Day 11 - Barcelona to Rioja

We are driving from Barcelona to the Rioja wine region today. Ade will be very glad to have this day behind him - we've had some hire car problems in the past (I'm not going to name anyone 😂). He's more apprehensive because the company had been sending emails saying that they need our flight details - but we're not flying anywhere! On following up, he's been told that it should be fine - and it all goes smoothly. The next hurdle was getting out of the airport and Barcelona. Things didn't start well, we went to the wrong sides of the car - I opened the door to get in, only to find the steering wheel.

Ade did a great job driving on the wrong side of the road and going around round abouts the wrong way (for us anyway). I only had one navigation faux pas, we missed a turn off, but it was easily rectified!

The almost 5 hr drive wasn't quite what we were expecting - I think I've already said that Barcelona is experiencing a d rough, well I think this area is too! It reminded us a lot of the Mallee (the dryness) and Mildura (the irrigated green in the dryness) - except for the very old villages that is. Ade actually said it makes the Mallee in summer look lush!

When we picked up the car we asked the rental guy for some Spanish driving tips, and he said if someone waves you down, don't stop, because they'll rob you. So we were a bit reluctant to stop, but we needed to use a rest room. We pulled into a wayside stop (servo) and it made the Charlton chew and spew look like a 5 star restaurant 😂. We entered the doors clearly stating the toilets were for customers only, intending to get a little something, but it was full of truck drivers and looked pretty dodgy, so we left without getting anything! Nobody chased us down 😂. Here's our rental car in amongst some of the trucks. It really felt like the wild west!

We passed the Prime or Greenwich meridian line, this is where the longitude markings commence, so when we passed beneath this we were at 0°, 0' & 0" longitude - we were neither East nor West! This is where the line crosses and this was the marker we passed today.

The further west we got, the more hilly and green it became. We could see the Pyreness off to the North.

Then we arrived at our winery accommodation that is going to be home for the next 2 nights. I suppose it will do!

We went for a bit of a walk around the property and found some very sweet grapes (due to be picked next week), a fig tree, a few almond trees, a quince and some very old olive trees (photo).

We booked in for tea at the in house restaurant and got a bottle of wine to drink on our balcony and to watch the change of light.

Then off for an 8.30 tea (that's the earliest they open). It was very tasty - better than we were expecting.

The wine's very cheap too! We shared a burrata and tomato salad, some more anchovies, slow cooked bbq pork ribs and a flank steak with truffle mash.