Hit the Road
After spending a few days in Barcelona it is time to see more of Spain. In a first for Jamie and Kelly we rented a Peugeot SUV type of thing in order to hit the country side and made our way into Rioja country. The plan was to stop in Priorat and then go on to Logrono for a couple of days and wine tours.
When making the reservation we had an automatic, but then when updated our reservation to return to San Sebastian instead of Logrono the only option was a stick as we were returning it to another "country"
Yep, Spain considers San Sebastian to be in another country, Basque country. Only problem is Kelly does not drive a stick and Jamie has not drove one for a while. Duane to the rescue! Luckily Duane drives a stick on a regular basis so he was good to go.
Getting out of Barcelona was relatively easy and soon we were cruising on the highway to wine country.
when in the city. The other neat thing about the country side is that there would be random little villages pop up out of nowhere or even a castle.
Or if it is not a castle or village it is a Nuclear power plant. Yep, pretty sure we just saw why the veggies and fruits in Europe are so large.
About half way through our drive we hit the GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)
The Osborn Bull!
One of the things Spain is known for is sherry and one of the more well known sherry companies is Osborn (yes, they probably spell it differently, but it doesn't matter) In years past they would have big billboards cut in the shape of bulls along all the highways of Spain. The Osborn name would be painted in white across the bull. A few years ago Spain decided they did not commercial advertisements cluttering up the landscape so all the bulls had to come down. The Spanish people had such a fit that the bulls would need to come down they staged protests until the government allowed the bulls to stay....just without the Osborn name. Today the bulls are a mascot of Spain.
We of course had to get a few pictures of the bulls :)
Our plan was to take a short side trip to Priorat on the way to Logrono as one of the wines we know and have had before is located there. Jamie had reached out prior to our trip to set up a wine visit to the winery. Let's just say that this village made the places we have been to in Italy look like a booming metropolis. The village was SMALL!
We actually were ahead of schedule so we stopped along the road to check out some vines and also watch a man and his goats travel the highway.
Priorat!
After about 90 minutes we arrived at our destination. Too bad our wine maker forgot we were visiting. After traversing many small, small "streets" we pulled up to his bodega only to find him not there. Thankfully he had a phone number posted to the door so Jamie called to check in with him. 30 minutes later Albert pulled up.
With 30 minutes to kill, Duane and Kelly explore the town.
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| That's Duane, always looking for the next meal |
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If you look down at the bottom of the stairs that is where the crab eaters are waiting  Yes, these are the roads in the town....No, you cannot get two cars down them at one time. Honestly it is questionable if one fits.
Rottlan Torra!Albert from Rottlan Torra winery arrives and we can start our wine tour.
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As you can see they still have quite the collection of their family wine. We were actually in the area where they store it and it makes up several rooms.
Probably the coolest thing they had was a wine barrel from the 17th century that is the last one of it's kind in Priorat. It is so big an average human can stand inside of it. Albert kept it when updating the cellar and turned into his "man cave"
The wine barrel and one of the walls inside. The two doors with knockers is where it opens and stairs can be pulled out to gain access.
Kelly inside the barrel.
Once the tour and tasting is complete... it is time to buy!
Albert actually had to place labels on a couple of the bottles before we could take them with us.
We bid adiue to Albert and Priorat to finish our journey to Logorino. Before we get to far, we figure lunch is probably a good idea. We stop in another small village on our way called Gratallops
The restaurant is named La Taberna de El Collado. When we pulled into the village our hopes were not too high as it seemed like a prettty quiet place with not a lot of options. The guys popped into an oil and wine shop to ask about a lunch spot.
After a very long story about how shop owner's family used to have a restaurant, but their father retired so it closed, he pointed them across the street to El Collado. He said "they are okay"
The place looked not open, but we thought we would give it a whirl and see what happened.
The place had about 20 tables and some neat artwork on the walls. They sat us at a table and told us what lunch was. There was no menus to choose from but there were 4 courses.
First course some really good foie gras.
Second Course, some really good celery soup. So good even Kelly liked it and she thinks celery is the devil.
Third course, some really good beef cheeks with peas and potatoes
Fourth and Final Course, lavender ice cream and home made caramel
Have you noticed a trend in our lunch?? EVERYTHING WAS REALLY GOOD! Definitely put a smile on our four faces.
We really think they were closed and only there for the local men's club to have lunch, as no one else came in and they had a different lunch menu for the men's club that included jamon, mussels, and one of the biggest paella's we had seen.
So we think we really lucked out as the lunch was 30 euro a person plus our wine and the wine was around 12 euro. It is unbelievable what food and wine costs around these parts!
A quick look through town before heading back on the road:
The yellow ribbons are an interesting site. You saw them every where in Barcelona but we were surprised to see them in this little village. The yellow ribbons were symbols for political detainees of the Catalan government that citizens thought should be freed.
Once we were back on the road we stopped for gas. That was a fun thing to watch as our car took only diesel so the guys needed to figure out how to operate a different type of gas pump and make sure they got diesel.
As we moved on down the road we got to watch a storm move across the mountains to our left.
The clouds moving across the mountains was entertaining to watch, probably because we did not have to drive through them.
After about 5 hours of driving Duane had enough and Jamie took the driver's seat. If you recall at the beginning of today's page I mentioned how long it had been since Jamie drove a stick...let's just say he did ok on the highway, but he was no match for a big tractor, a small road and a hill once we hit Longrono.
We Made It!
After a day of driving we made it to our rental and unpacked. Once done, we went into town to grab some dinner. You have to love Spain... there is a Michelin star place on every corner. We chose Tondeluna.
The menu had many choices and sharing menus. The four of us did the sharing menu for two. Like normal we had some overlapping choices. We also had some wine :)
First course for Tari, white beans and chorizo
First course for Jamie, tartare
First course for Kelly and Duane, salmon tartare
Second course for Kelly and Tari, grilled hake 
Jamie's second course, pork hand 
Duane had beef tongue... he can never say no to tongue. However, it is normally not a full tongue... normally it is sliced. The taste buds were still visible... they are quite large on a cow.
Another bottle of wine 
Dessert... chocolate for Duane and Tari, French Toast ( aka bread pudding for Jamie and Kelly)
Time to call it a day... where did we park again? One of the clever things about Spain is that parking is all under ground and stalls that are open to park in have a green light above them. Make for easy parking.
Tomorrow we wine!
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