Zazpikaleak and more
Continuing with my introductions to the city, I decided to try out the tram that is part of the transit system and goes around the central part of Bilbao. I wasted no time and got myself the local transit card which is a little different from the ones I used in Barcelona, València, or Madrid. Here, the Barik card is loaded with whatever amount you wish and you can use it on any type of transportation. On the metro you swipe it both on entry to a station and then again as you leave it, and the appropriate amount is deducted from the card. I like this system a lot because you don’t have to worry about how many zones you’re going to travel, the system figures it out for you and as long as you have enough money loaded onto the card, you just go places as you need. I wish other cities adopted this system, especially if they have multiple zones or types of transport to choose from.
I decided this was the easiest way to get a view of a large part of the city, all from the comfort of a relatively slow-moving tram. I started at one end of the route and finished at the penultimate station at the other end: the Ribera stop. I chose this destination mainly to check out the largest market in the city, Erribera merkatua, or the Ribera Market. On the way, however, the tram took me by many of the important public buildings: the San Mamés stadium, various museums, the Palacio Euskalduna (entertainment and performance centre), Zubiarte shopping centre, Bizkaia Aretoa (convention centre), the Guggenheim, and of course the Casco Viejo (Old Town).
Unfortunately I picked the wrong time of day to go to the market–I should have known better–so I just walked around the building a little. There are a few restaurants in the lower part of the building, offering pintxos of course, and those were still open. I vowed to come back at a better time but from what I had seen so far, I was a little disappointed. I guess I had expected it to be much bigger, just based on the size of the building. It really sucks being so spoiled by the Mercado Central in València … nothing I’ve seen so far even compares. The building itself, however, is quite beautiful, and I can see why it’s such an attraction. It also sits right on a bend of the river (or, technically, the canal that is the estuary of Bilbao) that snakes through the city, offering amazing views.
Done with market I headed into the heart of the Old Town, aka Casco Viejo or Zazpikaleak. As in most Spanish cities, this Zazpikaleak is a collection of narrow streets and cute little plazas. I strolled around for a while, just to get a feel for this place. My favourite finding was a bookstore that seemed to contain only books in Euskara. I eventually made it back to another bend in the river where there was a large park with many people enjoying their afternoon at … one of my favourite things in the whole world: a book fair! This was a very pleasant surprise and I spent quite some time inspecting the stalls.
At this time I was starting to feel a little peckish so I decided to retrace my steps a bit and while doing so I peeked into a little bar only to spot a hockey game on the TV inside. A hockey game? In June? In Bilbao? Intrigued I had to go inside to check it out. As it turns out, the proprietor and his one other client were watching the semifinal of the 2021 IIHF World Championship being played in Latvia … and guess who was on the ice? Canada and the US! 🙃 Of course I had to stick around and watch with them, it was already the 3rd period anyway and the Canadians were leading. I was quite amused by the two men listening quite intently to the commentator trying to explain the offside rule in hockey. Both looked at each other with a look of “wtf” and shrugged while I stifled a chuckle. I felt obliged to buy a drink and stay until the end of the game. I was also willing to explain the rule to them but they didn’t seem friendly enough for me to bother.
I was going to take the tram back but then I decided I would walk home, even if I didn’t really have a good sense of how far that actually was. I took my time, enjoying new sights. Eventually I reached an interesting building that seemed like some sort of cultural centre. Intrigued by its architecture I went in to check it out and what I found inside was quite amazing. On the outside it looked like an old but well maintained public building but inside it was anything but: instead of a normal interior, it was a large hollow space with two very modern buildings inside supported on very large and uniquely decorated supports. There were open spaces, there were dark but friendly places for people to rest, there were working spaces … it was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It was fascinating.
Azkuna Zentroa is a multi-purpose venue designed by the famous French architect and designer Philippe Starck, and consists of a cinema multiplex, a fitness centre, a library, showrooms, an auditorium, shops, and a restaurant. The original building from 1909 was a corn exchange and later a warehouse. It wasn’t until the mid 1990s that the city decided to finally renovate it and turn it into something new and quite special.
