Spanish students go on a trip to the eye-opening Bilbao Maritime Museum

“I had no idea that Bilbao had changed so much!” This was how one student summed up the trip to the Maritime Museum on Wednesday, 24th August. Like every weekday afternoon, a group of Instituto Hemingway students got together to find out more about Bilbao and its surroundings, as one of the free extra activities offered by the school.
The Museum tells us about the importance of the Nervión river (also called the Bilbao Estuary), both to the city and to the Basque Country: it was the riverbank shipyards that created the mid 20th century economic boom in Bilbao, while in 1983 the water level rose to 5 metres, causing chaos in the city, especially in the Casco Viejo. Today, Bilbao´s main artery serves as a wildlife habitat and allows the city´s population the possibility of endless pastimes and sports.
For us, the most impressive exhibit in the museum was the Piel de Luz display. In pride of place in Bilbao´s pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010, the display demonstrates the changes that Bilbao has been through by means of an LED sculpture of the city, as well as other images. So used to the modern Bilbao, we were surprised by the old images of the city, its appearance marked by the industries that existed until just 25 years ago.
To conclude our visit, we viewed the boats which are on display in the museum´s docks. We were even able to go inside one of them! Enchanted by the river´s past, some of us walked home in order to wander along the river, enjoying the beauty of the banks of the Nervión and, of course, chat a little in Spanish.