Day 35 Wednesday 31/5/2017 We were up early and departed the hotel and Madrid as quickly as we could - on the road before 9. There seemed to be a lots of kilometres to cover and things to see. And so it turned out. Our first stop was to Segovia (should this not be an Eastern European dictatorship and not a town an hour and a half north of Madrid?). Anyway the surprise was that we headed into mountain/skiing country as we were staying off motorways, and we reached a height of 1856 metres, the second highest this holiday. And indeed we could see snow on parts of the north facing slopes. The drive was beautiful, winding through tree clad mountain sides. And then Segovia. We got there just after 10.30 and immediately knew we were in a Place Of Interest - Chinese tourists abounded! The Roman aqueduct, as Pont du Gard, was impressive.
Although I can't show it here the swifts flying around were incredible. Never seen so many together. Anyway, we then headed for the Cathedral, a must see apparently, and they weren't wrong. A beautiful building, but one we dodged seeing inside - we have seen a few this holiday!
We then walked on through the Medieval streets to the Alcazar, another amazing building. Local lore has it that Walt Disney too visited here.....
A coffee stop was definitely on the cards and we think we found the best coffee spot on the holiday yet...
...overlooking the cathedral and the countryside beyond with the Alcazar just behind us. Sadly time to move on, so back in the car and we headed northwards for our next stop Penifiel. All these places today were suggested by an Internet search of a good route from Madrid to Bilbao...
Penifiel looked to be a disappointment and turned out to be a great success. The tourist crowds were not here and that was because the Castle was closed for lunch! It actually seems to be more a wine museum than a castle tour so perhaps we were lucky. Anyway the building was impressive...
We then headed back into town in search of some lunch. Howard chose what seemed an unprepossessing cafe but which turned out to a great success altogether. We both had the menu del Dia as usual, 2 courses plus a dessert for me and coffee for Howard, plus bread of course and a bottle of water and a carafe of wine. All for 21 euros. Served inside this lovely cafe. We left a tip and a big thank you for which Howard got a hug from our patron! He was a charm and had made our whole experience even better.
I had also read about the impressive plaza and small doors in this village. Not knowing quite what to expect we wandered off to find this plaza. I was expecting the usual nice square in front of a church but what we found was something else entirely....
These were the little doors...
..and this was the tightly packed houses.
Just like the Ba' in Kirkwall
The Plaza del Coso is a medieval plaza dating back to the 15th century and looks as though it hasn't been touched much since that time. An information board claimed that the concept of Plaza Mayores in all Spanish cities can be traced back to this place. The plaza is also used for bull fights at an August Festival, and the balconies are used to watch the show. Instead the escape points for Matadors are the very narrow door slots in one wall or into equally narrow slots in house doorways created by very stout posts placed down the centre of the doorway.
From Penafiel we used a fair bit of motorway and N route to get to Haro which was 200km away. Up until this point we had been top down. This was one of the few times we regretted not taking the toll road. The N road was nose to tail lorries - what a shame for such a beautiful valley to have its road choked in such a way.
On arrival in Haro we picked up some supplies and then found the Luz Hotel. The receptionist did not speak any English and didn't seem to pick up that we didn’t speak Spanish so she spoke at us at machine gun speed. All of which was a bit interesting especially when 1) our Booking.com booking wasn’t in her system and 2) she gave us the key to the wrong room and we walked in on the guests who had checked in just before us!
After unpacking we went out for a walk to get our bearings in the town. It may be the centre of the Rioja wine area but what a contrast with Segovia and Penafiel. This is a gritty real-life Spanish town. Anyway we now know where we are heading tomorrow as regards the wineries,Bodegas in Spanish.
Back in the room we found that the AC was not working well so it could be a sticky night
