What a wonderful town Bilbao is and what a wonderful place you have! We fully enjoyed our stay in Bilbao. Aside from sampling the local food and wine (one of the reasons we returned to the town …) we walked a lot. It was next to 20 years ago when we last were in the town. It looks ever better in shape, with lots of beautiful refurbished old buildings and a friendly population. Our Spanish clearly must sound awful since people typically insisted to answer us in English when we made efforts to speak to them using a few words of Spanish … ;-)
Our accommodation was perfectly suited as a starting point for daily trips. Close to the old town and yet very silent. A leisurely walk down to Ribera as start of each day and the luxury of automatic stairs, landing right in front of the building when returning in the evening. We felt fully spoiled … And we - of course - fully enjoyed the view outside the huge back window, one of the reasons we opted for the chosen accommodation.
We had the opportunity to stroll a lot in the city and the weather was on our side. Not too hot but mostly sunny. The old town, the view point reached with the funicular, up the stairs starting at Unamuno or even the stairs down when first taking the small extra walk up near the accommodation, … The statement that is typical for San Francisco (“If you are tired of walking through the city you can always lean against it!”) surely also holds for Bilbao, tucked away between steep hills visible here and there when walking through the streets. The Guggenheim neighbourhood is spectacular as ever, and the tourist season not yet being in full swing made that the neighbourhood was not overly crowded. We also took the subway to visit Colgante bridge (wow!!) and its surroundings. It is clear that Bilbao looked very different in the era where steelworks reigned the landscape. Old documentaries show quite a different picture of the town.
Coming to the region we had read that the old culture and language are fading. Our impression walking the streets was very different: although perfectly in tune with modern times, the sense of local identity is strongly present in flags, songs, language and pride.
We can recommend Bilbao to everybody. We felt very welcome and enjoyed our stay. Days were filled so fast that we skipped a trip to San Sebastian and left that for some later date.