La Rioja
The wine region in Spain.
 |
| La Rioja view from one of the towns |
I was surprised by the volume and miles and miles of vineyards but on 2nd thoughts, maybe i shouldn't be =)
Logrono
This is the capital of La Rioja region and we choose to stay there as it has more options for accommodations and restaurants.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logro%C3%B1o
Logrono doesn't have a lot of interesting sites but has lots of great tapas restaurants ^_^. They are famous for this 4 square blocks that contains more than 50 tapas restaurants, with a lot of them specializing in one particular tapa.
 |
| Calle Laurel with the tapas restaurants |
The first night that we are there, there's a pincho specials where you can get 1 tapa and a glass of wine for $1.50. After 7 tapas, i'm ready for bed =) (And no, i didn't finish 7 glasses of wine ^_^)
 |
| The first night of tapas in Pincho porto |
 |
| Wine ice cream in Logrono |
Briones
There are small villages/towns around Logrono that we visited just to highlight some of the castles and churches and the views.
The first city that we visited is Briones with a nice church and a medieval city
 |
| The church in Brion |
 |
| View of the vineyards and the famous wine museum in Briones |
Haro
This is where we choose our winery Muga. It's a very traditional winery that still age wine only in oak barrels.
Interestingly they produce their own barrels (the huge tanks and smaller barrels) themselves as they have one of the few barrel-making master in Spain. The maestro will go to France every 5 years to bid on the oak tree that they want for making the barrels
 |
| Barrel producing area in the winery |
After they made the barrel, they will toast the barrel to produce the different flavours.
One thing that's interesting about La Rioja wine is the aging is what determines the quality and the price of the wine. The grape varietals seems to be an afterthought and frequently not even labelled on the bottle.
After the wine visit, we made our way to more tapas bar hopping in Haro, with Bar Benigno and Meson de Berones
 |
| Lunch at Haro |
Bastida, San Vicente & La Guardia
After lunch, we made our way for more sightseeing.
 |
| View from La Bastida church |
 |
| View of the Ebro from San Vicente |
 |
| La guardia medieval town |
 |
| La Portico de Santa Maria del Reyes in La Guardia |
 |
| Mini Gugeinheim hotel in Elciego |
For dinner, we made our way back to Calle Laurel in Logrono and had more fun tapas bar hopping
 |
| Bar soriano for grilled mushroom, Bar CID for grilled setas, a bar for patatas bravas that's crazy crowded, Tio Lorenzo for grilled lamb, pulpo tapas and torrecilla for grilled foie |
Tarazona
On Sunday, we stop at this town on our way back to Barcelona and saw a very impressive cathedral.
 |
| The streets of Tarazona, with the red bricks |
 |
| The cathedral in Tarazona |
It is a mix of Gothic, Renaissance and Muderja architecture which is quite wild.
Beautifully restored as well.
 |
| Altar of the cathedral |
 |
| side chapel |
 |
| Bull ring in the city re-purposed as housing |
No comments:
Post a Comment