Last year we discovered the Guggenheim, Bilbao is closed on Mondays, so we aim to arrive Monday evening, squeezing in an extra day on the long road north!
After breakfast in the Churreria near the bullring in Segovia we set off at 1030 yesterday morning, stopping in the delightful small town of Turégano to check out route options and have another coffee in a small bar. Taking the CL-603 we passed through flat, wide countryside before picking up the main A1/E5 Autopista at Aranda towards Burgos. We continue onto the toll road which passes through another remarkable desfiladero at Pancorbo before reaching Vitoria-Gasteiz. This retraces part of our route down to Segovia. Here we cut back onto the scenic N-240 at Embalse de Urrunga towards Bilbao. Luckily, we managed to find a fuel station and fill up with LPG, which is running seriously low as it’s getting colder now, and top up with a few litres of very expensive diesel.
As we approached Bilbao, it started to rain, quite heavily. The Bilbao Municipal camping area is high up on the hill at Kobetamendi above the city. We finally arrive at 7pm after a pretty tiring, long day to a great welcome from the friendly receptionist. The view across the city is truly fantastic as the night draws in. The site provides full service on flat terraced pitches and is only €20 per night. There’s a bus service up and down to the city, taking about 15 minutes. We spent a most enjoyable, if tiring, day enjoying the sights of Bilbao on Tuesday.
First stop, the Guggenheim and Bev was totally amazed and thrilled to explore ‘The Matter of Time’ by Richard Serra. We spent quite a while here then walked along the Paseo de Uribitarte to the old part of the city. This was perhaps a mistake as there was a tram and it was much further than we’d anticipated. Sadly, we just missed having lunch at the old Market which had closed but did find a bar serving pinxtos, the Basque Country answer to tapas, which we’d never tried before. We caught the bus back up the hill and wondered how we’d be sure about where to disembark but there was a most helpful woman who helped us . . . again, Strava recorded over 8 miles walking!
