It was while watching Somebody Feed Phil, where he was wolfing down local specialities in different parts of the Basque Country, that we realised we owed it to ourselves to retrace our steps and revisit Bilbao. It was a reminder that this region has become one of the world’s great culinary destinations, and I had fond memories of a Friday night pintxos crawl in the pouring rain around Bilbao’s Plaza Nueva.
The gap to that night is almost thirty years and it was only our second time in Spain. I don’t know why it has taken three decades to return. Even then, we hadn’t planned to go to Bilbao. We were arriving in Santander and heading straight to Asturias and then on to Galicia. That was before we saw the food and recalled how much fun we’d had. Besides, it was only a short detour and one definitely worth making.
Bilbao has undergone a remarkable transformation in the intervening years. On that first visit, the Frank Gehry designed Guggenheim Museum hadn’t been open very long but was making waves. Built on wasteland alongside the River Nervión in the city centre it rapidly became a major attraction, luring visitors from around the world. It helped trigger one of Europe’s most successful urban regeneration projects.
Bilbao’s wealth was built on trade and thriving iron and steel industries, all of which went through a rapid and dramatic collapse in the 1970s and 1980s. The blight of post-industrial decline and mass unemployment – up to 35% in some parts of Bilbao – gripped the city and tore through its neighbourhoods. Its audacious decision to invest in art and culture to try to reverse these trends has been an extraordinary success.
Tourism has driven much of the revival and Bilbao’s on the map for art aficionados and tour groups alike. Perhaps it’s no surprise that I passed a man wearing a ‘tourist go home’ t-shirt. It was a message repeated on posters dotted around parts of the city, particularly in the still edgy San Francisco neighbourhood, a rough and tumble working class area going through a painful bout of gentrification.
The backlash is to be expected. While Bilbao doesn’t yet have Barcelona levels of tourism the throngs of foreigners crammed into the cafe-bars around Plaza Nueva was jarring. We arrived on a Sunday morning and the town was still quiet as we strolled along the river in the centre. After coffee we disappeared into the narrow of streets in barrio San Francisco. It’s a fascinating area with lots of bars and restaurants.
We were staying in the Casco Viejo, the old town, a vibrant area with streets radiating out from the Catedral Santiago de Bilbao in its centre. The area is full of bars and restaurants that in summer are open into the early hours of the morning. The cramped interior of the Casco Viejo contrasts with the light and space along the river, and even more so with the straight avenues of 19th century Ensanche, the new town.
Ensanche. on the left bank of the river, developed during Bilbao’s 19th century heyday. It has many attractions of its own, including some ornate mansions and bank buildings. It’s still the commercial heart of the city, and it has plenty of excellent restaurants as well as the Fine Arts Museum. The museum is undergoing renovations but the parts that are open are well worth a visit.
Bilbao’s incontestable star attraction though is the glorious Museo Guggenheim – as much an artwork itself as anything in its permanent collection. It is a startling, iconic building that has to be seen to be appreciated. Its design reflects the important historic industries of shipbuilding and fishing, and it’s best seen from the right bank of the river or while crossing the Puente de la Salve high above the river.
Walk around the exterior and you’ll pass Louise Bourgeois’ giant spider, Maman, and two Jeff Koons pieces, Puppy and Tall Tree and the Eye. Inside, Richard Serra’s massive maze-like sculptures are remarkable and hugely popular. My favourite exhibition though was the Ruth Asawa retrospective with intricate wire sculptures. The Guggenheim’s interior is vast, like a cathedral.
For all the artistic delights, the best thing about Bilbao is time spent in the streets, going from bar to bar snacking on pintxos. We were there on the day of the World Cup final – Spain versus Argentina – it added more energy to an already lively atmosphere. As a reminder that we weren’t in Spanish Spain, the majority of locals we saw were wearing Argentina shirts – a country with a large share of the Basque diaspora.
