There is no point in getting up too early here – as it is still quite dark. So, Mick and I slept in and had a home-cooked breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon, complete with a cup of tea which was awesome after being in our Haro hotel for four days where we had to find breakfast at a café somewhere each day.

With our tummies full, we made our way to the markets (Mercado de la Ribera), under a cloudy sky, only to discover that the Guiness Book of Records ‘record’ that this place received back in 1990 may not be true now. The award stated it was the ….

“most complete municipal food market in Europe, thanks to its variety and scale”

Visiting markets is one of the things we enjoy when travelling, and from our perspective it was only a 6/10, at best. The “variety” consisted mainly of fish stalls (about 20 of them), followed by some butchers, a few cheese shops and two fruit stalls.

Mick and I bought a few things for dinner tonight, including 4 oysters. That made the whole trip worth it as far as Mick was concerned. But it did take some hunting – we only saw one of the fish stalls selling oysters. They were €1.60 each and pretty big. Lucky I packed Mick’s oyster shucker.

On our walk back to our apartment we spotted a group of three artists finishing off a mural on one of the walls of a building in the old town.

A little further on down this street there was a very quaint bakery – where we could see the baker hard at work and a woman, perhaps his wife, serving people in the small shop.

Bilbao does have lots of pastry shops and offerings of sweet treats, whereas these items were not as prominent in Ribera del Duero or La Rioja – I had been looking. This morning we tried a Basque Tart (Pastel Vasco) – which was a custard filled pie with a lid. I said to Mick that perhaps the Northern Spaniards were trying to out-do the Portuguese with their tarts by adding a pastry top. Regardless – it was delicious.

Our next excursion was on the metro. We were able to catch a tram a few minutes walk from our accommodation and successfully tapped on with the Barik card for both of us. We stayed on for a complete loop as we wanted to see how to get to the Guggenheim Museum and the stop for catching boats for tours on the Nervión River, which I read was actually an estuary influenced by the tides of the Bay of Biscay.

We had a glass of white wine each and some pintxos for lunch at a small bar near our place called Gore Toki. The Plaza Nueva was awash with people, comprising lots of groups of approximately 20 people following a person with a placard labelled “Shore Excursion”. Obviously there was a large ship moored in Bilbao today and its passengers had disembarked to explore the city. We decided to return in the early evening when it was quieter.

Before we headed out for our pre-dinner drinks, I explored the area near us a little further.

Opposite the theatre in front of our apartment is a park called Parque del Arenal. Last evening we could hear lots of children playing on the swings and in the park, but it was quiet when I walked through it around 2.30pm. This park has a very ornate bandstand which is still used by the Municipal Band, according to a plaque nearby.

Looking from Parque del Arenal you can’t miss the huge facade of San Nicolás Church.

Had the doors been open I would have wandered across to take a closer look. Instead, I headed off along the edge of the river and came across this spectacular building, dating back to the 19th Century.

Ten minutes further on I was able to get a great view of the Guggenheim. Mick and I will visit there tomorrow afternoon.

Finally, I turned around and crossed to the other side of the river via the pedestrian bridge – Zubizuri Bridge.

Mick tried a pintxos comprising small squiggly things which he found out were baby eels (elva). He had never tried them before. His verdict – delicious.

My new favourite pintxos is ‘Gilda’ – apparently the Basque original pintxos. comprising anchovies, olives and peppers, served on a piece of bread with lots of olive oil.

Dinner tonight included the oysters of course, followed by some very thin lamb cutlets and veggies we’d bought at the market earlier in the day. Oh, and a bottle of Rioja.