Green Hills of Spain 13-27 June Bilbao

We visited Bilbao twice so we spent quite some time there. The city is of course famous for the  Guggenheim Art Museum. Not being art lovers we didn’t go in, but the building its self is quite fantastic. The whole city is quite art orientated with murals etc. They even have an installation of street lights of all different sizes  One unintentional one was the reflection in the glass cladding of our hotel, or maybe it was planned.

The city also has a large dry dock area and maritime museum, unfortunately it was closed on a Monday so we could only see the outside exhibits.

The river really cuts the old town off from the new town, originally it was all within the bend of the river and its here where all the old buildings stand, a complete contrast to some on the other bank.

 

Right on the river bank is the old market, this is now a modern food outlet with a large variety of produce and lots of seating, a good place for lunch maybe. It even has its own cookery school

Beside the market there was a small but very old church,also sitting right on the banks of the river bank.

In the centre of the old town there is a Cathedral, these churches and Cathedrals charge a small admission fee, this one include the Cathedral and the church by the river. Just hang on to your ticket.

       

New Bilbao is full of narrow streets and interesting buildings one of them is now a culture centre and has a swimming pool on the roof with a glass bottom, so you can walk under looking up at the swimmers. Not new but not as old as the other side of the river

 

Lots of the locals hang their washing out high up on washing racks mounted on the wall, some of these have an umbrella above them.   

The City has lots to look at and here is a selection from the more modern side.

 

One of the things we spotted on our first visit was a street restaurant serving a large fish baked in salt, something I fancied, so when we returned we made a point of being there as soon as they opened. One of the problems in this region of Spain is that very few people speak English, more than once Google was our friend and one restaurant we visited actually used translate on his phone to talk to us. Anyway communication was a problem and we didn’t get exactly what we wanted as the Sea Bream was not baked in salt but one fish would have served four people with no problem, we were pigs and ate the lot.

 

 

 

 

We left Bilbao to travel to Santander by train, although this appeared to be a standard train that would be used anywhere it was in fact another meter gauge line running passenger and freight traffic. Bilbao station is quite extensive not just a couple of meter gauge lines. Some look to be dual gauge with one inside the other.