La Rioja: Sajazarra and Logroño
Sorry for the hiatus but the holidays got the best of me and I spent the last couple of days visiting friends and relatives, having the most wonderful conversations, relaxing, and eating, of course. I'm back in Granada now; back at work and giving private classes and writing up entries for my blog. So without further ado, the next part of my holiday trip:
For our next La Riojan adventure we headed to another nearby San Millán de la Cogolla, another nearby town in La Rioja. The village has twin monasteries: el Monasterio de Suso y Yuso, which is the birthplace of Castillian Spanish!
Below is a replica of the books where the first words in Castillian Spanish were written. (The original ones are in the archives of Madrid).
It was a cold and winy day (as it was most our whole stay in La Rioja). At one point we looked out to the courtyard and thought it was raining, but it was actually snowing!
On our way back to Logroño we stopped by another small town, Sajazarra, to try some typical La Riojan food. In Spain, a typical meal consists of three parts: primer plato (first plate), segundo plato (second plate), and postre (dessert). Many restaurants will offer this as the "menu del día" (menu of the day), and the price ranges from restaurant to restaurant. A decent menu del día at a regular priced restaurant can cost you from €8-12, and a menu del día at a fancier restaurant from around €16-20. You usually get a good serving for each plate. Moreover, first plates are not small appetizers, but almost similar to a main dish.
Our first plate was patatas a la riojana which consisted of potatoes and some chorizo in a mildly spiced stew (I added some chili for extra spice). It was delicious but really fulling and I barely had space for my second plate.
We had meat for our second dish. The others had chuletas (lamb chops), but I opted for the cordero asado. Again, it was really delicious, but I couldn't finish it because I was too full from the first plate.
I wanted something light for dessert so I tried some turrón flavored ice cream.
To work off the huge lunch we had, we walked around the village a bit. Sajazarra is just another small pueblo in La Rioja with cobblestone streets and stone and brick houses. It was once a fortified town and there are some remains of its walls and arches. Aside from that, there isn't much in the village, just some restaurants, houses and small squares.
The most notable thing in the town is this castle built in the 15th century, and is now a private residence (!).
On our last day in La Rioja, we visited downtown Logroño. Logroño is the capital of La Rioja, and is thus a center for the wine trade in Spain. The city also gets regular pilgrims and travelers on the Camino de Santiago, and we saw several of them throughout our stay there.
We quickly visited the Cathedral (since it was closing for siesta), and stopped for some pictures in the main square before hurrying off for some drinks with the family, lunch, and then to catch our afternoon bus back to Madrid.
For our next La Riojan adventure we headed to another nearby San Millán de la Cogolla, another nearby town in La Rioja. The village has twin monasteries: el Monasterio de Suso y Yuso, which is the birthplace of Castillian Spanish!
Below is a replica of the books where the first words in Castillian Spanish were written. (The original ones are in the archives of Madrid).
It was another fairly interesting tour - the parts Mar translated for us at least.
It was a cold and winy day (as it was most our whole stay in La Rioja). At one point we looked out to the courtyard and thought it was raining, but it was actually snowing!
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| Snow in the courtyard |
On our way back to Logroño we stopped by another small town, Sajazarra, to try some typical La Riojan food. In Spain, a typical meal consists of three parts: primer plato (first plate), segundo plato (second plate), and postre (dessert). Many restaurants will offer this as the "menu del día" (menu of the day), and the price ranges from restaurant to restaurant. A decent menu del día at a regular priced restaurant can cost you from €8-12, and a menu del día at a fancier restaurant from around €16-20. You usually get a good serving for each plate. Moreover, first plates are not small appetizers, but almost similar to a main dish.
Our first plate was patatas a la riojana which consisted of potatoes and some chorizo in a mildly spiced stew (I added some chili for extra spice). It was delicious but really fulling and I barely had space for my second plate.
We had meat for our second dish. The others had chuletas (lamb chops), but I opted for the cordero asado. Again, it was really delicious, but I couldn't finish it because I was too full from the first plate.
I wanted something light for dessert so I tried some turrón flavored ice cream.
To work off the huge lunch we had, we walked around the village a bit. Sajazarra is just another small pueblo in La Rioja with cobblestone streets and stone and brick houses. It was once a fortified town and there are some remains of its walls and arches. Aside from that, there isn't much in the village, just some restaurants, houses and small squares.
The most notable thing in the town is this castle built in the 15th century, and is now a private residence (!).
On our last day in La Rioja, we visited downtown Logroño. Logroño is the capital of La Rioja, and is thus a center for the wine trade in Spain. The city also gets regular pilgrims and travelers on the Camino de Santiago, and we saw several of them throughout our stay there.
We quickly visited the Cathedral (since it was closing for siesta), and stopped for some pictures in the main square before hurrying off for some drinks with the family, lunch, and then to catch our afternoon bus back to Madrid.
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| Gomez! |
I really loved my visit to Logroño. It reminded me a lot of Pamplona -- it's actually only 45 minutes from Pamplona, I don't know why I never visited when I was studying there! Anyway, it was nice getting to reconnect with the culture of the north. I enjoy the food (the pintxos culture especially) up here better, and it's so refreshing to hear the Spanish up here (haha!) -- Andalusians are notorious for dropping their 's' at the end of words and several consonants (d, especially) in between vowels. While I have been enjoying Granada very much, there's something about the way of life of the north that's captured my heart.
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| Thanks for having us, Mar + family! |
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