What a day we have had today. After a leisurely start we spent the morning exploring the beautiful little city of Logrono with its quaint alleys, churches and the old pilgrim way passing through - the Camino de Santiago de Compostella. It was wonderful to see todays pilgrims walking it with their scallop shells on their modern rucksacks - we did walk it backwards for half a mile though but not literally!

And then this afternoon we were picked up by our very own guide Theiros for our RIojan wine experience. Starting with a visit to the Wine makers palace where 52 wine growers in 1775 agreed how Rioja should be made, we moved on up to the vineyards and an amazing lesson on all things vine, grape and wine. We saw mainly Tempranillo grapes growing which make the majority of the wine - although they do use 5% of Grenache and a couple of other grapes too. The best wines are made the French way being aged in oak barrels and surprisingly to escape the rages of a European Grape disease they use American vines. We couldn't have had a more informative guide and we experienced testing grapes for alcohol content as well as lessons in how to care for the vines. After a short rest under an Almond tree whilst eating home made chorizo, pate, bread and drinking wine from a wine skin, we moved on to an old winery. Here we ended up bottling our own wine and bringing a bottle each of our favourite home.

Now to enjoy the evening and a meal on Calle Laurel in the heart of old Logrono. Can't quite believe we will be moving on tomorrow into France. Perhaps next time we return we will be walking the Camino ourselves!