All I really knew about Bilbao ahead of time was that the Guggenheim Museum had a branch there. But there was so much more to learn about Bilbao and all of Spanish Basque country once we crossed the border into Spain.
Actually, crossing the border on our bus barely registered. National boundaries aside, we were still in Basque country. I’d gotten so comfortable speaking French the past few days that I had to remind myself to flip the language switch in my brain from French to Spanish.
Bilbao was where the main part of my OAT adventure began and where I met our wonderful tour leader, Natalia. Natua, as she prefers to be called, is an actress, a wife and mother, and free spirit from southern Spain whose infectious enthusiasm was a great asset to our group.
Bilbao, with a population of about 340,00, is the largest city in Basque country. It’s more of an industrial city than a tourist destination. In fact, tourism accounts for only 5% of its revenue. But since 1997, the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum has attracted visitors from all over the world. I’d seen photos of the building, of course. And right after we checked into our hotel on a Sunday afternoon, I set out with map in hand to get a first-hand look at the architectural landmark.
It was a pleasant 10-15 minute walk, mostly alongside the Nervion River, to reach the museum.
Outside the museum, I stopped to admire an enormous sculpture of a spider by Louise Bourgeois and Anish Kapoor’s monumental sculpture of 73 reflective spheres, entitled Tall Tree and the Eye.
The building itself, constructed of limestone and glass over a steel frame and sheathed in titanium, is a marvel to behold.
The large plaza beside the museum, with cafes and a playground, was a gathering place for families out enjoying the beautiful weekend weather. (True, there were clouds, but there was also some blue sky, which counts as beautiful weather in perennially rainy Basque country.)
There wasn’t enough time to go inside the museum before it closed for the day, so I walked up the long flight of stairs outside the building to a smaller plaza where I found a delightful sculpture – a giant-sized puppy covered with colorful flowers. A creation of American artist Jeff Koons, it is refreshed with new plants twice a year.
Multiple bridges, including one by famed Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, span the river. The river is tidal, as Bilbao is only six miles from the ocean. On the opposite riverbank from the Guggenheim, I noted some interesting architecture from an earlier time period.
Viewing the museum from the other side of the river offers a different perspective and lets you see the building in a broader urban context.
Our hotel was centrally located in the Abando district, which was developed in the late 1800s. In this neighborhood, I found many elegant buildings with iron balconies. Practically around the corner from our hotel was the Gran Via, a bustling wide boulevard, with banks and a variety of well-known shops. But there were also some smaller pedestrian streets filled with people sitting at outdoor tables, eating and drinking.
The following morning, the breakfast buffet included the excellent and ubiquitous tortilla (the Spanish potato omelette).
I got a closer look at Bilbao as we walked through the city with our local guide, Fran (Francisco). One of the first things he did was to teach us how to say “good morning” in Basque: egunon (with an accent on the last syllable). That was easy compared to “thank you,” which is eskerrik asko.
When we started our morning walk, a few rain drops were falling. Fran wasn’t surprised. He told us that in Bilbao, 96% of the days are cloudy or rainy. I also learned from Fran that the population of Bilbao has been declining steadily. Given my very positive first impressions of the city, I was somewhat surprised. After all, based on my limited time in Bilbao, the city seemed very livable and pedestrian-friendly. Walking was easy, there wasn’t much traffic, there were outdoor spaces, the pace seemed relaxed, there was a wealth of restaurants, etc. Fran explained that the area of the city was small and it couldn’t expand because it was located deep in a valley along a river. Lack of parking spaces was a major reason that people were moving out.
Basque country was incorporated into Spain in 1875. However, it has always been fiercely independent and since 1979, it has had a certain amount of autonomy. Most importantly, it controls its own budget and taxes.
Strong community spirit is quite strong in Bilbao and in all of Basque country. The residents of the city take great pride in their civic center, located not far from our hotel. The building was formerly a wine warehouse. It retains its Catalan modernist façade while the open interior, the work of French industrial designer Philippe Starck, features sculptural columns in different styles and is adaptable to many uses.
Crossing the Nervion river via the Arenal Bridge (Areatzako zubia in Basque) brought us to Casco Viejo, Bilbao’s old town. When you step off the bridge, you find yourself in a leafy plaza facing the Baroque façade of San Nicolas Church. (He was the patron saint of sailors.) If you just want to wander with no set destination, Casco Viejo is the perfect area.
On our final day in Bilbao, I had the opportunity to return to the Guggenheim to see a temporary exhibit of Catalan artist Joan Miro’s work. The center of the building is the atrium, from which 18 rooms on 3 floors radiate out like the petals of a flower. I discovered that it’s challenging to exhibit art here. In addition to the museum’s confusing layout, many of the walls are not flat, the ceilings are extremely high, and the lighting is inconsistent. Clearly, the architecture of the building is more important than the art itself.
One of the most fascinating things I learned in Bilbao was about the visit John Adams made to the city during the American War for Independence. He wasn’t intending to come here – he was actually sailing to France on a diplomatic mission. But a storm damaged his ship and he was forced to land in Galicia (northwestern Spain), which was controlled by a king, the Church, and the nobility. Here he found terrible conditions – bad roads, little trade or industry, and a population mired in poverty. However, as he traveled overland by mule train towards Paris, he reached Basque country, which was not under Spanish rule. Adams immediately noticed the dramatically different conditions. Soon after he arrived in Bilbao in January 1780, he wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson, describing the fertile well-cultivated land, the healthy population, the active commercial activity.
During his time in Bilbao, Adams met Basque businessmen who sympathized and supported the colonists’ struggle for their independence, even to the extent of supplying them with large quantities of arms. He also learned of Basque achievements and culture. His letter reveals that he was impressed by the Basque form of mostly decentralized government and their fierce love of independence. It seems he saw the Basques as an example that the colonies could look to in their struggle to establish a new nation.
After nearly a week of French food, I was curious about the meals we would have in Spain. Our first group dinner was the official welcome dinner at the legendary Café Iruña. The décor of the restaurant was beautiful while the food was merely okay – a hearty salad with tuna, a main course of cod loin with a red pepper sauce accompanied by sliced potatoes, and a dessert with too much whipped cream. And, of course, the wine flowed freely.
I was quite happy on those evenings when dinners weren’t included. However, I faced the challenge of finding a restaurant that served dinner at my preferred hour for dining, i.e. between 6 and 7pm. Throughout Spain, including Basque country, most restaurants don’t open for dinner until 8pm at the earliest since the locals don’t eat until 9 or 10pm. Thank goodness for pintxos. They saved the day. These small bites meant to accompany drinks are the Basque version of tapas, but many of them are much more elaborate, like miniature works of art.
Pintxos are generally consumed throughout the day at specific times. According to Fran, 10am-12 noon is the time for “heavy” pintxos, in case you didn’t have much breakfast. From 12 noon -2pm, “lighter” pintxos are the rule. These are intended to carry you through until your 2 or 3pm lunch, a major meal. “Lighter” pintxos are also eaten from 6-8pm as a prelude to a late dinner.
I get hungry throughout the day, so when our group stopped at Plaza Nueva around 1pm, I was ravenous. Several of us headed straight to an outside table at Bar Zuga to order a pinxto meal. I’m not exactly sure what we got, but everything delicious and quite filling. It was also quite reasonably priced. For slightly less than eight Euros, I got three pinxtos and a bottle of water. You can see a sample of pinxtos below.
One local dish that I didn’t try was the “carolina,” a typical pastry of Bilbao. It consists of a pastry crust filled with custard and topped with a meringue cone. Typically, the cone has a coating of sweet egg yolk glaze and dark chocolate. Fran, our local guide, encouraged us to try one. I was tempted but they were huge, multi-calorie monstrosities and all I really wanted was a single bite.
Gray skies and steady rain matched the somber mood of the day we spent in the town of Guernica (Gernika in Basque). Growing up on Long Island in the 1960s, I’d often seen Picasso’s painting entitled Guernica at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City where it was on display until 1981. Today it hangs in the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid.
Before our visit to Guernica, I knew that the painting commemorated an event from the Spanish Civil War. This conflict between the Nationalists (General Franco’s fascist soldiers) and the Republicans (those fighting for a democratic republic) lasted from 1936 to 1939 and resulted in 500,000 deaths. Since my arrival in Basque country, I’d learned that the Basques, with their long history of self-government, were strong supporters of the Republican cause.
When we arrived in Guernica, I learned some disturbing details from a Basque activist and community leader who spoke to our group. First of all, in 1936, General Franco and his conservative military supporters staged a coup d’état and seized the reins of power from the recently elected progressive government. In response, many Spanish people who supported democracy formed a militia called the Republican army. Unlike Franco’s Nationalists, this group of fighters was poorly trained and armed.
Around the same time, in the late 1930s, the German military was developing new planes and bombs that they wanted to test. Franco, who was closely allied with the Nazis, was determined to crush the Basque resistance, and he offered the Basque town of Guernica as a test site. In April 1937, the Germans, along with their Fascist Italian allies, bombed Guernica. This attack, depicted so graphically in Picasso’s painting, destroyed the town and killed 300 of Guernica’s 1600 residents.
The town is committed to keeping the memory of the event alive. We saw a sculpture of Republican fighters and a copy of Picasso's famous painting, done in tile.
In 1939, Franco declared victory and established a fascist dictatorship in Spain that lasted for 40 years. In 1977, two years after Franco’s death, Spain passed an amnesty law for all of those who fought in the Spanish Civil War. As our Basque speaker explained, issues of identity remain important for the Basques.
We made an additional stop in Spanish Basque country in the city of San Sebastian. Located on the coast, the city has a festive, resort-like atmosphere and is also referred to as the Paris of Spain. I could see the influence of Parisian design in the buildings, bridges, public sculptures, and even the white iron railings along the beachfront promenade.
Our lunch in the old town lived up to San Sebastian’s reputation for gastronomic excellence. The tasting menu, beautifully presented, included tomato-watermelon gazpacho; chorizo in a crispy wrapper; caramelized stack of vegetables (eggplant, peppers, zucchini, carrot) topped with goat cheese and balsamic vinegar; light crispy spring roll with a filling of meat and vegetables; rice flour ravioli filled with spinach, served with red sauce; hake and potatoes in an herb sauce; and finally, lemon sorbet with cava and cheesecake. Of course, all of this was accompanied by endless glasses of wine. No other meal on the trip could compare.
The maritime climate and the acidity and minerality of the soil make the Basque coastal region well-suited to wine making. Txakoli (pronounced cha-ko-lee, accent on the last syllable) is the typical Basque wine. There are red, white, rosé, dry, sweet, sparkling, or still versions of Txakoli. At a small winery near the Atlantic coast, we stopped to learn about wine production and to taste a variety of Txakoli wines. The winery is surrounded by 30 acres of vineyards, some of which go back to the 13th or 14th century. There are additional vineyards on a distant hillside. Our guide at the winery explained that the grapes are grown using natural, sustainable methods. Each year, the winery produces 110,000 bottles and exports 35% of its production (including to the U.S.).
The Basque country was truly unforgettable. Before moving on to the province of Navarre, I bought a pair of gold-covered thistle earrings – thistle being the Basque symbol of good luck.
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