Opening a bottle of red Rioja from one of the bodegas we had not visited on our tour around Haro in the Rioja region, I decided to do an armchair tour and find out if you can see this vineyard/bodega.
The eye catching colourful Marques de Riscal hotel was on our list of must see places but it was full as well as having rooms beyond our budget. The hotel is designed by Frank Gehry, the award winning Canadian-American architect. He also designed the riverside avant garde Guggenheim Art museum over in the big city of Bilbao. His other designs include those in Canada and the USA.
Wikipedia lists: Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles; Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, France; MIT Ray and Maria Stata Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts; The Vontz Center for Molecular Studies on the University of Cincinnati campus; Experience Music Project in Seattle; New World Center in Miami Beach; Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis; Dancing House in Prague; the Vitra Design Museum and the museum MARTa Herford in Germany; the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto; the Cinémathèque française in Paris; and 8 Spruce Street in New York City.
Photo of Guggenheim Museum from Wikipedia. See Wikipedia for details.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gehry
This hilltop hotel has wavy rooflines at several levels, perhaps offering some shade in summer, and terraces and picture windows overlooking the vineyards stretching for miles.
Watching the 360 degree constantly revolving panorama I seemed to be breathing the fresh mountaintop air. Perhaps it was just the tawny old wine I had sipped.
Shivering in cold England, you can dream you are in the cool hotel. Take a tour around the spa, hotel bedrooms, restaurants. I must admit our first reaction to the exterior which outdoes the Sydney opera house, was, that doesn't work for me. I started with the bedrooms and found them rather stark. One restaurant picture, red and white also didn't do it for me. The spa was interesting, with its floor to ceiling views over the countryside. Then suddenly the pictures started picking me up. The red and white restaurant with the curvy chairs and the carpet with the swirls.
Do have a look. If you are cool at home, you can imagine the cool of the hotel, if you are warm and cosy at home, you can imagine sitting on their garden terrace on a hot day.
According to the side you can book a vineyard tour but it's not clear what you see. The other things that confused me was the name City of Wine. My first thought was, that met be Haro. Then, looking further, it seems that the hotel is the centre of a complex elsewhere.
On our last trip we stayed in Haro, which has several vineyards offering shops and tours. In Haro we were in Hotel Augustine in a historic converted religious building.
We splurged one night at the booked almost every day hillside Hotel Viura, in Aleva, also very avant garde and quite a drive. We passed the wonderful museum of wine which has a garden alongside the car park displaying different grape varieties as well as a supermarket size shop, a smart restaurant and a bar serving delectable morsels.
We visited in Haro several wineries, including Muga, Lopez de Heredia, La Rioja Alta. They have the wine tastings, tours and shops. We also drove out of town to Contino in Laserna and Finca Allende in quaint little hillside Briones. I have reviewed in Tripadvisor the two hotels I stayed at and I have some blog posts on the vineyards.
In England you can buy Rioja wine include Marques de Riscal just about everywhere you can think of, such as Majestic, and online at Bid for wine. No need to think, because when you go onto their website pop-up ads appear for all the suppliers of the wine.
Next trip to Spain we can follow the Rioja Route and see this award winning Marques de Riscal hotel. Meanwhile I and you can enjoy the view on their website.
http://www.360vista-studio.com/marquesderiscal360/
The eye catching colourful Marques de Riscal hotel was on our list of must see places but it was full as well as having rooms beyond our budget. The hotel is designed by Frank Gehry, the award winning Canadian-American architect. He also designed the riverside avant garde Guggenheim Art museum over in the big city of Bilbao. His other designs include those in Canada and the USA.
Wikipedia lists: Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles; Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, France; MIT Ray and Maria Stata Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts; The Vontz Center for Molecular Studies on the University of Cincinnati campus; Experience Music Project in Seattle; New World Center in Miami Beach; Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis; Dancing House in Prague; the Vitra Design Museum and the museum MARTa Herford in Germany; the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto; the Cinémathèque française in Paris; and 8 Spruce Street in New York City.
Photo of Guggenheim Museum from Wikipedia. See Wikipedia for details.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gehry
This hilltop hotel has wavy rooflines at several levels, perhaps offering some shade in summer, and terraces and picture windows overlooking the vineyards stretching for miles.
Here is the hotel. You can see the resemblance to the museum by the same architect.
Watching the 360 degree constantly revolving panorama I seemed to be breathing the fresh mountaintop air. Perhaps it was just the tawny old wine I had sipped.
Shivering in cold England, you can dream you are in the cool hotel. Take a tour around the spa, hotel bedrooms, restaurants. I must admit our first reaction to the exterior which outdoes the Sydney opera house, was, that doesn't work for me. I started with the bedrooms and found them rather stark. One restaurant picture, red and white also didn't do it for me. The spa was interesting, with its floor to ceiling views over the countryside. Then suddenly the pictures started picking me up. The red and white restaurant with the curvy chairs and the carpet with the swirls.
Do have a look. If you are cool at home, you can imagine the cool of the hotel, if you are warm and cosy at home, you can imagine sitting on their garden terrace on a hot day.
According to the side you can book a vineyard tour but it's not clear what you see. The other things that confused me was the name City of Wine. My first thought was, that met be Haro. Then, looking further, it seems that the hotel is the centre of a complex elsewhere.
On our last trip we stayed in Haro, which has several vineyards offering shops and tours. In Haro we were in Hotel Augustine in a historic converted religious building.
We splurged one night at the booked almost every day hillside Hotel Viura, in Aleva, also very avant garde and quite a drive. We passed the wonderful museum of wine which has a garden alongside the car park displaying different grape varieties as well as a supermarket size shop, a smart restaurant and a bar serving delectable morsels.
We visited in Haro several wineries, including Muga, Lopez de Heredia, La Rioja Alta. They have the wine tastings, tours and shops. We also drove out of town to Contino in Laserna and Finca Allende in quaint little hillside Briones. I have reviewed in Tripadvisor the two hotels I stayed at and I have some blog posts on the vineyards.
Photos of wine bottle by Angela Lansbury. Copyright Angela Lansbury.
Notice the cage on the wine bottle. I have heard two stories about the cage. One is that it is put over bottles, especially sparkling wines such as Champagne, to ensure the cork does not pop out in the cellar or the restaurant, wasting the wine and even injuring somebody. Another story is that the cages were added to prevent fraudulent refilling of bottles with prestige labels.
In England you can buy Rioja wine include Marques de Riscal just about everywhere you can think of, such as Majestic, and online at Bid for wine. No need to think, because when you go onto their website pop-up ads appear for all the suppliers of the wine.
Next trip to Spain we can follow the Rioja Route and see this award winning Marques de Riscal hotel. Meanwhile I and you can enjoy the view on their website.
http://www.360vista-studio.com/marquesderiscal360/
See my later posts on architect Gehry's Dancing House in Prague, Czech Republic, and museum in Paris, France.
No comments:
Post a Comment