Bilbino, and Rioja

For our mini field trip we went to Bilbao and Rioja. Both places were really unique and different from themselves. Of the two places Rioja was my favorite, not because we got to visit some incredible vineyards and drink wine at 10am but because we travel in a bus through the country. The views were tremendously beautiful, but I only remember parts of the views cuase I kept on passing out.

Bilbao was an amazing city, there was tremendous architecture like the Guggenheim, which Bilbao is known for and at the same time it had some amazing night life. The river that ran through the city was by far the most interesting thing about the city and the way people used it. Unlike Girona where the city kind of turn the back to the river, Bilbao enmphaises the river and really respects it.

Bilbao was also a relatively easy city to navigate around, there was alot of rememorable art and architecture in the city. Im a visual guy so when theres a lot of art and architecture around I can creat reference points around the city. Unlike Barcelona there really are these wavy crazy streets that can lead you to no where, it was pretty straight forward and organized on an almost grid pattern. For once in a city I knew where we were and other people didnt.

Guggenheim is an amazing building, I have never really been a fan of his work but I was really impressed with his design, but as for the art work being displayed I was not but thats another topic. This building basically put Bilbao on the map and thats partially why I respect the building so much in addition to the way the building functions and is organized with the art partions. One of my biggest issues with museum is that they always try to stick more art work per square feet then you can actually see and the way you look at the work creates this zig zag unorthodox pattern. However the Guggenheim really worked for me, I felt like there was enough art work that was properly positioned throughout the museum.

Rioja was a real treat for myself, I got to see the scenic views and some amazing vineyards. We visited Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry and Santiago Calatrava's vineyard. Each one was amazing in themselves but I think when compairing wine and the architecture Zaha Hadid's vineyard took first prize. Now dont get me wrong Gehry and Calatrava's vineyards were amazing but I felt that they were celebrating the architecture and not the wine.

Zaha Hadid's vineyard was this quant building hidden in the corner and the vineyard itself was this rustic old establishment that still does everything by hand which fascinated me the most. Gehry's vineyard was completely modernized and had no connection with the past except for the old buildings and one tiny historic part; which I didnt like too much because the door heights were only like 6 feet tall and me being over 6 feet tall drilled my head on the door which did not feel good. Calatrava's vineyard was a cross breed between the other two. The Zaha vineyard still used the same underground tunnels where the penicillin still grew on the walls, still made the barrels by hand, still used the old barrels as kiln for the fire and still had the traditional technique of making wine which you could taste in the wine. Both the red and white wines were amazing. Even the building Zaha Hadid design adhirred to the theme, it was a modern building that wrapped around the previous wine stand that they used in the old days. It was a truly unique vineyard.