Thursday Doors: Bilboa, Spain

If I had to pick a city that I would definitely visit again, it would be Bilboa, Spain. First of all, I loved the port. There was a long quay with many walkers and on shore were huge, well manicured, manor houses! The city sits in a basin surrounded by two mountain ranges and the Guggenheim Museum has brought plenty of tourism, which has encouraged the renewal of city parks and historic centers that are spotless. Their newest project is taking out the old dilapidated port in the city center, and making the island that separates the river, into a resort.

The Nervión River runs through Bilboa.

In it’s beginnings, Bilbao only had three streets (Somera, Artecalle, and Tendería) surrounded by walls. Inside this enclosure, there was a small hermitage dedicated to the Apostle Saint James (the current St James Cathedral), which pilgrims visited on their way to Santiago de Compostela. In the fifteenth century, four more streets were built, forming the original Seven Streets. They are all parallel and named One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and Seven!

I have always wanted to make the pilgrimage to Compostela, but thought it would be too much for me at this stage of my life. Imagine how thrilled I was to find part of the “Way” in Bilboa! These are some of the signs (a sea shell) that point in the direction you should walk. Why a sea shell you ask? These are some of the reasons………… St James body was brought from Jerusalem to be buried in Spain. When the boat got close to shore it broke into pieces and the men carried the body to shore. When the men came out of the water they were covered in sea shells………or pilgrims making their way on the Northern Route to the burial site of St James in Compostela found shells along the shore and used them for a bowl of sorts and a scoop for water…….. or the shell lines all come to one center, signifying all roads lead to Christ. So pilgrims today are given a sea shell to carry with them! If you would like to know more about the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, or the walk to St James, a good movie is The Way with Martin Sheen. So I snapped these photos of shells since they open doors to your heart…………..

Now for the doors! Always, always look up!

There’s always work to be done!

This was one of my favorite door photos! I liked the tile mosaic on the bottom of the balcony!

Fancy a red window frame? These wrap around window frames serve as a green house effect and warm the interior rooms with the heat from the sun. Beautiful too!