Wine country in north central Spain

By now, you should realize our love of wine, and interest in exploring wine producing areas of the world. It was why I based us in Zamora (in the western edge of the country, near Portugal) and then drove east, pretty much along the Rio Duera, through the wine districts of Toro, Rueda and Ribera del Duero.

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At times, the countryside would be flat…

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… and then quickly develop rolling hills.

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You’ll have to forgive the photography in this post, as I was alternating between my Nikon (which was acting up) and my new cellphone (with an awesome camera!), and trying to take representative landscape pictures from a car speeding down a highway at 75 mph!

The town of Toro was interesting to explore… first looking one way:

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… and then the other, down the one main street.

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This was the town square of Penafiel -

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… with the castle on the hill looming over it. Unfortunately we arrived at the wrong time to take a tour…

(originally built in 1013, then added to later)

(originally built in 1013, then added to later)

… but the views from atop the hill were pretty sweet.

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Our next overnight was a costly (but really fun) stay in Elciego, courtesy of Frommer’s Guide to Spain. It had described a Frank Gehry designed hotel out in the middle of nowhere, and when I pulled up images, I was blown away.

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This was our view from the terrace, as we enjoyed wine and tapas just after our arrival -

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It was very hard to say goodbye to the beautiful titanium plates the next morning.

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After enjoying the lines and colors of the Hotel Marques de Riscal, we actually thought the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao was a let down!

Our trusty Fiat 500 carried us on…

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… through the Rioja wine district…

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… where a pretty large smattering of vines had really thick stems and were planted and tended to as bushes, rather than in neat rows along wired trellises.

We passed many fields of sunflowers…

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… as well as some pretty dry areas -

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My next post will cover the Basque Country. That’s actually the name of the “autonomous community” on the Atlantic, abutting France. This is one of Spain’s 17 recognized communities, including Andalusia, Catalonia, Castilla-La Mancha, etc. As we drove there, the terrain became much more rugged -

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Tune in later for further updates. :)