June 24, 2019 – This morning we got up early get started on our next adventure to Logroño, Spain. We loved Barcelona and the Gràcia area in particular, but it’s time to move on.
We took an Uber to the airport to pick up our RENTAL CAR!!! YAY! Our feet need a rest and it will be nice to not have to lug our backpacks very far for a few days. We had a bit of a challenge getting to the right Europcar Rental counter, but our driver was very helpful, and we finally got there. We have a very cool Grey Kia Hybrid…Not much power but it will do for our needs getting from place to place.
The road trip from Barcelona to Logroño was beautiful and it was very interesting to see the differing landscapes as we traversed from southern to central Spain. Immediately out of Barcelona we first crossed coastal desert leading to the Catalan Coastal mountain range consisting of first grey hills giving way to red hills and rock formations which reminded me of a lot of the Baja. As we exited the Coastal mountains the landscape opened up into a broad valley with extensive row crops as far as the eye could see which could have easily been mistaken for California’s central valley. Adding to the illusion was many areas of large, power generating, wind turbines and solar farms. As we approached our destination the agriculture changed to almost all vineyards letting us know we were entering the autonomous La Rioja province of Spain famous for its red wines with Logroño as its capital. Throughout this area are many hills rising from the valley floor on which old towns and villages were built for defensive purposes. Each has an old town center, a church and sometimes a castle in various conditions from beautiful, functioning buildings to ruins. We visited a few of these little towns which we will discuss in the coming days.
Upon arriving at Logroño, getting to our apartment was a nightmare. The host gave us an address on our original confirmation (which we mapped on Google Maps), and then a couple of days before our arrival, an email confirmation was sent with a different address, which I did not notice. He put the wrong address on our original receipt. We ended walking back and forth with our bags to each of the addresses to try to find our place in 85 degree weather. We called the host and finally got to the right apartment 3 hours later…ugh. The apartment really looked like a dump from the outside and the interior hallways were not lit, a little dirty and sketchy, but the apartment itself (on the inside) was recently renovated and nice. We arrived exhausted and grumpy….It was not a great start to Logroño .
We were going to be in Logroño for 3 nights so after we settled into our cute apartment, I took a walk to the grocery store for some staples while Wayne went to work. I got back and made us a nice dinner with a bottle of wine.
We had a quiet night tonight and retired early.
So this is what our travels looked like:
Entering Coastal Mountains 
Hill with Church and Castle Ruins 
Wind Turbines… 
Entering La Rioja wine country 
Our bedroom 
Kitchenette-very basic, but worked 
View from our bedroom 
View from bedroom looking the other way 
Living Room 
Living room/Dining area