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This photo shows a busy Bilbao street with lots of traffic and a view of the Guggenheim at the bottom.
Our first glimpse of the Guggenheim Museum at the end of a busy Bilbao street

We first visited Bilbao last year and returned yesterday for a brief stopover before catching our ferry back to the UK. Prior to that first visit, we had no plans, other than to visit the Guggenheim Museum, and no pre-conceived ideas as to what the city would be like.  We were pleasantly surprised!  Spain’s tenth largest city is vibrant, friendly and fabulously walkable – a definite plus-point for us when rating a city.

A Basque City

Bilbao is the largest city in the Basque region of Spain and one of the first things that strike you about the place is that all the street signs, advertising boards and shop names are displayed in the Basque language first and then in Spanish.  As you walk around, it certainly feels like you’re in a country other than Spain.  The Basque flag is proudly flown on every public building, as well as many private houses and apartments.

Bilbao’s buildings showcase a variety of architectural styles, making a walk through the largely-pedestrianised Old Town a pleasure and a delight.

This photo shows a typical 5-storey Bilbao 19th century building located on a busy junction.
Typical late 19th-century architecture

 

 

 

 

 

This photo shows an old Gothic church in the foreground with a tall modern office building in the background.
The old juxtaposed with the new
This photo shows a row of apartment buildings next to the river in central Bilbao
Riverside apartments

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guggenheim Museum

Of course, the main tourist attraction in Bilbao is the Guggenheim Museum. Indeed, there was very little tourism in the city at all before the museum opened in 1997.  The building itself, rather than the contemporary arts housed within it, is what most visitors come to see.  It’s undoubtedly striking. Designed by Canadian architect Frank Gehry, the building is one of the most admired works of modern architecture.  It has been hailed as a ‘signal moment in architectural culture’ because it represents ‘one of those rare moments when critics, academics and the general public were all completely united about something’ (Vanity Fair, 2010).  As we walked around the outside of the museum, we were struck by the apparent randomness of the curves.  Used as we are to conventional shapes, our brains had difficulty making sense of Gehry’s design.  I found that it challenged my ideas about the type of architecture I like and I came away with a new appreciation of the modern style.

This photo shows the entrance to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao
The main entrance of the Guggenheim

 

 

 

 

 

This photo shows the outside of the Guggenheim Museum with a modern art sculpture made up of large silver spheres piled on top of each other.
Guggenheim exterior
This photo shows the colourful Tulips sculpture by Jeff Koon made up of metallic-looking orange, blue, pink, yellow, purple and green tulips.
Jeff Koons’s ‘Tulips’ outside the Guggenheim

 

 

 

 

 

 

This photo shows the sculptural interior of the Guggenheim Museum
Inside the Guggenheim
This photo shows Andy Warhol's massive 'Shadows' installation
Andy Warhol’s ‘Shadows’ installation

Pintxos

One of the joys of a stay in Bilbao is the opportunity to sample a selection of pintxos, the Basque version of tapas.  A profusion of bars offer tempting displays of these delicious bite-sized snacks which are perfect when washed down with a drop of the local red.  On the recommendation of a friend, we ate in the middle of the food market in the Old Town and enjoyed some fabulous flavours including chicken curry with lime and smoked garlic prawns with chilli.

This photo shows a view of old Bilbao with traditional houses and a church
Old Town

 

 

 

 

 

This photo shows a plate with two delicious pintxas and a glass of red wine
Delicious pintxas

Bilbao has plenty to see and do for a weekend break and enough reasons for us to return for a third visit before too long.

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