Hello Bilbao! We'll begin a new series covering my trip to Bilbao, Spain in September 2023. During that time, Bryan had a weeklong conference in this beautiful city. Even though I had technically been here before (yes, we flew in just to rent a car to drive straight to San Sebastian), this was essentially my first time getting to know the city. I was so thankful to have a whole week to explore this lovely city.
If you only have two days in Bilbao, you should definitely visit the top attraction (the Guggenheim) and spend a day exploring the old town (Casco Viejo). The old town is filled with beautiful little alleyways, bridges, and little neighborhoods you can explore.
Casco Viejo
The old town is next to a river, and there are different bridges you can cross. The views are really nice no matter which side you are on.
La Ribera Market
Once you cross the bridge, you can visit La Ribera, a fun foodie market where they sell fresh meat, vegetables, and all sorts of other food.
Frankly speaking, if you've been to the markets in Barcelona, Valencia, or other bigger cities, this one may be a bit of a let down. Still, we enjoyed exploring a bit.
This market also closes at 3PM, so make sure to go early in the day. The first time we went, we stopped by at 4PM and everything was closed (except for the bar/restaurant in the same building).
We bought a lot of jamon iberico here, and found the prices at the market to be cheaper than going to the fancy department store El Corte Inglés.
Check out this amazing variety of olives!
Los Fueros Bilbao
On our last day in Bilbao, we explored the old town (Casco Viejo) and finished off the night by dining at Los Fueros, one of the most famous restaurants in the old town. Open since 1878 (!), this restaurant offers a large variety of local Basque dishes to try. It also has a Bib Gourmand from the Michelin Guide. Every one says to get the prawns (which we didn't get!). I do kind of regret that, even though all the food we ordered was excellent.
Breaded and deep fried chili peppers.
The most beautiful jamon Iberico de bellota, servied with delicious bread crisps.
This heirloom tomato salad, tossed with their "Casco Viejo" dressing, red onions, and pecorino, was delicious.
Duck cured in "Cantabrian salt" and corn meal
Russian Salad
Beautifully seared pork chop.
We loved how it was medium rare inside!
For dessert, we had this unusual cookie-topped cheese cake. Though I was pretty full, I ended up eating a lot more than I had planned!
All in all, it was a fun restaurant, with great Basque food and a fantastic location.
Stay tuned for many, many more posts from the Bilbao trip, including some day excursions that we took!
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