Rioja Time!

We had a two hour drive south to the Rioja region. I didn't expect the area to be so green and mountainous. So beautiful. The rainbow didn't hurt, either!

We had already made our wine tour reservations in advance, so we headed straight to Ysios winery in Laguardia. I was thrilled to see all of the spring trees in bloom. We were a bit early so we walked first through the sleepy town (siesta time!). 

You can't miss this vineyard as you approach it. It was designed to be modern, but to blend into the countryside. The roof is meant to mimic the mountain range behind it. The name is a combination of the Gods Osiris and Isis.

I'll put "tour" in quotes because we were basically walked into the building and shown the barrels and that was it. The tasting was a bit more in depth and held in a room with great views over the vineyards back to the town of Laguardia. We tried two of their wines (priced at 45 and 60 euros each, respectively). I, for one could not taste the different between these wines and the 10-15 euro bottles we usually get. The other people on the tour, a Parisian couple and their baby living in London with a wine making father in Bordeaux had other opinions! The Iberico ham with this tasting was 100% though!

From the winery we went to our hotel for the next two nights, Finca de los Arandinos (also featured on the Bachelorette of course). They had a "low price deal" (actually called that, didn't we feel classy checking in ;)), which included hotel, breakfast, dinner at their great restaurant including their wine, and a discount on the use of the spa. The hotel room was really cool with a bathroom that came out of nowhere (you had to fold out all of the doors to create the spaces).

It was sunset when we arrived so we took a walk around the property, taking in all of the beauty!

We settled in for dinner at the early bird seating of 8:30pm! And we didn't leave until midnight. Audra is good company and apparently we had a lot to talk about! Plus we had to get through all of the wine they served us.

 The theme of the day Saturday was pink. Fitting for a girl's trip, no? It should be clear to see why!

Balcony view. Good morning, Rioja!

Long breakfast followed by the morning spent at the spa.

Rose in the sun

We had our next wine tasting at 4pm and Audra humored me on an adventure to find this beautiful field of flowering trees that we could see from the hotel. The concierge gave me general directions how to find it and we went off roading! Turns out they are almond trees and while they looked purple from a distance, they were a gorgeous pink up close. 

Then it was onto our tour and tasting at Maques de Riscal also near Laguardia. This tour was really informative and they took us around to almost all of the buildings on the property dating back to the 1860s! All of the wine is still made and aged on site. The 4 million bottles are aged under the striking hotel designed also by Frank Gehry. The tri colored metal roof is meant to symbolize the local sandstone, the wine and the bottle top.

We stopped in the town of Navarrete on our way home and went into the cathedral. We were blown away by the glitz of the altarpiece. It was so tall and so gilded, especially for a relatively short church.

Home for another sunset and long meal. The next morning we savored our hotel breakfast and then high tailed it back to Bilbao to head home. I'd say it was smooth sailing, but it was not. Our descent was really rough as the Netherlands was covered in low lying clouds and there were high winds. We were lucky to make it home though as other friends traveling that weekend had cancelled flights. So grateful for a safe and wonderful trip!

And grateful for our husbands for making the trip possible!

Look at that healthy spread and clean house! Well done, Pete!