Day Eight: Logrono and Laguardia

Once I decided to stay in Spain, Josh and I decided to take a quite weekend trip to Spanish wine country of Logrono and Laguardia. We took an early bus Friday morning to the town of Logrono where we checked into a hotel before catching a quick bus to Laguardia. Laguardia is a small charming town that has fortress walls surrounding it that were built in the 13th century. No cars are allowed in so the streets are small and quiet. We began with a tour of the Church of Santa Maria de los Reyes. The church has a 16th century stone painted portico that is closed to the public but we were able to snag a tour (unfortunately in Spanish, so I relied on some art history knowledge).
We took two tours of winery or “bodegas.” One was outside Laguardia’s city gates at a very modern winery called Ysios. The architect of this winery is the same of Bilbao’s airport and the White Bridge in Bilbao. It looked like something out of this world, with its wavy, metal roof- quite a sight. The tour was interesting, the facilities gorgeous and the win delicious!
Our second tour, Carlos San Pedro, was at a more traditional winery within the walls of Laguardia. Laguardia has an entire underworld of caves once used for weaponry holding and hiding spots in case the city was attacked. For the past 600 years, the caves have been used by families to hold and produce wine wine. We went down in the caves and got to climb up a ladder to take a look at a tank holding wine. We also did a tasting straight from one of the tanks down in the cave- pretty picturesque.
We got back to Logrono later in the evening and had a late dinner in the town’s old district. We somehow stumbled upon a restaurant that had recently been awarded a Michelin Star this year. Another delicious meal!