Bilbao FreeTour in Spanish: Old Town, Zubizuri and the Guggenheim Puppy

The language is the first thing to settle: this walk is guided in Spanish only, and it sets out to tell the stories that do not appear in the guidebooks. A booking can cover from 1 to 5 people at the same price, which makes it practical for solo travelers and small groups alike.

The route opens with food, at La Ribera Market, which opened in 1929, with pintxos, txakoli and zurito. It then goes back in time. The San Anton Bridge is where, 700 years ago, the limits and privileges of being a Bilbao resident were set. Santiago Cathedral is the town's first church, a 14th-century Gothic building. At Plaza Nueva the guide covers local traditions and food recommendations, and the Arriaga Theatre, a 19th-century building, recalls the good times of Bilbao and how the city stayed resilient in hard ones. The walk then crosses to the left side of the estuary, the move that made Bilbao a modern city, and passes Santiago Calatrava's Zubizuri, opened in 1997, and the Isozaki towers.

The last two stops are the Guggenheim, told as a story from failure to success, and the Puppy, Jeff Koons's flower-covered sculpture from 1992. The guide calls it an easy sculpture to photograph, and it has won over Basques and visitors alike.