A good friend of mine phoned me and asked, if I would be interested to visit The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao – “well, let’s go!”
Nuremberg – Düsseldorf – Bilbao
We flew with Eurowings, which is the low cost daughter of Lufthansa. No thrills, but reliable.
After landing at Bilbao Airport around noon, we took a taxi to head directly for the nearest beach Playa Ereaga Hondartza. The forecast predicted rain for the next days. The beach was nothing memorable, but for the first time beach, sun, warm temperatures after a long winter good enough for us – so 15 € each well spend.
From there we took the escalator and strolled through the streets of Gexto to Puente Vizcaya. On the way we bought ice cream near the interesting Monumento a Evaristo Churruca. It tasted like wet paper, yikes!
Puente Vizcaya
The World Heritage Site was technically interesting and the ride to the other side cost only 40 cent. From there we walked to the nearest subway station – about 40 meters of it were on the Camino de Santiago. 
So, I consider that done as well 😉 The subway was designed by Norman Foster – modern, cool. The ride to the city cost only 1,80 €.
After checking in at our hotel – directly opposite to the football stadium – we walked to catch some food in the nearby quarter Indauxtu.
Hotel NH Bilbao Zubialde
The location of the hotel is really good. At least the first floor of the hotel looked a bit shabby – maybe to many football fans? The hotel price list offered a double standard for 365 € per night – no way! We paid 75 €/per night without breakfast via booking.com, which we split by two … acceptable.
The quarter named Indautxu had many bars and restaurants to choose from. On Friday night many young people flocked the streets & bars to start their weekend. We chose a bar with tasty looking pintxos (like tapas, pinned on bread with a wooden stick). After filling our bellies and enjoying some drinks, we strolled to the Guggenheim Museum, which looked really cool at night.
The Guggenheim Bilbao
We woke up to a rainy day, perfect for a visit to the Guggenheim Museum. No massive cues and 10 € entrance fee. Although some displays of art in the museum were quiet interesting – like “The Matter of Time” by Richard Serra – the real star of the show was the architecture of the museum itself! It was absolutely fascinating to see a new perspective around every turn, seeing inside and outside melt into each other and seeing the playfulness with lines to create space. Especially thinking about the mostly cost effective, but absolutely boring and uninspired architecture of today in Germany.
After 4 hours we left the museum to catch a snack in the park café – which had a nice playground next to it, should you visit with kids.
After that we took the bridge to the other side of the river from where one can see the museum entirely.
It started raining again and we looked for a place to get some pintxos and something to drink. We spend some time eating and drinking, and as the rain only drizzeled, we started walking to Azkuna Zentroa. A former warehouse, now converted into something brand new – great architecture!
We looked for the nearest subway station to ride to Casco Viejo – Old Town.
The quarter was a very interesting mix of younger adults (probably alternative left wing oriented), street art, pubs, ganja, Spanish families and tourists. We walked around and ended in pintxos bar called surprisingly Cafe Bar Bilbao, in the inner courtyard of Plaza Nueva. There were many other pintxos bars and a lot of people – surprisingly not so many tourists.
Back in our “hood” we took one for the road and called it a day.
On Sunday morning most of the places were closed, but the bakery Bertiz Panaderia was open. With the Biskai Bus we drove back to the airport for 1,45 € – great value.
Bottom line:
Should you be interested in art and architecture Bilbao is a highly recommended weekend trip.
Hasta luego!
Tom
P.S. The spelling of some places may differ a bit, because there is always a Spanish and a Basque way to spell it.
April, 2018
