The hilltop town of Laguardia and the grape train

November 24, 2012

Our landlord was the first one to mention Laguardia and how beautiful it is. It's in Basque Country, but it's only 30 minutes away by bus. Laguardia is a hilltop town surrounded by a medieval wall which very few cars can enter. There's nothing like trying to take a picture of beautiful landscapes and historical facades with a bunch of cars parked along side. But once inside, it's mostly cobblestone streets, too narrow for cars. I loved it!



But first before we entered through the town's walls, we walked along the wall's perimeter to see the views of the mountains and bodegas.

Just me sitting on a well

After some playing around and taking photos, we enter the town. I had not looked into what to see once we arrive to Laguardia, but sometimes it's nice not to have a plan and to just experience friends (and whatever happens next).

Cars (on the outside)

Inside the medieval wall

Town center/plaza

On the other side of the gateway into the town, was the town plaza. We had only seen a small area inside the walls when the cobblestone streets started to fill with people after siesta. Before we entered the first bar, we saw a brass band starting a jaunt around town. We had caught them just in time. They had drawn a crowd so we decided to follow them. We danced in the street and continued into a warm bar where they took a break from playing music.

We ordered some wine and snacked on olives as we tried to take decent indoor photos of the band on the other side of the bar.

After a glass of wine and making friends with the band, the band was moving on. We followed them, but the party stopped at the grape train.

So we hit another bar for some tapas. The majority of tapas come on bread. This one is goat cheese, honey, blackberry and balsamic if I remember correctly. I love the cheese and fruit ones!

Also typical are tapas in ceramic bowls or without bread: Angulas, little eels served cold (not bad); Chorizo with a fried quail? egg; Whipped mussel pate served in it's shell; and meat on skewers. I'm probably butchering the real names and descriptions, but this is what it is to me.

Angulas

Chorizo with fried egg and chicken with tomato sauce

The next restaurant/bar, we thought we'd get something to share. We thought we were ordering a cold plate of chorizo and manchego cheese, but it ended up being hot and gooey. It was delicious. We also realized everyone was leaving the restaurant, so we asked if we should get going, but the guy invited us to enjoy our wines and see the bodega downstairs. So we grabbed our wines and headed below to a cave of wine barrels. Our self guided tour included a small banquet room half way down the stairs. It had just been abandoned from the last group and there were still wine bottles with wine. Hmmm. I wonder what happened next.

Then, look who we found! We had been in town for about 4 hours and it was time to get the bus home, but while we were waiting our band friends appeared across the street. We hung out outside and kept an eye on our bus, and then they were off to their next destination.

After our bus didn't come for a bit, we (well 2 out of 4 of us) took some tequila shots to keep warm. Probably not the best idea, but it sounded good at the time. When we found out the next bus didn't come for a couple of hours we continued back into town and found a bachelor celebrating his bachelorism for the last time. I guess this is how they do it here!

By the 8pmish bus, we were ready to go home and eat a hearty meal. I think I was asleep by 9:30. Fun day!