We had a blast on our trip to Europe. It was too short, but we were still worn out by the end. Next time we travel that far, we'll either go for a longer time, or not try to do so much in a short amount of time.
Vive Le France!
Our first stop was St. Emilion, France. This is a small town in the Bordeaux region in the Southwest part of the country. It's a very small and very old town. I forget exactly how long the town has been there, but the first part of the Cathedral was built around 1050.
The whole town is just a bunch of old stone buildings with cobblestone streets. It's surrounded by vineyards for as long as the eye can see.
Wine tasting was a bit different than it is in the States. Typically, you need an appointment, you don't just walk up unannounced. It's a lot more personal. In California, some part time employee just pours you some wine and sends you on your way. If you're lucky, they might take a minute or
two to describe the wine. In France, it's very different. At each vineyard we visited, we were given a tour of the winery - usually by the winemaker. They take the time to show you around, explain their winemaking process, and tell you all about their wine. It's very personal, and very educational - even if it did get a little repetitive. Each winemaker made sure to tell us all about malolactic fermentation. Even with some repetition, we did learn something new from each winemaker. At one small vineyard, our tour was given by an older man named Msr. Du Bois. The dude was awesome. He was very passionate about his wine - and quite a character. 
He gave us a 30 minute lesson on how to properly taste wine. After this lesson, Kais dubbed Msr. Du Bois "The Maestro" and made sure to follow this lesson to the letter everywhere else we went (much to Kelly's dismay)
We stayed at Chateau Pierre de Lune - a small vineyard owned by Tony and Veronique Ballu. Not only was it a great place to stay, but Veronique really helped us line up vineyards to visit. On Saturday night, Tony and Veronique made us dinner at the Chateau.
It was a great homemade 4 course French dinner - with plenty of Tony and Veronique's wine of course (which is REALLY good). After dinner the girls had an impromptu dance party. In their defense, I think we polished off more than one bottle of wine per person that night.
¿Donde Está El Parte Vieja?
On Sunday, Evelyn and I drove down to San Sebastian in Spain. We got really lost trying to find the hotel. Fortunately, I could remember enough of my high school Spanish to ask for directions. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand a word of the directions that people gave me. We didn't get to spend much time in San Sebastian. We basically had dinner there, then left for Logroño in the m
orning. San Sebastian was our first introduction to real Spanish tapas. We walked through the Parte Vieja (old part) and found a couple of tapas bars that were recommended in a travel book. At the first one, we must have looked a bit overwhelmed, as an older Spanish man brought us up to the bar to show us the ropes. He didn't speak much English, but between his broken English and my broken Spanish, Evelyn and I
were able to get a bite to eat. Tapas bars all have the food set out on top of the bar. It's quite an assortment. The tapas in Logroño were the best. We were able to hit 7 tapas bars and only walked about one block. It's so cheap too! We were able to each have a glass of wine (or beer) and
something to eat for less than 5 euros (about 7 or 8 dollars). The patatas bravas were one of my favorites.
Wine tasting in Spain was a bit different than in France. The two bodegas that we went to were both big huge commercial wineries. They both make huge quantities of wine each year, whereas the vineyards in St. Emilion only made about 5,000 to 12,000 bottles each year. Bodegas Muga, while huge, was a bit more traditional. Bodegas Darien was located in the huge ultramodern building. Bodegas Darien and the chateaus of St. Emilion are like two completely different worlds.
Ramblin' down La Rambla
We then drove down to Barcelona. We stayed just a couple blocks away from La Rambla - a busy and very touristy street in the heart of the city. It's lined with bars, restaurants, and a million gift shops. The best part of La Rambla is La Boqeria, a big open air market. You can find just about anything there - fruits, vegetables, cheese, candy, and pretty much any animal part and/or organ. We came face to face with a few whole dead pigs while walking around.
Outside of the market, La Rambla was pretty disappointing. It's just an overcrowded tourist trap. The tapas were good in Barcelona, but a lot more spread out. It wasn't as easy to go on a
tapas crawl. We had lunch with Noah, a friend of one of Evelyn's friends at school. He's originally from Canada, so it was nice to get some Barcelona advice from someone who speaks English.
One of the best tapas bars in Barcelona was called El Xampanyet. It was a bit crowded, but the food was good and the Xampanyet (a semi sweet Spanish sparkling wine) was cheap.
It's Not Gaudy, it's Gaudí
We spent an afternoon sightseeing in Barcelona. We went to Parc Guell, a sculpture garden designed by Gaudí. It was up a steep hill (most of which had escalators, thankfully). At the top
there was a pavillion covered with all sorts of Gaudí mosaics. We then went to see some more Gaudí arcitecture: the Hospital de Sant Pau, and the Sagrada Familia. The hospital is so ornate that it's hard to believe that it is still a functioning hospital. The Sagrada Familia is a cathedral that Gaudí began to build in the late 1800s. It was never finished. Construction is still going on, even though nobody knows exactly how Gaudí envisioned the finished product.
Paris
We really didn't get to see a whole lot of Paris, but we did walk around a little bit. We walked down to the Louvre, but it was about to close so we didn't get to go in. We saw the Eiffel Tower from a distance, but it was pretty overcast. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to go back sometime.
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