The intriguing Basque city where art and footy live in perfect harmony

It's my first afternoon in Bilbao, and I am standing in parklands, overlooking the compact city, after taking the Artxanda cable car up here.

In front of me, in big red letters,"B.i.l.b.a.o" is spelt out multiple times, in a contiguous arc. Below, the Nervion river snakes through the former port city and, beside it, the luminous Guggenheim Museum, which has drawn 25 million visitors since opening in 1997, glints in the afternoon sun. Also prominent along the river are the extravagant curves of the glass and steel Zubizuri footbridge, designed by renowned architect Santiago Calatrava, and the distinctive red arches of La Salve bridge.

I've only been here a few hours but I am already falling under the spell of this Basque city, hugged by green hills, just inland from the Bay of Biscay, on Spain's north coast.

Arriving in the late morning from London, it's a 20-minute taxi ride from the airport to my central hotel, the Radisson Collection Bilbao. Having checked in to my sixth-floor suite, complete with outdoor terrace and hot tub looking down on the streets below, it is a short stroll into the Old Town, past the baroque Ariaga Theatre and the 15th-century Santiago Cathedral.

Once inside the warren of narrow streets, there is no better way to start my visit than by grazing on pintxos, the Basque equivalent of tapas. I immediately feel like I am somewhere exotic, trying gildas - a combination of olives, anchovies and chilli - in one bar, and stuffed mussels in another. Then I discover Plaza Nueva, hemmed in by pintxos bars, and busy at Friday lunchtime with locals and tourists enjoying traditional dishes like cod omelette and spicy Moorish meat skewers, accompanied by txakoli, a Basque white wine.

I settle into one humming bar, Sorginzulo, savouring the convivial ambience almost as much as the delicious small plates of chorizo and papatas canallas (potatoes with salsa) that I order. It's a theme I'll repeat in pintxos bars on all three afternoons of my visit, both in the Old Town and across central Bilbao. It is hard to go wrong anywhere, with prices varying from 5 to 7 euros ($8-11) per pintxo.

While I could happily gorge on pintxos for my entire visit, on my first night, I'm booked into an exciting new restaurant at my hotel, by Michelin-starred chef Eneko Atxa. This extravaganza begins with drinks on the rooftop terrace before I move inside for a tasting menu that derives its flavours and textures from Basque home cooking. Among the standout dishes at Eneko Basque are the grilled asparagus entree with Idiazabal (sheep's milk) cheese, the fried hake main with traditional green sauce, and the Goxua dessert - a rich, custardy creme caramel - with caramel ice cream.

The following morning, I join guide Joseba Irizar for an insider's tour of Bilbao.

We begin by walking along the sculpture-dotted riverside to the Guggenheim. From the outside, this looks to me like a huge armoured Ned Kelly, its exterior consisting of 33,000 titanium plates and intended by its architect, Frank Gehry, to recall Bilbao's shipbuilding past. While it was denounced as the "Macdonaldisation of architecture" when it opened, the Guggenheim is one of the most magnetic buildings I've seen and it helped transform this once-grim industrial city into one synonymous with art.

From extraordinary outdoor sculptures such as Puppy, by Jeff Koons, originally created in Australia using 60,000 flowers (replaced twice a year), and the arachnoid piece Maman, by Louise Bourgeois, to large-scale works like Richard Serra's weathered steel installations inside, the Guggenheim is alone good enough reason to visit Bilbao. While Serra's swirling sculptures such as Snake and Blind Spot capture my imagination, I'm also much taken with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrored Room installation and with original works by Warhol, Rothko and Basque artist Eduardo Chillida.

Possibly no other city in the world combines culture, food and sport like Bilbao, so it feels entirely natural to follow the Guggenheim with a visit to the San Mames stadium, home to the city's Athletic Club football team, which only fields players from the Basque region. The museum here explores Bilbao's industrial past, its historical trade links with England and highlights the strong Basque identity and fierce independence from Spain. Athletic Club is not just a football team: during the Franco dictatorship, from 1939 to 1975, it became a symbol of resistance.

It's match day today, and the bars in the nearby Indautxu area are overflowing with Athletic fans eating pintxos and supping beer. It's a boisterous, friendly crowd and the cacophony anticipates the best atmosphere, at that night's game, I've experienced in a sports stadium. Athletic's late equaliser sends everybody home happy too.

On my final day in Bilbao, I descend into the modern metro through a striking glass-domed entrance, designed by Norman Foster, and travel out to the World Heritage-listed Vizcaya Bridge.

When it opened, in 1893, this was the world's first transporter bridge, its gondola carrying vehicles and passengers across the Nervion river estuary, between the seaside towns of Portugalete and Getxo, and it is an engineering marvel, designed by Basque architect Alberto Palacio, a follower of Gustave Eiffel.

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I walk across its top section before returning on the shuttle, as a Basque folk band, in black berets and shirts, marches beneath its pylons, playing traditional txistu flutes and banging drums.

I still have a lovely day of bar hopping ahead, and a dinner of roasted hake on a squid marmitako (Basque stew), at Cafe Iruna near my hotel, but I'm already certain I'll be returning to this compelling city and its iconic architecture, fascinating culture and top cuisine.

Getting There: Vueling Airlines has regular cheap flights from London Gatwick to Bilbao, flight time 1hr 50m. vueling.com/en.

Staying There: The 5-star Radisson Collection Bilbao, has rooms from $291 per night: radissonhotels.com

Explore More: bilbaoturismo.net; guggenheim-bilbao.eus/en

The writer was a guest of Radisson Collection Bilbao and assisted by Turespana.