Suffering for years in an environment of heavy industry and industrial wasteland, Bilbao has had a tough upbringing. With the Guggenheim Museum acting as the catalyst for regeneration, the city has transformed itself into an exciting and cultured place. The rejuvenated dock area of Bilbao now offers a pleasant site to stroll along the River Nervion. For a wonderful view over Bilbao and the wild Basque countryside beyond, we took the creaky funicular railway up to the summit of Artxanda where we were able to appreciate the city's location in a tight valley hemmed in by hills and mountains.

Athletic Bilbao is the city's iconic football club, famous for its cantera policy of bringing young Basque players through the ranks and only signing players from other Basque clubs . The club has been praised for promoting home-grown players and club loyalty, and there is no doubting the allegiance of the fans here. Athletic had gone without silverware for thirty-one years but, having just beaten Barcelona in the two-legged Spanish Super Cup, we arrived to scenes of sheer jubilation. It seemed as though the entire city was painted red and white and celebrating on the streets.

Bilbao's jewel in the crown is Frank Gehry's spectacular twisting titanium-clad modern art museum, which was one of the most celebrated buildings of the 1990s. The graceful, sensuous curves, evocative of the ships that used to be ubiquitous along the nearby docks of Bilbao, are covered in titanium squares which resemble the scales of fish and shimmer in the sunlight. In keeping with the maritime theme, the skylights of the largest gallery are designed to look like the fins of a fish. Many parts of the building are purely decorative, and the modern art exhibitions are typically bizarre. The audio tour kept us busy for an afternoon and the pinxtos in the cafe were rather good too. Among several sculptures outside the museum, Jeff Koons' Flower Puppy was the most memorable.

Bilbao's Semana Grande was about to start, it was a shame we had to leave...

Bus to Santander for flight home, 75 mins.