Bilbao, sport buildings

The third day we spent in Bilbao, we woke up a bit later because we'd gone out the night before. That was mainly spent visiting sports buildings. I'm not very interested in sports, I'm more of the couch potato type, but I have to confess that the dimensions of the things that we visited that day surprised me.

Bilbao Arena

In the morning, we walked towards Bilbao Arena which was a little far from where we were staying. When we arrived we spotted the tall building, towering above the Miribilla Park. We went up via the roads that run along the hill in which the park is located.

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Upon arriving at the building we waited for the people who'd be explaining it to us, we were lucky that our guide was one of the architects who designed it. On the exterior you can see that it has a layer of green "leaves" and you can clearly distinguish how it compensates for the uneven surface it was built on.

We went inside, the atmosphere was bleak, we were less than 20 people in a huge basketball arena. It was very quiet. Same as the exterior, the hundreds of seats of the stands were of alternating green colours. We climbed up to the top and walked around, we saw the places where the commentators sit. From the highest point of the grandstands we exited from the interior and went outside, it was raining and many raindrops were falling and leaking in. We also went through many open "relaxation" areas intended for the spectators, they were covered but you could feel the rain. We saw the bathrooms and cafe, and even a room in the upper part for events.

There was also an underground section which made use of the unevenness, where they'd installed a gym with swimming pools.

We left from there and caught the tram. At midday we ate in an Italian restaurant and then we went to visit another big sports complex.

San Mamés Stadium

It was the "San Mamés" Stadium, even bigger than the previous. We got there a little late but we found our classmates at once. In this case I believe that there was another small group of people visiting, but even so we were like ants in this big stadium.

This building is the Atlético de Bilbao stadium, and it was built in 2013. The football team colours, red , were everywhere in its interior. However, the exterior was white, and I also remember there being a big screen above the main entrance.

In the case of this stadium, our visit wasn't as thorough as the tour we took of the previous building. But simply walking around the entire place took some time as it was so big.

I'd say this is a must-visit for football fans.

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