Recieved a warm welcome at the Hotel Artetxe in Bilbao, super place to stay, bike friendly and easy access to the city.
We used the funicular down into town and then used the excellent network of trams and trains to get about.
http://www.hotelartetxe.com/
To get to the funicular turn right leaving the hotel and take the left fork in the road (app 1 1/2 miles) at the top of the hill there is a car park where we left the bike. From here the furnicular goes down to town (it's about 80 cents) arriving in Plaza de Funicular. (The funicular goes every 15 mins). Walk straight across the square, over the road into Calle Mugica y Butron (Magic Button street) and follow it down to the river (2 minute walk). Cross the fancy looking bridge and you're at the tram stop. You can easily walk to the old town from here or the Guggenheim but we took the lazy option! You can get an all day tram ticket for 3 euros and for 6 euros you can use trams, metro and buses. Fantastic system.
Recommended: tapas in the old town, the Guggenheim (for culture vultures) and the tranporter bridge (take the C1 metro).
Nearly forgot the most important thing - there's a wee supermarket in Plaza de Funicular to buy beers to take back and drink in the hotel garden while you watch the sun go down - also a wee cafe for the wife to get a cuppa and a cake while you're getting the beers in.
For those of you with G.P.S the Hotel is located at
E 2.9 . 46 .17
N 43.2 . 78 . 79
Hank
for the Artexte. Was there a couple of weeks ago and wouldn't hesitate to stay again.
