On our first night in Spain, Mick and I both slept for 12 hours. That is a record.

But once awake, we headed for breakfast early (well… at 7.45am) as we had missed dinner last night. And, after watching a nail-biting footy final (yes, we are Footy Tragics) we caught the shuttle back to the Airport and collected our hire car.

We did not have very far to go to get to today’s destination, but it is always a bit nerve wracking on Day 1 of collecting a hire car, and driving for the first time in months on the wrong side of the road. Plus, this was my first time driving in Spain.

We did have one minor hiccough. While I had packed a cord for my iphone so it could connect via ApplePlay to the car, unfortunately it did not have the right connector. In Europe it is a requirement that all technology use the same plug – USB Type C, and mine was not the right one. So tomorrow we have a job to find one that will work.

Our destination was Aranda de Duero, and we will spend four nights here.

This city of approximately 33,000 people, is the central city of one of the Spanish wine regions we want to explore – the Ribera del Duero. This region is known for its high-altitude vineyards and (mainly) Tempranillo (red) wines. The city boasts one of the largest collections of underground wine cellars (bodegas) in the region, and Mick and I will explore some of them tomorrow.

In 2022, Aranda de Duero was named the “European Wine City of the Year”; another reason we are here.

There are also lots of wineries quite close to the city, and having a car will give us the freedom to explore some of them.

Before we left Australia I had read that today (14th September), is the start of an important festival – La Virgin de las Viñas (Our Lady of the Vines, as in grape vines). This meant that the town squares were busier than usual for a Sunday.

Groups of people were gathered for lunch, or for just a few drinks. Many locals were wearing a neckerchief, a small piece of checkered cloth, some embroidered with the town’s name and emblem. According to Google… “it’s a symbol of local pride, tradition, and celebration”.

After a small siesta, Mick and I headed out to explore Aranda a little further. We are only 200m from the first town square – and Mick is very happy about that.

Mick wanted a glass of vermouth and I asked for a Sangria. I was told they did not have Sangria, instead they offered me a local drink made from red wine and lemon juice (squash). I later found out it is called zurracapote, and it is supposed to be stronger and spicer than Sangria. Either way it was delicious.

By early evening, Mick and I knew that we were not going to make the opening time of the restaurants…again. We also knew that we could not wait until midnight for the festival fireworks. So, we headed back to our apartment and I cooked us some small pork sausages we’d bought in Madrid yesterday – and we were both very happy with that.

Another early night for us.