Situated on a hillside in coastal Basque Country between Bilbao and San Sebastián, Mutriku was our last stay in Spain and we really felt part of village life.

We stayed in a wee apartment in the old quarter with a patio that overlooked the entrance to the village’s main square.

From our seats we could watch the comings and goings of the whole village as we ate.

Over the road is the bar where we got our morning coffee, the staff kindly brought it over for us so we could enjoy it on our patio.

A couple of shops away is Sabina’s which looks like a bookshop at the front but has a grocery at the back, and it’s where I got our baguette every morning.

Mutriku was founded in 1209 and has primarily been a fishing village. The main excitement in the village at the moment appears to be the painting of a series depicting the activities of the townsfolk in years gone by. The paintings are on walls lining an alleyway just down from us and are are being done by a woman who paints  every evening  watched by passersby who discuss it in great detail. I loved watching them all gather and engage in animated conversation.

 

 

 

Everywhere you go is either up a hill or down a hill, the village people must all be very fit!

The last day we were intending to go down to the port but it pretty much rained all day,

and although the walk down wouldn’t have been too bad, the walk back looks pretty strenuous and not much fun in the rain. I walked half way to the port a couple of mornings ago and managed to get some photos just as the sun was coming up.

For the past few days I have watching Alex Polizzi’s series,  Secret Spain,  and in one episode she talked  the famous Elephant trail in Logroño , Calle Laurel, a street of tapas. This and the fact that Logroño is in Roija, an area well known for our favourite Spanish wine, Tempranillo, made this city a ‘must-do’ for us.

So Calle Laurel is called the elephant trail because after you have sampled the tapas, beers and wines along the street, that’s how you walk, like an elephant!

There’s even a line in the pavement to guide you! Please note the Driver was quite capable of walking a straight line!

Some of the bars served only one tapas, Bar Angel only served three grilled mushrooms on a slice of baguette topped with a prawn and garlic oil, delicious.

While other bars served a variety of yummy delights.

 

At most of the bars you could stand at the window to eat and drink, or sit inside at the bar.

 

It’s a great way to eat, you don’t end up with that bloated, ‘I’ve eaten way too much’ feeling you often have after a traditional three course  meal out. If we were 30 years younger, and it wasn’t 38C with the apartment half an hour’s walk away, there’s every likelihood we would have have been doing the elephant walk, but as it was, we had an elegant sufficiency to eat and drink and a sedate stroll home.

The next day we visited Bodega Viejo, a winery that couldn’t have been more different than the sherry Bodega in Jerez. Whereas that Bodega was very small with a lot of the processes still carried out by hand, this one was very large and shiny , using the latest technology.

Our guide was very enthusiastic, and also very busy, he was something in marketing. I think his English was quite good, but his accent was strong, he was obviously very proud of the operation but also had other duties calling him, so spoke quite quickly, in between dashing off to do something in his office. We did get used to his accent by the end of the tour, but a lot of the information I know about growing, which he gave us at the beginning, I learnt from the internet. What came through loud and strong was that in order to maintain the high standard of the Rioja name, the Consejo, Rioja Control Board, has absolute control over everything applicable to both production and sales: vineyard and winery registers, control of growing practices, maximum production yields, an approval process for new wines, monitoring of ageing times and vintages, etc. They have the authority to enter the Bodega and if the standards are not met then the name Rioja cannot be used on the label.

On of the practices the wine growers use to limit yields if required is to grow greenery, I’m not sure what it was, between rows, alternating rows each year, which took away some of the moisture and goodness in the soil from the vines.

The wine making  process is threefold, starting with fermenting in large shiny stainless steel vats. I was very focused on our guide to make sure I understood as much as I could , he pushed open a door , oh, and welcome to my nightmare! A mesh walkway overlooking the stainless steel vats, towering high above ant-size humans going about their business below.

You know that feeling when you are absolutely scared witless, but are trying to look like you do this everyday? I gave up listening and just concentrated on getting across the walkways without breaking down hysterically. So I don’t know much about the fermenting stage.

 

Then there is aging in oak vats,

then aging in the bottle. The pillars contain chips that are linked to the computer in the forklift, giving information about the wine in that particular row.

 

The Consejo established a classification system for Rioja wines which is based on the criteria of aging. Crianza has to age for 2 years before going to market, Reserva for three years and Gran Reserva for 5 years. This website gives some more information on wine classification https://winetourismspain.com/index.php/blog/classification-system-rioja-wines/

The tasting was fabulous, we had taken a taxi so the Driver didn’t have to drive, it was a shame the cafe wasn’t, it would have been very pleasant to sit and sip all afternoon!

In my final Camino post I talked a bit about returning to Logroño , a bitter-sweet reunion! It was a two day trip from Jerez and the weather was getting even hotter. On our second day we decided we would have breakfast at McDonalds and send a photo to D2, just to annoy her. Oh no! It doesn’t open until 11:30, whoever heard of a McDonalds that opens that late!

Never mind we thought we’d drive for an hour or so then find somewhere to eat on the road. We’ve had some very pleasant lunch stops in lovely surroundings during our travels. This one wasn’t! Hot, no shade, prickles and wild oats, mercifully no flies! Well, you can’t win them all.

Once again, when we got to our accommodation  we found that ‘parking available’ meant somewhere in a 200m radius. Did I mention it was very hot? I mean Australian, ‘it’s f……39C’ hot, not European ’30C, we’re having a heatwave’ hot. And another thing about using Airbnb. If, in the list of amenities, ‘lift in the building’ is crossed out, it means that there are at least 4 floors and you are on the top floor. Having driven for two days, basically all we took from the car and hauled up the four floors was a change of clothes, toothbrush and toothpaste, and beer. Oh, and did I mention that air conditioning was also crossed out? When I booked this accommodation a couple of weeks ago it was cold, not having air con was not a concern! Our host was a very pleasant and eager young man, and it wasn’t his fault that it was 39 f…. degrees, so we did our best not to pant too much and look pleased with the apartment. Once we’d caught our breathe it was straight off to the nearby bar which was to become our local beer/coffee stop, on this occasion it was definitely beer. Each time we drank there the bowl of free chips got larger

One of the things I really loved about the apartment was that it overlooked a lot of residential apartments. The swimming pool on the patio below us was a new addition on our first day! Obviously the heat was too much.

A family in another apartment sat outside and had a few drinks every evening. They usually ate as the sun was going down, this photo was taken just after sunset, about 10:00 pm! I’d love to know what they had for tea, Mamá served a lot of dishes, I’m over eating by that time in the evening.

We really enjoyed walking around the streets looking at the buildings and the street art. You never knew what you would find at the end of the street or around the corner.

I finally  managed to get the Driver onto the Camino, even if it was only for one street!

This street art is especially for my cuz, V, hope you like them!

Those of you dear readers who are also Facebook Friends would have noticed a discrepancy between Real time, which is ‘this is what I am doing/eating today’ and Baguettes and Vegemite time which is sometimes up to two or three weeks behind. This because a) we have had some woeful wifi which has blogging difficult and b) I have been reasonably lazy so have I leant on reason a) as an excuse!

Today I am going to jump ahead to present time for this post  and catch up on the rest of our adventures in Spain this week (where we are staying in a house with fabulous wifi!)

Happy Birthday to D1 and D2 🎉 I miss being with you to make spaghetti bolognese for your birthday dinner.

We are staying in a holiday gite in the Haut-Vienne region of Limousin in France. I absolutely adore this region, the Driver and I stayed in this area in 2013, only about 100km from here.

And this is why I love it, these are pictures from my morning walk!