Basque Country Highlights

 There are people who photograph the Carola Crane and call it Bilbao's Eiffel Tower. And you know what? They are not entirely wrong. The people of Bilbao have always had a talent for making things bigger than they are — but with such warmth and good humour that even their boasting is hard to resist. Foto I.Pisan  http://bit.ly/VO04o8 A crane with a woman's name Sitting on the banks of the estuary in the neighbourhood of Olabeaga, facing Zorrozaurre and a short walk from the Euskalduna Palace, the Carola Crane has dominated this corner of Bilbao since 1957. Standing 60 metres tall and weighing 200 tonnes, it was built at the Erandio workshops and used in the construction of vessels at the Euskalduna shipyard. It is the last surviving crane of its kind in Bilbao — and a good thing too, because Bilbao, for all its grandeur, is a small city with no room to spare. ...a short walk from the Euskalduna Palace, the Carola Crane has dominated this corner of Bilbao since 1957. The best w...

  On 12 August 2026, for the first time in over a century, a total solar eclipse will be visible from the Iberian Peninsula. The path of totality crosses Spain from west to east, and the Basque Country sits right in the middle of it: Bilbao, Vitoria-Gasteiz and much of the territory will see the sun disappear completely for a brief, unforgettable moment, at around 8:28 in the evening. Total solar eclipse, Yakima, Washington, 21 August 2017. Photo: Justin Hawkes / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 2.0 Spain is effectively the only country in continental Europe where the eclipse will be seen as total — the other option is Iceland, with its habitually cloudy skies. If you are thinking about where to experience it, the Basque Country makes a compelling case. What to expect The eclipse begins as a partial at 19:32 — the Moon starts to cover the solar disc slowly, and the light changes in a way that is hard to describe: it loses its shadows, turns flat and strange. For almost an hour, the...

 If there is one sweet that defines Bilbao, it is la carolina. Not the most sophisticated, not the most famous beyond these streets — but without question the most beloved. The one that vanishes first from the tray at family celebrations, the one every Bilbaoan remembers from childhood with meringue on their fingers and an unavoidable smile. Carolina by Martina Zuricalday To understand la carolina, you have to picture Bilbao at the turn of the twentieth century, in the maze of narrow streets of the old town known as the Siete Calles — the Seven Streets. A pastry maker from the neighbourhood, whose name history has not seen fit to preserve, had a daughter who was mad about meringue. To make it easier for her to enjoy it, he devised a pastry that would show it off in all its glory: a crisp puff pastry basket, filled with custard cream or coconut paste, crowned with a dome of meringue painted in two colours with chocolate and egg. On his daughter's birthday he presented her with his c...