4-18-19 2016: Day 22 & 23, To La Rioja!

What a view we are having as we approach Bilbao!  A rugged coastline is off to one side of the plane and on the other side are beautiful mountains and hills sprinkled with green meadows and small villages.  This is going to be great and we are charged up.  

The airport is beautiful and designed by a famous architect of the area.  Our bags keep up with us and we are off for another hour and half drive to our hotel.  The drive is beautiful and reminds us of the Sierra Nevada and foothills.  But the little villages give it a special charm.  Soon the vines appear and these guys have been around for a long time.  

When the French vines were hit with Phylloxera they looked for ways to save the future wine.  Good grief can you imagine France without wine!  Of course we like to say we saved France by giving them some of the vines that they originally took to America but the French also took wine growing to Spain in La Rioja.  

We are enjoying the ride when all of a sudden up springs our hotel Marques de Riscal.  

When Tina and Clyde were looking for a hotel in the La Rioja, up pops this stunning and beautiful Hotel/Winery and we said, "Book it!".  

The vineyard was founded around 1850 who learned his craft in France.  The winery has 492 acres and like many wines, has had its good and bad years.  But it remains one of the most respected in the region and on everyone's list to visit.  We blew our savings from rooms and cheap dinners and inexpensive (but wonderful!) wine while in Spain and for the next two days we live in luxury in this beautiful place.  

It is cold outside and rain spends most of our time here but we really do not care as we catch up on the blog, wash a sock or two, organize and just plain take it easy.  Oh so nice.  

The food is wonderful, the staff a joy and the surroundings so peaceful and relaxing.  We cancel the wine tour (been there, done that) and an invitation to visit another winery (enough all ready) and just enjoy.  Following two wonderful days, we catch our ride back to the airport with plenty of time to spare when, what?  Our off-ramp is blocked and no easy way to go round and; stop! The freeway is full of cars and ain't nobody moving.  People are getting out to look around and the clock is ticking on our flight time.  Oh, well, nothing we can do.  

We always leave plenty of time so no panic yet.  Finally we move and see the reason for the problem - a terrible accident between two trucks.  So we make the next turnoff, backtrack to the original off-ramp and thank goodness we were early cause the back up of cars is endless.  "Please do not have a long line to check", we think.  No problem!  The airport is empty so we stroll up to the counter and dump our bags and pass through security with no one in front or no one behind us.  How about that!  The folks at Iberia Air gets our vote and even Clyde and Krim have seats with room for legs.  Here we come Madrid!