Bilbao is a Spanish city that is proving very popular for UK departing cruise ships on 7 day itineraries and has some excellent places of interest that can be seen well within a day’s visit.

 

 

Situated on the Northern coast of Spain, cruises to Bilbao will actually dock in Getxo, which is located about a 20-minute drive from Bilbao’s city centre. Your ship will dock in the cruise terminal, which is adjacent to a leisure marina, a beach, and a attractive promenade….

 

Passengers have a choice as to how they get to Bilbao. the most efficient is by taking one of the shuttle buses that are made available (some at a cost), by taxi or by using the Bilbao Metro.

For our visit, and for expediency, we chose the shuttle bus service which conveniently dropped us off at the Plaza Euskadi….

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….which is a 5 minute walk from the Guggenheim Museum… 

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The Guggenheim Museum sits on the Nervion River which has an interesting boardwalk…

 

…with numerous pieces of artwork worth a photograph…..

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The Boardwalk also offers an easy stroll to the  Zubizuri Bridge…

…which we had planned to cross in order to catch the Funicular  Artxanda…

 

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A check on my credit card statement indicated that we paid €4.30 each for  our return funicular tickets, a sum total of £7.59 for the journey….

 

Opened in 1915, this cable railway, the ‘funi’, reveals an essential perspective view of the city. In barely 3 minutes it  reaches to Mount Artxanda –  whose summit not only provides exceptional views of metropolitan Bilbao, but is a great way to see Bilbao from a different perspective…

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….including  the chance of spotting the old town, with its churches and traditional buildings, as well as seeing how the Estuary of Bilbao snakes along dividing the city in two…

…and also a look back at where our shuttle bus had dropped us off, Plaza Euskadi….

 

In addition to getting one of the best impressions of the city from Mount Artxanda, one could spend most of the day exploring one of Bilbao’s most emblematic attractions…

Mount Artxanda combines panoramic views with a wide range of options for leisure activities….

I was particularly attracted by the  Juan Jose Novella Fingerprint  sculpture….

Having achieved all that we had planned on Mount Artxanda we headed back down on the funicular and once again crossed over the  Zubizuri Bridge and headed in the direction of the Old Town…

…following the Nervion River as far as the next bridge, the Udaletxeko Zubia (Basque for City Hall Bridge) which we crossed to take a closer look at the City Hall…

 

(or Bilboko Udaletxea in Basque) 

 

Retracing our steps across the bridge gave us a clear straight directional guide along the Buenos Aires Kalea till we crossed the Plaza Biribila (Plaza Circular) …

…and found the rather unspectacular entrance….

 

……to the rather spectacular station concourse of the  Bilbao-Abando Railway Station….

 

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The Abando Indalecio Prieto Railway Station is also known as Bilbao-Abando and is the central train station in Bilbao, Spain. The station provides long and medium-distance services  and is located nearby the Bilbao-Concordia railway station.

The Bilbao-Concordia railway station, also known as La Concordia Station, and formerly and colloquially known as Santander Station, is a terminus best viewed from across the Nervion River….

It is a singular building considered an outstanding example of Belle Epoque architecture in Bilbao….

Our route now took us along the western bank of the Nervion River, skirting around the Casco Viejo in the direction of San Anton Church. This route encompasses what are known as Bilbao’s Bridges…

…shame about the graffiti really….

Out of interest there are 6 bridges dividing modern Bilbao and the ‘Old Quarter’ within a distance of barely 800 meters. Each one has a turbulent biography: we planned to take in four of them.

Our route along the river’s left bank gave us some excellent views of buildings on the right bank bordering Casco Viejo, the first one being Ribera Market…

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…which eventually provided our Tapas Lunch!

Almost adjacent the Ribera Market building is the Church of San Anton and the San Anton Bridge….

 

We walked under the bridge in order to take in a view of one of Bilbao’s famous seats of learning, The Maestro Garcia Rivero School….

The work of Pedro Ispizua, dated 1928, it is above all a beautiful building that is very balanced overall. It has an open courtyard on one side and the river front to the other. Recently restored, it now houses a state school.

We then doubled back on ourselves before crossing the San Anton Bridge….

….and commencing our exploration of Casco Viejo:  but not before reflecting on the colourful ‘left bank’ houses that we had only just walked in front of….

 

At the very heart of the Casco Viejo (Old Town) are its traditional Siete Calles or Seven Streets…. 

 

While Goienkale  (above) was the closest to  San Anton Church,  we chose as our first of the 7 streets to visit,  Barrenkale….

 

Casco Viejo is a tight-knit labyrinth of old stone lanes, many of which are pedestrianised…

…all centering on the attractive arcaded main square, the Plaza Nueva….

 

 

Along the latticework of streets lined with shops and stores, a declared  Historical-Artistic Monument, you will not only find beautiful frontages and urban palaces but also real architectural gems from different centuries including the Steps from Plaza Unamuno….

 

The Bilboko Donejakue Catholic Cathedral….

 

San Nicholas Church….

 

 

The Teatro Arriaga…

 

 

The one great challenge we faced and achieved was finding a particular building within the Casco Viejo (Old Town). That particular place is known as the Palacio Yohn o Edificio or simply the  Yohn Palace…

 

The name ‘La Bolsa’ or the Bourse, seems to have come from a possible merchants’ exchange and the baroque building has a beautiful carved lintel around the door, which is extremely rare in urban architecture in Bizkaia…

Today this building, by an unknown architect, is a cultural centre.

While the Casco Viejo has more than ample fashionable restaurants and tapas outlets, we had yet to do an internal inspection of the Ribera Market….

We actually had had a preview earlier when passing and made use of the toilet facilities therein.

Spanning more than 10,000 square metres it houses around 180 businesses distributed according to their type across the building’s three floors. On the ground floor are fishmongers, the first floor is home to butchers and meat-related stands, and those selling fruit and vegetables are based on the second floor.

Traditional stands with an extensive selection of meat, fish, fruit and vegetables, the majority brought in directly from nearby villages, sit alongside ten gourmet bar-restaurants.

On our earlier visit we had spotted, centrally on the ground floor,  a food court offering a range of different dining options. Though mainly traditional tapas  other regional specialities are available including La Bodeguilla,  offering delights such as the mythical gildas (guindilla pepper, anchovy and olive pintxos) and   Zubiburu to  tickle the taste buds with classic pintxos, croquettes and Iberian hams.

 

Just choose a table,  head for one of the many tapas selections positions and enjoy both the food and the buzzy atmosphere…

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Voila……

Well fed and watered we headed back across Casco Viejo in the direction of the Teatro Arriaga….

 

Once at the theatre  we crossed the  Areatzako Zubia Bridge, (seen here on the far right of the photograph)….

 

 

…..and kept on a straight line until we once again came to Plaza Biribila (Plaza Circular) …

 

 

On crossing the Plaza Circular we continued straight  along the very grand Gran via de Don Diego Lopez de Haro taking in some of the major buildings along the way…

 

 

The Palace of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia accommodates the representation of the Government of Spain in the province of Biscay.

 

…eventually reaching  Moyúa or Elliptic Square…

…taking in the Txabarri jauregia  or The Chavarri Palace…

 

 

…before crossing the Square and heading back to the Plaza Euskadi…

….in order to catch our return shuttle bus to the ship

 

Summary

 

For us, on our first visit,  Bilbao proved to be a delightful, interesting and fun experience.  Exploring and navigating the Casco Viejo  (Old Town) certainly was an experience and while I’m sure we didn’t get to see everything there we certainly got a feel for the place and what it has to offer on maybe another visit which I’m sure would include a longer tapas lunch in one of the many more traditional tapas restaurants.

For those interested in statistics, my wife’s fitbit tells us we achieved 30,136 steps during our visit to Bilbao and clocked a distance of 12.64 miles….

 

 

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