Yesterday I had a rest day, spent in Bilbao with my wife, Lene, visiting the Guggenheim Museum, walking around town and taking the Funicular up into the hills above Bilbao for great views of the city.
This morning I took a bus to Lezama and walked 13km back into into Bilbao. The first kilometers were along a main road, passing Bilbao football clubs training facility, which today was empty. The road leads to the airport, so there were a number of planes flying overhead just before landing.
In Zamudio I had to wait for a train to pass before crossing the tracks and starting the uphill climb of Mount Avril, with views over the technology park and the airport. At the top, it was downhill towards Bilbao – at times fairly steep. I passed the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de Begoña, before reaching the old town and the river. I bumped into a few walkers I have met underway as I was walking into Bilbao.
I walked along the river, and met Lene resting on a bench opposite the Guggenheim. She joined me for the second stage of today’s walk, walking along the river towards Getxo and the Atlantic.
Much of the waterfront is being turned from industrial to high-end flats, and for the first 5kms and the last 2kms into Getxo, a promenade has been built, making for a pleasant walk. In between, the promenade is either being erected or there was heavy industry related to shipping.
We saw a Royal Greenland fishing trawler being repaired, or being taken apart, which is a coincidence, given our daughter is currently working in Greenland. We passed the statue of the three workers, in the middle of the road works.
At Getxo, there is the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Vizcaya Bridge across the mouth of the Ibaizabal estuary. Completed in 1893, the 45-m-high bridge, spans 160m. It was the first bridge in the world to carry people and traffic on a high suspended gondola and was used as a model for many similar bridges across the world, of which only a few survive.
We took a trip back and forth across the estuary, it takes a couple of minutes, before catching the bus back to Bilbao. All in all a pleasant days walking, 22km, 520m elevation, all in the walk to Bilbao, as the walk to Getxo is flat.
