Review: Luxury Spain Tour, Barcelona, Bilbao, Rioja, San Sebastian, Sagrada Familia, Guggenheim Museum, Biking, Hiking

In Barcelona it was the Sagrada Familia Cathedral and the guide who had been a docent at the Cathedral.  She was obviously very knowledgeable concerning the Cathedral and also the city and area.  She showed us about the city, listened to our questions and comments then added places that would give us the ideas and scenes we were interested in learning or seeing.

In San Sebastian -Donostia the beautiful home with its antiques and stained glass that was our home was just perfect.  This is the type of place we like best to stay.  We enjoyed bicycling around the area, watching the surf boarders and we enjoyed our meals at the home and elsewhere.  Again we had a knowledgeable guide who introduced us to Basque history and culture.  We enjoyed our long walk along the cost of the Bay of Biscay.  We also enjoyed our tour of the Rioja wine area and since Bill and Jim had been with PepsiCo in the days when PepsiCo had a wine and spirits division, and they had been involved with the importing of Rioja wines, several of the places remembered the PepsiCo name.

Bilbao was different in that we stayed in a small intown hotel - but this location was an easy walk to the Museo Guggenheim and the flowered Puppy and good restaurants.  Here we had an interesting tour of various Tapas bars discovering new foods and drinks.  We did enjoy the city and we're sure there were many areas we didn't experience.  We aren't as interested in all the historical buildings as what makes the city and surrounding areas representative of an area, a country or a culture.