Smell it before you see it: Bermeo announces itself with diesel, salt and grilled fish. This is one of the main fishing ports on the Basque coast, a town of about seventeen thousand people whose harbour is still full of working boats, with tall old houses stacked behind and the fish market and the old fishermen's quarter in plain view. The Basque fleet has gone out from here for centuries, and the town takes its anchovies and bonito very seriously. If you see marmitako, the tuna and potato stew, on a menu, order it.
Bermeo sits at the mouth of the Urdaibai estuary, a UNESCO biosphere reserve of marsh, tidal flats and oak woods that is a stopover for migrating birds. Just along the estuary, Mundaka has a famous left-hand surf wave that draws surfers from all over the world. West of town, the coast road to Bakio runs along a line of high cliffs and passes the islet of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, a rock joined to the mainland by a stone causeway and a long stairway up to a small hermitage. It has become well known since a certain television series filmed there, and in summer the car park below fills up, so go early or off season.
This is a coast of short, sharp riding rather than long straight miles. The BI-3101 that runs along the sea has a steady rhythm of curves, climbing and dropping over headlands with the Bay of Biscay beyond the guard rail. Inland, the road up toward Mount Sollube climbs through eucalyptus and pine in tight turns, and on a clear day gives wide views over the estuary. Weather here is Atlantic and changeable, so expect low cloud, drizzle, and greasy tarmac on any day of the year, even in summer. The best days are those after a front passes, when the air is clear and the sea is dark blue.
As a town of this size Bermeo has fuel, supermarkets and many places to eat, and the harbour front bars are the best place for pintxos with a small glass of local white wine, txakoli. Parking a bike near the port is not difficult, and walking the old town above the harbour gives you a good sense of how the Basque coast feels away from the big cities.