Great city: good food (more Michelin stars per capita than anywhere else, supposedly), very pretty, nicely kept, walkable and some reasonable surf. La Jolla of the Basque coast? BUT, they keep spelling my name wrong.

So I fixed it.

Good pinxtos here, as well as a good English-based eno-/gastro- tourism school/experience. We took a crash course which, in combination with our prior reading and research gave us a pretty good feeling heading toward La Rioja wine country.

More on all of this later, as well as the highlight of our trip – dinner at Mugaritz.