Logroño, La Rioja

If you’ve ever bought a bottle of Spanish wine from the international imports section in a U.S. grocery store, chances are good that it was from “La Rioja.” This is the name of the province where Spain’s wine country is located, and where most of their wine is made. It is only three or four hours north of Madrid, and in addition to good wine boasts some impressive landscapes, with gray, rocky mountains flanking green, rolling plains.

View from a lookout point where our ride stopped for us to take some pictures

A picture from Google of a picturesque town in La Rioja

Logroño is the capital of the province, and a quaint little city with a charming, old city-center cut by the Ebro river.

View of Logroño's old town from across the Ebro River

One of the many quaint, narrow streets in Logroño's town center

Logroño was a fairly significant place in the Middle Ages because of its location on the Camino de Santiago, the most important pilgrimage route in Europe, which leads from various locations in France to the city of Santiago de Compostela in the northwest corner of Spain, where the remains of Saint James, Jesus’ brother, are believed to reside.

A map showing the important stops on the Camino

With so many people undertaking the journey every year, towns began to spring up along the way to meet the pilgrims’ needs – as well as to take advantage of their money and foreign goods – and Logroño is just one of many examples which you can still visit in Spain today. The route continues to attract thousands of people every year, the pious and the outdoorsy alike, and you can still see signs of it around Logroño’s city center.

A church in Logroño dedicated to Santiago 

A pilgrims' hostel marked by the shell, the emblem of the Camino de Santiago

Of course, nowadays the biggest draw to Logroño is the wine. In addition to trying it in bars and restaurants, there are also many wineries (called bodegas in Spanish) where you can do tours and wine tastings. Unfortunately, we didn’t plan far enough in advance to reserve a tour, but that didn’t stop us from trying plenty of cheap but delicious wine in the plethora of bars and restaurants crammed into the towns’ tiny center.

Sampling wine in a lovely outdoor terrace

Me, my wine and the winery where it was made

While we only spent an afternoon and one night in Logroño, it was enough to see the main sights. Although the town was not necessarily the most exciting I've ever been to, it was a nice change of pace from the hectic, big-city feel of Madrid, which often makes you long for an escape, no matter how much you love it. The slow pace and calm, picturesque streets of Logroño were a great place to relax and take things easy, while the wide array of places to drink, eat and make merry nevertheless provided a sense of life and vibrancy. It was a great balance, and a nice place to spend a sunny afternoon and a cozy night out.