In October we went to the north of Spain for a long weekend. In true Sobcoe style, we saw a heck of a lot in four days and this blog is all about our first stop: Bilbao.
Bilbao is the capital of the Basque region
and is a wonderful city to explore – we did it all in a day but there’s
definitely enough to see and do to fill a weekend. We thoroughly recommend it,
along with the surrounding area, which we'll tell you about in our next few
posts.
But before we go any further, you can experience
Bilbao for yourself in a 360
virtual reality video we have made as part of our VRlog (VR vlog) series. The
next few blog posts about this long weekend compliment the VR experiences we've
already released about the trip. If you want to try them out, ask Santa for an Oculus Go for Christmas
and join Morning Calm in
VR.
Okay, back to reality. We landed in Bilbao
early on the Thursday morning, figured out the public transport from the
airport to the centre of town, and eventually made it to our hotel. It was a
lovely business hotel that we stayed in for FREE thanks to Hotels.com Rewards
that we have saved from all our other trips. We were too early to check in so
just dumped our bags, got our equipment ready for 360 filming, and began our
whirlwind tour of the city.
Our first stop was the Guggenheim museum – probably
the most famous attraction in the city. It is a phenomenal piece of
architecture and is one of the 12 National Treasures of Spain. This long
weekend actually featured TWO National Treasures of Spain but you'll have to
wait for the next post…or watch the VR video from the Bay of
Biscay!
The Guggenheim is an art museum but the
design of the building and the surrounding sculptures are pretty artistic in
their own rights. It's as striking in its beauty as any building can be and has
revitalised the old port area of Bilbao.
As usual, we did not go into the art
museum. Similar to most castles, we find the exterior more interesting (and
free!) than the sometimes disappointing inside. We normally find art museums
boring and I think it's often too much of the same (albeit interesting) thing
with not enough variety. It would be like going to an ice cream museum and
eating 20 varieties of ice cream over a couple of hours. It sounds great as an
idea but in practice, too much sweetness and not enough variety. You'd be
craving some crisps or something to cleanse your pallet. That's what it's like
with paintings and artists’ creations. It's like watching two films back to back
- my curious mind can't handle the consistent and predictable entertainment.
After the ‘Heim, we explored the bridges,
buildings, and old town. The Casco Viejo (old town) is full of cool sights and we
easily could have spent a whole day there if we’d gone at a calm pace. We were
more like Morning Excited though, as we only had the one day, so we hurried
around snapping memories of the beautiful architecture. I was particularly fond
of the bridges and the cathedral, which left the strongest impression.
Outside of the old town, there was the
usual plethora of plazas and old stone government buildings that grabbed our
attention. Bilbao is a bit smaller than Valencia and easily explored by foot,
though ours were pretty sore by the end.
The final major site we're going to talk
about is the hill of Artxanda, which is just on the edge of the city. There is
an old cable car that takes you all the way to the top and it is a great place
to get a panoramic of the city. It was a fantastic view and a must-do when the
weather is good enough; the hills surrounding the city, the view of the river
and Guggenheim, and the never-ending Bilbao signage make it an interesting place
to spend an hour.
The surrounding park is worth a wander as
well but the San Roque church (signposted) is NOT worth the effort. In the
midday heat, with all our camera stuff, we walked the mile and bit to get to a
tiny chapel on top of a hill. The views were somewhat obscured by trees and it
was a little disappointing. After the delight of the mirador close to the cable
car, our expectations were not met!
Our now tired and sweaty legs deserved a
little respite and that came in the form of a delicious ice cream from a fancy
shop. This isn’t the only thing we ate in Bilbao and I haven’t mentioned one of
the other big attractions we visited, Ribera Market. That's because Katie will
talk about all things edible in a separate post in a few weeks. And the food in
this region is quite distinct, so that’ll definitely be worth reading.
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| This is the view from the top of the hill. I'd say it was worth the walk but we took the train up! |
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| The disappointing church at the end of the sweltering mile-long walk |
And here are our photos of the Guggenheim...there are loads because it's a stunning building and just so photogenic, we couldn't choose our favourites!
