top 5 bilbao is here by popular request!
we left behind the beautiful madrid barajas terminal 4. and, after a short and rocky flight, we landed on the very stylish sondika airport in bilbao, by calatrava. in plain sight, i found a perfectly equipped booth that answered all my tourist questions. there were plenty of brochures and posters, interactive screens and a very knowledgeable assistant. she gave me all the necessary info regarding any corner of the basque country. i must say that it’s the best tourist info booth i have ever come across. each airport should have one!
a little booking error brought the unexpected gift of one free day in the area which was quickly assigned to be spent in san sebastian (watch this space for more details). but, very eager to finally see the guggenheim, the first day was bilbao-only. i discovered a wonderful, modern town with many exciting places. and i had occasional encounters with the challenging and surprising basque language. my advice is that you should not miss visiting bilbao if you are in the area!
5. the bilbao metro was created by foster+partners. the inside of the few stations i saw was subtle and contemporary. for instance, in one of them, the walls were made of concrete embossed with leaf motifs.
the fosteritos, as the glass shells of the street entrances are called, are unique to the city.
4. santiago calatrava’s work. the aforementioned sondika airport is not his only work in the city. there’s also the controversial zubizuri (basque for white bridge) that arches over the nervion river.
3. basque health department building was created by coll-barreu arquitectos. it cost a total of 13M euro. click here for more details. the location is central and very close to the following highlight, alhondiga.
2. alhondiga bilbao is a former 3-building wine cellar. it was recently restored by philippe starck into a lively bee-hive of activities. it houses a mediateka, a multiplex, a theater, an exhibition space, a conference hall, a restaurant, a cafe, a fun shop and a large roof-top fitness center. the bottom of the swimming pool is made of glass. so, by looking up from the ground floor, you can see the swimmers going to and forth above your head…jaw-dropping! the mediateka is a huge public library that holds enough to make anybody happy. the ground floor is held by 43 pillars, each differently styled. find all the info and many great pix here. it’s the must hang out place!
1. the guggenheim! i finally got to see it, after years of wanting to! but please wait just a little longer for all the details. i have an upcoming post dedicated exclusively to it!
photo credits: google search
3 comments
Haizea says:
Apr 4, 2012
Nice post! Just a note on Calatrava’s buildings, to add local gossip to the visitor’s view: both of them have been problematic. The airport, because, appart from being much more expensive than programmed (a Calatrava continuum!) was a closed structure impossible to make bigger, which became too small soon after opening. Moreover, people picking up arriving travellers had to wait in the street, and Bilbao is not Valencia in terms of weather… Therefore the recent extension works have been costly and have taken much longer than they generally do. The Zubizuri has a history of its own, including a legal confrontation with the Town Hall, but the first problem was that the floor of the bridge became slippery when it rained (note that in the Basque Country it rains about one day out of three or four…) But readers will find information about these anechdotes in internet, I guess. And where would the charme be if we didn’t have anything to complain about??
little-aesthete says:
Apr 4, 2012
thank you for reading it 🙂 i had read about the bridge: how the replacement of the fallen glass bricks cost the city a lot each and every year. also, that an extension was added to satisfy ppl’s needs and calatrava consequently sued and was awarded 30k by the court as damages to his artistic vision. but the guggenheim was controversial, too,right?. i’m guessing that all change hurts to a certain extent…
BACK IN BILBAO | little aesthete says:
May 26, 2017
[…] the bits and pieces we managed to steal of the city during this extended weekend. we were in town 5 years ago so this time it was more about walking around and discovering all the nooks and crannies and less […]