Bilbao is a green city, settled into hills and mountains. The centre fits neatly into the horseshoe shape made by the river. Looking up and down many streets, we could see the surrounding mountains in both directions. But the big surprise was that nearly everyone was wearing masks outside – not just indoors or in shops but just walking down the street. However we were never asked to provide our Covid certs anywhere or questioned about covid tests.

Tapas bars are everywhere, and wine is gloriously cheap – about €2.50 a glass, (sometimes less) and often accompanied by free plates of cured meat and chorizos…even if you don’t want them.  Vegetarianism is a challenging option here as meat is king and fish is queen.

The huge attraction in Bilbao is the Guggenheim and once you lay eyes on it, you see why. This weird floating structure rises out of the river, part boat, part fish and winds under a bridge.  Buskers were playing classical music outside which only added to the gentle craziness of the whole experience. There’s a enormous colourful sculpture of a puppy, planted with real flowers on the plaza outside…defying all perspective. The website said that tickets must be bought online but we decided to see if we could get in anyway – there was a short queue and after about 10 minutes, we were in without issue (again no checking of covid certs). The building inside is just as disorientating as you’d expect – we had difficulty finding the exit.

The old town on the right bank of the river is full of cobbled winding streets with dishevelled buildings and tables set out along the streets. It’s a great area to just wander around, browse the shops, people watch and get lost in…and we ate great seafood here.

Our hotel was a ‘no frills’ option called the Ibis Budget Bilbao City which we picked because it had parking but when we arrived, it didn’t have any parking left anyway so we had to drive a few streets over to find parking. This was a budget hotel in all aspects apart from price – it was €130 a night without breakfast (or parking). The room was small, the towels were thin and tiny, Caoimhin kept hitting his head on a shelf, we were on the sixth floor and looked directly into another room across a small courtyard – we could even see their toothbrushes lined up by the sink.

We really liked Bilbao and the weather was perfect for wandering around – about 26C during the day with cool evenings.