Logroño

I am typing this fresh out the most delicious and relaxing weekend trip to Logoño and Zaragoza.

Logroño is the capital of the region of La Rioja, a region 3 hours north of Madrid. La Rioja is a tiny autonomous region in the north of Spain known primarily for its wine. Despite going to the La Rioja history museum, I can't extend my explanation of the region beyond its incredible beauty and delicious food. Logroño is close to many of the bodegas in the region, as well as a popular stop in the Camino de Santiago.

Logroño is a pretty small city, with a little more than 130,000 inhabitants. The main attraction beyond the bodegas are the calles of pinchos! There are more than 50 tapas/pinchos restaurants in compact and connected streets. The most famous is called Calle del Laurel where Jane and I ate WELL. This street is affectionately called the "Camino de elefantes" because you walk through the street, stopping and eating at every little place and leave feeling as big as an elephant. The wine ranges from .80-1.20 Euros as well, cheaper than water or anything else on the menu. Jane and I also indulged at our bla bla car driver's recommendation, Wine Fandango. We sat at the bar and ate fusion tapas like a Blood Sausage spring roll and a thai salad.

This segment is called stuff I ate:

A really popular pincho is the stacked grilled mushrooms with a lil shrimp on top.

On my croqueta scale, with 1 being bleh and 5 being the best croqueta I ever ate, I give this one an average 2.7 for its lack of depth and cold interior. Its score came from presentation and delicious ham on top.

A french toast like pastry with ice cream on top sitting on a yummy melted chocolate and cinnamon ice cream sauce. (Wine Fandango)

These croquetas get a 4.0, they were cooked all the way, the inside was creamy and flavorful. Outside was crispy and fried. It just wasn't a 5. (Wine Fandango)

Cochnillo at Las Cubanas. This was SO good, better than everything we ordered and so cheap. This is a sensitive subject for me but this Cochinillo was better than Segovia, hands down.

Patatas at Bar Jubera, which seems like it only sells drinks and patatas. This place was PACKED, definitely a local favorite.

Other highlights include: Croquetas and ham sammys at Pata Negra, meat on a stick at the Paganos Bar, and Bruschetta at Blanco y Negro. Also had some funky stuff at Las Cubanas, but just order the cochinillo. In the 36 hours-ish we were in Logrono, I ate 10+ tapas, had 11 glasses of wine and 1 beer.

Besides eating, we walked around the city. Logroño is really a beautiful city with a pueblo feel. We also went to a mass in the Cathedral and took a lil excursion to the Ysios Bodega in Pais Vasco. The bodega was designed by Santiago Calatrava, a famous Spanish architect (he designed the new 1 World Trade Center Transpo hub). Unfortunately, no one answered our calls and when we arrived the door was locked so we just walked around.

Luckily, the bodega was very close to a GEM of a pueblo, Lagaurdia. Laguardia is a walled pueblo with medieval streets and buildings maintained for centuries.

The city is on top of the hill, surrounded by vineyards.

Inside the pueblo. All the streets look like this!

After a day of exploring (and before we started eating more), we did a tour of the Bodega Francoes-Espanolas, one of the oldest Bodegas in Spain! The winery was created by a coalition of French and Spainards (hence the name). Since its founding in 1890, it has been producing wine in the region. Hemingway, which I suppose would just go around Spain very drunk famously loved the wine here.