Yesterday was another exciting day!

Sunday I slept most of the day. I got up to get in the shower and thought, no I need to go back to bed. I got up again and got in the shower, but after that went back to bed. Finally I made it out to dinner Sunday night. I guess I just needed a day of rest!

Sunday evening Chris and Sara arrived and yesterday the three of us went to visit a cava producer in the same town Ryan and I had visited earlier in the trip. One of Chris's favorite importers arranged this visit. All of this importer's wines come from France and Italy, except this one so I assumed it would be something special and it was!

In true Chris fashion, he thought the appointment was on Tuesday. Yesterday he called at 12:15 - he had just realized that the appointment was at 2:30 on Monday and the village was a 45 minute train ride from Barcelona then we still had to find the winery. Luckily, since Ryan and I had been to this town before, I knew which train to take and was slightly familiar with the town. We got to the winery at 2:26 :)

We were greeted at the winery by the grandson of the founder. The founder had two sons who took over the business, and those two sons have four sons who are currently running things. In our mad dash to get there we had not eaten lunch so they treated us to a nice lunch in a little square in the village, with a bottle of their cava in hand. After lunch, Alex, their sommelier, took us on a tour of the vineyards just outside the village and then back to the winery for a tour of the cellars, production area, and a final tasting. This winery is different from others in the area; in order to be considered a cava, not only does it need to be made in this area, it also needs to meet other standards, one of which is to be aged for at least 9 months. Recaredo ages their cava from 30-100 months, and have one batch that has been aging since 2001. Because of this, their cavas are very unique, and expensive. Visiting this winemaker was real treat - they are not open to the public and only offer tours and tastings to people who are in the wine industry. I was very fortunate to be able to tag along with Chris on this visit!

Tetia has decided to come on Thursday so today and tomorrow I will go to a few more museums I want to see and get ready for her to be here Thursday morning! Looking forward to some time with her!

 The smaller villages create flower petal mosaics in the streets for the festival of Corpus Cristi. The light was horrible for a photo, but I was very excited to get a chance to see this. Everything is done in flower petals, grass, and seeds.

 Alex and Chris in the vineyards

 Alex, Chris, and Sara

 Montserrat is the mountain in the background. One the other side of the mountain is a monastery I visited on my last trip. This is also the mountain that my new friend Montse is named after. It's a spectacular place!

 This little stone structure is original to the vineyards. When they first began they built this shelter as place to rest and cook a meal while they worked in the vineyard. Today they still use as a place to rest and store equipment.

 Another great thing about Recaredo is that they are completely organic. Here you can see some of the medicinal herbs they grow to use as treatment for the vines. They have chamomile, fennel, rosemary, etc.

Only a few very light sprinkles came with those clouds, but they did bring a lot of wind!