Wine Country

As you may or may not know, Spain is pretty famous for its red wine. Most of it is made in the Rioja region of Spain which is in the north, just south of Bilbao. So, when my family decided to come for a visit, it was only natural that we decided to make a trip to wine country.

My dad, mom and brother Drew came to visit me for a week. And luckily, since I put in a bunch of extra time preparing the Easter gyncana, I got to take the week off to spend it with them. First they came to Sevilla where we got to see the Royal Alcazar, the Setas in Plaza de Encarnacion and Parque Maria Luisa. They also got to meet Javier, the 19 year old Spanish son of my coworker who is coming to live with us this summer. We went for a lunch with them at a restaurant called Modesto that lasted over 3 hours and was extremely filling. Then, on Monday they got the chance to come out to my school with me. So, I got to show them where I work and let me meet all of my students and coworkers. I think my favorite part about that is whenever one of the students would ask a question, they would direct it at a specific person. For example, one student would ask "What is your favorite color to the daddy?" or "What is your favorite animal to the mommy?"

Puppy at the Guggenheim

After spending time in Bormujos, we had to head to the airport to catch our flight to Bilbao. In Bilbao, we took a funicular to the top of the city and saw some amazing views, then ate a lot of delicious pintxos. Pintxos are tapas on pieces of bread. The next day we got to go to the Guggenheim. It was just as cool as the first time and I'm glad I had the opportunity to visit again. After the museum, my dad and I went to go get our rental car. The man in the shop said that we were getting a van and my mom had ordered a mini van, so I figured ok, sounds good. We went to the garage to pick up the car and BOOM we got the biggest car in the history of the universe. I am pretty sure this car is for creepy men to "sell candy" from. Anyway, we drove up to Azurmendi for lunch and the car managed to stall out a ton of times. We even had to have an old man help us turn it around on a hill. So, during lunch I called the place back and asked if they had any smaller models. We went back and traded the car then headed to Elciego in the Rioja region.

Back to Azurmendi for a second- it is a small winery that has a tour then lunch at it. The food we got there was delicious. We had beef, fish, potato-leek soup, croquettes with pistachios and dessert. The views from the winery (set on a hill) were amazing!

Our hotel in Elciego was called Marques de Riscal. It is a winery and luxury hotel that was designed by the same man who designed the Guggenheim. After getting checked in we decided to look around the hotel and find a place to have a glass of wine and relax. We then got ready for dinner and went to a restaurant called Asador Alameda in Fuenmayor which was delicious, but a bit too much food for night time.

The next morning we got up to do our big day of winery tours. We went to R. Lopez de Herrida Vina Tondonia winery first. This winery was very traditional, even down to having their own cooper (barrel maker) on the premesis. Luckily our tour was very small and we even got to see their "cathedral" where they keep the best wines that are aging. The cellar was pretty moldy, but we found out that the moldy environment helps the wine to age to perfection. After having some wine in their tasting room and purchasing a couple of bottles, we headed to Roda, the winery next door. We didn't tour here, we just tasted their wine. The tasting room was in a cave, so it was pretty cool! Then we went to Laguardia where we got to go into an extremely old winery called Carlos San Pedro Perez de Vinaspre. The owners son gave us a tour and even pulled wine out of the vats where it was aging to let us taste. After these two tours, we worked up quite an appetite. We went to a restaurant in Laguardia called Mayor de Migueloa and had an amazing meal with a funny waitor. After that, we headed to our hotel to tour the winery there. It was much more modern than the other places we saw- full of stainless steel barrels and machinery- so it was nice to see a different way to make wine. Andrew and I got to go to the spa and have massages afterward, which was super relaxing. That night, we went to dinner in our hotel where I had some delicious meatballs and potatoes.

On Thursday, we only went to one winery. It was called Bodegas Ysios and was extremely modern. The winery was built in the early 2000's by an architect called Santiago Calatrava. He is very famous in not only Spain, but the world for his unique style of architecture. After seeing the modern process of winemaking and buying a bottle, we headed to Logroño for tapas on Laurel Street. The food was amazing and they were even having a promotion that for every tapa you bought, you got a tiny envelope that you opened and (maybe) won a free tapa somewhere else. My mom won one, but we didn't end up using it. After tapas, we drove to San Sebastian to return the car and get to our final hotel. We got to Hotel Londres just in time to have an hour on the beach then see the sunset. That night we ate at a place called Branka which I highly recommend!

The weather didn't stay in our favor for going to the beach on Friday. It was really cloudy and foggy. So, besides our big lunch at Alkelare (a post that is going to be separate cause I have pictures of all of our courses), we did a lot of sitting around and being lazy. Saturday we climbed to the top of Monte Urgull or Jesus mountain as I like to call it. The views from the top were great, but probably would have been better had it been less foggy. Then we saw Saint Mary's Basillica in the old part of town and got some lunch. We relaxed for the afternoon since a lot of things closed during siesta, then headed out for a pintxos dinner for our last night together.

It was an amazing trip and I am so glad that my family could come and we could experience all of these adventures together.