Mon 18th Sep – Day 19 - Tour Day 3 - Through the Guadarrama Mountains to Santiago

 Monday Sept 18th

Vitor Rufo is our driver for this tour.

Alarm went off at 0530. Hair washing day, so need the extra time. Bag out and down to breakfast at 0700.  Finally away at 0815 for a 0800 departure.

Not many photos today, as it's a travel day.

It’s now 0950 and it’s looking very overcast at the moment.

 

We had 2 motorcycle police go screaming past the coach about 30 minutes ago, following by another 6 on their bikes, followed by a white van and then 2 more motorcycle police. Then just 2 minutes ago, 8 motorcycle police, followed by the white van. No cops following the van this time. Starting to rain now. The rain only lasted for about 15 minutes.

We did some switching around of roads etc, to arrive at the winery at 11:00am, 

where we are doing a tour and then a wine tasting. 

The cellar is made up of many passages. Could very easily get lost down there.

After that we had a wine tasting of 2 local wines. The first was a white wine, the 2nd, a Rose. I bought a bottle of the Rose. Interesting that the cork is made of plastic. Pieta & Barry will be borrowing my corkscrew.

We got away from there around midday

Rory went through the other optionals on offer. I won’t be doing either of the 2 offered in Barcelona. 

Rory has also taken our lunch orders for a cafe, who will have everything ready for when we get there, some time around 2:30pm which is still an hour away.

We are certainly off the Highway, freeway & tollway. I spoke to soon. We are back on a highway. The A-52 to be exact. Autovia de las Rias Bajas.

A very late lunch. Back on the bus at 4pm. There was a short shower around 5:30. An extremely long bus day today.

We watched a movie about the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route, which was very interesting. 

Drinks held at 7:30 and then included dinner at 8pm.

Heading out tomorrow morning at 8:30 on an optional tour.

Rias Baixas                                      

Travel southward to the Ría de Arousa, one of the deep fjord-like estuaries of Galicia to see where they farm local mussels. This beautiful coastal scenery is lined with beaches, vineyards, palm trees, grand villas and old stone houses. During our journey we'll also visit a typical Galician granite 'Pazo'; a grand manor house of the old aristocracy.

That's it for tonight. 11pm here. Night all