Bilbao, Spain: Guggenheim Museum and Basque Cuisine on the Northern Coast

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, on the Nervión riverbank at the edge of the old city, is as much a building as it is a museum — a Frank Gehry construction of titanium cladding, glass, and limestone in a form that changes character with the light and the angle of approach. The titanium panels were developed specifically for this project and were chosen partly because their surface oxidizes to a warm gold tone rather than the silver-gray of most metals. The permanent collection covers Abstract Expressionism and contemporary art from the 1960s onward, including works by Richard Serra whose large-scale steel sculptures fill the internal atrium. The rotating exhibitions change annually. Jeff Koons' 'Puppy' — a 12-metre topiary dog in flowering plants — stands at the main entrance and has become as identified with the building as the architecture.

The Old Quarter (Casco Viejo) is 15 minutes on foot from the Guggenheim along the riverside path or via the Arenal Bridge. The Ribera Market, a neogothic iron-and-glass covered market on the riverbank, is a working food market and one of the largest covered markets in Europe; the fish and seafood counters on the lower level and the pintxos bars on the upper floor operate alongside a regular food retail function. The seven original medieval streets of Bilbao (Las Siete Calles) run through the old town in a tight grid; the bars and restaurants concentrated here and along the surrounding streets define the Basque bar culture of standing, ordering from a counter loaded with pintxos on bread, and moving between establishments.

Pintxos — the Basque version of small bar food, served on bread slices at the bar counter and priced individually — differ from the tapas of the rest of Spain in their form and in the ritual of the bar. The bar counter is loaded with a selection of pintxos at the start of service; customers choose what they want from the counter or order prepared-to-order pintxos from a short menu. Payment is typically made at the end after counting the sticks used as pintxo markers or simply on honor. The quality of the pintxos in the concentrated bar streets of the Casco Viejo and along Calle García Rivero (outside the old town) is high; the best bars rotate their offerings and have a following for specific preparations.

San Sebastián (Donostia in Basque), 90 kilometres east of Bilbao by bus or car, has a concentration of Michelin-starred restaurants per capita that exceeds any comparable city in the world, and a pintxos culture in the Parte Vieja (old town) that many consider the best in Spain. La Concha beach, a crescent-shaped bay below the old city, is the finest urban beach in Spain by the measure of most people who have seen it. The journey by Alsa bus from the Termibus station in Bilbao takes 70 minutes; the ticket is inexpensive and the bus runs frequently. A full day in San Sebastián with a morning at La Concha and lunch and late afternoon in the Parte Vieja pintxos bars is a workable use of a long Bilbao call.