eaten tapas, paella, wonderful seafood, quaffed local vino blanco, vino rosso and beer, walked and viewed the many bridges over the river, enjoyed the mixture of architectural styles of this European city, wandered through the Mercado de la Ribera, a huge market building filled with vendors of fish and seafood, meats, fruits and vegetables, baked goods, met friendly people, and more.
We also took advantage of the very well supplied kitchen in the apartment to make some meals. Based on Sherry's culinary genius, we enjoyed mostly simple but tasty breakfasts, snacks and dinners. Of memorable note is the Spanish tortilla made with potatoes, onions, garlic and eggs. We also had a salad that had incredible home-grown tomatoes from the paella restaurant La Barraca, and a dressing Sherry made. Cheese, olives and wine were everyday staples.
Our conclusion is that Bilbao is a wonderful city to visit, and probably to live in. It caters to tourism without being overwhelming about it. There is a lot to do; we barely scratched the surface. One aspect we didn't explore is the Basque culture, as Bilbao is in Basque country. The Basque language is spoken here, as well as Spanish, and many signs and information placards are in Basque, Spanish and English. Traditional Basque foods, clothing and culture are interwoven into Bilbao life. Next time we visit, we will specifically explore these aspects of the city and it's surroundings.
So let's get to some photos of Bilbao. This link is to a Flickr album of curated pix from Bilbao. Unfortunately, the iPad version of the Flickr app doesn't have the tools for aranging the order of the photos - something to do with Apple and Flash. Feel free to browse around in the album.
Footnote 1. José, I have to mention, is the first person I have met who spent a career as a ship's captain on oil tankers. He is also a very friendly man, with a great sense of humor, and is a terrific rental host. If you ever visit Bilbao, check out www.homeaway.com rental number 6791713 (the apartment we were in) and rental number 1974807. He and his wife have three rental apartments in Bilbao.
