Bilbao, Bizkaia
It was a long day of travelling. I’m spending a lot of my summer in Berlin, but needed to take off to Iberia to visit some friends and get some sun for a bit. I left the house in Berlin at 5.40 to catch the S-Bahn to Schönefeld for an one hour flight to Frankfurt Hahn, where I waited until 15.55 for the two and a half hour flight to Madrid, and then the five hour bus ride to Bilbao, arriving at 0.45. My friend from Amsterdam, Belén, and her friend Gaizka picked me up in a car and took us to Belén’s house. In the morning she showed me around the city as we walked in the nice weather (finally! after 9 months of Amsterdam!) We went by the water and Guggenheim Museum. It’s quite a site, designed to look like a huge ship. Much of the architecture in Bilbao is very new and modern. I guess after the Guggenheim was built, it spawned a lot of similar urban modernism. A lot of times, this can look horrible. But I think it works well in Bilbao. It’s very modern, but fresh and tasteful. Not necessarily designed to be something “different” and “out”, just in a modern way. Even the trams look like something from the Jetsons. The surrounding area is also nice, with houses built into the side of the mountain. Her brother Sergio and his girlfriend Maria met us back at the house for the 3 o’clock lunch, and then they drove us to see the suspension bridge to Portugalete, built in 1893 is now a UNESCO site. We walked down to the dock and ran into a rich friend of Maria’s that offered to take us out on his boat. That evening Gaizka had some people over for dinner, and we went out to the parties that night. It was party time of year… various neighborhoods of Bilbao were just having large events going on. I’m not sure what they were celebrating… if anything… We were in one of the very liberal, Basque-nationalist neighborhoods. There were bands playing on a stage, singing in Basque, and people drinking beer and kalimotxo (red wine and coke) everywhere. Hanging above us were streamers with pictures of people that have been held prisoner without proper trials accused (often wrongly) of terrorism or involvement with the ETA. It was a good time, taking in the scene. Belén had to play in a quartet in a wedding the next morning, so we went home by 2.00.
The wedding was in a village near Bilbao. Small and quiet with a nudist beach nearby with a nice mountain backdrop. The wedding was in Spanish, but afterwards a traditional Basque dance happened outside. One man plays a recorder-like instrument with one hand while playing a drum with the other, while another man dances for the bride and groom. Sergio and Maria picked us up to go to the beach (not the nudist one), but first we stopped for some food, delicious half a roasted chicken. Two other friends met us there, and we went to the beach, although it was getting later and clouds had been forming. From there Sergio, Maria, Belén, and I drove to San Juan de Gaztelgatxe, a small island with a 10th century church atop a large hill, with a pathway resembling the Great Wall leading to it. After heading home, Gaizka met us there for dinner and we headed out for the parties again that night. We met some other friends at a convenience store first, then piled six of us into the car and drove out to one of the further out neighborhoods. Similar scene… stage with live music, lots of people hanging out. Later in the night the music was supplied by speakers outside some bars. It was a long night, arriving home with the sun.
The next day Gaizka took us to the village he grew up in, an hour south of Bilbao. His brother owns a campground and horse riding stable. We took the horses out for a ride around the area with his dog running behind. It was a nice way to see the Basque countryside. We stayed at his brother’s house for the night and watched a Basque movie. 1 of the 4 ever made. It was a love story of a boy moving into a Basque farm to work and learn the language, falls in love with the girl, yadda yadda. It was funny though. I didn’t understand a word of the Basque. The Spanish parts were better… but the English subtitles were definitely in order.
On Monday we went back to Bilbao and to the Guggenheim Museum, this time actually inside. They were having an exhibit on surrealism with some interesting pieces. Belén’s parents had been gone this whole time, but came home from her grandmother’s that day, so we headed back for the 3 o’clock lunch with them. After a siesta we went to the the music store of the violin player from the wedding quartet. He wanted me to try out a new brand of saxes he was stocking. And then to the bus station so I could get a ticket for the morning to Burgos to see another friend, Célia, en route to Galicia. It was €12 for the 2 hours to Burgos, arriving around 10.30. After that was settled, we met some of Belén’s friends at a bar before heading home for the evening.
Tags: Europe, Spain, Travel
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