If only Laguardia Airport was as nice as LaGuardia Spain...

Time to hit the road. It was pouring in San Sebastian, so it was the perfect day to leave.

As we made our way into the Rioja, the views were equally spectacular, but the colors and landscape changed dramatically. Instead of the greens and blues of the north, we began to see the browns, oranges and yellows of wine country in the Fall.

We stopped in Haro for an unremarkable lunch and then headed to LaGuardia to check in to the casa rurale. LaGuardia is a very small medieval village surrounded by walls on all sides and there are no cars or even bikes allowed. Underneath the city is a series of tunnels that was originally used as a hideout for residents if the town was under attack. Today, the tunnels are used as wine cellars.

The casa rurale where we are staying, Erlexte, is built into the walls of the town. The owner, Maria, appears to be about 70 years old and takes care of everything, including the bee keeping, when she isn't at her daily yoga class.

Unlike other wine regions, where you can walk in  to any winery and taste anytime, in La Rioja, you must have a reservation.We had no reservations for the afternoon, but Maria made a few phone calls and  Bodegas Casa Primicia, just a few steps away from the Casa Rurale, which was open and able to give us a tour.

The bodega, housed in one of the oldest buildings in La Guardia, was just restored and opened in August, so we were one of the first to take a tour. The restoration work was fabulous, taking into account the original architecture mixed with stylish modern touches.  The tour took us underground to the cellars including the old tunnels.

 We then went to the tasting room which overlooks the beautiful valley below. We tasted three different types of wine, an unoaked red, an oaked temrpranillo, and a reserva. All were delicious, but the reserva was obviously the smoothest and best

We then walked around the entire town (which only takes a few minutes at most)

checked out the view from outside the town walls:

 and popped into a local pub to sample another type of rioja wine and plate of chorizo.

Later in the evening, we walked just outside the wall to a have dinner at a hotel and restaurant.

Even though we had just had chorizo earlier, it was too enticing on the menu that we couldn't not order it. Unlike the other plate which was thinly sliced and cold, this was a dish of small disks of sausage cooked in a frying pan--totally different and absolutely delicious. For our main course, I got a plate of grilled artichokes and grilled srhimp over a bed of creamy stewed vegetables and Jason had a roast lamb shank. And of course we had more rioja wine, produced by the winery just below the restuarant.