Europe 2014: Laguardia (Spain) 2 nights before driving to Haro

Friday 23rd May 2014

We left San Sebastian in our rental car heading for Vivanco Winery and museum in Briones, La Rioja. It was our second go at driving on the right. AR drove and SR navigated with Sygic app on phone. Managed to use non slip mat we packed for it even though dashboard wasn't suitable.

Non slip mat, 2 rubber bands, bottle of water; voila phone GPS

The highway for the first hour was amazing. There were about 10 tunnels. One was 3km long and a couple of 1km ones plus there were lots of very high bridges trying to flatten things out. We picked up a ticket from the first toll and then when we got off they used the ticket to assess our charge which was 8 Euros.

We went through the Vivanco Wine Museum and it was amazing. It seems impossible that someone had collected all the items there. There were 5 rooms and it took over 2 hours and 8 Euros plus 3 Euros for the English guide headphones. Given the quality of the museum we decided we had better do the winery tour which was 9 Euros but they have a 15 Euro combo deal and they kindly just upgraded us.

Vivanco wine museum entrance (no photos inside)

The winery too was fantastic but definitely needed the English headphones. Massive underground cellars (maybe 2 or 3 acres) and then finished with a wine tasting. It is hard to understand how the business makes money when the wine is such great value compared to Australia.

We headed off for our accommodation 20 minutes away but after a wrong turn we were in the back streets of Briones and in alleys that were two way but our mirrors were nearly touching the stone buildings and no way to turn around. After about a km of this we ended up at a lookout on top of the hill and could turn around and do it all again. The Northern Spain countryside is very beautiful. There are mostly grapes and some farming but with many hills and some mountains in the distance that are just rock.

Vivanco fountain

We arrived at Hotel Villa de Laguardia which is great. We are 500m from the walled medieval town of Laguardia so we walked up there for tapas. It is just fantastic. There are 4 gates and people can park their cars at the gates and walk in. Inside the walls are all 3 or 4 story magnificent houses/apartments with shops on the ground floors and cellars in the basements. Wasn't much activity when we arrived about 6:30pm and we went to the visitors centre, found a local store and bought some fruit for tomorrow's breakfast. Gradually the people came out and things were really humming. We visited 4 tapas bars and had a great time. Wines were between 70 euro cents to the dearest we found was 1.8 euros so 4 tapas and 2 wines were less than $A10.

Had a look in one wine shop and there were bottles of wine for $A2000 and one bottle was 1942 for $A1000 which was hard to believe as can't imagine who would buy them.

Saturday 24th May 2014

Drove to Bodegas Ysios (vineyard) but it was closed and seemed hard to make a booking but was worth going just for the architecture. It was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava who designed the stadium in Athens for the 2004 Olympic Games. With its impressive design and the mountains in the background it was spectacular.

Vivanco ground cover is rocks

Spent several hours in the walled old town doing a self guided walking tour and walked around the gardens of the perimeter fence and of course, more food, more wine, more walking...

Toured the church Santa Maria de los Reyes at 6:30pm and it was amazing. Visitors have to book at the tourist office for a 2 Euro tour and It was a Spanish tour but we had some printed notes in English. It has a gothic portico which was painted in the 15th century and again in the 17th century and fortunately enclosed protecting it from the elements so it it exceptional. Further inside the church was also magnificent with half of it built in the gothic period and half in the renaissance and the columns and ceiling were different.

Vivanco must have had 2 or 3 acres underground

Had a tapas dinner and town was quite busy with Spanish pub crawlers. At one tapas bar 14 people arrived and ordered red wine & coke (yes 150ml red wine and 200ml bottle of coke) played a piano accordion and tambourines and danced then off they went. We were back to our hotel by 9pm so we downloaded "The Way" a movie about walking the El Camino de Santiago. We have seen quite a few pilgrims and over 200,000 people walk The Way of St James every year. It was a great movie and we love Spain and AR loves bushwalking so maybe a 900 km trek is another adventure in Europe.

Sunday 25th May 2014

Slept in then a mad rush to check out and get to the winery in the old town, El Fabulista for the tour in English (6 Euro) run by a lady owner operator. There are 300 cellars under the walled Laguardia town and it was amazing. Apparently the townsfolk used to live underground and the whole town was connected underground. As they built residences above ground, they blocked off tunnel access to their individual properties and underground became wine cellars with their perfect year round temperature.

Gate from inside Laguardia

The grapes come in and are put in a big cement square hole that holds 16,000 litres and there are 2 of them. They are squashed etc. and 3 separate lots of wine taken off by gravity and still further underground. The last lot with the stews etc. is bucketed up and put through a press. This has been going on like this forever. 1 kg of grapes makes 1 litre and they sell their product just within the area. Really great tour.

We left behind Laguardia (AR's favorite town so far) and drove towards Hotel Marques de Riscal in Elciego.