Day 104: or The Day of Wine

Another early day, another bus tour outside of Barcelona. This tour was wine based however, and the drinking started at around 9:30am. The first winery we visited was Jean Leon and we were the only group there. It was small and beautiful. The guide was great and the wine was good. The girls and I hadn’t had a proper breakfast so I snuck a couple extra crackers to be on the safe side. We were on the tour with 6 other English speakers but were the only Americans. There were 3 Australians, 1 Canadian, and 2 English. We all got to talking at the second winery when we were blown away by the video they decided to show us. Blown away is not a good thing here. We were at the Torres winery and we were here to have lesson on pairing wine and certain foods. We were all just happy to get the chance to eat something but before we could do that, they took us a bit through the vineyards and cellar. In the “tram”, there was audio explaining a bit about the family and the history of the company. This would have been all well and good had we not just watched a similar video on the bus on the way to the vineyard. They also felt the need to add bird sounds randomly. They then drove us through a dark cellar in circles showing holographic images of monks. It was just bizarre but it was a bonding moment for the group because we couldn’t contain our laughter. When the "tour” was complete, we met with our guide who asked how we liked the ride. We all lied through our teeth and just hoped it would get better.

                                               

It did. The pairing lesson didn’t match the dramatics of the video and we left the winery a little bit later, having eaten a bit, and ready to try some Cava. We headed to the Freixenet factory/cellar. Cava is Spain’s sparkling white in case you didn’t know, and the girls and I had been enjoying it on our own. The tour was nice because they explained more about the process than the other wineries. They took us down into the cellar, which is a huge underground complex with more Cava than you can shake a stick at. But really, there’s a whole lot of booze down there. After the tour we sat down for cheese, pan con tomate, ham, and some almond cookie thing. And of course more wine. I don’t think I’ve mentioned pan con tomate. This tomato bread is everywhere and quite tasty. I don’t even really like raw tomatoes and I was always pleased when we’d get some. The girls on the other hand, loved it. Needless to say we rarely ate a meal without it.

After the Cava stop, we headed back to the city and back to our apartment. We accomplished our first siesta and were officially on Spanish time. We had planned on going to L’Eixample for dinner and then drinks. It’s the gay neighborhood of Barcelona and Gabbie had asked that we go check it out. The restaurant we had planned on going to could not be found at the address we were given, so we found a local place and gave it a try. We ordered tortillas patatas and some beer and then headed to a little Mexican restaurant I had found in a guide book. Yes, Mexican in Spain. The food was good and simple and after some Modelo Especial, we headed to the first stop of our Gay tour. We were of course early. Since Gabbie had dancing in mind, the club wasn’t exactly a right fit, so we left to try another one. Being a late night club, the second was also basically empty. Ten minutes later though and things started to pick up. We had a good time and after a while, we made it home and it was time to crash.