From Cantabria we headed south to La Rioja and to be precise, to San Millan de la Cogolla, where the Spanish language was born. Our hotel was the Monastery of San Millan, and it was great for the rooms, the service… and the food.
The first day in La Rioja was surprising to everybody, as we had selected a route across the “unknown Rioja”, across two mountain passes and we even saw a group of deer that didn’t seem to be very scared of the noise from our Tractions.
But of course we didn’t forget about the part of La Rioja we all think about: The wineries. The group visited two wineries on the same day, and they enjoyed the guided visits on both of them. The first one was a modern winery with hi-technology, all aluminium barrels and electronic controls, and the second one was a traditional winery with wooden (oak) 20000 litre barrels, hundreds of metres of caves and even their own barrel factory.
The last day we drove west, and visited the Atapuerca Archaeological site, where the first Europeans have been found. Very interesting and entertaining visit in which we learned a lot about our ancestors. After the visit we had lunch at a local restaurant and headed back to Madrid.
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