We spent our last day in Rioja enjoying two or our favorite things. Armed with research from Ton and advice from a Scottish/Irish couple we have been sharing campgrounds with we headed into town to do a run on the Tapas and Pinxto bars on Calle Laurel.
We left François at 11:30, because Ton wanted to check out some of the Santiago Camino infrastructure. All of northern Spain has tremendous infrastructure to support the pilgrims on the way to Santiago de Campostelo. Historically Logrono was one of the main stops on the camino and they have a lot of hostels to cater to the pilgrims.
As we were walking up the street we saw a group of mostly older gentlemen gathered on the street in front of us. They were dressed in capes and berets so we walked up curiously. Ton whispered to me to pretend to look at something so she stealthily take their picture. Before we could execute our plan; one of the gentlemen came over grabbed Ton and called over some of his friends to pose for a group picture. We had a good laugh together and after the picture there was much handshaking and goodbyes. Another time when we wished we could speak Spanish.
Now it was time for the main part of the day-eating. We had a plan for Calle Laurel , we would only have one dish and one drink in each bar. We would split the dish and the drink and then move on to the next bar. This plan was helped by the fact that several of the bars only offer one dish, but they are very good at it.
The only place on the list I picked was the first one. The only dish they offered was roasted potatoes. In this place we each got a glass of wine to set a base. Our next stop was about 50 feet up the street and the only dish they offered was roasted mushrooms. This time only one glass of white wine.
We spent the next hour working our way up Calle Laurel from one place to the next. We weren’t the only one, there were hundreds of other people doing the same thing. You walk in to a bar find a place at a table or a counter, go up to the bar order your tapas and a drink, pay, eat and when you are ready to move on take your glasses and plates back up to the bar. In every place as soon as we cleared our table another couple would step up and grab it and continue the routine.
We continued this routine for a total of 6 places. The total spend for 6 plates and 5 drinks was €23. We were full and very happy. The tapas culture here is fantastic. We did not see an unhappy person even though all the places are packed. The Spanish really have something special here.
After our trek up Calle Laurel, and under the threat of thunderstorms we returned to François for a well earned siesta. The thunderstorms rolled in around sunset, but we were too stuffed to care.
