4 hours in Bilbao

With hours to spare between our flight’s arrival into Santander, Spain and the next available bus to San Sebastián, we decided to spend the time in Bilbao.

We arrived around 2pm and being mid-August, many of the city residents were on vacation leaving Bilbao quite sleepy. As can be common in Europe, many stores were closed with signs saying they were on vacation for 3 weeks.

Some shops were open in the old town, including a beautiful jamón ibérico store selling tasty, simple sandwiches.

Jamón ibérico hanging from the ceiling

After lunch, I found my new favorite art piece.

It’s called “Puppy” and was designed by American artist Jeff Koons. I loved the topiary sculpture located in front of the Guggenheim Museum, and I could have stared at it for hours.

The area got even better after I tasted one of the best gelato cones of my life from across the street. The Amorino Gelataria serves beautifully crafted gelato flowers that allow you to taste all of the flavors that you ordered (as many as you want) at once.

Gelato flower

I had mango, raspberry, pineapple, and lemon. It was so good that Chris went back in and ordered more gelato for us to take on our walk back to the bus station.

I suppose if we had more time, we might have actually entered the Guggenheim. But, with 4 hours, Puppy’s flowers and the gelato flowers were enough to make me contenta.