Howdy olgad,
I’ve not done any shipping from Canada to Spain but I have moved around a bit from England to Spain as well as in and around Spain. I guess shipping is more related to your budget but I personally tend to lean more towards the path of least resistance/headaches. To eliminate the headache factor I’d personally go air cargo, maybe with Air Canada Cargo ? I’ve never found air cargo to be too expensive (in other long distance moves) for the elimination of headaches. It is worth mentioning that Bilbao has it’s own airport ~30 minutes from Bilbao city centre. I usually do flights from Spain to England and England to Calgary-Vancouver. I have done Vancouver-Calgary to Frankfurt and then to Madrid with an internal flight to Bilbao…. with a bit of research I figure you’ll find an “economic” way of getting it through. Canada Post??
Shipping by sea from Canada?... No idea (I’ve only looked into it once) but it might be worth mentioning that"P & O Ferries”(http://www.poferries.com/tourist/content/pages/template/routes_routes.htm) and “Brittany Ferries” (http://www.brittany-ferries.com/) operate from Portsmouth to Bilbao and Brittany Ferries operate from Plymouth to Santander (~2 hours travel by car to Bilbao)... I assume that the research path for sea cargo more logical from Canada to South England to Spain other than Canada straight to Spain….?
Last of all, I’ve learned, throughout the years, that the “cheap route” often turns out to be a juggling act in an attempt to save “a few dollars” but often is accompanied with a bucket load of headaches, then the unplanned shelling out of money only in trying to make it work out. Now I do “direct” first and then worry about the cheaper options within that.
I hope I have provided some useful insight to help you along with your search (I hope). I have better knowledge of the Santander area than Bilbao (part of my wife’s family live in Bilbao). I’ll check up on this thread from time to time so if you have any questions I’ll try my best to help you out.
Good Luck
BB