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| Hotel Marques de Riscal |
Our next port was Bilbao, Spain. I did not know much about the final three ports on our trip, and in hindsight, I am glad I didn't. Bilbao is in the north west of Spain, in the Basque country. I did not realize how regionalized Spain is. There are different dialects and even different languages in certain areas of Spain. In Bilbao, the Spanish language was a little different from the norm, but they also spoke Basque. Signs were written in both Spanish and Basque. Bilbao was a much larger city than I expected, with a large amount of activity in their port. Bilbao was another over night port, so we had two days to tour the area.
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| Basque Wine Country |
Our first day in Bilbao started with a coach ride outside of the city into the Basque country towards the wine country. The terrain of this area was much different than either of the French ports. La Havre and La Rochelle were very flat with leafy trees and a lot of agriculture. Bilbao was almost mountainous, more hilly, but comparatively it was mountainous, with some pine type trees. We drove through and over the hills (not to grandmother's house), and on the other side the terrain was very flat and almost arid. It did not take long before we saw plots of grape vines everywhere. It was gorgeous. The ground was mostly tan and brown, so the green grape vines popped more so than in France. Our first stop was a vineyard called Marques de Riscal in the town of Elciego. The tour started in their shop, but then we walked across to the hotel. Wait, they have a hotel. As we are walking to it, Dave, the architect of the group, was in shock. The hotel was the Hotel Marques De Riscal, which is a Frank Gehry designed building. Frank Gehry is the architect that designed the Guggenheim. This place was incredible. It is part of the Starwood Luxury collection and only has 43 guest rooms The flowing metal design represents the colors of the vineyards that surround it. We watched a movie about the vineyard and hotel and then walked out to the vineyard. We happened to be there at the perfect time: harvest. The grapes were plump, purple and ready to be picked. As our tour guide, who was awesome, walked us through the vineyard, she explained that most of the grapes were tempranillo. In Europe there are governing bodies that regulate what type of grapes can be grown in specific areas of the continent. In this case, tempranillo is one of the few grapes that is allowed to be grown. Interestingly enough, our tour guide showed us that they had several plots that were Cabernet Sauvignon. Those grapes are not technically allowed in the region, but the vines were actually planted before the regulations were put in place so they were grandfathered in.
After walking through the vineyard, we went back to where the wine is produced. This winery is much larger than the one we saw in Bordeaux. They ship all over the world (we found some at Lukas liquor in Kansas City when we got back). Their facility used a lot more technology than the French as well. They had touch screens all over and their specs were on flat screen TVs. After walking through the fermenting containers, we walked out to a courtyard and got to watch workers pick and sort the grapes. This was really cool. We got to eat some too. They were really good. This was a treat. Lisa and I have been to several wineries both in California and locally in Missouri and Arkansas, and we have not been able to see this process. It was awesome.
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| Hard at work picking the best grapes |
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| Mmmm......Grapes! |
After finishing the tour, we got to taste the wine. They gave us a red Rioja and a white Verdejo. They were delicious. Fruity and easy to drink. They were both great wines to sit on the deck with some snack and friends and just hang out. They were both light and a little fruity, but not overly fruity. They would be great with tapas. After the tasting, we went into the gift shop and they had several other wines that we could pay per taste. There was one called Baron de Chirel, which is 80% tempranillo and 20% "other". I asked the tour guide about it and she said the other is cabernet. Since they are not technically allowed to grow cabernet, they cannot put it on the label, so they call it "Other". This was delicious. We bought a bottle to bring home.
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| Enjoying a delicious beverage |
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| Tempranillo and "Other" |
We then loaded back up in our coach and headed to La Guardia, a town that dates back to the 12th century. This place was great. We couldn't drive into the town. The coach parked outside the walls of the town and we walked through to the town. The town was very quint and very quiet. There were not many people here. The attraction at La Guardia was the clock in the square. On the hour, figures would come out of the clock and dance. These are not people, they are mechanical figures. It looked like a giant coo-coo clock. We had lunch here, which was pretty tasty. After walking around La Guardia after lunch, we loaded up and headed to Vitoria, the capital of the Basque region. Vitoria was an interesting mix of urban and historic. There were sections that we all new buildings and then others that were still historic and unchanged. There were not many attractions per se, it was more of a walking tour of the city. I thought it was a great experience to see a "typical" Basque city.
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| Streets of La Guardia |
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| Clock in La Guardia |
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| View of Wine Country leaving La Guardia |
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| Plaza de la Virgen Blanca in Vitoria |
After our tour of Vitoria, we headed back to the ship. When we got there, a few of us hung out on the back of the ship and watched the sun go down behind the port. Bilbao was a more scenic port than the first two (La Havre was secluded and La Rochelle was in an industrial area). It was a beautiful, relaxing evening.
Next up, more fun in Bilbao......
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