Monday Morning Photo - Guggenheim Museum and Mamen Spider at Fog Art time, Bilbao

Andalusia or Andalucía?

The autonomous region of Andalusia (Andalucía in Spanish) is in the southern part of Spain. It spans from Atlantic coast in the west to the sheltered coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the east and from Málaga's Costa del Sol to the borders of Castilla – La Mancha the famous flat lands and Don Quixote windmill country. With an average of 300 plus days of sunshine a year the coastal area is an all year round destination. Not so in the inland provinces of Cordoba, Jaen and Sevilla which ha ve baking hot summers that can reach +40c and cold winters which can be 0c or less overnight. The Mezquita, Córdoba Andalusia is divided into eight provinces, each with a provincial city of the same name. Some of them are far more famous than others: Almería , Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and Sevilla. The three land-locked provinces are Córdoba, Jaé n and Sevilla, the rest are coastal. Each province and city is full of culture, history, traditions, fabulous monuments and cre...

Finally I got to visit Bilbao. I´d driven pretty near, got the ferry back to there once but had never stayed in the city. Last week I flew from Malaga to Bilbao for a two night, three (ish) day trip and it only happened because I won the trip via an Instagram giveaway.

Bilbao not so easy to get to within Spain, most flights I looked at were not direct, which meant going via Barcelona, from my nearest airport Granada there is one direct flight a week - why would I fly to Barcelona and not stay there? Bilbao was on the very long term (if I still have long term) drive to northern Spain trip plan. If you get the chance go - with an umbrella. It´s an easy, flat city with bus, tram, metro and train station right in the centre. I´ll be going back!