Overcast, with the threat of rain almost all day, but we never got more than a few drops.
But before we left Palencia, we went for a walk around town... and stopped in for a haircut!
This building was almost too big to fit in the photo!
The Rio Carrion in Palencia.
Another old Roman bridge.
We went for a walk along the Castilla Canal.
Walking across the old Roman bridge.
Palencia Cathedral.
Pedestrian street in the center.
I've been needing a haircut for the last two weeks, and keep putting it off. Finally made it to a unisex "peluqueria" (hair salon) where there was nobody waiting and they could take me right away.
And it was the fastest haircut ever! I bet I wasn't in the chair five minutes! The girl sure earned her €10 ($15.60 CAD, $11.40 USD) quickly! The finished product isn't bad, but not great either. Still, far better than it was, and I'm sure it was cheaper than it would have been had I waited to get it done in Scotland.
From there, we hopped in the car for the drive to Peñafiel.
Scenery along the way.
It was almost 2pm by the time we made it to Peñafiel and we hadn't had lunch yet. By this point, we figured we were better off finding another "menu del dia" where we could have a full meal, and then just have some snacks later on in the evening.
The starter salad.
So, the meal comes with wine included. Ruth had gone to the bathroom when the wine arrived, and the guy had a small jug with him and had poured just a little from the jug into each glass. He then set the jug on the table. Ruth came back from the bathroom and noticed the little bit of wine in the glass and said "they sure aren't as generous as the last place". Then I pointed at the jug on the table. Too funny. Of course I was driving, but Ruth helped herself to the rest of the jug! No wonder she fell asleep in the car later on!
Me, with my new haircut.
This is where we had lunch.
We each had the meat and chips... not the most exciting. But the cheesecake for dessert was absolutely melt in your mouth delicious. Total bill for salad, main course, dessert, and wine was €32 ($50 CAD, $36.50 USD).
Our waited invited us to visit their bodega downstairs....
The wine cellar.
Big barrels!
Peñafiel is one of the biggest wine regions in Spain.
Peñafiel Castle.
We thought about going up to the castle, but we still had to stop at a grocery store and get to our accommodation. And as you can see from the photo above, it looked like it might rain.
These chimney like structures are called luceras and are underground cellars for aging wine.
More scenery.
Arriving at the village of Fresno de Cantespino.
When I was booking accommodation, I was trying to find a place in the countryside. And, I was trying to keep the price low. I came across what was described as a "hostel", but we had our own private room, even though the bathroom was shared. We normally like to have our own private bathroom as well, but once in a while if it's only for one night then we don't mind.
It turned out we had the entire hostel to ourselves! I mean totally to ourselves... not even any staff or management!
Our room.
View from our room.
The common area.
The kitchen.
We never saw another person the whole time. They had sent me a message with a code to get in the front door, and they said another couple might or might not be showing up, but they never did. I think there are maybe 8 rooms here. It's actually a really nice place, but it's located in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. There's a restaurant in the village, but it was closed yesterday, maybe it only gets used on weekends? Who knows.
But for €40 ($62.50 CAD, $45.50 USD) for the night, we were totally happy.
Today is a busy travel day for us! We are heading back to Madrid Airport, but I arranged the car rental so that I can drop it at the airport and it doesn't have to be there until 4:30pm, so we're going to stop in the town of Sepulveda. Our friends Chris and Juan were there last year and said that it's worth a visit, and it's not much of a detour so we'll go in for a wander around and have some lunch before carrying on to the airport.
We'll drop the car off, then head to the airport lounge to use up our last two free airport lounge passes before getting on our 9:35pm easyJet flight to Edinburgh, Scotland. It's almost a three hour flight that arrives at 11:35pm local time, then we will hop in an Uber to our Edinburgh accommodation for the next three nights.
Scotland, here we come! We haven't been there since 1987... almost 40 years ago!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record low deal on this Stanley Insulated Tumbler.
And in Canada...
Wow, that's great that you had the hostel all to yourself, and for a great price. Helps make up for the pricey lunch!
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty neat that we had it all to ourselves, other than the church bell ringing every hour all through the night it was very peaceful and yes, the pricewas right.
DeleteAll things considered lunch was a fairly reasonable price when you consider the price was for two people and it was a three course meal, with at least a half liter of wine and no taxes on top of that.
Hello Kevin and Ruth
ReplyDeleteQuick question about the airport lounge access, what card do you use for this and what is the annual fee?
Been following you guys for a bit of time now and look forward to reading about your travels.
We use the Scotiabank Passport Visa. We don't have an annual fee because we have the Scotiabank Ultimate account, also this visa card is one of the very few in Canada that has zero foreign exchange fees. With this card we get six free lounge passes every year.
DeleteThank you for following along on our adventures. 😊