Although not a staunch Royalist, I do like to watch these events so we were pleased to find that there is a very good internet signal here so we can get Sky on Colin’s iPad. We had a leisurely breakfast, discovering that there are now another six guests staying here.
We had hope to watch downstairs but a - there are no English channels on the TV and b - we couldn’t find a socket to plug the iPad into so we stayed our room and toasted the royal couple with a nice cup of tea and some digestive biscuits.
Later in the afternoon we drove up a track to a ‘ermita’ (church) on a mirador nearby. The views were amazing and we could hear that festival celebrations for the Santa Barbara Fiesta were in full swing down below in the little town of Ezcaray. Afterwards we headed down to the town although it had quietened down a little.
We headed off to look at some other little towns in the area and I then made the mistake of suggesting that we try and get the photo we missed of ourselves by the Campo Vieja sign... the SatNav was set and we drove for quite a while until she declared ‘you have reached your destination’ but we were in the middle of nowhere. We reset and set off again through the rather boring outskirts of Logroño and eventually it looked a little more familiar and I saw a sign... the bodega gates were closed!! Luckily there was a metal sign outside so we grabbed a few shots there...
Our plan to eat in Logroño was also thwarted due to unprecedented numbers of people - more than we’ve ever seen anywhere during our trip. No parking, constant speed humps, people stepping out in front of the car or cars just randomly parked in the road. I was driving and it was pretty stressful, especially when a woman just launched herself into the road towing her Dalmatian behind her! We gave up on our evening meal plan and headed back to Ezcaray. Not sure Colin wants to get back in the car with me but I didn’t scrape the car and didn’t hit anyone which I consider an achievement and I drove the worst bit of the trip!!
The festival was in full flow on our return and by sheer luck we managed to find both a parking space and a table at the little restaurant we had eaten at the night before. Excellent food again and we ordered more sensibly this time! Back to our lovely room, spotting a deer (Roe deer?) crossing the road in the pathetic beam of our headlights.
