C
yclists buzz under plane trees as traffic
purrs past baroque churches. Two
newlyweds are on the riverside, posing
for photos. The groom is wearing a beige
three-piece suit (you can get away with that
sort of thing in Bilbao) and the bride a flowy
white dress, the breeze catching the gauze and
billowing it out, cloaking both husband and
wife in a feather-light cloud of material. They
giggle and embrace. Behind them, the River
Nervión flows wide and blue under the sleek
lines of the Zubizuri footbridge.
But Bilbao hasn’t always provided a
photogenic backdrop. Thirty years ago, the
idea of having your wedding shots taken at
the water’s edge would have been laughable
— the river was a murky, odoriferous thing,
the quayside a mass of rusting industry. But
the largest city in the Basque Country has
since morphed into one of the most vaunted
examples of urban regeneration in Europe,
full of chattering markets, long nights and
proud, football-mad locals, and was even
designated an official UNESCO City of Design
in 2014. Today, you can almost sense it
swelling out its chest with self-confidence,
glass of txakoli white wine in one hand and
salt cod croquette in the other.
Visitors will want to loosen their belts
a notch or two, because this is a city that
knows a thing or two about good food
and drink, filling its larder with a bounty
of produce from the Atlantic, the lush
farmland of the surrounding hills and
vineyards carpeting the valleys. Wander
the city’s streets and you could be forgiven
for thinking it’s permanently on lunch
hour. Glasses are knocked back before
noon, bakeries bulge with customers and
pintxo bars throng with besuited workers.
Near-neighbour San Sebastián might draw
the international foodie garlands, but the
bilbaínos eat and drink with relish.
“Cooking is simpler in Bilbao,” says
chef Paul Ibarra, speaking to me at his
lively Basque restaurant, Los Fueros,
which has been pulling in locals since- Behind him, families pick through
platters of grilled prawns. “In San Sebastián,
the food is more elaborate, more French-
influenced. Here, simple is good. But
that doesn’t mean it’s easy. If you cook
something, it has to be marvellous; the
flavours have nowhere to hide.”
To make his point, Paul sizzles off a
portion of hake in olive oil, sprinkles it with
sea salt, adds a dollop of roasted pepper
mayonnaise and places it before me. “I
don’t know about you,” he says, “but if I die
tomorrow, this would be my last meal.” The
fish is golden, with a slight crunch to the bite.
It would be a fine choice, to be fair.
FROM LEFT: Chef Paul
Ibarra, of Los Fueros
restaurant; the Zubizuri
footbridge, designed
by Santiago Calatrava;
Guggenheim Museum
Bilbao; pintxos at
Mercado de la Ribera
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