The Basque Country is a beautiful place to visit in Spain, even though is not your typical beach destination it has a lot to offer and it also has a spectacular coastline but one of the best things to enjoy in Bilbao is its gastro culture. Go out for dinner and enjoy a good glass of “Txacolí” wine in one of the many “pintxo” bars and just try different ones! It’s good fun, they lay them on the bar and you can choose which ones you want to eat. Pintxos cost around 2.50€ each depending of the ingredients and how elaborated they are. You can have from the typical Spanish omelette to a very original one with tasty ingredients. Kids love it too as they are the right size for them and can be able to try different things. My boy loved the croquets ones!!
There are
loads of things to do and see in and around the city of Bilbao and here I’m
going to tell you about my favourite ones!
1- The Guggenheim Museum and the walk along the river: One of the main attractions of the city is the complex of the Guggenheim museum. We really enjoyed just walking around it, admire the architecture of the building and discover all the sculptures around it. Liam really enjoyed seeing the flowery dog right opposite the entrance of the museum and the spider is pretty impressive too with his really long legs. After you visit the museum, take a walk along the river to the old town, is a bit of a long walk but is really pleasant.
2-The old quarter of Bilbao: Every town in Spain has its own old town with historic buildings, do not forget to walk around the streets of the old town of Bilbao. You will get here by walking along the river after you have visited the Guggenheim museum so you can see the contrast of going from the modern buildings to the very old historic buildings, the town hall, churches and the facades of the old shops and houses.
3- Take a drive to the island of San Juan de
Gaztelugatxe: or
most commonly know nowadays as “Dragon Stone”. This is an amazing place to visit,
not just if you are a fan of Game of Thrones as we are but also if you love
adventure and want to enjoy natural beauty. You
can take a walk along the path that takes to the little chapel at the top of
the isle but because of its popularity since the famous series were filmed
there. Remember you have to book in advance.
Book in this link: Gaztelugatxe
4- The hanging bridge of Bilbao: whether you are interested in
mechanics or not this bridge is well worth seeing. It was built at the end of
the XIX century and it was built so people could cross over the river but
without having to stop any boats going pass and that is why is so high and it’s
really impressive to see.
Take a ride
from side to side with the kids, they will enjoy it!
5- The town of Guernica: I really wanted to visit this town because of its history and I have to say that I was quite impressed. You may have heard of Guernica because there is a famous painting of Picasso that represents a very tragic event that happened here during the Spanish Civil War. This town was bombed by the German and Italian aviation forces killing loads of innocent civilians. There is a big mural representing the painting in the town. Walk around to discover the buildings that still stand from the bombing and specially visit “Parque de los pueblos de Europa” it’s a really nice park with some sculptures by famous artists, it's nice to see. Also, visit the building “Casa de juntas”, is a historic building and you will find the emblematic tree of Guernica that symbolises freedom.
There are
many more places to visit around, will tell you more in future posts!
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