Due Vagabondi: BILBAO, Spain

The flight from Porto, Portugal to Bilbao, the Basque region of Spain is about 2 hours, with a plane change in Madrid. Bilbao was founded on June 15, 1300.

Here's what the itinerary for Spain looks like:

Our Airbnb home is right in Oldtown (Casco Viejo)...perfect for a brief stay. Our host, a young woman who pays for this lovely, modern and bright apartment with a full-time roommate, short-term vacation guests and her job.

Bilbao was once a gritty industrial steel and ship-building town on both sides of the Nervion River but is now known for its culture, art, fascinating architecture and vibrant role in Spain's economy.

The Nervion connects Spain and Portugal with the rest of Europe. Bilbao is a seaport and a major transit hub.

In 2018 Bilbao was awarded the title: 'European City of the Year'.

The sun is bright and warm, so a stroll on the riverfront is mandatory. What an amazing city to walk in. It's meticulously clean. There's public art everywhere, playgrounds for children and public washrooms. The most common structures have design, beauty and function built into them. For example, the beautiful footbridges have both stairs and elevators and provide fantastic views of the countryside and cityscape from their heights. Walkers have separate paths from bicycles and all are separated from vehicles.

The Mercado de la Ribera is our stop for a dinner of pintxos ("peen-chos") and wine. The word means "toothpick food" and is the Basque version of tapas.

Slices of baguettes are piled high with creative toppings and your bill is the counting of toothpicks. Each cost between 1 and 3.50 Euros. It seems that each establishment tries to outdo the other with variety and combinations of ingredients as well as taste and beauty.

In Canada, we fret so much over food safety. Here the pintxos stay on the counter until eaten, with the understanding that room temperature brings out the full flavour of the ingredients.

Our second and last day here is cool and windy. A much longer walk on the riverfront and still there is no end in sight to the paths. Lunch along the river, then the Guggenheim. Such an amazing building.

There's always the famous spider:

Our last day is also May 1, a National holiday (Labour Day, or Dia del Trabajador) that used to be filled with angry protest marches but is now a celebration of the social, economic and equality rights won by workers.

Banners, speeches and marches are in the streets and plazas. On the riverfront is a tent purported for a thousand to have a sit-down meal. It's for the workers.

By afternoon the Labour Day business is over and friends and family gather in the streets and plazas, drinking, eating and laughing with some occasionally heated exchanges.

For a while, there is dancing in the plaza near our house. There are very structured and formal steps to this dance. Perhaps it's a Basque version of the tango but we really don't know.

We follow our noses. Four whole cows are roasting on spits over charcoal (since the night before). Nourishment for the workers. We are told there will be no leftovers for sale. As the chef is carving and spectators are taking photos, he hands Paul and me two rib bones. Others look on with envy. They are truly succulent.

Airbnb steals precious time this day. Three different hosts cancel our reservations for reasons that they are not on top of their postings. Both annoying and stressful. We leave for Barcelona tomorrow, are there over a weekend and it's a very expensive city. Each cancellation is followed by lots of work.

Seven streets radiate from the neighbourhood square. Not quite sure which one to take to get
to the train station to buy our tickets for tomorrow, we ask two men our age for directions. They are unilingual Spanish speakers but feeling pretty good about the directions, we thank them and head off. A block away one of them comes fast-walking behind us and urges us to follow him. Leading us the six blocks to the train station, he suddenly turns, shakes our hands, wishes us well, then hurries back in the direction he came from. Such kindness.

Many of our posts are taken up with building photos as we love architecture. Realizing not everyone does, so we try to cut down on this habit but it hard. If you like buildings check out this article with professional photos:

Amazing Buildings Bilbao - Culture Trip

Bridges, both vehicular and pedestrian-only are important links to bring the banks of the river together. Bridges in Bilbao are not just bridges, they are artistic in their design and function.