Astudillo, Spain - March 2015

Astudillo from the Castle

We just had an amazing weekend and it began on Saturday morning with a day trip to Astudillo, a village 29 km outside of the city of Palencia.  The village has a population of just over 1000 people and our friend Daoiz is one of them!  Daoiz had told us about his home and invited us to visit for a tour and lunch with his friends at his Bodega.  Lloyd, our Australian friend, rented a car and picked up myself, Ross and Heather at 1030.  It took a little over an hour to get there, but we did take the scenic route. 

It was so great to get out of Valladolid and take a drive through the country side.  There are gorgeous rolling hills, farmers fields and old ruins that look like they would be very interesting to explore.  Since we do not have a car here and international drivers licensing sucks* we do not often get a chance to do these types of trips.

When we first arrived in the village we were not certain where to go.  Daoiz had given us an address which we quickly found but unfortunately he gave us the wrong house number so we ended up waking his neighbour, who looked like she may have had a rough night, and also couldn't really explain to us which house we needed (although we likely just did not understand her).  We wandered over to a shop and Lloyd just asked the guy if he knew where Daoiz lived.  He did and he took us over to his place.  I love that in a small village everyone basically knows everyone!  Can you imagine walking into a store in Vancouver and asking where your friend lives?  

Plaza de Abilio Calderon - The main square in the village

Once we finally met up with Daoiz he took us on a brief tour of his home that he shares with his parents.  It was beautiful, very interesting and full of antique treasures. From the outside it looks like it will be just a regular apartment but when you get inside it is huge and full of rooms, stairways, and corridors that lead to outside areas and of course the coolest aspect – the cellar!  Now I have seen what I believed to be cellars back home but being led down an ancient staircase into Daoizs cellar I knew I had never truly seen one before.  He said it was from somewhere around the 8^th century and all of the houses had them.  Apparently all the cellars used to be connected underground and they were used as not only storage but as an escape route during battles in the village. 

Daoizs Cellar

We were lucky enough to be given a personal tour through the town thanks to Daoiz and his connections!  We got to see many great cellars and Bodegas we never would have seen inside of if not for him.  He took us to visit a friend of his named Cesareo who allowed us into his private cellar/bodega and we got to see his wine collection. 

Cesareos Cellar

When we came back upstairs we all had to drink wine from a porron (a wine pitcher) which was a first for most of us.  You have to pour the wine into your mouth from this tiny spout without touching your lips.  It was challenging, but when in Spain!  Cesareo showed us how he did it by pouring the wine onto his upper lip and allowing it to flow into his mouth and said some people pour it onto their foreheads and let it flow into their mouths from there.  I don’t know if this is true or he was just pulling our legs but it was a good story either way!

 A Porron

I never got a photo of us drinking so I found this one online to give an idea of what we were doing.

One of the bodegas we saw was huge and had a great museum upstairs full of old treasures like wine jugs, wine making equipment and interesting posters for bull runs and such.  Daoiz, as I have mentioned in previous posts, is really knowledgeable and teaches us a lot about the history of Spain, all about his village, wine making, beer brewing and the Penas (social clubs) in his village.  He told us one story that I found quite amusing.  So there is this gentleman who lives in town and he is apparently crazy.  He put out bear traps (fox traps) with poison in them for the politicians!  Also he only leaves his house on Sundays for church.  I would have loved to meet this man.

 Bodega Museum

Bodega Cellar

Daoiz has a group of friends, some of whom we had met last summer during hiking trips, and some new faces we got to met this day.  Most of them do not speak English so it is challenging to communicate, however they are a wonderful group of friends who do their best to make us feel welcomed and part of the group.  I appreciate the effort they put into making us feel like we belong.  They are very kind and to me seem more like family than just friends.  They all hang out at Daoizs Bodega (It might be more than Daoizs but I am not certain) where they brew beer, they drink a lot and eat meals together.  We were invited for lunch and beer drinking and it was great!  Lunch was not vegetarian, ox tails or something, but Daoiz made us a huge salad, there was bread and delicious homemade sheep cheese.  Also a great deal of homemade Irish cream for dessert!

 Some of Daoizs friends

 Cutting the Homemade sheeps cheese

Inside the Bodega

The bodega itself is built into a hillside which has a castle on top of it (No big deal just another beautiful old castle!!) It is one of the coolest man caves ever!  The entire hill, as well as the castle, is full of these bodegas and so there are, I assume, may penas who hang out in this village.  I feel like I smiled all day from the beauty and interesting charm of Astudillo.  I mean we were walking on a hill that was the roof of a bodega! 

 Standing on the hill above the bodega

Castle on the hill

I should also mention they were having their St Patricks day celebration that day/night so there were many green hats and shirts (If only we had known!).  We ended up going to a few bars before lunch for some Guinness.  I mean its tradition.

As we were leaving Daoiz took us back to his house to give Lloyd some of his fresh eggs.  He took us through his house out to another area I didn't see the first time we looked around where they have a loft with chickens!  I got to feed them from my hand which was really cool.  I only got pecked a little.

It was a fun day with some great friends old and new.  I love exploring these ancient towns and learning the history and traditions of the area. I hope we can return to Astudillo again to enjoy more celebrations with these lovely people!

*When moving here we were able to get an international driving permit however it was only valid for one year.  Also bonus fun stuff: Spain will only recognize the permit for 6 months after which you must get a Spanish license.  This is of course not a simple task.  You must take driving lessons, no matter how long you have had your Canadian license, and only when the instructor believes you are ready can you take your driving test.  This all of course costs a lot of money and is all in Spanish.  We just didn't think it was worth it to pay since we are only here for 2 years but we do miss road trips.