Trip Report- Barcelona-San Sebastian-Rioja-Segovia
My first trip report and I did start with the goal of trying to stick to what I hoped would be helpful if you were looking to cover the same territory. Whoever you are out there, I read your posts and have to say I found them all helpful in plotting my course.

For starters we traveled for 13 nights as a family of 4. Myself, my husband and our 2 teenage boys ages 19 and 17. We are pretty well traveled and still enjoy traveling together.
Our final itinerary was driven by July /August weather and trying to stay out of extreme heat.
Barcelona- 3 nights
Pamplona- 1 night
San Sebastian (side trips to Bilbao and Getaria) - 5 nights
LaGuardia- 2 nights
Segovia- 2 nights

AIR: We flew into Barcelona and out of Madrid. I had everything booked before finalizing the airfare—I could not believe how much it fluctuated day to day—looked at sites like kayak and fare tracker and airlines directly. Unfortunately when I saw it at its cheapest we were not yet able to commit to the days.

I wrestled with a nonstop Continental flight and decided to not fly the smaller single aisle plane they were using on this route even though it was nonstop both ways but chose Delta flights. Outbound was a Delta flight coach and it was fine (took the Continental miles) return was operated by Air France and back though Paris. We don’t know why or how but as we were boarding they reprinted us all new boarding tickets and told us Air France was happy to upgrade us to business class. None of the seats were together which didn’t matter but how did they know we were a party of 4 that would be willing to split up? Seems this is not an unheard of occurrence with Air France and certainly was a nice ending to a fabulous trip.

CAR RENTAL
We rented a car though Auto Europe and also rented the GPS system through them. They send the GPS unit to you before you leave with a return mailing label to send it back. Renting the GPS through them let us enter many destinations before leaving which was really handy. We were happy to have it and even when we chose to ignore her, we could always could get back home.
No hitches with the rental at all. Did it all on line. Was an Avis rental – a nice little Nissan SUV since even though we packed light ( for us) it was the only choice on the lot that took our 4 pieces of luggage, 2 regular sized suitcases and 2 carry on sized and every stop we were challenged getting them all back in .
It was a diesel, a standard which we like driving and pretty fuel efficient. We quite liked it except zero pickup which made passing a challenge.

We did not pick up the car until we left Barcelona on Sunday morning.


HOTELS: had lots of Starwood points and used them
Barcelona- Le Meridian – great location, nice staff, very helpful concierge desk. I used points to book one of our rooms an extra day so we would have it when we landed and while it was an extravagant use of points – well worth it. Every morning of our stay when I walked past the weary travelers arriving off early morning flights unable to check in yet—I said to myself—good call.

Pamplona- La Maisonave- Adequate with good location in the heart of the old city. Surly front desk – like the rest of the town she seemed to have a post running of the bulls hangover

San Sebastian- Maria Christina Hotel for 5 nights all with Starwood points (used points for 4 and got the 5th night free. Again, great location. Had seen posts indicating old and tired but we were in a renovated room which was large and overlooking the river. I had used points to upgrade my room and they tagged the boys along with it. Front desk a little overwhelmed as Bruce Springsteen and the entire E street band at the hotel having played in Bilbao. Only thing thought odd about hotel at this price point was that there was no separate concierge desk. The staffing at the front desk were helpful but if someone behind you was trying to check in or out you waited-it seemed like and odd set up though I was perfectly content standing in the middle of the action waiting for beach towels as the entire band checked out.

Laguardia- Hotel Castillo el Collado. We loved the odd and somewhat quirky nature of this property. It was a lovingly managed 8 room castle and the proprietor Javier a very sweet and charming man. I booked it online and there was no way to have known that the room I picked had no window to the outside but an odd hall attached that did have window. We were able to move for the second night. He was so gracious but if you don’t speak Spanish he won’t be able to be very helpful. He had a young lady who worked there who did speak English and every time he heard my footsteps he went and dragged her to the front desk to help me. We ate dinner there one night since we did not want to offend him and also we were in Rioja in August on a Sunday which left us challenged in some of what we wanted to do. Breakfast was additional but set up in a beautiful dining room overlooking a terrace to the mountains. There were amazing views from the hotel’s top tower where you could see easily to Ysios and even over Frank Gehry’s building for Marquis de Riscal. We loved being right in the old town which on first glance seemed to have little going on but that was not really the case.



Segovia – San Antonia de Real. One other poster had asked Maribel if she knew of this hotel and the word was there was nothing good or bad known yet. I picked it since I initially thought we were a real fly by on the way to the airport and the car park versus how difficult it appeared to get to the center and find hotel Infanta Isabel is what led to the decision.
The rooms were simple with modern crisp décor – comfortable bed though slightly hard- really very nice. Breakfast was included and price was like 83 euro a night. There was a great breakfast buffet that was well staffed which was important as they were pretty packed but tables were cleared and cleaned and buffet continually replenished. . There was a nice bar and very sweet inner courtyard like a cloister which was fitting since the property is attached to a monastery that you can walk around the corner and visit. It was not in old city proper but a solid 15 minute wall along the amazing World Heritage Site Aqueduct that as you start your walk is waist high and by the end it is in its full glory. We enjoyed the walk each time we did it and we did it 4 times. I will say that we only walked back twice. After dinner there was always a cab and we were happy to grab it for the 4 euro trip back up the hill.




TOURING:
Barcelona- wrestled with how many days to spend. Ended up with 3 full days counting the day we landed as one of those days. It was enough but we were on the go.
Day 1 : 10:30 breakfast at El Quim at the la Boqueria market drinking Cava eating shrimps , clams, tortilla and scrambled eggs with baby squid in their ink ( it was awesome) we all knew it was going to be a good trip.
Walked to the end of the Rambla past Columbus statue out to the aquarium and back around and up though the Bari Gothic stopping at the cathedral to tour and go to roof
Dinner on the early side at a restaurant in Barcelonetta
Day 2 : Breakfast in the market at a stall in the back that had more breakfasty things and a Gaudi day- Sagrada Familia, Park Guelli, Casa Mila, La Mananza de la Discrdia- strolling a variety of neighborhoods was involved but taxis in Barcelona are plentiful and reasonable. I wrestled with taking the tourist bus since we had only 3 days but I am sure we spent far less on taxis than the cost for the 4 of us for 2 days on the bus and we were independent, mobile and happy but would never have been able to cover as much if we did not grab cabs at will, but every time I saw that bus I was happy I was not on it- depends how you like to travel.
Day 3 Picasso museum and La Ribera neighborhood , Miro Foundation and cable car up to Montjuic and back and hopped in a cab to Port Olympic getting out at Frank Gehry’s Fish and strolling to a spot along the beach for lunch.

I spent a lot of time torturing myself over how to put together what I wanted to see and make them work in 3 days and since we are New Yorkers and were not yet in a relaxed vacation head it worked pretty well.


Last night in Barcelona we went to theatre and heard a classic guitar concert at the Palau de al Musica Catalana- great concert and we all preferred it to the other option that I wrestled with which was to see flamenco and yes I know it is not local to Barcelona but my feeling is that a city the size of Barcelona must be able to put on a good show.. We were all happy to do something that wasn’t specifically geared for tourists ( though plenty of us) and the venue could not be beat- well worth seeing even if there is nothing playing. Easy to check on line what is playing all around town. Get there with enough time to have a glass of cava and a few tapas to old you over in the beautiful lobby and new courtyard. We cleaned up to go but people were pretty casual in their dress.

We felt safe – we had no incidents we were very aware of our stuff walking on the Rambla but did run into a traveler checking into the hotel who had his wallet lifted from a Velcro pocket upon arrival in the airport.

Just around the corner from the hotel on the Rambla is a place called la Vienna that Mark Bitman of the NY Times declared had the best sandwich anywhere. It was the initiation to our Spanish Ham experience- and yes now the place has signs quoting the Times and Mr. Bitman but it was a pretty amazingly good simple sandwich of tomato smeared bread and perfect ham—with a cold beer from there porcelain tap , hard to beat.

We kept dining to the simple side in Barcelona with only one planned meal at Botafumeiro as someone from work had just come back and raved. We had great seafood and a terrific evening although the waiter started out pretty cool to us but our busboy an older charming man loved my boys and got the waiter to loosen up, not cutting edge cooking but a classic and not cheap – for the price would probably seek out some of the big deal cutting edge cooking going on in Barcelona. We knew we would be fighting jet lag and had lined up some Michelin stars for dinner later in the trip so kept the rest of dining on the simpler side. We dined at 9:30. If we were 9 we were early but not unreasonably so.
My favorite food here was in the market.
Be prepared if you don’t eat shellfish or Pork you will be challenged.

Picked up car Sunday morning and drove the edge of the Pyrenees- think we saw the real guys for a brief moment. It was worth the detour to switchback through the mountains _ thanks to Maribel—but in many places thanks go to Maribel.
If you don’t like driving or are driving a standard and are really only happy on the highway where you don’t have to shift much—don’t recommend it but we loved the views and the trip—will say the last 20K were a chore. Stopped for a leisurely lunch in Jaca at la Cocina Aragonesa and even though we were running a little late, (I did call) those hairpin turns just never came to an end—they were incredibly gracious. The meal had some highs—the appetizers were amazing but the lamb my son and I had looked huge on the plate, tasted delicious but was not particularly meaty – think we got what was left but all in all it was great to have a destination to aim for where we looked forward to a nice lunch after the 4-5 hour drive from Barcelona.

Pamplona:
One of my tour books said go anytime except post running of the bulls where the town is depressing and feels like it’s nursing a big party hangover. Would agree 100% .
For the afternoon and morning we spent pleasant enough but many restaurants closed but we still made do exploring and my sons were entertained looking at the wealth of photographs of the running of the bulls and walking the route to the stadium. Looking at the peoples faces on the photos they thought they must all be crazy. It is here we did our first real tapas crawl. We got much better as the trip went on but more on that later. What we did learn is if we got our drink order out first we bought some time to figure out what we wanted. My older son was legal to drink and no one batted and eye at serving my younger. They learned to enjoy their wine with food whether it was the really short pours at the tapas bars, the local wines at dinner or learning to taste wine at the bodegas. My younger son used to think all that sniffing and looking and tasting was totally pretentious but he was fascinated and checked out the color , smell and swirled checking alcohol and glycerin content of all his wines –

San Sebastian:
5 days and happy to have them—mini resort vacation in our vacation - 3 afternoons were on the beach. One day was double beach starting at Playa de la Concha for me and back to La Playa de Gros for more waves. Boys loved the surf and even took a surfing lesson.
We took two trips out of town.
Bilbao— I initially thought I know Gehry’s work and we have a ton of museums in NYC but -Don’t miss the museum! And make a reservation in the Bistro-- for 18.4 euro . wine, water and 3 course lunch, homemade bread from the excellent chef who runs their big deal restaurant but you should reserve- didn’t look like walk ins were having much luck but the morning you get to the museum might work

Also spent day visiting a winery that makes Txakolina ( chocolina is the pronunciation) . We had discovered this wine about 10 years ago purely by accident and have been drinking it every summer since. It is grown in a very small area and not much is exported but I wanted to visit a bodega and chose the one that Maribel suggested. I reserved by email and this is one of those places where language translators on the web failed me. I thought I was all confirmed and in fact the proprietor was looking for me to confirm back to him. When we pulled we where met by a gentleman who I thought a handyman who disappeared and retuned to say we were in the right place but he had planned to have his son who had studied in the states give the tour and since he was not there he would try. This was all with few words of English, some French , not so much Spanish since he really spoke Basque but we communicated with a piece of paper where he wrote numbers down used our hands and the few common words we all had. When we got to taste – he put on a video in English that basically repeated what he had just told us and we realized we had all communicated perfectly. He would have poured us wine all afternoon - it was only 11:30 in the morning and served us marinated tuna that he had made himself. He was the proprietor along with his 2 brothers. This small area that grows these grapes perched above the sea is definitely worth a trip out of San Sebastian and find the high road off the water and meander through.

Or at the very least when you are out eating Pinchos one night swap out your vino blancho for a Txakolina that is light and white and slightly effervescent on the initial pour that is more often served in a flat bottom glass (than stemware) poured with a special pourer from a foot above the glass with only about an inch in the pour. Hope you like it as much as we do.

We headed into Getaria for Lunch at Kai Kaipe

Kai kaipe -- one of the best grilled fish of my life— we had a reservations upstairs and we would have been just as happy downstairs in the less formal looking outdoor area though it was pretty hot outside . I think it the same menu regardless it was not a cheap lunch but have a whole fish – I have had many whole grilled fish in my life and this goes to the top of the charts. We all agreed even my non fish loving husband – it was plated and semi deboned that even if you are not a whole fish person—don’t miss this if you should go! They were very forgiving of our language difficulties as we struggled though even as our stern head waitress misunderstood our appetizer order and brought out 4 big deal composed lobster crab cocktail starters that were massive—they graciously took them all back. Had it been one we would have kept it but we were all in that craving salad mode. We had ordered lots of food but were so excited to see tomato salad as a starter we had all ordered that – it wasn’t language but she hadn’t heard us correctly. My son new we had had a failure to communicate and I should have listened to him .

RESERVATIONS/DINING
I had made lots of reservation. One dinner in Barcelona, lunch in Jaca on the way to Pamplona, 2 nights in San Sebastian, 1 in Segovia, lunch in Bilbao and at Kai Kaipe plus one vineyard Txakolina, the church in Vitoria that is under restoration -Did I need all the reservations I made—probably not but I hate walking around wondering where we will eat dinner . Depends on your style.

San Sebastian – First night we ate sit down at recommendation of the hotel and stopped for a few pinchos on the way, 2 nights pure pinchos crawls and 2 nights Michelin starred restaurants having picked Arzak and Mugaritz.
Both worthwhile experiences but neither calls back to me for a return trip particularly seeing the meal converted back into dollars! I have had other meals at this price point that do call back to me when I think of them – these just don’t—though they were unforgettable experiences – I don’t need to eat at either again..



Both cutting edge –with molecular components
Arzak felt like pulling up to the front of a pizzeria in a strip mall (thought you needed a special location for the 3rd star). Thought the amuses were all weak and felt like they had been prepared and held. The tables were close together. We felt as though we was dining in an avant-garde penitentiary served by shaker women dressed in drab grey garb. I like minimal- my house is modern and glass and steel and wood but I found this austere and charmless. When chef came out – asked us where we were from and when we said NY he humphed and turned his back on us. He was clearly looking for a specific table but we felt dissed. We had the tasting menu and the food after the amuses was pretty amazing – creative-maybe one too many molecular capsules in mine since they swapped out different dessert for the 4 of us and we had different entrees and I had the mother lode of gelatinous capsules made with sodium alginate.

Mugatriz- the adventure begins in finding it. Even entering the GPS coordinates it was the one time our GPS let us down and we ended up high on a hill in some lovely family’s yard whose younger son offered that we should follow him or we would never find it. He was right. He drove so we could keep up with him and after he deposited us in the parking lot and we shook hands and in gratitude also deposited some euro which were not expected but not rejected, and he turned high tailed out of there like a rocket.
The setting is lovely – the grounds are beautiful – plantings line the walkway you enter through. We are lovingly greeted at the door and taken to our luxuriously spaced table. In the middle of our dinner we were scooped up (as were all diners at some point in their meal) and taken in to the kitchen to see the preparation and hear about their philosophy as they know they are challenging you with the food and the menu. It was more like a laboratory than a kitchen with test tubes in water bathes and previously snipped herbs and garnishes measured out and held in containers. White coated staff and lots of them were deftly applying the meticulously snipped flowers and herbs with long nosed tweezers to maintain consistency of every dish. We were basking in the glow.
How challenging?- amuse was a clay coated potato that looked like a rock – served in a basket of hot rocks with a garlic aioli – we started out charmed but as the meal went on their were highs and lows and challenges but just not enough of it was delicious to me. Almost won me back with the 3 desserts which – not one was chocolate- were the high point of the meal- truly extraordinary. I must say this meal has stayed with me and as time passes I begin to think I enjoyed the challenge perhaps more than I initially thought

Pinchos pinchos pinchos
We all had our favorites- we learned not to have too many at one place even if they were delicious.
I am somewhat compulsive about my dining and found the website www.todopinchos.com and plotted our course ( though we were allowed to deviate) we had the best ham at Cepa, and also the best sautéed mushrooms with a egg yolk that you mixed in . We fell in love with the simple fried peppers and couldn’t get enough ( we were hungry for greens—if there is a way to get a green salad at lunch it eluded me.. Salads were all composed so that an ensalada mista was not a mixed salad but typically included egg, tunas and white asparagus. My son and I ate anchovies everywhere and became known in the place that was best know for their anchovies and had a easy card with all the choices. My younger son and husband would wait outside. They don’t do anchovies or sardines—their loss
The best sirloin, , croquettes, fois gras delicacies, duck breast and duck , scallop concoctions, one place we kept retuning for the shrimp skewers , goat cheese torts , fish cooked over your own smoker . We found we liked all the hot things somewhat more than the actual premade pincchos on the counter but sampled our way though those as well.

We had breakfast once in the hotel Maria Cristina, just husband and self and at 25 euros and uninspired after that we hopped out the back door to one of the cafes and grabbed café con leches and other breakfast stuff and a seat. While we got with the flow with tapas to pay when we were all done it took us longer with coffees and snacks to not pay as we ordered but to settle up as we were ready to go.



We drove from San Sebastian off the main roads to LaGuardia straight to Vivanco Museo de la Cultura del Vino a pretty interesting wine museum.

Great museum with Audio guides which were not so necessary as what we all liked were the films in each area that were really well done and I think I am remembering correctly that they were not narrated but showed making casks, corks, glasses, planting, harvesting, fermentation. - thanks again to Maribel or wouldn’t have know to stop by. Lunched there at their restaurant (yes had a reservation which was needed) and was ok—beautiful setting - timing worked out well as we were just finished with the museum in time for lunch .

We headed to check into our hotel met the proprietor dropped our bags left the boys and went for a stroll though Laguardia which is an old walled city and seemed buttoned up as it was mid afternoon. That evening I had reserved a tour in English at Bodega el Fabulista so as to be able to get a glimpse of the underground cellars running below the town. It was an interesting tour as to how they make their wine but it was our guide who was schooled in San Diego and was responsible for blending the wines who taught my sons how to taste wine – it was just the 4 of us on the English tour ( which you needed to reserve for) and they were riveted and he was very generous with his time and knowledge.

I had wanted to eat at Hector Oribe but it was Sunday . I had wanted to visit some other bodegas but it was now Sunday in August but we drove to Ysios to look but they were closed and drove through the region stopped in San Vicente de la Sonsierra but the only other tour we managed was at Marquis de Riscal . Think we went from the smallest hand made wine to the biggest corporate producer—pretty big swing. There is a church worth seeing in LaGuardia but the ladies who have the keys in the tourist office aren’t their on Sunday and we didn’t realize that on Saturday. Our second night walking through town to go see the clock in town do its little show where a few figures come out and twirl which my sons thought one big bore— but all of a sudden town was filled with people a local band and everyone out sitting at tables having a drink watching the clock come out and do its thing– lots of socializing going on from little kids to really old grannies just hanging out til the clock danced its way back in – we had a drink in the square but needless to say we did not stay that long but headed off to dinner.

It is hard to believe my initial itinerary plans started out being heavily focused on Rioja but I ultimately realized the time of year was going to make it a challenge.

We left for Segovia via Vitoria Gasteiz so to see the Santa Maria Cathedral which was the inspiration for the cathedral in the Ken Follet books world without end and Pillars of the Earth of which my husband is a big fan. The cathedral has been under restoration for about 10 years with more to go and you can only tour it with a reservation, in hardhat and while it was a short tour it was pretty interesting walking along the scaffolding and hearing the history and the challenges they face. We skedaddled out of town to Segovia as we had a date with a roast suckling pig that evening.


Segovia – Initially thought it was a drive by on the way to the airport as we were flying out of Madrid. I did not want to go to Madrid. Perhaps unfair of me but I had been there before in college and did not have the fondest memories and since we will be back someday to do Madrid and south we passed it by. But when I moved the return flight one day forward (since it made a big difference on air fare and who would ever quarrel with one more day of vacation) — it was too complicated to rearrange all the other plans so we ended up with a full day and a half in Segovia so we did a couple of the side trips Maribel mentions in her guide to Segovia.
We ate at the 2 big name places for roast suckling pig and for roast baby lamb, Meson de Candidio and Casa Duque, . While both meals lived up to expectations dining outside in the glow of the aqueduct on a warm summer night was delightful at Meson de Candidio but the service was perfunctory and stiff and not very helpful in trying to help us out in finding a local wine. Our waitress who was dressed as a stewardess from the 60’s just refused to understand we were looking for help until eventually the maitre d who sat us came over and was charming and helped out . Contrast Casa Duque where they were warm and welcoming ( and not as full by any means) put on a show cutting up a pig with a plate for a big table ( all 4 of us had Roast Suckling Pig at Meson Candidio but it was butchered away from us and never shown to us) here at Casa Duque we had lamb..
We did try to search out some of the other restaurant Maribel suggests but one was reopening from vacation the day after we left and others were closed on Sunday so we had 2 big time traditional meals and since were on the home stretch – we pigged out and happily so—we were happy the traditional starter was a salad though we tried Garlic soup and other traditional items as well.

We had a 3pm flight out of Madrid and on the final morning my husband and I decided to visit the monastery around the back of the hotel. Thought we would pop in for a peek since right there but we got locked in for what turned out to be a 30 minute tour all in Spainish looking at every religious artifact in excruciating detail.. We were handed a sheet in English with a bare minimum of info and we did manage to make it known we had to go by a certain time. It was pretty painful as the group seemed to have many questions and be enjoying a lively conversation with the tour guide and we were worrying how long we were trapped for. This appeared to be the only way to visit.

Uneventful drive back to airport- gassed up and deposited the car without a hitch and began the journey home.

Guide books- didn’t really like any of the formal guide books I carried—I constantly found that whatever historical question my family was asking me when we got somewhere wasn’t answered. When was it built? Not difficult things – I tried not to carry too much – had a book on Barcelona and one on northern Spain that covered everything but Segovia.
Had printed Maribel’s guide’s for Pamplona Segovia and Rioja.

Maps: brought a big Michelin map with us as we always like a good map as it gives us bearing as to where we are in the big picture


Language: we found outside of our hotels and high end dining not a lot of English spoken. Maybe because we didn’t start out with English but always with Ola . Three of us have studied French and my husbands speaks an international language that is a mixture of the few words he knows in several languages , the ones he has made up , hands signs, and a winning smile . We find it pretty infuriating but have learned to live with it. We had a few words of Spanish and more by the end.


We had a phrase book and I had a menu cheat sheet that I think I found off a chowhound site.
The lonely planet phrase book has a decent enough food translation section to decipher some things but it didn’t work in reverse if you wanted to ask for watermelon but didn’t know how to say it you were out of luck—it does have a general Spanish – English ,English- Spanish dictionary in the back ( which did have watermelon) . Only ALERT on the lonely planet phrase book is that it has a very interesting section for singles traveling re: sex that my kids were quite amused by but if your children are younger you might want to make another choice.

I also downloaded a translator app onto my blackberry which sometimes jammed up but for $2.99 worked well enough – called yadaSay- I never used it but the kids did in between updating their face book statuses

We all agreed it was a fabulous trip. I got props for once again playing family travel agent! They have all learned to trust if I have planned it – it won’t disappoint!

v good

great report! Sounds like you had a wonderful time and all the planning paid off.

Fantastic well organized & informative!!

I'm so glad you posted a report. I'll be in the Basque Country and La Rioja next month visiting several of the same places you mention.

Do you remember the name of the txakoli winery you visited? How was the dinner at the Hotel Castillo el Collado? I stayed there in 2005 but didn't have dinner. We're spending one Sunday night in Laguardia and it sounds surprisingly lively. How long was the tour of the cathdral in Vitoria? I've also booked reservations for it.

Thanks--very helpful report

A bit disappointed because there were not many English speaking people?

Also, tipping a person that shows you the way is not customary over here, the boy was really surprised (but took the money, most would have rejected it)

the vineyard was
http://www.txominetxzniz.com/

and not at all dispointed about english speakers just somewhat surprised we were often asked how as americans we ended up in San sebastian - didnt think it so unknown. Also knew not a tipping culture and really liked that but in the bigger restaurants and certainly the michelin starred certainly was tipping.

www.txominetxaniz.com, just to correct a minor spelling mistake, due to this complicated Basque spelling full of tx´s and k´s and z´s. It´s the best known among the Basque txakolis white wines.

For your next visit, you may leave any restaurant in Spain without tipping, nobody will say a word. If any, leave some euros if the service was good. But no real need to, unless very satisfied.