Salamanca

There's something magical about the name Salamanca and I think it was merely the name that drew me there, I had no map or even any idea what I should see, so instead I wandered through streets filled with yellow stone buildings.

The streets and alleys are filled with tourists, some even with maps and looking like they know where they're going, as you might expect there are churches galore and even a cathedral, narrow lanes and open squares, it was beautiful but it was only okay.

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Segovia

If you take the backroads from Valladolid, your first view of Segovia is magical, there in front of you is a fairytale castle on a hill, beyond that is the town buildings crowned by the majestic Cathedral, for that moment alone it's worth the trip to Segovia.

It's a UNESCO Heritage Site so as you can imagine there's a lot of old stuff and while the Cathedral and Castle are impressive, the first thing you see as you walk into town from the bus station is easily the most impressive. Towering above the surrounding buildings and once bringing water to this hill town is an impressive Roman aquaduct. Impressive that it's still standing, impressive by its sheer scale, at the bottom of the hill it's the only thing you see.

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Bilbao

I think I would probably have loved Bilbao even if the Guggenheim wasn't there, it really is a beautiful city, the question is whether I would have even heard of the place if the Guggenheim wasn't there?

Probably not, which is a terrible shame. Dublin is really a hodge-podge of a city with not much in the way of old architecture, there is no flow or feeling of age, just a collection of buildings clumped together so coming from that type of background it can be strange and wondrous walking through European towns with their intact old towns.

The old town of Bilbao is nicely atmospheric, its shadowy narrow streets and lanes a maze just asking to be explored, across the river there are the big grandiose buildlings with their squares and parks but it's not all old in Bilbao, down in "the Extension" is the new part of town with some very attractive modern architechture, the Guggenheim is merely the posterboy of their modernity rather than the be-all-and-end-all.

It's the river that makes the town, it weaves its way through the city linking the various areas together, it's the heart of the city and every night there's be people taking their promenade along its banks.