Fodor's Barcelona to Bilbao, 1st Edition: Where to Stay, Eat, and Explore On and Off the Beaten Path, Smart Travel Tips fr om A to Z (Travel Guide)

Suggest and reviews accommodations, restaurants, attractions, and nightlife.

Destination: Barcelona to Bilbao

Travelers to Spain have often traveled one "ruta turistica" or another: the trial of Don Quixote, the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, medieval castles, wine routes. Conveniently the 21* century comes equipped with yet another: Barcelona "to" Bilboa, a trip connecting the two major metropoli of Spain's northern Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts, two dazzling architectural masterpieces, and two of Iberia's most important cultural entities, the Basque Country and Catalonia. Passionate Mediterraneans versus dour Atlantic seafarers; sprightly sardana-dancing Catalans versus sturdy, stone-lifting Basques; colorful Surrealists paintings versus massive stone sculpture; at first glance, Barcelona and Bilbao may seem mutually antithetical. Yet, upon introspection, the things they share may be more important than the things that separate them.

Architecture: 2,000 Years of Genius

If Madrid is about paintings, Barcelona and Bilbao are about architecture, the former mainly Art Nouveau and Gaud? and the latter Gehry and the Guggenheim. For Barcelona's comprehensive Gaudi treatment, the unmissable sights are the following: Parc Guell in upper Gracia; Gaudi 's first house, Casa Vicens, in the adjacent village of Gracia, the Palau Guell, off the lower Rambla; the rippling-around-the-corner Casa Mila, known as La Pedrera ("Stone Quarry"), with its roof garden of veiled and hooded warrior-maidens and its Gaudi study center and museum in the attic; Casa Batllo, Gaudi 's allegory on the St. George and the dragon theme; and Casa Calvet, near the Hotel Ritz on Carrer de Casp. The most important of all of Gaudi's works is the still-growing Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia.

Throughout the Pyrenees, Romanesque chapels and hermitages and the characteristic highland village architecture will keep your yes entertained, even delighted, but for highlights look for the church at Beget, Santa Maria de la Seu at Seu d'Urgell, and the matching set of gemlike Romanesque churches and chapels in the Vall de Bo? in western Catalonia.

Gastronomy: The Delights of Dining

Gastronomically, Catalonia is scoring stratospherically well with the likes of one of the most talked-about restaurants in the world today -- Ferran Adria's El Bulli in Roses -- along with a flotilla of other remarkable spots in Barcelona.

The cooking across the Pyrenees specializes in roasts and thick bean soups, usually welcome even in the dead of summer when, no matter how hot the days, nights are cool, and the altitude begets appetites.

San Sebastian, Bilbao, and the Basque country in general have long been considered culinary pilgrimages, while La Rioja, with its well-developed wine palate and rich reserves of game and garden produce also offers a staggeringly consistent level of memorable cuisine.

Markets: Cornucopias -- The Urban Horns of Plenty

"Collecting" markets of different kinds is a rewarding passion -- many veteran travelers consider this the best way, in fact, to get to know people and places. So, if you want to dive into Barcelona headfirst, there's no better way than a visit to its Boqueria market on the Rambla -- the oldest and last still-functioning market of its kind in Europe, a colorful cornucopia of produce ranging from apples and pears to partridges, chanterelles, scallops, and sea snails.

Music and Music Festivals

If, as St. Augustine wrote, music and architecture are twin arts, it should be no surprise that Barcelona's musical offering rivals its architectural patrimony. The Liceo Opera House on the Rambla re-opened in 1999 after five years of reconstruction following the 1994 fire that left little more than a gutted shell; the Palau de la Musica (with its stampeding cavalry sculptures erupting from the wings and its immense stained-glass chandelier overhead) is a strong candidate for the world's most unusual music hall, while the new Auditori, if lacking the warmth of the Palau, is ample and acoustically impeccable, a space deliberately antithetical to the Palau where, as the name of the place suggests, what you hear is what's at center stage.

Summer music festivals are held all across the Pyrenees, from the Spanish enclave Llivia near Puigcerd?, through La Seu d'Urgell, Ansils (next to Benasque), Lanuza (where the stage floats on the surface of a lake) and Jaca.