Into the city of Ourense, and a wine tasting evening!

I only had one pair of shoes with me so far on this trip... the new Sketchers that I had bought in Madrid. I learned the other day that I need some hiking boots! Those Sketchers are fine for walking on flat paved surfaces, but they have zero support for anything more than that. And, I knew I was going to have to buy hikers soon anyhow. 

So, we headed into the city of Ourense (pop 109,000) to see the sights and buy some hiking boots.

Many shops in Spain close between 2pm to 5pm for siesta, so we knew we had to go there first. We found paid parking in a shopping mall, and walked from there.

The Río Miño in Ourense, Spain.

We were headed to a specialty outdoors shop in the old center of the city.

It was a beautiful sunny day!

People enjoying outdoor cafes.

Interesting church.

We found the store and bought some boots. I actually ended up getting the cheapest pair they had on sale. I tried another more expensive pair, but found the cheaper ones fit better. The brand is Boreal, and they are even made in Spain. They get pretty good reviews, so I guess we'll see. I paid €143 ($223 CAD, $162 USD), but most of the hiking boots they had in stock were over €200.

We then went and explored the old town.

The central plaza.

Look at the ceiling above at the top of the photo.

Ourense has a natural hot spring thermal pool right in the center of the city.

Notice there is a thermal fountain at the top of this photo.

I couldn't get a photo of it because this woman was standing there washing her face with the water.

Her face must have been awfully dirty because she did this for about ten minutes!

Finally, she left.

This is an old thermal pool dating back almost 2,000 years.

There are a lot of old building shells that are only the original outside walls.

The Cathedral.

After dinner, our host Fina had invited us to join her at a small winery tasting and tour located 200 meters from where we are staying. It was a bit expensive, at €20 ($31 CAD, $23 USD) per person, but we haven't used any of our entertainment budget so far this month, and it looked like a good experience.

Fina and Ruth heading down to the Adega de Severino Winery.

We stopped at a cherry tree and picked fresh sweet cherries right off the tree!

They were delicious!

We met Pedro and Puri, the owners of the winery. It's just a small winery, and they do all of the work themselves! There were two other couples joining us on the tour.

The grapes are only just starting to form.

We went to the vineyards where Pedro took a lot of time explaining everything.

It was all done in Spanish, but we were pretty impressed with what we understood.

It's such a beautiful area.

Pedro, explaining how they graft some of the vines to produce different varieties.

This branch will grow as an offshoot from another vine.

This is another cherry tree. They are not ripe yet, but Pedro says they will ripen quickly from this point on, and will be ready to eat in ten days to two weeks.

Entering the bodega.

It's just a small operation.

They had a variety of different wines for us to try.

Wines and tapas.

And they weren't shy with the serving size for tastings. I think we must have each had four or five glasses of wine by the time we were done! Pedro and Puri are good hosts, and it was an informative and fun evening. The other people on the group were fun too, and of course the more wine we had the more fun the evening was! We ended up splurging on a couple of bottles to do us the rest of our time here. 

Ruth and Fina heading up the hill back home.

It was after 10:30pm by the time we got home, but it was a fun evening!

Another gorgeous day today, and we are off to try out my new hiking boots!

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