Haro, Elciego, and Getaria Spain

This was a new type of trip for us - involving 'foreign car hire', which was easy to arrange online, but infinitely more difficult when actually at the Avis counter at the Bilbao Airport trying to get an upgrade of our car from the Spanish station-minivan we were originally given to an Audi. (one of Rachel's absolute favorite activities is waiting in the car rental parking area while I 'see what can be done' back at the counter).

We left (in our Audi A3) and headed out for Haro... in the wrong direction... without GPS assistance, in an area where the street signs are in Euskara (the Basque language) where even my Sesame Street Spanish failed me (for example, Abierto = Zabalik here). I wish we had taken a picture of the map that the guy in the gas station drew us on three consecutive strips of receipt paper - or an audio recording of the conversation that I had with him with a full language barrier in place. I learned that rotonda = roundabout, and we were back on track - at least the steering wheel and stick shift were back in their 'correct' positions.

Our first night was in Haro - just south of the Basque border, and 'capital' of the Rioja wine region. We had divvied up hotel responsibilities for the trip, and this one was mine... a building that spent time in its 700 year history as a monastery, hospital, military garrison, and hotel.
It actually encompasses what used to be a small square in the city, which is now enclosed by a glass roof under which is their lobby and restaurant. We got there late (10-ish) had a nice dinner and got some advice about which bodegas/wineries to visit the next day.

After coffee & toast in the main square (you can see small Rachel at right), we walked down from the fortified town to explore a bit. It is an absolutely beautiful area of Spain that I had never seen before - we had a great time struggling with our rudimentary Spanish in an area where not much English is spoken (as opposed to the relative ease of traveling in the larger cities), sampling some of the regional cuisine (the rustic pork dish that still had a bit of hair on the skin, leg of lamb with what looked to be intact tibia and fibula extending off of the plate, and whole grilled fish were all very interesting - and very tasty.)

From Haro we set off to Elciego to the new hotel built over the ancient cellars of Marquis de Riscal. I have not been as excited to see a hotel since the Palmilla in Mexico -- and it did not disappoint - here is our first view of it from the road (photo at left) and then another from up close. It was built by Frank Gehry, who designed the Guggenheim museum that put Bilbao back on the map a decade or so ago, from sandstone, aluminum, and titanium. While exceptionally incongruous, somehow it fits in with the town (we learned that it was a built a meter shorter than the cathedral in town so as not to upstage God in the eyes of the town - who had very mixed reactions to the new 'city of wine' that was planned. We were here for two nights, and did not move our car once - only leaving the property for a short bike ride to town one day for lunch in one of the two restaurants in town - we were the only non-locals, and our intended quick bite to eat resulted in a one menu option of a traditional Spanish lunch (multiple hours and courses - this is where the lamb leg was - and I am very glad that we fought the initial thought of fleeing the scene because it was one of those great unintended experiences: watching F1 racing in a random restaurant with great, inexpensive food). -- we had a run up through the vineyards the next day to make ourselves feel better about the decadence here before we left for the north coast.

After another adventurous drive that brought us to the same woman at the same tollbooth twice... we made our way up towards San Sebastien. The scenery on this drive was fantastic - winding along rivers next to abrupt mountains - and it was all very green/verdant and reminiscent of Vancouver - definitely not what I had ever seen of Spain. Rach had found a hotel online that, while not in San Sebastian, ended up being a great find, once we found it (they really need better hotel signs or directions in these towns - or they could all be made from pink titanium so that you can see them from a distance). This one was in Getaria (click to see the satellite view of the whole town and its setting), and perched on a cliff (at left, with our car) overlooking the ocean - which was amazing when the more stormy weather moved in later that day - and with the intermittent rough weather we decided to forgo our visit to San Sebastian in favor of exploring this quaint little town we had never heard of. It turns out that much of the Txakoli and Sidre that people have with their tapas/pintxos is produced on the sides of the steep hills here, and we also learned that it is one of the main fishing ports in the area which explains why the fish I was so wary of (the eye follows you when you look at the photo) was also quite possibly the best tasting fish I've ever had. We saw weather that ranged from brilliant sun to rain with wind so hard, and directly at our hotel windows, that the rain appeared to 'fall' upwards.

To avoid the 'mega post' - below are just a few more photos that I really like, click here to see even (many) more, here to see a map of our full journey, and keep an eye out for Rachel's take on this trip!