Northern Spain – The City of Bilbao

The weather forecast was depressingly correct.  It was raining when we woke and this shouldn’t really have surprised us because this part of Northern Spain is one of the wettest places in Europe with an average of  one hundred and eighty-one days of rainfall in a year.  This compares with one hundred and fifty-two days in London and only sixty days in Seville in the south of the peninsula.

Through the window of the breakfast room we watched raindrops race each other down the glass and outside a plethora of umbrellas, raincoats and puddles.

Basque Region is part of Green Spain, the name given to the strip of land between the Bay of Biscay and the Mountains and it is so called because it has particularly lush vegetation, due to a wet and moderate oceanic climate that is strongly influenced by Atlantic weather systems.  It is a place of complete contrast to the dustiest and driest parts of Spain in the arid South-East where most Northern European visitors head for the beaches and the sun-loungers of the concrete and tarmac strip.

While Northern Europe goes to the South, Northern Spain by contrast is a popular holiday choice with Spanish people living in the south and the central cities of the country because they like to holiday in the north to escape the oppressive heat and enjoy the famous seafood.  In August alone, eight million Spaniards travel north from cities like Madrid and Seville to the more temperate climate of Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria with its green scenery and spectacular beaches.  

After breakfast the weather improved a little so we left the hotel and took to the streets and walked through the old town and to the banks of the river Nervión flanked by swanky apartment blocks with balconies overlooking the water and decorated with flags of the city football team, Athletic Club who had played an important match against Villareal the previous day.

Some interesting facts about the club;  It has the English spelling Athletic rather than Athletico because the club was formed in the late nineteenth century by expat English workers who had migrated to the industrial town of Bilbao seeking employment and Basque students who had studied at English universities.  It is the fourth most successful club ever in Spain and has never been relegated from the top division of the Spanish League.  It only allows players with Basque heritage to play for the team which perhaps means that you don’t need to pack a team with international superstars to be successful.

Beyond Madrid the Basque Country is the most prosperous and  wealthiest region in Spain, with gross domestic product being 40% higher than that of the European Union and 33.8% higher than the average for regions in Spain and it shows, Bilbao oozes wealth with elegant buildings, smart shops and wide boulevards and immaculately clean streets with sweeping crews working constantly.  It also ranks second in regions of Spain after Madrid in the Human Development Index.

We were making our way to The La Ribera Market which according to Wiki “ was recognized in 1990 as the most complete municipal food market by the Guinness Book of Records. It is the largest in terms of traders and stalls and the biggest covered market as regards space in the whole of Europe, with a surface area of 10,000 square metres”

Always need to beware of boasts about size however because both Riga in Latvia and Leeds in UK make the same claim.  Size matters but it depends what you are measuring, floor space, height, number of stalls.  Does it really matter?

I have been to Riga market but never to Leeds.

It is always a treat to visit a European covered market with immaculate rows of stalls all carefully laid out and arranged in tempting style and we lingered for a while admiring the produce and watching the buying and selling activity before we moved on to the food hall which was very tempting but it was too soon after breakfast so we thought that we might return later about lunch time.

Moving away now from the river and into the narrow streets of the old town which continue to retain a medieval ambience we quickly found our way to the city Cathedral which is not especially grand and could quite easily be missed.  The Cathedral Basilica of Saint James is dedicated to the apostle James the Great, by virtue of being a point of transit for the pilgrims that followed the Northern Way of the Camino de Santiago. In 2015, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site together several other sites along the route.

There was an admission fee and I usually decline to visit a cathedral when there is an admission fee but it was raining again so we paid up and went inside.  There was no reduced rate for seniors but by way  of compensation admission did include an audio guide.

Kim thinks that all Cathedrals are pretty much the same and I suppose (grudgingly) she is correct, I couldn’t from memory separate any of them but there were a couple of memory nudges inside this one.  Firstly Saint Anthony who is one of my favourites and who I have come across before in Padua and Lisbon…

… and a chapel dedicated to the Black Madonna which we almost saw in Montserrat in Catalonia. This is the Black Madonna, considered to be one of the most celebrated images in Spain, which is believed to perform numerous miracles and attracts millions of visitors every year from all over the world.

People queue a long time to visit the Black Madonna at Montserrat, about three hours on the day that we were there, and when they get to the front of the line they get just about five seconds to make a wish before it is all over.  No such problems in Bilbao I can report.

Visit over we went back outside where it was raining heavily now and we had to accept that it didn’t look likely to improve.