La Rioja, Spain's famous wine country, and subject of our group's own personal adventure as we traveled from Bilbao to Madrid.

We woke up early yesterday morning to get aboard the bus that had been chartered to take us from Bilbao to Madrid, via the lovely, rolling hills of the wine country. Most of the Rioja consists of bodegas, or wineries, and the villages that support them. We started out at Vina Tondonia, to see the small exhibition building designed by Zaha Hadid. The decanter shaped building was built recently to house a previous exhibition booth built for a World Exhibition around a century ago. The new building now acts as a store for the bodega.

We next ate lunch in a small village that supports a bodega housed in a curving building designed by Calatrava before visiting the bodega itself to see the outside of the winery. Inspired by the surrounding mountains, the winery is built mainly out of wood and concrete.

We next ventured to the bodega of Marques de Risqual, possibly the top bodega in all of Spain. The bodega has a long history, and recently built a 5 star hotel, which was designed by Frank Gehry. We actually got to go on a guided tour of the bodega, and were able to see part of the production, as they had just started harvesting the grapes. The largest storage room holds over 3,700,000 bottles of wine, waiting to be shipped all over the world. They also have a collection of aged wine, set deep in a building to be kept the right temperature, including a thick carpet of mold on the walls.

This morning, we toured the Baigorri bodega, a fairly young bodega. Their facility consists of a 7 floor complex, which goes largely unseen, as much of it is underground and the small glass entry belies the extensive facility underneath.

We arrived in Madrid early this evening, and headed straight for our hotel for the evening.