Blogs from La Rioja, Spain, Europe - page 3

Day 3 in Haro. Another lazy morning soaking up the warm sun and in the afternoon, a trip to Santo Domingo de la Calzada , travelling through valleys of vineyards, with towering mountains beyond....and still a little snow on the summits. On to San Milan de la Cogolla, where there's a beautiful monastery nestled in the foothills, surrounded by the most amazing Bodegas, all making and selling their Rioja!!! The buildings and restaurants are definitely a match for the ones in South Africa!! Am still unable to upload my photos and Graham has decided he can't stand the strain of helping me and has left me at the bar on Saturday evening... read more

After a rocking and rolling crossing up to about 2.30am-while Graham slept peacefully, I eventually slept fairly well. We had a happily uneventfull disembarkation at Bilbao and the satnav didn't let us down. Temperature dropped to 7.5 and rain at one stage as we came through a couple of high mountain ranges.The site where we'll be for our first 5 nights is in Haro, which is a very important wine producing rioja region . There are many beautiful bodegas in the town, all lovely buildings and some decorated with vivid coloured flowers. Glad to report that as we settled down to dinner and wine this evening the sun is out and we can see that there's a lovely mountain range towering up from just beyond the caravan site. A successful first day.....and I made a note ... read more

Today I walked the 21 kms to Santo Domingo in sandals to take the pressure from my feet. It seems to have worked; well, they're no worse ! We walked 7kms to Azofra before stopping for breakfast , tortilla and coffee, and rested for a while before starting again. I am now changing socks 3 times a day to keep my feet dry. We constantly passed through vineyards and tomorrow leave the La Rioja province and enter the Burgos region. Our second break was at Cirueña , a town with expensive housing estates and a first class golf course, with very few residents. I didn't see any; just 'For Sale' signs. This is a prime example of the declining Spanish economy and nothing has changed since 2 years ago. We had a snack at Bar Jacobi ... read more

After a delicious breakfast in Los Arcos, we walked out at 6.15am. I had only walked for about 2kms and I switched from sandals to boots. My feet were sore but seemed to improve throughout the day, in spite of the many hills that had to be crossed. The scenery was amazing but the villages were rare. We passed through a gypsy settlement about a kilometre past Viana. There was about 20 or so vans and cars covered with blue tarps that completed the 'we're ready to pack up fast' look. We lost Masa today. He has a bad fever and was staying on at Los Arcos. last night we had a meal and a lot of laughs, often at my expense, with a multinational table; we had japanese, Croation, dutch and a guy from Norway ... read more

Today we are heading to Haro, a small town in the Rioja wine region of Spain which is well known for their red wines, also because where is not much else to do in Miranda de Ebro. After a little look around the town we headed to the Bodegas (wine cellar) area of town for a tour and wine tasting at Gomez Cruzado Bodega. This was a great couple of hours with the tasting of 1 white wine and 4 wonderful red wines (and the tasting glasses where not small). After this we headed back over the bridge to the town for a lovely lunch in the sun of the town square. Then it was back to Bodega Roda for a look at their underground cellar and this time tasting of 1 red wine and a ... read more