Hello, hello people!
Luis and I have a really nice weekend in Valladolid, but what made it nice was that we were able to squeeze a lot into a short time. In just two days, we visited Peñafiel, Bodega Pradorey for vino, Valladolid, and Salamanca. It was a good weekend!
We left early Saturday morning despite both being really tired. I had two tours the day before and then we went to a housewarming party and didn’t leave until after midnight. At 8 am, I peeled myself out of bed and went for a short run, and by 9:30, we were on the road.
Our first stop was for a tour of a winery called Pradorey, which is a little over an hour from Madrid.
Before we started the tour, we had some packed bagel sandwiches which were a smart move, if you ask me!
We planned to do a little tour of the bodega and then a wine tasting. The first part of our tour brought us out into the (freezing cold) vineyard where I shoved as many grapes into my mouth as I could because I am a classy person…
We picked some grapes and then were taught how to eat them so that we tasted the different ways that each part of the grape will effect the flavor of the wine. We then learned a bit about the processing of the grapes and then went into their (much warmer) bodega to see the hundreds of barrels of wine!
We learned all about the different types of wood, particularly the difference between french wood and american wood and the tour guide was like “french wood has notes of vanilla, coffee, cocoa, spice, etc and american wood has …. not so much”. I joked that she would say american wood has notes of burgers and hot dogs.
After the tour, we headed upstairs to do the wine tasting in the classiest of ways 😉
JK, we didn’t drink like college kids for the whole wine tasting. We actually, you know, used glasses during some parts too.
We were able to try a red wine and a (really yummy) white wine-a verdejo. We learned how to smell the wine, look at the color to determine age, and how to aerate it (is that how you spell that?).
I liked both wines, but surprisingly, I really loved the white wine (and I am def more of a red gal). The verdejo had notes of toasted wood and it was so good! Too bad it was like…1 in the afternoon.
After our tour, we got back in the car and drove about 40 minutes to nearby Peñafiel, which has a big castle… and not much else.
We thought we would have lunch there, but the entire town felt weirdly deserted and quiet, and since I wasn’t much in the mood to eat baby baby baby lamb (less than 1 month old), we headed on to Valladolid. After checking into the hotel, we went in search of PINXOS! One of my all time favorite Spanish foods because you can try so many different things, and if you find a good place, they are so artistic looking.
In the middle photo, there is one pinxo with artichoke, goat cheese (and a shrimp I didn’t eat). The second one had vegetables and cheese and I can’t remember, and the third (my favorite) had goat cheese, mushrooms, and TOFFEE. It was so good! That last one had thinly sliced beef and other things I can’t remember, but all super tasty.
My recommended pinxo bars: El Corcho (famous croquetas and pinxos) and Bar Restaurant Jero (the pinxos you see above are from there)
We didn’t stay out late, so on Sunday I was up crazy early and ready to go RUNNING and it was SNOWING!! Luis wasn’t thrilled haha, but it was fun and running is always the best way to see a new place. We ran all over town before quickly stopping for a couple coffees and slices of tortilla española. Later, we packed up the car and continued to Salamanca for the afternoon. It was freezing, but we walked around and look at the beautiful squares and buildings.
And then later had a mediocre and overly expensive lunch. 
A great little weekend getaway!
Today is Tuesday and I am trying to wrap up a few things that have been on my to-do list for awhile before heading to class tonight. It’s actually a holiday in Spain on Thursday, so tomorrow is the last class of the week. Woop woop for shorter weeks! Catch ya later!
