Bookish Bilbao

Hello Book Lover,

A couple of weekends ago I spent a glorious couple of child-free days in Bilbao, wandering around seeing the sights, eating wonderful food and drinking an awful lot of wine. Bilbao is a cultural mecca, famous for its imposing Guggenheim museum, there are sculptures and pieces of art popping up all over the place, the Mercado de le Ribera has installations amongst the stalls selling Pintxos.

Like a paper magpie, I always try and seek out bookshops wherever I go. So I was delighted when a quick google search threw up some stunning bookshops which I was lucky enough to have a quick whizz around. Now, I only managed to visit two, there are many more in Bilbao however time was not on my side. So I hand-picked the two which I particularly liked the look of and dragged my reluctant husband on a whistle stop tour. Here is what I found…

Libreria Astarloa.

Tucked away off one of the main shopping streets, you will find Libreria Astarloa.

This is quite possibly the most beautiful bookshop that I have ever seen with subtle, soft lighting, wooden floor to ceiling bookshelves housing antique books, old books and hidden gems. Upon the shelves I saw everything from Charles Dickens to The most famous Spanish revolutionaries of the 21^st Century. Eclectic and wondrous, it struck me as a place that could probably locate any book which you would request. I saw a gorgeous collection of Jules Verne books which all had purple embossed spines with gold writing. I had to quickly usher myself out as there was no way they would be getting in the suitcase.

Did I mention that it was gorgeous! Just look at that light!

As you can see from the photos this bookshop is truly a sight to behold and the bright blue archways at the front of the shop were just gorgeous, it’s definitely worth a visit if you are in Bilbao, if only to stare at the sheer beauty of it.

Address – Astarloa Kalea, 4. Bilbao, Spain.

Libreria Camara.

Again, this bookshop is tucked away off a busy main road which houses the impressive main post office building in Bilbao. Libreria Camara, founded in 1932 is the oldest Bookshop in Bilbao and has been owned by the same family of booksellers for three generations.

As well as housing a large selection of fiction titles – the majority of which were by Spanish authors or translated into Spanish. Libreria Camara is famous for it’s wide and varied art, photography, music and history books, which takes over around half the shop.

I was welcomed by a man working there who was incredibly friendly and made sure that if we needed any help, we could call on him. What I loved about this shop is the posters which adorned the walls citing ‘Reading Is Sexy’ it immediately felt like a book shop I could get on board with and I am trying to source one of these posters for my house!

Also, have you seen the door handles 😍

Address – Euskaldune Kalea, 6, 48008, Bilbao, Spain.

 

As much as I would have liked to purchase some books whilst on my travels, I couldn’t – damn cheap airlines and their luggage allowance!! I did however see a book which has really piqued my interest – Homeland by Fernando Aramburu – strangely the lovely @be_reading was reading it while I was away and mentioned it to me over on the old twitter! So this is definitely going on my list!

So there you have it, my very short tour of bookish Bilbao.