As I was walking along the city centre, I realised there is a cycling event going on in the city today, with the end point in front of the city hall, with cyclists expected to be arriving between the hours of 12.30 to 2.30pm.
I made it a point to come back to see the cyclists finish at the finishing point and continued walking on towards Monumento al Sagrado Corazón de Jesús.
Walked next to Itsasmuseum Bilbao (maritime museum) before continuing on towards the Guggenheim.
Just around this time, I had a call from Thierry to inform me of his estimated arrival time in Bilbao.
It was also when he called that I had found out the time had changed while I was sleeping! At 2am in the morning to be precise, and it goes forward by 1 hour. I only knew it because Thierry mentioned it. I use a Fitbit for a watch, so it had automatically synced itself in the night.
While waiting for Thierry to arrive, I noticed some of the cyclists were already starting to cycle towards the finish line, so I made my way back to the city hall and it was pretty packed with people welcoming the cyclists.
I then walked towards Azkuna Zentroa. This building is said to be the most beautiful and interesting in Bilbao. I don't know about the beautiful bit, but it was certainly interesting on the inside!
Designed by Philippe Starck, all the columns here are of different design.
There's apparently a public gym, swimming pool (with a glass bottom), a library, a restaurant, tapas bars, a rooftop terrace, and modern art exhibitions.
I had to cut short my visit at the Azkuna Zentroa as Thierry rang me while I was just about to explore the library, that he was going to be reaching Bilbao in about 10 mins.
Yippee! It's nice to have company and explore the area over next few days, can't wait!
Thierry suggested that we have lunch along Getxo, which is about a 15 mins drive from Bilbao city centre.
When we arrived, a number of the restaurants in the area was packed and didn't have a spare table for us.
We finally found a table at a restaurant and ordered some food which was average in my opinion. But food is now secondary and it was now the company that matters!
We then walked around the area for a bit, before driving off to Vizcaya Bridge.
I thought we were going to park and then walk over to have a look at the bridge, but Thierry have a better idea! To ride on it!
It's also called a "Hanging Bridge", as it has a hanging gondola that moves from one side to the other.
It is the world's oldest transporter bridge, allowing boats to cross underneath at the same time. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the only one in its category of industrial heritage site.
The structure is 45 metres high and 160 metres long.
It was probably more fun seeing it in action than being on it, as half the time we were on the gondola, our view was either blocked or we were busy figuring out payment for the gondola.
We then drove back towards Bilbao city, with a stop at Artxanda Viewpoint,
This was so worth going.
The view of the entire Bilbao city and especially of the Guggenheim Musuem from the top was incredible, with the sun about to set.
I also loved the Bilbao words that kept repeating itself, acting as a "fence" of some sort at the viewpoint.
Thierry found a place to park about 10 mins walk from the hostel and we waited for him to check in, before popping out again to walk around the Old Town and to get dinner.
We were still full from lunch, so this was dinner!
No comments:
Post a Comment