Roadtrip to Bilbao, Spain

Until early December, Nik and I had taken two trips to three places, Budapest and then Zaragoza and Canfranc Estación. I wanted us to try and take one more trip before the end of the year but it was becoming harder to leave Koval with a sitter because his needs have changed a bit and I felt bad leaving him. Anyway, Nik came up with the idea of a roadtrip and to use our Marriott Free Night Awards before they expired. The plan was four cities in 10 days. Bilbao and San Sebastián in the Spanish Basque Country, then to Biarritz in the French Basque Country and ending in Bordeaux, France before returning to Barcelona. Come along as I recap each city with a dedicated blog post.

Getting to Bilbao

We decided to roadtrip to Bilbao because it’s about a six hour drive from Barcelona, and seven hours is about our daily driving limit. Especially since Nik does all the driving. Then, the next three stops were to be short distances and our return drive would also be about six hours.

Nik reserved a rental car from Enterprise at the Barcelona Sants train station. When he went to pick it up, they didn’t have the SUV he was expecting. Neither of us drive stick shift so that left him choosing between a van or a Mercedes C-200. He went with the Mercedes.

Luckily the backseat was big enough to fit Koval’s crate. Once the car was loaded we hit the road. Just kidding. Barcelona never rents out cars with full tanks of gas so we had to fill up before leaving. That’s when we realized the car took diesel fuel! When is the last time you filled up with diesel? Regardless, it actually gave us great gas milage.

Nik and I had been to Bilbao once before, back in 2019 and stayed only one night. We were looking forward to having a few more days this time around. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and unfortunately a lot of places were closed, as is typical for many European cities. Not a problem. We explored the area and found some local spots near the hotel to eat at.

Hotel Ercilla de Bilbao, Autograph Collection

Nik booked our room at Hotel Ercilla de Bilbao, part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection. We were upgraded to a suite, which was nice because it gave us a little extra space with Koval and his crate. The hotel also left us a welcome plate of macaron’s. We later used the serving piece to give Koval a “room service” dinner of rotisserie chicken.

Our whole stay at the hotel was great. The front desk staff often bent down to give Koval some love when we would come and go for walks.

Related: Read about our Bilbao trip from 2019

Sightseeing in Bilbao

The big attraction in the city is the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao which we didn’t visit our previous time there. The museum showcases modern and contemporary art while the building itself was designed by Frank Gehry.

As you approach the museum, Jeff Koons’ Puppy greets you. It’s a 43-foot flower-covered West Highland terrier sculpture.

When we visited Bilbao in 2019, the sculpture was under scaffolding so it was nice see it still in bloom.

Before going inside, we walked the exterior along the river where the giant spider called Maman stands.

Also in that area, active every hour, is the visual show Fog Sculpture.

The interior is smaller than I expected. Many unique shapes including curved walkways, glass elevators and staircases are highlights of the design.

Part of the permanent exhibition inside the Guggenheim is The Matter of Time, an installation of eight pieces made of weathered steel. They are giant. And that’s an understatement.

My favorite room at the Guggenheim was the “Pop Art” room, highlighted by Andy Warhol’s One Hundred and Fifty Multicolored Marilyns.

Another piece of art that really caught my eye was Man from Naples by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Eating in Plaza Nueva

Plaza Nueva is a historic square in Bilbao’s Old Town and is home to a number of bars and restaurants. We really enjoyed eating our way around Plaza Nueva back in 2019 and so we made a point to return this trip. A couple standout pintxo places included La Olla and Gure Toki. The latter of which we went to two nights in a row.

All of the restaurants in Plaza Nueva have cases on the counter that display many of their pinxto offerings. Some places have hot menu items that are made to order, inducing the pinxto de chuleta (pork) from Gure Toki. It was incredibly delicious and cooked perfectly.

Day Trip to Getxo

I connected with an expat, Toby, through social media. He moved from California to Getxo with his wife and two kids a couple of years ago. Getxo is part of Basque Country and is a short drive from Bilbao, so Nik and I headed over to meet Toby and explore the area.

Vizcaya Bridge

Our visit was highlighted by seeing the Vizcaya Bridge. It’s a transporter bridge that carries a segment of roadway across a river. In this case, the Vizcaya Bridge links two towns in the province by crossing the Nervion River.

It was very cool to see it in action:

Monument to Evaristo de Churruca

Another landmark in Getxo is the Monument to Evaristo de Churruca, a Spanish engineer, who was primarily responsible for turning Bilbao into a major seaport.

The plaque along the fence describes it as such: “The sculptures comprise a seated statue of Evaristo de Churruca himself flanked by two figures identified as “Industry” and “Shipping”, facing two more figures which represent Bilbao and Neptune pushing on either side of a breakwater. The coats of arms of Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa are carved into the stone, and that of Bilbao appears in bas relief in bronze. This work represents the triumph of man against the fury of the sea.”

I’m so glad we took a little time to meet Toby and walk around Getxo.

Costco Bilbao

After our stop in Getxo, we drove over to Costco. Yes, Costco!

We’ve always kept an eye on to see where they’re located in Europe and we were excited to see that there was one was in Bilbao. Our US membership was accepted and it was very much like you’d expect when shopping at any Costco warehouse in the States.

Since we didn’t have a large cooler with us and still had a week more of travel, we kept our shopping to mostly non-perishable items including shampoo, toothpaste, Frank’s Red Hot wing sauce and a few other items. The rotisserie chicken was much like the ones in the States and purchased mostly as a treat for Koval.

Before leaving the warehouse, we made a stop at the food court where we each got a hotdog and soda. The hotdog was actually pretty good.

This Costco location also had a gas station, so we filled up and were ready to wrap up our time in Bilbao for the drive to San Sebastián.