Bilbao is the closest “big city” to us. Bilbao is the largest city in Northern Spain, one of the biggest cities on the Atlantic coast of Europe. It’s not a huge city (only 350,000 in the city proper, about 1,000,000 in the metro area), but it’s the biggest thing close to us.
Basque Country
Bilbao is essentially the “capital” of Basque Country. The Basques are a group of people who live in northern Spain and southern France. They are an ethnic (and linguistic) group distinct from the rest of Europe. In fact, the exact history and evolution of the Basques and their language remains a bit of a mystery. It’s a pretty fascinating “story” if you want to dive into it.
Language and Politics
The Basque language is an isolate. It is unrelated to any other known language. Of course, this is very strange in general, more so on a continent full of language cousins. Similar to when we were in València, many signs and place names are written in both Spanish and Basque. The Basque name for the city is Bilbo; the name of the language in Basque is Euskara. Bilbao is the capital of the province of Vizcaya (Bizkaia in Basque), which is roughly synonymous with the Spanish portion of “Basque Country.”
When we saw some signs written in just Basque, we got a few clues as to how pronunciation works. For example, the word for chocolate is txocolate (pronounced the same was as in Spanish [chock-oh-law-tay]). Similarly, churro is txurro.
The Basque flag.
A bit of a political provocation.
There is a pretty strong Basque Nationalist sentiment among the community. These folks down’t really want to be part of Spain; they don’t identify as Spanish, nor do they really relate to the rest of the country all that well. There is a similar sentiment amongst the Catalonians in Barcelona. Having not been to Barcelona, I can’t rate how strong either of these sentiments is in comparison to the other, but the Basque “flavor” was definitely pretty strong in Bilbao.
Guggenheim
If Bilbao is famous for anything, it is probably the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao on the bank of the Nervion River. The building was designed by Frank Gehry (who also designed the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.) It’s a breathtaking building with sweeping metallic-colored walls that seem to defy gravity.
Richard Serra
One of the museum’s most impressive pieces is “Matter of Time” by Richard Serra. The piece(s) takes up an entire wing of the museum. It is made of several huge pieces of rust-colored steel arranged into shapes; most of them are arranged so you can walk through them, experiencing them in every dimension. I would estimate the pieces are about 25 feet tall with each piece of steel about 4 inches thick. These are enormous and imposing sculptures, but their arrangement and shape are inviting, as if to say “Please explore.”
Missing Picasso
The museum has an entire floor dedicated to Pablo Picasso’s sculptures, but the exhibit didn’t open until September 29 … three days after we were there.
Funicular
My wife has a funny fascination with funiculars. I also have to admit that they are pretty cool. She always wants to see if a city has one, and if it does, we have to ride it.1 Bilbao’s funicular is pretty cool. It is definitely one of the longer ones we have ever ridden.2 The view from the top is spectacular! It is hard to capture the view in photographs, but here is a try:
Casco Viejo
Bilbao isn’t quite as old as some of the other places we have visited. It was founded in 1300.3 The old section of town, “casco viejo,” has a lot fo great stuff to see and hear as well. We found a cool Basque restaurant. We visited the central basilica and cathedrals.
Returning to Bilbao
We have some family coming to visit in late-October and early-November. They are flying into Bilbao. We are planning to spend another day or two in the city when they arrive. There is a lot we didn’t see, partly because we knew we would be coming back (and partly because we just ran out of time). I already have ideas about what we should see/do next time, both things to repeat and new things to see/do.
There is a funicular here in Santander. Even better: it’s free! ↩︎
L.A.’s “Angels Flight” is probably the shortest. ↩︎
Which still makes it really old, just not quite as old as València or Santander. ↩︎