Spain has long suffered from typecasting. To many Britons, it represents little more than package holidays, crowded beaches and the relentless July-August tourist crush along the Mediterranean coast. This reductive view does a profound disservice to one of Europe’s most culturally rich and geographically diverse nations. The reality is that …
When the Guggenheim Museum opened in Bilbao in October 1997, urban planners and economists worldwide were watching. Would spending €100 million on a contemporary art museum really reverse decades of industrial decline? Could a single building catalyse comprehensive economic regeneration? Nearly three decades later, the answer is unambiguously yes – …
The decision to build the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao was, by any measure, audacious. Spend hundreds of millions on a contemporary art museum in a declining industrial city that most Europeans couldn’t locate on a map? The opposition was fierce and entirely reasonable. Why not spend that money on schools, …
Bilbao has pulled off one of Europe’s most impressive reinventions, and I’ve watched it happen over three decades of visits to the Basque Country. Back in the early ’90s, this was a gritty industrial city that most visitors bypassed entirely on their way to San Sebastián’s beaches or the wine …
Athletic Bilbao, historically, are the fourth most successful football club in Spain. As well as being one of only three clubs never relegated from the top division of La Liga – there are no prizes for knowing the other two – they are also third in the number of titles …
Located in the north of Spain between the rivers Oja and Ebro, the Rioja wine region is the most widely recognised ‘denominación de origin’ which produces some of the country’s finest red wines. It is divided into the three sub-regions of Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental (previously Rioja …
The heyday of cross Channel ferry travel was in 1997 when over 21 million passengers passed through the Port of Dover on sailings to that mystical land vaguely referred to as “the Continent”. Its decline as a means of transport began with the opening of the Channel Tunnel in 1994 …