Ábalos
We meandered (found some new back roads) down to Nájera; got the week-end edition of the Financial Times; had a café y pastel; did a little shopping. We are managing to travel nearly every small road in the area, particularly north of the Ebro (bounded by the Sierra de Cantabria and the Sierra de Toloño), and immediately south of the Ebro. The countryside is fascinating - quite rugged, but with vineyards everywhere. We have tried to capture this, but our photographs simply don't do this area justice. We spent a little while in the main plaza in Haro with wine and bocadillo at a table outside a small cafe, just people-watching. Then, we visited Briñas and San Vicente, where we just missed some of the festival goings-on. Nonetheless, there was a general party atmosphere there, so we joined in with a glass of wine and some nice tapas. Finally, we found our way back to Ábalos for a rest.
Since it was an absolutely gorgeous day (a perfect 3.0 in the KWS), we then walked out into some of the vineyards around Ábalos, and explored a little more of this small village that we hadn't seen. Our hotel was quite busy (week-end visitors), and since the weather was great, the patio was hopping. We spent some time there in the early evening, before an excellent dinner (the best we've had so far at the hotel).