Bilbao, the capital of the Basque region in the very north of Spain.

Admittedly, I knew very little about it and had never visited any of the more northern cities in Spain such as Vigo, Santander and San Sebastián. My sister’s colleague had returned from a trip to Bilbao earlier this year and sang its praises so we, and our cousin, booked on for five days this August to see what it is all about.

The Basque region spans a certain region across some of the north of Spain and some of the south of France, connected by the Bay of Biscay. They share a common language called Euskara, or Basque (easier to say for English speakers!), and there has been a political Basque independence movement for several decades which included the separatist group ETA who sadly utilised violence and terrorism, including bombings at Madrid airport in 2006.

The majority of Basque people, of course, did not and do not advocate for violence and times have moved on into perhaps more unity and acceptance of others.

In fact, today, Bilbao is a very modern, international university city where people from many backgrounds study, work and live together in what feels like the friendliest city we’ve experienced in Spain.