We are in one of our visions of heaven. Ton came up with a plan to spend the next several days in Rioja which is a very famous wine region in Spain. Rioja wines are one of our favorites and today we are in Haro which is the center of the Rioja wine region.
It was a short shift to Haro from Burgos. Strictly speaking our planing for this trip has not been great. Today we are closer to Vitoria than Burgos so we have doubled back significantly. But I guess at this point our travels are not about efficiency but enjoyment.
After about an hours drive we settled into our campground and headed into town on a reconnaissance. Because it was Monday we knew it would be quiet as many of the restaurants and businesses close on Monday.
We did find a very nice restaurant open on Monday and as it was the only one open it was doing good business. We grabbed a table and I went to the bar to impose my bad Spanish on another patient Spaniard. Despite my stumbling Spanish we got what we wanted. I have been impressed about how nice the Spanish have been when I break out my bad Spanish on them. They are clearly fluent in English, but go along and even encourage me to try to speak Spanish instead of switching to English.
There are several wineries here in town that we plan on exploring tomorrow. We made a quick run out to the wineries and saw one Bodega open. We popped in and while they didn’t sell wine by the glass they were happy to sell us a bottle that we could pour a glass from and take home the rest . When the server delivered the bottle he also brought a nice plate of sausage and almonds for us to eat.
After we sipped our glasses of wine we packed up the rest of the bottle and headed back to François. Just as we returned there was some ominous thunder off in the distance, so we settled in for the rest of the afternoon and relaxed.
