Two museums in Bilbao close on different days of the week, and the sign that tells you so may only be in Basque. Euskal Museoa closes on asteartea, Tuesday, and Itsasmuseum on astelehena, Monday. Eleven words are enough to tell those apart before you walk there.
What does itxita mean on a Bilbao sign? Closed. Euskal Museoa Bilbao prints «Astearteetan Itxita» in Basque and «Martes Cerrado», Tuesday closed, in Spanish on the same page. The three other words that decide a plan are ordutegia, timetable; doakoa, free; and murriztua, the reduced ticket, priced at €5 in that museum.
Basque and Spanish share the signage across Bizkaia, and a good deal of official timetable and pricing information is published in Basque first.
Eleven words that cover a station board
None of the equivalences below is a translation of mine. Each comes from comparing the same page or the same printed poster in its two versions, as published by Euskotren and by the museums themselves.
| Basque | English | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|
| Ordutegia | Timetable, opening hours | Euskotren posters, museum pages |
| Maiztasuna | Frequency | Euskotren timetable posters |
| Itxita | Closed | Museum calendars, suspended services |
| Urtero itxita | Annual closure | Euskal Museoa calendar |
| Sarrera orokorra | Standard admission | Museum tariffs, €10.00 |
| Murriztua | Reduced | Museum tariffs, €5.00 |
| Doakoa | Free of charge | Free-admission lists |
| Sarrerak | Tickets | Museum booking buttons |
| Geltokia | Station | Stop names such as Amorebieta Geltokia |
| Gunea | Fare zone | Bizkaibus itineraries, “gunea 1 zona” |
| Jaiegunak | Public holidays | Timetables and opening hours |
Gunea is the one that costs money. It appears on Bizkaibus itineraries beside a number, and that fare zone, not the distance, is what sets the price of the ticket, as covered in the guide to getting around Bilbao and Bizkaia.
Sarrera orokorra and murriztua are the two price lines of any museum ticket desk. At Euskal Museoa they read 10,00 € and 5,00 €, with a third band of €3.00 for registered unemployed visitors. The same page adds azken sarrera, last admission, set one hour before closing.
From and to, written at the end of the word
Basque marks direction with endings rather than with separate prepositions, and a timetable is where that shows up first. -tik means from and -ra means to, according to Euskotren’s own bilingual posters.
Euskotren prints all three of these on its line posters, with the Spanish equivalent alongside:
- Astelehenetik ostiralera — Monday to Friday
- Larunbatetik igandera — Saturday into Sunday, the night-service band
- Ekainaren 22tik aurrera — from 22 June onwards, the date the timetable takes effect
That last one matters more than it looks. Basque timetables state their start date rather than a range, so a poster reading ekainaren 22tik aurrera is the summer schedule and stays valid until a new one replaces it. The times behind that particular poster, station by station, are in the guide to the Bilbao to Mundaka and Bermeo train.
One more phrase from the same sheet is worth memorising: tren aldaketa, change of train. It marks services that are not through trains, and on the E4 it flags the ones that split at Amorebieta Geltokia, the station of Amorebieta-Etxano.
The days, and the syllable that separates them
Five of the seven days begin with aste-, the word for week, which is exactly the problem. Astelehena is Monday, asteartea Tuesday, asteazkena Wednesday, osteguna Thursday, ostirala Friday, larunbata Saturday, igandea Sunday.
On signs they rarely appear in that plain form. They are declined: astelehenetan means on Mondays and astearteetan on Tuesdays, which is the form printed on the Euskal Museoa calendar next to its hours of 10:00 - 19:00, dropping to 10:00 - 14:00 on Sundays and public holidays.
The practical consequence is a wasted walk. Euskal Museoa closes on Tuesdays and is free every Wednesday; Itsasmuseum closes on Mondays and is free on Sundays from 5pm. Both are covered in the guide to Bilbao’s museums.
What a museum page calls each section
Museum websites in Bizkaia repeat the same four headings, and knowing them turns a Basque-only page into a navigable one.
Bisita is the visit section, ordutegiak eta tarifak the hours and prices page, nola iritsi the how-to-get-there page and erakusketak the exhibitions. Lagunak, friends, is the membership scheme that usually carries free admission.
Those five headings appear on the Euskal Museoa site in exactly that order, and the equivalent Spanish page uses the same structure, so a link clicked in one language lands on the same page in the other.
The six words that save a wasted trip
- Itxita → closed, the word that decides whether to set off
- Doakoa → free of charge, on every free-admission list
- Ordutegia → timetable, the page title you are searching for
- Astelehena and asteartea → Monday and Tuesday, the two usual closing days
- Geltokia → station, inside many stop names
- Gunea → fare zone, the word that sets the price
Why searching in Basque finds the page
There is a practical reason to use these words beyond reading a sign: part of the official documentation in Bizkaia is published in Basque first, and sometimes only in Basque. Museum activity notices, tariff updates and seasonal warnings routinely appear that way.
The Itsasmuseum case is the clearest. Its current tariff note, setting the standard ticket at €10, the reduced one at €5 and free entry on Sundays from 5pm, exists in Basque, as set out in the guide to the Itsasmuseum Bilbao.
So when an English or Spanish search fails to reach an official page, the Basque word usually finds it: ordutegia for the timetable, tarifak for the fares, sarrerak for the tickets.
Names stay, words change
One rule prevents most confusion: place, station and institution names do not change with the language of the page, while common nouns do. The station at Sopela is Sopela in both versions, and the Old Town metro stop carries both forms at once as Zazpi Kaleak-Casco Viejo.
Where a name does have two forms, the question is which one is official rather than what it means. Bilbo is the Basque form of the city while Bilbao is the official name, and the Getxo district of Areeta / Las Arenas is officially both at once. Which form to type, and the ruling behind each, is set out in the guide to Bilbao or Bilbo.
Frequently asked questions about Basque on signs
What does itxita mean on a Bilbao sign?
Closed. Euskal Museoa Bilbao prints «Astearteetan Itxita» in its Basque version and «Martes Cerrado», Tuesday closed, in the Spanish one. The word appears on museum calendars and on suspended bus and rail services alike.
What does doakoa mean on a price list?
Free of charge. Itsasmuseum Bilbao heads its free-admission block «Doako sarrera», and the paid lines beneath it read «Orokorra 10 €» for the standard ticket and «Murriztua 5 €» for the reduced one.
How do you read the days of the week in Basque?
Astelehena is Monday, asteartea Tuesday, asteazkena Wednesday, osteguna Thursday, ostirala Friday, larunbata Saturday and igandea Sunday. The first five all begin with aste-, so the distinguishing sound is the second syllable.
What do the endings -tik and -ra mean on a timetable?
From and to. Euskotren prints «Astelehenetik ostiralera», Monday to Friday, and «Ekainaren 22tik aurrera», from 22 June onwards, so the range is marked by word endings rather than by separate prepositions.
Do place names change between the Basque and Spanish versions?
Station and town names stay the same in both, while common words are translated. Sopela is Sopela on either version, and Zazpi Kaleak-Casco Viejo carries both forms in the station name itself.
Eleven words read any timetable in Bizkaia, and two of them keep you from walking to a locked door.