LAGUARDIA TO BARCELONA

WINE CELLAR TOUR:  Laguardia is a beautiful walled hilltop town with a population of about 1500.  No vehicles, including delivery vans, are allowed inside the walls.  Under each house is a wine cellar.  The cellars were originally dug for defence purposes.  The people could retreat to their cellars during a seige and the cellars were inter-connected.  By 1800 the cellars were no longer needed for defence and they were then used to store wine, with walls being built between the individual caves.
On the advice of a woman at the tourist information center we took a tour of one of the cellars, which now houses a winery.

As there are not a lot of English-speaking tourists here in November, we had a private tour conducted by the winery's owner.  The winery is tiny, producing only 50k bottles per year.  They own 7 small plots of land outside the city walls and the vines are fermented in the cellar which was originally dug in 1400.  We tasted the best of Carlos San Pedro's wines, including a signature wine and a gran reserva.  However, the most interesting wine was still in the cement vat (about to be soon bottled and aged).  Carlos climbed a ladder and with a "wine thief" , which looks like a long test tube, extracted two glasses of still rough, but potentially great wine.

The cellar is perfect for wine storage as the temperature stays at a constant 14 degrees, the humidity at a constanct 86 % and because there are no vehicles allowed in the village there is no vibration.  At the end of the tour we left feeling very happy although my back is struggling to lift our now exceptionally heavy suitcases.

LEAVING RIOJA:  On Saturday we were forced to pack the car and leave Laguardia and our wonderful hotel.  We stopped at a Dolmin (stone marker for pre-historic burial sights) before driving to the city of Tudela, a stopping point on our way back to Barcelona.

BARCELONA:   We breathed a big sigh of relief when we returned out rental car after 1942 kms without a major incident.  We took a cab to our hotel which gives us a balcony overlooking Las Ramblas (the major pedestrian walking area in Barcelona.)  We spent most of the afternoon sipping wine while we watched a political demonstration, several incidents involving police, and at least one person collapsing on the street.

ARE THERE POOR WINES IN SPAIN?  We have been drinking good and very good wines for the past 10 days.  However, today we thought we might get something undrinkable, but in fact didn't.  Our hotel has wine (no charge) on tap 24 hours per day.  You just go to the lobby and pour yourself however much you can drink.  While the wine was not up to the standards of what we have been drinking it is definitely quaffable.  There is also free beer for those so inclined.

SETTING SAIL:  On our last night ashore we met up with and shared dinner with our very good Barcelona friends Teresa and Josep.  It was great to catch up.  In the morning we crammed our suitcases with bottles of wine and 12 days of dirty laundry.  A quick taxi drive got us to the ship and the all important laundry room down the hall from our stateroom.

CHANGE OF PLANS:  We just returned to the ship after a pleasant day in Alicante.  The Captain made an annoucement that there is a massive storm heading to the Canary Islands and thus after tomorrow we would be changing out route, heading south (through rough seas) in an effort to avoid the storm.  Could be interesting.