Tom accepted an offer to change jobs which required a 2-month garden leave. With Keith recently retired and Kim & Shawna still gainfully employed, the boys scheduled a last-minute trip to Madrid to spend a week in Northern Spain!
For the last 25 years, we have been super-planned with our holidays so we can maximize every minute. This trip was MUCH less planned - perhaps because Tom and Keith were in charge! And, we were incredibly pleased that we did the whole trip quite inexpensively.
Keith's flight left on Wednesday at 10am. With "free time" he took the train to Midway rather than an Uber. In line, a couple saw Keith with the hiking poles and asked if he was hiking the Camino de Santiago. While the answer was no - it is now on the list to do with Kim and Tom. Once he landed, it was an immediate taxi to Zou Zou, near Penn Station, to meet Tom and Mark for lunch - a meal we rightly guessed would be the most expensive of the trip! It was great to catch up with Mark for a couple of hours before we had to make our way to JFK for our flight to Madrid. Keith was lucky enough to have an aisle seat with no one next to him, but only got ~1 hour sleep on the flight.
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| Keith, Mark, and Tom |
Bilbao
We cleared customs quickly and grabbed the Budget car rental Tom had arranged, immediately driving north to Bilbao to see the Guggenheim. Well, almost immediately. We did stop for a Starbucks to help keep us awake for the 4+ hour drive. We parked the car (fully loaded with our stuff) in an underground lot near the museum. The architecture was stunning, though our lack of art sophistication meant we did not quite appreciate the contents of the building! Our attention span lasted about three hours. It was then only a one-hour drive to San Sebastián, where we spent the first three nights.
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| At the Guggenheim |
San Sebastián
When Keith first proposed a boys trip to Spain, Shawna was super-supportive, with only one request: please don't go to San Sebastián on this trip. Well, Keith turned that into "how about Tom and I go there as research for OUR trip?" Ever the understanding wife, Shawna gave the idea a green light! The AirB&B arranged for our access to the public parking garage. After we checked into our AirB&B just outside of Old Town (a couple of blocks northwest of the new cathedral), we walked to Old Town and began our consumption of pintxos and beer!
The next morning we had arranged an eBike tour of the city to help orient ourselves. We booked the "Basque History and Cultural Shared Tour by Bike" on Viator. Carlo, the guide, was excellent. We had ~10 people on the tour which went throughout Old Town and Gross. It was also Keith's first time on an eBike, which he promptly adopted as the best form of transport ever! After an afternoon nap, we hit Old Town again for more pintxos and beer.
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| Cycling San Sebastián |
We love the eBikes so much that we rented two ourselves from the same place (La Bicicleta Donostia) to tour the city. One of our stops was Parque de Atracciones Monte Igueldo. This is a 100 year old amusement park at the top of the mountain - it requires taking a funicular to the top. The park was really cute - the rides still feel a hundred years old. We walked around, went on the roller coaster, and then headed back to the bikes. That afternoon and evening were...you guessed it...more pintxos and beer!
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| Pintxos |
We went to too many pintxo bars to count (or even remember), but a few of our stops were Sirimiri, Aralar, Lobo, Gandarias, Le Comidare, Hemeretzi, Ganbara, Casa Urola, Bar Sport, Hemeretzi, Beti-Al, and La Vina.
Logrono
Following our time in San Sebastian, we drove down to Logrono, in La Rioja. For some reason, we both had the image of Logrono being a small town - instead, it is a town of 200,000. Once we checked in to the AirB&B between Epsilon park and the Santa Maria Cathedral, we went over to Laurel Street for...you guessed it...more Pintxos! Laurel was a hive of activity. After a nap that afternoon, we went to a food truck fair and had Mexican and beer - a little break from the local cuisine.
The next day we rented two eBikes from La Rioja Bike Tours via Rebeca at Rioja Like a Native Wine Tours. We had originally planned a group tour with a van, but we had struggled to find any availability. But we lucked out, because the self-guided bike tour was outstanding. Jose met us at 10am with the two bikes (ok, eBikes) and gave us a route that was downloaded on the Kamoot app. The route took us to two wineries. The first was a very old, traditional one in Laguardia: Carlos San Pedro. The route took us off the main roads and took us the full 3 hours to get there before our appointment at 1pm. In fact, we went a bit out of the way because the Kamoot route thought we were doing a different vineyard, 10 minutes north of Laguardia. But the tour was great - it took us to the caves under the city. We chatted with a British couple while on the tour. Because we had time until our next winery, we had food and a beer at Bar Velar Laguardia.
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| Wine Cave |
We then got back on the bikes, and hit the next winery: Marques de Riscal in Elciego. The second one was as modern as the first was traditional - and they produce 6M vs 40K bottles annually, respectively. Marques has a hotel on site that is a Frank Gehry design - just like the Guggenheim. We did arrive an hour early so sat in the inside bar to have a glass of wine, then did the tour. The evening was more pinxtos, then bed.
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| Cycling in Rioja |
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| Marques de Riscal |
Like in San Sebastián, we went to too many pintxo shops to count, but some we did hit were Bar Lorenzo, El Soriano, Bar Samray, Bar Blanco y Negro, Bar Jubera, and Bar Soriano.
Madrid
After our time in Logrono, we headed to Madrid. We dropped the rental car at the airport and Ubered to our AirB&B in Sol. After quickly checking in, we walked to the Plaza Mayor where we had a beer and people-watched: a heap of Manchester City fans were in town for their semi-final game vs Real Madrid. There were lots of Manchester songs - all under the watch of a horde of Spanish police. We popped back to the room before going out for the evening. Keith had found out that Al (Steve and Jan's son) was in Madrid that day with his girlfriend Lana. So we first met them at 1862 Dry Bar for a cocktail before going to dinner at Restaurante Casa Salvador. We then watched the end of the football game at a random bar - thought it was pretty disappointing as the game ended in a draw!
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| Keith, Tom, Lana, and Al |
After saying farewell to Al and Lana, the night ended with a bit of a bang as a pickpocket took Keith's passport and wallet. Fortunately, Keith noticed and took off after the guy - he dropped everything on the ground other than about 50 euros. So what could have really sucked ended up pretty easy!
Our flight was at noon on the Wednesday - we ended up with an empty middle seat so the flight some was pretty comfortable. We went our separate ways at JFK - Keith was able to catch the earlier flight home to Chicago after transferring to LGA.
Overall it was a great trip - the food and drinks were great, the scenery in Rioja country stunning, and we were inspired to return someday to hike the Camino!
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