Northern Spain with James London

Ongietorri! Welcome to Basque country, one of Europe’s most ancient cultures, and home to more Michelin stars than any other region of the world. After checking into our hotel (and admiring the titanium-winged Guggenheim Museum just outside our windows), we’ll meet up with Ryan for a welcome copa, or cocktail, before heading to the Guggenheim Museum.

Even if you’d never heard of the Googen, as locals affectionately call it, you’d recognize it instantly, its shimmering silver wings and sails arching sleekly skyward like a mythical creature poised for flight. We’ll enjoy an exclusive insider’s tour of the iconic Frank Gehry–designed museum, getting our fill of giants like Rothko, Warhol, and Serra, as well as visiting areas generally off-limits to the public.

After our expert-guided tour, we’ll make our way to dinner at a Bilbao institution, its menu a seamless blend of Basque tradition and timeless imagination.

This welcome dinner just might be the perfect manifestation of what’s known around the world as the Bilbao Effect: a seamless blending of old and new, local and global, historic and contemporary. There’s no better place for us to start our adventure together.

Following a leisurely morning in Bilbao, our first stop will be equally dazzling: a jaunt out to the cliffs of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe. Translating to “castle island,” this medieval stone castle is connected to the mainland by a narrow, 241-step stone bridge that zigzags back and forth to form one of the world’s grandest staircases. The setting is so stunning and cinematic, we’ll feel like we’ve been here before—and in a way, we have, thanks to HBO’s Game of Thrones, which was filmed here.

After drinking in our fill of sea air and watching seagulls circle over the shimmering blue waters of the Bay of Biscay below, we’ll head to a local winery to sample various local wines, including the iconic txakoli. Txakoli may translate as “cottage wine,” but these light, dry sparklers are anything but humble. Lunch is the main meal of the day in the Basque country, and ours today will be a “km zero,” meaning that every ingredient has been harvested within less than a kilometer of where we sit.

We’ll return to Bilbao in the late afternoon, where you’ll have the balance of the day on your own.

Today we’ll be saying farewell to Bilbao and heading off to La Rioja, one of Spain’s most storied wine regions. Our first stop en route will be at the Conde de los Andes winery, whose traditionally cultivated old vines clamber up from the river toward the sandstone cliffs of the Toloño mountain range, producing silken, citrus-forward whites and plummy, aromatic reds. Conde de los Andes also boasts one of the country’s oldest cellars, a vast, kilometer-long network painstakingly carved by Galician stonemasons back in the 17th century.

Lunch this afternoon is an opportunity to take in the stunning views of the vineyards of Rioja while luxuriating in delicious lamb chops cooked over vine cuttings. Local wine and the warm company make for an almuerzo (traditional lunch) any Spaniard would envy. After lunch, there is a planned visit to the tiny medieval village of Samaniego where a local wine rebel will introduce us to a few of the up-and-coming wines that are bringing new life to Rioja’s storied wine scene.

In the evening, we’ll stroll through the narrow cobblestoned streets of Laguardia, a hill-top medieval town surrounded by walls that date all the way back to the 13th century. Tonight’s dinner is a special treat—a Riojan feast of fresh ingredients paired with wine harvested just down the road. 

Crisp, cool mountain air will greet us this morning as we depart La Rioja for the mountain hamlet of Santa Cruz de Campezo. Our gentle hike will take us through forests of linden and yew trees, winding past rushing streams, craggy summits, and fields pocked with grazing cattle and small chapels and hermitages.

Now that we’ve worked up an appetite, it’s time for us to add a Michelin star to our belts. Arrea! Chef Edorta Lamo comes from a long line of hunter-gatherers, and his menu is an homage to his ancestors who, lacking land of their own for growing crops or rearing animals, turned instead to the mountains to hunt. As we settle back in the rustic timbered dining room to enjoy hearty dishes like mountain paté with bacon and medlar jam and chickpea stew with cabbage and pork ears, we’ll take some time to reminisce on the first few days of our adventure.

After lunch, we’ll sit back and relax as we meander through the highlands to San Sebastián. It’s a perfect time to sift through photographs, sneak in a siesta, or marvel at the rolling hills and mountains outside.  Once we arrive at our hotel, we’ll take the evening to recharge and hit the streets in the morning.

After breakfast, we’ll take a short trip up to the top of Mount Igueldo, which rises over San Sebastián and offers panoramic views of the city below. It’s a perfect vantage point to capture the stunning topography of Basque Country.

Next, we’ll head back to town to explore the San Martín Market, established in 1870, where many of the city’s best chefs shop daily. Alongside Ryan, we’ll inspect local delicacies like live snails and smoky Idiazabal cheeses, then select a few to take with us to our next event: a cooking class where we’ll try our hand at preparing traditional Basque dishes.

After a sumptuous lunch dining on our creations, we’ll have time to wander the winding cobblestoned streets of the Parte Vieja on our own, admiring the tree-lined plazas, pearly sandstone buildings, and filigreed Belle Époque wrought-iron balconies of the Old Town. Art lovers may consider a pilgrimage to Tabakalera, a converted tobacco factory now boasting six stories of rotating art exhibits, film screenings, and photography displays.

In the evening, we’ll meet up with our local guide for a txikiteo, an epic pintxo crawl searching for the best of the region’s world-famous, toothpick-skewered tapas. We’ll stop here, there, and everywhere to sample the likes of plump boquerones, glistening tuna carpaccio, and white asparagus with truffle mayonnaise. Pintxos in one hand and a glass of crisp cider just pulled from the tap in the other, we’ll perch cozily at little standing tables before moving on to the next venue (and the next, and the next).

We begin with a staggering view over the ancient hamlet of Zumaia which offers incredible seaside views. Our next stop is a local sheep milk farm, where we’ll visit the herd and learn more about traditional cheese-making practices.

Cider is such a beloved tradition in this part of the world that dates back to the 16th century, the Basques built sailing ships around their cider barrels, allowing their sailors to drink cider every day at sea and fend off scurvy. We’ll learn more about the history and finer points of cider-drinking, then enjoy a classic cider house meal—think heaping platters of unctuous rib-eye steaks, Basque chorizo cooked in cider, authentic salt cod omelettes, fresh cheeses, nuts, and jams all finished off with a cup of fresh-drawn cider between each course.

After returning to San Sebastián with our bellies extremely full, we’ll have the balance of the day to ourselves to continue our wanderings, perhaps embarking upon our own self-directed pintxo crawl tonight before ending the evening with a gin cocktail and a midnight stroll along the promenade.

Today we’ll bop across the border to France to visit the “other” Basque Country. Our first stop will be the village of Irouléguy, which bears the same name as the surrounding small wine appellation—with just over one square mile of vines, some of its slopes are so steep and difficult to hand-harvest that they’ve achieved “heroic appellation” status.

Next, we’ll head on to Biarritz, making a beeline for the markets of Les Halles, where an extravaganza of oysters, escargots, and prawns awaits us. Les Halles has something for every mood: it’s not uncommon for locals to swing by for an early breakfast before work, then return later in the day to slurp back oysters or enjoy a slice of cherry jam- and cream-filled gâteau basque.

We’ll return to San Sebastián in the late afternoon to rest up before our exceptional dinner tonight at a txoko, one of the region’s 200-odd private gastronomic societies. Membership in these societies traditionally passes from father to son, making this a very coveted invitation seldom available to outsiders.

Tonight’s dinner will be one for the ages. Think sparkling txakoli wine will be poured from dramatic heights into our glasses, and we may find ourselves breaking into song as we feast on blackthorn liqueur, buttery cheeses, and silken hams. As we raise our glasses to toast our host and each other, we’ll understand exactly why the Basques say Adiskide onekin, orduak labur. With a good friend, the hours are short.

Alas, our time together has come to an end. After breakfast and perhaps a farewell morning stroll (including a mad dash for one final pintxo—hey, no judgment!), we’ll bid farewell to San Sebastián, our new friends, and the magic of Northern Spain and the Basque Country.