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The Five-Point Weekend Escape Plan

Go Beyond the Guggenheim in Bilbao











5. Oddball Day


Choose from an encyclopedic variety of jamones at the Mercado de la Ribera.  

Leave Bilbao’s modern skyline behind and spend a day in the wider Basque countryside. In the morning, stop by a three-level ocean liner with its stained-glass windows and catwalks that have been turned into a market, the Mercado de la Ribera—Europe’s largest indoor market, renovated in 2012. Grab a café cortado ($1.40) and snack on some jamón ibérico (from $3.30) while picking up smoked paprika and saffron (from $4 each) for your kitchen back home. Continue exploring Basque culture in a 16th-century convent turned cultural center at the Museo Vasco, then rent a car or hire a taxi for the 35-minute drive into the hills to the legendary Asador Etxebarri. The transcendent tasting menu ($165), anchored around a wood-fired grill, is worth the splurge—you’ll sample everything from goose barnacles to red-belly tuna infused with the signature smoky flavors. Afterward, continue on to Bodega Itsasmendi, a high-tech winery right in the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve, to taste txakolina, an acidic semi-sparkling white wine native to the region ($11.50 for two tastings and a 45-minute tour). Still within the reserve, drive to the Santimamiñe caves, where a private tour ($7; call 944-651-657 in advance) will take you through 13,000-year-old prehistoric paintings of horses, bears, and deer. On your way back to the center near downtown, ride the Artxanda funicular ($2.40) up to the top of Artxanda Mountain, which is home to a few small restaurants and a park, for the best view of the city as the sun goes down. Back on the ground, head to Arbolagaña inside the Museo de Bellas Artes for modern Basque cuisine like roasted scallops with a blood-sausage bonbon topped with fried Gernika peppers ($24). End the day with a nightcap at renowned mixologist David Ríos’s Jigger Cocktail Bar, which opened last year; go for a wild-strawberry-infused Aperol with grapefruit and kumquat juice ($18), or simply try what some say is one of the best gin and tonics in the world.


Published on Oct 3, 2014 as a web exclusive.