Today after dealing with a few domestic chores, I can now concentrate on preparing for our trip. We are flying to Bilbao on Thursday with Swiss, and have hired a car to drive to Elciego in the Rioja wine region of northern Spain. This was Richard's idea of a birthday present for me!
So now I have dealt with the ZIWA South African wine tasting and had a PET scan to check my brain is OK, I can concentrate on getting ready for this holiday. I started by printing out all the travel documents for our five-night visit. Our itinerary is as follows:
Thursday 31 May
Fly to Bilbao at 11.55, arriving 13.55. Pick up our hire care from Europcar, drive to Elciego to the Hotel Marques de Riscal. It would help if we had a map of Northern Spain.
Friday 1 June
Stay at our hotel which was designed by Frank Gehry. Visit some local vineyards. Have dinner locally.
Saturday 2 June
My birthday! I'll be 69! Help. I'm not expecting any presents. Hopefully we'll have a lovely day. We have written to the Concierge for a restaurant booking at the hotel, but haven't received a reply yet.
Sunday 3 June
More exploring the local area. We could visit a wine museum. Some restaurants will be closed this evening.
Monday 4 June
We leave Elciego to drive north to the coast to the small port of Mundaka, where we have booked into the Hotel el Puerto.We have a sea view. Lovely - we don't often see the sea.
Tuesday 5 June
Drive to Bilbao airport to return our hire car. Fly to Zurich at 14.35, arriving back at 16.35.
Now it's just left to decide what to pack.
