Part 1 - Rioja and Vitoria

Even if you have travelled extensively in Spain, chances are you have not been to Vitoria. And what a shame.

We arrived into Bilbao airport after a trying but not impossible journey. Not exactly fun, but, like getting a filling, you just try to relax as much as possible and wait for it to be over. Kudos to Air France for taking good care of us, and providing much-needed support. Air France is SO worth the extra $100 in air fare.

Vitoria is about an hour drive from Bilbao. Our driver/navigator team decided that our cultural experience needed to start immediately, and opted for the scenic route, which only took an extra hour and a half. It did allow us to drive through several small towns, with picture-perfect scenes of grannies riding on carts, etc. The signs entering and exiting towns had the Spanish name spray painted out, corrected with the Basque name, leaving no doubt that we were in the heart of Basque ("Euskadi", in Basque) country. We arrived in Vitoria just in time to have a quick meal of pinchos (Basque version of Tapas) at a bar and hit the sack. The next morning we were up bright and early to hop on the bus for a tour of the Rioja region, as organized by our dear hosts. We went to Laguardia, a completely medival village, where we saw the most amazing cathedral portal I have ever seen in my life, followed by a tour of a winery with ancient caves. We lunched on jamon, cheese, and tortilla espanola as we tasted the various wines.

Our tour guide gave his tour in "English", which defied comprehension by the Spanish speaking, English speaking, and bilingual guests. We learned when he was telling a joke by watching his guestures and picking up on occasional words like "wife" and "stomach", and laughed accordingly. Maria Angeles pointed out the house her grandfather used to live in as we headed back to the bus.

After the ancient winery which prided itself on maintaining traditial practices, we went to a winery that prided itself on modern architechture and high-tech wine production. Munch preferred this one, as the vast polished cement floors provided ample space for rapid crawling. The wine here was good, but the building left a greater impression.

We spent the following day exploring Vitoria itself. Its modern shell houses an incredibly beautiful interior, filled with a large pedestrian zone and many parks. Aside from the wedding guests and the rockers that had decended on the town for a music festival, we saw no tourists during our stay. What struck us the most was that the people who live in this town seem incredibly prosperous, and appear to have an amazing quality of life. They fill the pedestrian areas and the plaza every evening to meet with family and friends over a glass of wine and window shop. The bars and restaurants wind down after 10:00 on weeknights when everyone heads home. We went out the night of the wedding, and left the bars packed full at 2:30 AM. That put a big smile on my face - THIS is what I remember.