20. ​ La Rioja wine bliss

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Hitting the road in our little Audi A1 out of Barcelona we were amazed just how quickly the landscape changed. It was so dry and sandy, almost desert like. For some reason I had imagined the Spanish wine regions to look like Tuscany, but on reflection had no idea where that idea had come from.

View from the Apartment

We had two nights booked at an Air BnB apartment in Logrono, the middle of the La Rioja wine region. The next couple of days were going to be all about wine! After 5 1/2 hours on the road we arrived to find we were only two blocks from Plaza del Mercato, the town's centre and that the apartment was above the wine culture museum and old cellar tunnels. We had emailed via Google translate back and forwards and while the apartment wasn't officially wheelchair accessible we had been assured there was a lift and the bathroom could be accessed. Caro the host had done a good job making it work for us and while it wasn't perfect it was certainly better than some of the hotels we had stayed in. She had remembered a shower chair at least and had placed a cane arm chair in the bathroom! Dickey was showering like a king!

Logrono was a gorgeous old town with bucket loads of history, almost all to do with wine. Beneath the town a series of wine tunnels or cellars had been built so that the temperature could be better controlled and in the 16th century noise and car traffic restrictions existed in the streets above the tunnels as there was a belief that the wine would be of the utmost flavor and aroma if the temperature, stability, vibration and noise was controlled while the wine was in its barrels! In the 18th Century vines in France were affected by disease so the La Rioja wines began to be exported north into Bordeaux. Today La Rioja wines are world famous and exported as far as Cuba, Mexico and thankfully Australia!

Logrono

We loved how quiet and lovely the village was, and we were huge fans of Laurel Street. It was just brilliant and lined with wine and Pinxtos bars. We had a blast there sampling MANY of the wines varieties and the different Pinxtos specialities. Logrono is also on the Camino de Santiago with the trail coming directly through the town over the still in-tact 12th Century stone bridge. The old guard houses apparently doubled as pay booths as every walker who used the path had to pay taxes to enter the city.

The surrounding winery's are world famous and the first on our list to explore was 'Vina Real' otherwise known as 'C.V.N.E'. A whole eight minutes out of Logrono our time there definitely rated in the top five of all things we had done on our trip! The building looked like half a wine barrel stuck in the hill and being newly built was completely wheelchair accessible. By pure coincidence we arrived in time to join the 1pm tour. True to form we had ignored the suggestion to book ahead, but we were in luck on this occasion. We learnt that the architect, who was a total genius, had come from a wine making family and helped to create a winery that allowed for old processes to perfectly fit with new. The circular barrel room is not just a stunning feature, it is also designed for functionality. The system is set up using a traditional gravity feed system using newly designed tanks and after the grapes are pressed they are transferred to the chosen tank, pulled into position over the tank allowed to feed through in their own time. From the tanks the wine is placed into Hungarian, American or French Oak barrels depending on the aim of the maker and then they are stored in one of the wine tunnels. The tunnels were another incredible feature and we were blown away by their size and construction. Over a period of four years the tunnels had been dug out by hand as the ground was to unstable for machinery to be used. They were then sealed, except for the natural vent sites created in the roof by the soil and water. At 120 meters long and 56 meters wide x two of them, they were mind blowing! In one tunnel there was 20,000 barrels of Criamza, let alone all the barrels of other varieties. The 2nd tunnel was full from floor to ceiling of bottles! We had read about Vina Real in a Lonely planet review that had described it as "winery meets Bond Villan Lair" and this was so very accurate!

If you love a good wine tour, then add Vina Real to the list as it was the most informative and exciting tour we have done. At 10 Euro each it is also great value, especially given the 5 very generous tastings we were given! We certainly mustn't be the only ones who loved the CVNE wine as they are producing in excess of 2.5 million bottles a year and their Reserva, made using hand picked grapes from 90 year old vines being one of their most famed wines. Next time, or for anyone planning to visit Vina Real, grab a cab as the wine is too good to sample lightly. Apparently the rule in Spain is actually zero blood alcohol while driving. we found this out later in the week, oops!

Leaving Vina Real we continued on our wine adventure heading west and spotted the little walled
town of La Guarelia perched on the hill. Inside it was only 5 blocks wide and the perfect stop off for lunch with a view. From here we could see the Ysio's winery which could have easily been mistaken for an illusion! It is off the charts incredible with its wave like architecture and from our research it seems the fact that the roof leaks and the design are more famous than the wine itself. Arriving at the door it was closed and there were no cellar door openings for the next few days. To see it up close and get some photos were enough though.

Ysios

 

Marques de Riscal was the next stop and we were excited to see the ribbon sculpture and architecture as well as try the wine we were seeing most often in Spanish bars. While the wine wasn't to our taste the building design sure was and we were again viewing an amazing Frank Ghery design. If this was simply a winery I couldn't wait to see his most famous piece, the Guggenheim in Bilbao. Words won't describe the blend of old stone buildings into the titanium ribbons so enjoy the pictures. With the Suns reflections and the mountains behind it really is stunning.

Our final stop on our drive through the region was Contino, a branch of the C.V.N.E group. Also closed it was a beautiful old homestead set in a gorgeous cottage garden and overlooking the River Ebro. It was so nice to wander the garden and enjoy the sinking sun, even if the glass of wine was missing!

Our final night in Logrono ended with a bang and we spent it on Laurel Street enjoying the St Bernabie festival. The streets were packed with as many locals as there were tourist and we joined the hoards wandering from bar to bar enjoying many wines and pinxtos. Rosada's are super popular in Spain so I was in my element and even had Dickey converted to them in the warmer weather. We had taken many photos of wine labels with the hope we would find them available back home. 

Logrono had been a great place for a few days but it was time to go north through the hills to San Sebastián ready for a week of sunshine, culture and beaches. 

Logrono 6/6 - 8/6/2016

19. Beautiful Barcelona

We were sad to be leaving Croatia but so excited to get to Spain starting with the weekend in Barcelona. We both loved our previous times in this amazing city and we're pumped for an epic weekend ahead and some time out on the town!

The airport transfer and boarding was super smooth and they had a special 'boarding truck' for those with mobility issues to get Dickey to the door of the plane. It was door to door service, literally. 

Landing in Barco was not so smooth and we had a 30 minute wait on the plane just to get off. We are used to being first on, last off but in this case it was such a wait that we even delayed the outgoing flight and had incoming crew leave us with the outgoing crew. Incredibly there is only one assistance team at the whole of Barcelona Airport and they were off tending to someone else when we arrived! The saving grace was that by the time we got to customs, passport control and baggage the rest of the flight was already gone.

Faulty Towers, gorgeous on the outside!

From the airport we caught the accessible shuttle to our hotel in the city. We were staying right near the Catalunya gardens and it was the first of many awesome public transport experiences in Spain. When booking our two nights in Barco the accommodation had all been coming up pretty expensive but we had thought ourselves super lucky when we found a well priced room at the City Park Pelayo Hotel. We told ourselves it didn't matter if it was old and sub par, we were in Barco to explore and make the most of the city but the reality when we arrived wasn't so laughable! What they had failed to advertise or even tell us when we checked in was that the hotel, which was magnificent on the outside, was in the middle of a major refurb and subsequently there was no aircon and they were have issues with the sewer system. Our 'accessible' room was a sauna and smelt like a septic tank. It was so small that Dickey couldn't get past the bed to the bathroom until we managed to move it the remaining 10 cm towards the wall. While the bathroom did at least have an inbuilt shower bench it was so bent and damaged that it hung at a 45o angle pointing to the floor and was completely unable to be used. 

Back down to reception we were offered an apology, free breakfast, a key to unlock the secured window, a tiny blow fan that looked and felt more like a foot heater and reassurance that they would have someone out to repair the shower bench the next day. We would see.

Getting out of 'faulty towers' with some haste we took off to explore and even though it was after 7pm by this time the vibe in the street was just amping up - so very Spanish. We wandered for the next couple of hours enjoying the warm night and reminiscing. We had the most fabulous meal in the piazza with the palm trees after joining the line at the most popular restaurant. It was so worth the wait and the seafood, especially the whole fried sardines and the Sangria were sensational. We were keen to kick on and wandered many lanes looking for the right place to go. We found our way back to the Enchanted Forrest Bar we each remembered from years before but the vibe was dead and it seemed to have become a tourist attraction over the years rather than the cool club it once was. We had been searching with our ears mainly and could hardly hear music coming from any bars. WE eventual realised that they all had double glazing and noise proofing! We tried a couple of other places, with no real success and then headed back to the hotel for a sweaty and smelly sleep.

The Enchanted Forrest Bar

Sunday we headed off in the morning for a free walking tour with Sandeman's and had the most awesome experience. This was up there with the best tour we had done and Erik our guide was just brilliant. An American ex-pat he sure knew his history. We explored Old Town and the Gothic Quarter, the Old Royal Quarters, Dali's church where he prayed and heard the story of how he died walking between this church and his La Familia Sagrada. We saw the ammunition damage in the squares, the many Catalunyan flags throughout the city, the monuments and statues. We heard stories of Spanish politics and the bid for independence of the local people who like the Basque were determined to fight to become Catalunyans, rather than Spanish. We saw so much, learnt so much and loved it all. Erik was also super inclusive of Dickey and always making sure he could not only get access by see and hear. He was a total champ. The tour finished at the gardens near the zoo and the most spectacular fountain I had even seen. To me, so much more beautiful than the Trevi and somehow we had never heard of this one or seen it on our last visits. Not only was the tour top notch we had meet a fantastic Aussie couple Paul and Julie and when they announced the other tours on offer we all agreed to sign up for that evenings Tapa Tour and regroup at 7pm that night.

Off on our own for the remainder of the afternoon we headed straight up to Dali's La Familia via the Arc del Triomf. It was sunny gorgeous afternoon and with ice creams in hand we marveled over the progress and architecture of the Church. I had seen it 8 years prior and Dickey around 12 years prior and from the sounds of things at those times it was in a similar state. For a building under construction since 1882 it seems in more recent years they have really knuckled down in a bid to finish it. It is mind blowing and so worth the visit. Unsure we would have the time to see it we didn't book the internal tour, but it is accessible and 100% on our list for when we go back to Spain in 2018. (Yes we are going back!)

Needing a nap pre the evening tour we caught the metro back to Faulty Towers and were again pleasantly surprised how easy it was to navigate and get around. Certainly the best so far on our trip. 

Back at faulty towers we discovered they had indeed come to fix the shower chair. Installing a raw cut steel pole to hold the seat at right angles and securing it with sharp unfinished bolts. The final result, while stable and able to function as a seat now proved to be nerve racking for anyone wanting to place bare skin on raw metal by way of transferring. (I'll leave you with that mental image!)

Meeting Paul and Julie we were excited for a great night out. True, we had a great time as a group, but this tour was certainly sub-par. The evenings guide was Eric (not Erik from this morning) and he was not on form at all that night. For the sake of this exercise we'll put it down to a bad night... It was a poorly planned and badly organised tour and we spent the majority of the night wandering between the bars and waiting, as opposed to tasting the tapas and learning the history of Tapa. In fact the highlight was tasting the long poor red wine and cider. When the tour was over it was like a stampede and the other 24 in the group couldn't get away quick enough. Starving after only trying a couple of bites of food all night we stayed on at the last bar having a fantastic time over wine and food with our new friends. In the end we made it a ripper night! 

Checking out of Faulty towers after our quick Barco weekend our next stop was Logrono, La Rioja and then on to San Sebastian. As a last minute idea we decided to get ourselves a car so we could explore the famed wine region more closely and equipped with our little Audi A1 we were on the road again.

Barcelona 4/6 - 6/6/2016