This is the Leioa-Unbe highway. Unbe rises up from Leioa (just east of Getxo at the mouth of the Nervión river) and out towards Derio and comes out just northeast of Bilbao. These vineyards probably grow the wine necessary to make txakoli, a very young white wine that's popular in the Basque Country.
The Leioa-Unbe highway, facing in the direction of Leioa and the Leioa campus of the University of the Basque Country (UPV or EHU). The mountain in the background is Mount Serantes, and is on the other side of the Nervión (the west side), just beyond Santurtzi.
Heading towards Loiu/Derio. Loiu is where the Bilbao airport (designed by Santiago Calatrava) is located.
A house built in the Basque farmhouse (called a caserío or baserri in Basque) style.
The barrio, or neighborhood/district of Sarrieri, just outside Leioa. The building in the far right is the Saint Ignatius Loyola Neuropsychiatric Center, and it's right next to the largest mall in the Basque Country, called Artea. We could see it from our house!
The Peruri neighborhood, just up and across the street from our building.
Our building! On the map you can see where it is in comparison to Getxo (everything to the east of the highway is Leioa, everything to the west is Getxo). For relation's sake, we were about a 30-minute walk from the beach just visible in the upper left corner.
The red box marks which apartment was ours, and the arrow points to where my bedroom was. The buildings on the left weren't completed until just before we moved in June of 2000, though they'd been working on them (or at least trying to). There's a park in the back (technically the front) that we couldn't use for a full six months after we moved in (even in the Basque Country, things can take a long time to get done...).
On the other side of the building was the major highway that ran from Plentzia way down the coast and down to Bilbao. Our apartment had two balconies and the red box shows which apartment was ours.
This is a pedestrian bridge crossing the highway, making it easier to get from one side to the other so we could get to school. The truth was, it was easier to walk places than to drive to them from this location. It worked out quite nicely!
This is where I went to school for 7th and 8th grade. For a reference, where the red marker is is just about a kilometer south of our house. I had to walk about 20 minutes to go to school every day, but it wasn't too bad. I had two classmates who lived nearby and we'd walk to school often, so it was nice.
A larger view of the school. There was a huge gymnasium in the back, that was built right before I started 7th grade.
Looking towards the Artatza roundabout, that turns into the highway going either to the beach (left) or to Bilbao (right). The building in the background is where we used to buy a pound of candy for 100 pesetas. xDDD Good times.
Right next door is where my three younger siblings went to school. They got out half an hour after I did, so I'd often wait with my friends who were taking private English classes at the same time my siblings got out so we could walk home together.
Oh gosh, I'm reading over this and I sound so awkward, like I'm explaining things to kindergarteners. :/ Sorry about that, guys! On a serious note, this is probably the best place we ever lived. It was definitely our nicest living arrangement in Spain I think. Our last house in Olivares near Sevilla was wonderful too, though. It's just that this one, unlike all the others, actually had central heating. Contrary to popular belief, it does actually get cold in Spain, even in Sevilla. xD
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