Getting Your Bearings In The City Centre
by johngayton
For a first-time visitor to Bilbao the easiest place to start is the central Plaza Moyua. This is accessible by both Metro and the local Bilbobus and from here the eight radial roads lead to pretty much everywhere you need to visit.
If you are not sure which way up your map is stand in the middle of the plaza and look for the landmark Hotel Carlton - this is South - finding your way around becomes easy after that.
For a useful interactive city map click: HERE
Pic below shows the southwards view from the Plaza with the Hotel Carlton behind the red Bilbobus. To the left is one of the Metro exits.
The Guggenheim Effect
by DanielF
Since the Guggenheim Museum opened in Bilbao in 1997, the city has lived a real hype, attracting the attention of tourism and architecture publications worldwide and, in many ways, putting it in the map of global destinations. This single building has taken the so-called spectacle architecture to its major expression: other buildings before had been elevated to the category of icons of the 20th century and even become recognizable visual and symbolic images of the cities in which they are located (the Opera House in Sydney, or the Sears Tower in Chicago, to name just two); but never before had an entire city been subdued and absorbed by a single building, at least from the point of view of the attention attracted at a global scale.
The museum was not only the biggest piece in the project that envisaged the reinvigoration and revamping of Bilbao, it was also the major propeller for that process: the revenues and the hype brought by the building have more than compensated the investment and have fuelled many other projects that have finished by transforming the entire city.
Since then, many other cities have tried to have their Guggenheim and obtain the same effects with notable pieces of spectacle architecture: they have sought the biggest, or the tallest, or the most emotionally moving, or the most outrageous. Many of them have indeed reached a big impact worldwide, but never to a scale that allowed for the transformation of an entire city. The Guggenheim effect is and will probably remain unique.
The Cradle of the Industrial Revolution in Spain
by DanielF
Bilbao was the cradle of the industrial revolution in Spain. The abundance of iron and coal in the area as well as an incipient bourgeoisie resulted in an extraordinary development of the city since the end of the XIX century.
This heavy industry damaged seriously the environment: the high furnaces and steelworks expelled black and thick fumes, the river stank and was biologically dead, immigrants were crammed in unsalubrious homes... Things could only go worst with severe industrial crisis in the late 1970s. The often gray skies, the grimy buildings and the abandoned factories were not exactly inviting.
Bilbao had then to reinvent itself and look for new sources of wealth to become again one of the most dynamic cities in Spain.
A breathtaking landscape...
by lolitajane
The landscape is awesome. What I saw through the bus window was something I'd never seen before: emerald green valleys, waving farmers, snow-covered summits, and a deep blue sky --all together...it was too much beauty for my eyes, only used to concrete and huge buildings...
Cafes from the early 1900s
by milugares
A group of 3 cafes with an atmosphere from the early 1900s - traditional cafes from Bilbao.
Good pintxos and cafe during the day - and music and going-out places at night.
During the Aste Nagusia, they organize lots of activities - gastronomical, cultural and of course, party during the whole night! - the circular square (Plaza Biribila) is almost closed to traffic because of the crowd of people dancing outside Cafe La Granja.
Cafe Iruna - at Jardines de Albia, beautifully decorated inside with Andalusian-style tiles.
Cafe La Granja - at Plaza Circular
Cafe Boulevard - in El Arenal, oppsite Arriaga theater, also hosts tango dancing from time to time.
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During the night
This one Looked Interesting
Meal Onboard At Langan's Brasserie
Bilbao-Santander Railway Station Facade
