Hotel Nh Canciller De Ayala Vitoria-Gasteiz

... the very deep cellars built throughout this town hundreds of years ago to produce its wines. Another interesting and enjoyable visit.

And so I'm writing this 6 days after returning to the UK and going back to work. I'm reflecting on a fabulous week with some great food, wine, culture, history, scenery and company. This was a busy week, I was always doing something, I didn't get around to the two novels I brought to read.

For the wine tour element I'd ...

... very traditional Lopez de Heredia. Naturally each tour ends with a tasting - we've yet to have a wine that wasn't good, and to days real treat was a the 1991 Vina Tondonia White Grand Reserva at Lopez de Heredia, this was quite different and its extraordinary to think of a White wine so old, yet they still sell the 1957 and it apparently drinks well.

The cellar where they keep the really old wines at Lopez de Heredia is probably not somewhere you'd like to ...

... booked a room and arrived shortly just outside of Zumarraga at Hotel Santa Kutz.

Although the hikes taken in the next 48 hours were definite highlights of my time in N. Spain, the hotel’s modern conveniences, friendly staff and its charm of being set atop a hill with heaps of trees, cows, green pastures and even a 13th century palace surrounding it were also very memorable. With wonderful views of the neighboring landscape in view from the hotel’s glass ...

We arrived to Logroņo in June 29th at 15h, as we did the first day of our pilgrimage, we decided to walk a few kms to Navarrete, we missed so much that landscapes!!! like having homesick from the Camino or something like that!
This part of the pilgrimage is algo ...

... cities in the Camino, we visited the whole city in a few hours cuz is a little bit small. We finished our first walking week in this city so we made a farewell party in c/Laurel, the most famous street in Logroņo, many people get drunk that day... i don't know how they felt for walking the day after that party...
We will come back in my next free week to continue the camino from Logroņo to Burgos...

This stage has no difficulties, the landscapes begin to change, we left the woods behind us and we begin to see beatiful fields til we reach our destination.

In Los Arcos I don't recommend the main refuge... when we were there we saw lots of bugs, an unpleasant smell, a small kitchen... the village is not very impressive but the main church (worth to see)

... Bodegas offered a mere scene of bewilderment to me but little else. Carrying on, I met a Swiss guy named Joe who was running around with the camera of some English girl. She actually gave it to him because Joe's camera got broken and she thought she wouldn't need it. Well, that's actually some trust you have to place in a total stranger! People are generally very generous on the Camino, because giving away something means you don't have to carry it around in your backpack ...

... top of the bell tower. It was at this time they told us they were the Opus Dei, famous from the Da Vinci Code, as a nasty cult side of the church. We all thought they were gonna bunk us of the top of the tower....but they didnt. We were blown away by their hospitality but were glad to get out of there without an excorcism or some sort of conversion!

... experience that once the tourists have gone home, the locals party all night all year round anyway. It is a favourite city of mine for this and many other reasons, not least of which is that my good friend Carlos lives there with his wife Elena. I met Carlos during a year at university in France when he fitted in as well as anybody else with the local culture, and was totally at home in the multinational band of friends we shared. He still travels with work and on ...

... the idea any more... Us girls thus headed into the stadium to see the guys come through and the bulls finish their run... We were told that two cannons were to go off. The first to inform the runners and spectators that the bulls' gates had been opened and the second to let them know that all the bulls had now cleared the pens and were heading down the road. Even before the first canon had gone off there were a couple of idiots coming through ...