Haro

The centre for Rioja wine making. There are bodega’s (wine yards) everywhere. Given that I am rather partial to a glass of Rioja I decided that a tour was in order. The first place we tried was booked up for the next 3 weeks, the second place only 4 days. Third time lucky. At an eye watering €30 a person and a horrendous 10am start we enjoyed the tour of the “factory” tasting some wine direct from the barrels as workers there racked the wine by candle light. There were only 4 of us on the tour, so I was able to ask lots of questions, the lady certainly knew me by the end. We got to try 4 wines, and were left with 3.5 bottles of wine to sit in the sun and enjoy. The other 2 people left immediately leaving me with one hell of a task. The 0.5 bottle was a 50 year old wine that cost €100 a bottle.

Haro has two claims to fame, wine and the first place in Spain to get electric street lighting. We admired the lights, took in an art gallery, a church and wandered around the pretty, if small, old town. We also did a great walk 14K walk to Ermita de San Felices ( a statue on a hill) through the vineyards.

The campsite was a fully fledged campsite with swimming pool(closed) , restaurant etc, with ACSI cost €20 a night.

The disaster for the stop – the kettle started shorting out and tripping the van electrics.