Laguardia Spain

Travelled:131km
Visited: La Rioja vineyards, Laguardia
Stay: Vitoria Gasteiz-free parking and services GPS N42.86684 W2.68539

When you set off for the day, you are never sure what surprises the day may bring.
Our destination was the Rioja wine country. Driving along we had beautiful views of the valley with many hill top fortresses. 

We drove into Haro to find many people soaked in wine having partaken in the annual wine throwing battle.

 We decided to continue on and managed to find a cellar door that was opened. Unfortunately being a Sunday nearly all others were closed. After the purchase of several bottles we made our way to Laguardia.

 It was festival day here as well but no wine throwing. We strolled around enjoying the local wine and tapas. We admired the richly sculpted polychrome interior portal in the church.

We then noticed gates were being used to close off one of the streets and found out that they were having the running of the bulls through the town. Maybe not quite Pamplona style, but it was fun to watch. 

We then had terrific views of the whole valley when we drove up and over the mountain to Vitoria Gasteiz.

La Rioja

Travelled:131km
Visited:Logrono
Stay:Logrono-free parking and services GPS N42.47916 W2.4571

Had a beautiful drive to Logrono today. We firstly stopped to have a look at a dam where the Duero flows through (near its source), then went up and over the mountain pass Santa Ines at alt.1753m.

On approaching Logrono we drove through the Valley of Iregua with dramatic escarpments.

We found a great spot to park and rode our bikes into town and we were blown away with the tapas bars. So we spent the afternoon and then went back in the evening, trying out the house specialties. Its great see all the age groups enjoying themselves. 

The old quarter has also some great sites to visit and it is on the Pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela.

Soria Sapin

Travelled : 127km
Visited: Soria
Stay: Soria- free parking, no services GPS N41.76769 W2.45391 

After dinner last night we had a brief walk through Aranda and the squares and restaurant/cafe/bars were full of people of all ages. It certainly brings to life the town.

Again it was an easy drive along the N122 to Soria. Along the way we saw many ruined hill top fortresses and watched the landscape go from large wheat fields to smaller undulating country side. 
We found a Leclerc coming in to town and we try and get our fuel from there as it is always so much cheaper. After a bit of shopping, Mark realised that the Bombers were playing, so we went to McD to use their wifi. 
From here camy took us out on the ring road to the allowed parking spot for motorhomes. At the time we were a bit nonplussed, but we're quite relieved she had done so when after parking Bluey we walked into town. A first it seemed like a ghost town like the few other towns we had passed earlier that day, but as we got closer in to the centre the noise level went up along with the people population. It was fiesta day and it seemed it had been going for a while because most were well and truely drunk but still having a good time.  We had a stroll around and a couple of drinks but we felt we had crashed a party that was nearly over. So we slowly walked back to Bluey passing via the main sites of the town and hoped that our quiet spot next to the Duero River remains peaceful for the night!

Segovia Spain

Travelled:116km
Visited: Segovia
Stay: Aranda de Duero - free parking and services, GPS N41.66833 W3.69583

Segovia is another walled city with many sites to visit. The Roman Aqueduct is more than 2000 years old, 16,220m in length and167 arches made up of unmortared granite held together by force equilibrium.

We walked through the middle of the old quarter passing the very unusual Diamond Tip House and the Cathedral. 

We went to visit the Alcazar,  once a fortress and royal palace. The Royal Artillary School was also established here for 100 years. For 2 centuries it was also a state prison. It is beautifully situated high up on a rocky peninsular and looks like a fairy tale castle. The interior rooms we visited had amazing decorated ceilings. One of these is called the Pine Cone Room and has 392 pine cones on its moulded ceiling! We also liked the different types of armoury found in several rooms. 

Although there is so much more to visit we decide to set off for an aire. The closest one was no longer in use so we continued on to Aranda de Deuro, yes it is on the Douro (Portuguese spelling) River.