Bilbao is in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Based around the secure and ideally located port to export iron from the nearby mountains, the city was officially founded in the early 1300s by Diego López V de Haro. Prior to then, the earliest settlement evidence is from the third or second century BC. It experienced significant industrialization in the 19th century along with Barcelona. Today, Bilbao is most recognizable for the Frank Gehry–designed Guggenheim museum that opened in 1997. The building modern and contemporary works, but it is the curvy titanium-clad exterior that gains the most attention. The Spanish Civil War started in Bilbao with the first bombing in 1936 followed by German and Franco forces bombing in the next year. The city was rebuilt in the 1940s including revitalizing the iron industry. As with all industrialized ports, the water quality and sedimentation as caused significant financial strains for dredging and restoring the bridges and docks.
Our favorite site was the Vizcaya Bridge. It was the world's first bridge to carry people and traffic on a high suspended gondola. UNESCO listed the site an Industrial Revolution icon. In order for the river to maintain its usefulness for shipping, it needed to be tall enough to allow ships to pass below. We rode the gondola across and then walked back over the top of the bridge to return. Damon and Owen went to see the Vista Alegre bullring. It is a first class bullring that hosts the best bullfights in the Basque Autonomous Region. The seating capacity is 14,700 people and it was inaugurated in 1963. In the old part of the city is the Cathedral Church of Santiago. The current structure was built in the 14th century but only declared a cathedral in 1950. A unique feature of this cathedral is stone carvings of local merchants along the buttresses of the main vault.
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