Xmas Tree Decorating 2009

Day 12 -- Bilbao

One quick day in San Sebastian and were off to Bilbao to see the Guggenheim, and fly back to Barsa before our big flight home. Bittersweet is appropriate as we are sad the honeymoon is coming to an end but excited to get home.
There are 2 things to do in Bilbao, the Guggenheim and walk around the Old Quarter, but today we just went to the 'Goog'.
Without getting to think into Architectural commentary.. I love this building. I find it exciting and almost impossible to photograph. Every photo you frame up you see new curves and forms you want to capture. So what you end up doing is shooting tons of pictures and force yourself to seek more abstract compositions. Although this building is seemingly chaotic, it has a nice elegance that allows for balanced images. We had a great time exploring all the galleries inside, but sadly no pictures are allowed. Anyways here are some pics from the goog:

Day 11 -- San Sebastian

Today we drove to San Sebastian. We were a bit sad to be leaving the Rioja, but a little hopeful of better weather on the coast. Not knowing anything about the Basque region the drive itself was surprisingly beautiful. Steep green farms and forests of pine and fall color lined the windy mountain road. I actually felt as if I was driving in a video game where they can make up a pretend landscape, but instead we were in reality driving through it!

San Sebastian is a summer getaway for sure but was nice to see the city without all the tourists. We walked from our hotel to the ocean and the main part of town.

Overlooking the Playa de la concha



San Sebastian is a beautiful old town that looks more like Buenos Aires or Paris.





Apparently the thing to do hear is the 'tapas crawl' Where you walk down street after street lined with 'pinchos' bars.

One of the streets lined with the tapas bars


All the food (big hors d'ouvers) is out on platters across the bar. Everyone stands around and points or picks up what they want, has a few, a glass of wine or canya(draft beer) and moves on to the next one. Its basically a city wide cocktail party, except you have to pay. But only a euro or two per pincho. We did this for lunch an dinner. It was quite an event as the Spanish here in the Basque region sounds nothing like spanish, and has too many x's, z's and two few vowels to even try and fake. Not to mention we had no idea the etiquette for getting food. But though trial and error and correction from the bartender we got the hang of it and had a great cultural experience!

Day 10 -- Rioja day 2

Today we had an enligh (whohoo) tour of the Muga bodega. It was excellent. They showed us everything to do with the wine production and storage. They even make their own barrels here (very rare). That was really cool to see. They also walked us along the bottling assembly line where they add the labels and corks before going off to age.
Turns out the US is Muga's biggest market right now (that said we'll just buy some at home!)





We are so lucky to see this valley in the fall, the red and yellows and oranges are spectacular!



Frank Gehry's Ciudad hotel in Elciego was our next stop. Beautiful! Said to be modeled after a flamenco dancer's skirt. Security is super tight here. They have guards everywhere and wont let you walk around the outside even......unless you eat there. Soooo we made lunch reservations! Access was granted the next day for our lunch. The dining room is on the second floor where you can see the one lone window in the photo below. The food - amazingly good! The meal won for being our most expensive yet - but so worth i! They brought the chef out to meet all the diners as well, nice touch, he was surprisingly quite young, but cooks up some excellent hake fish and truffle meatballs! mmmm



Here we are upstairs at our table inside the hotel.

Day 9 -- Rioja day 1

We arrived late afternoon yesterday. Laguardia is a 16th century medieval walled city (no cars in the whole town! Nice for walking!)
Anyways, we pull up to a door to the city, park the car on the side, and walk in....First of all what an amazing town, second..where the heck is the hotel? We asked the fruit market guy and he directs us to the correct place.
We find the hotel and through a series of slow spanish and half pantomime we check in and figure out the nice lady wearing a maids costume with a nursing hat will help us with the bags. The hotel is very old with a bodega underneath! We got to visit this and one other bodega in our town and taste a little wine as well. Wine here is much different than in California, but good!

Here is what every quaint street in this little town looks like:


Laguardia is a hill town with 360 views. Here are some of them...


Morning view as we walk to our car


Everywhere you drive looks like this!






A tree line park surrounds the edge of the city walls. Im thinking these beautiful trees are Platanus acerifolia? Just gorgeous!

Day 8 -- leaving Barsa

Hey everybody!
Its been a few days since our last blog. We have been out of Internet contact for our stay in the Rioja. Thanks so much for all of your comments and we love knowing that you are all out there following our adventure.
Today is Friday, but Im going to pretend its Tuesday, the day we left Barsa.

So today we leave Barsa for the Rioja. . .Laguardia to be precise.


4 hour drive or so and we'll be there!

The drive proved to be beautiful! The country side here is more and more amazing as we drive from fields of grape vines, to mountains, and tons of fall color!

Day 7 -- Barcelona pt 2`

After a morning of rest, Jenny was feeling up for a little tour. We headed to the Sagrada Familia, and I have to say my favorite part was walking out of the metro station with the temple behind us telling Jenny to turn around and see her first reaction. It is an amazing site to see, and when you realize that the tallest spires are yet to be built you can't say anything but wow.

After that we had some much needed pizza, and headed to Gaudi's La Pedrera, and Casa Batllo.

I'll upload some pics later tomorrow I hope.