Navarra and La Rioja countryside

Navarra and La Rioja natural setting is extremely different from the one we saw in Catalunya and Basque Country. The fact that it was extremely hot didn't help at all. The land is mostly off yellow and red hues, a far cry from the green and blue colors we saw while traveling Catalunya.

The official language in Navarra is Euskera and is further apart from Castilian than Catalan. This part of the country has industry related to farming, including wines and hams. We stopped in a couple of landmarks along the way and stopped at a town called Logroño. We had a fantastic local lunch at a tabern located just on the side of San Juan Street called La Quimera, where we tried a delicious tomato salad and mussel croquettes. We also tried Natural Sidra, and the only way to describe it is refreshing. This trip is really opening our eyes around me flavors, sometimes with sophisticated ingredients (like fois groa) and other times just mixing the familiar in novel ways, like the tomato salad.

Since all of us were really tired from San Fermin, we skipped the visit to a local winery and headed directly to our stay in the heart of La Rioja.Read more