Wine Weekend

Sept 25-26. For my first excursion outside of Andalucía I joined a trip organized by MWR to Extremadura (our neighboring region to the north) for a weekend of wine and culture. Sadly, the weekend focused a little more on culture and less on wine than I had hoped but I did put forth every effort to get as many glasses of wine as I could out of the experience.

Our first day was spent in the city of Almendralejo, whose bullring used to house a wine cellar. We were told that it's the only one in the world that can make such a claim and I see no reason to object; after all, how many people would think to place a wine cellar under the stands of a bullring? While apparently it was a clever place to store wine because of the climate it is no longer in use since the containers that held the wine are not up to current health standards.

Inside the bullring

The containers that used to hold the wine

Our next stop was the Museum of Wine Science right across the street from the bullring. I would like to say that I had an intellectually stimulating time at the museum and that I gazed at the exhibits in wonder but no such luck. I can say with all honesty that never have I been so bored doing anything wine related as I was for the two hours we were there. Under different circumstances (like if I’d been able to understand the displays, if our tour guide had spoken slightly less accented English, or if I hadn’t been working nights for the past two months) I might have enjoyed my visit; unfortunately, as things were, it was a disappointment. Thankfully, after the tour we were on to bigger and better things… like wine tasting! The museum staff put on a lovely tasting party for us in their courtyard where we were able to enjoy samples from different bottles they had for sale in the gift store.  Besides getting berated by one of the women leading the tasting because I failed to correctly observe my wine's color before tasting it I had quite an enjoyable time.

The setup

Lauren and Dave

We then rushed from the wine tasting to our hotel where a lunch was being provided for us in the restaurant. Our meal was quite an event. Plate after plate of food was put out before us and glass after glass of wine was poured. I am happy to report that at one point in time I had three glasses of wine sitting before me ready to be enjoyed. Our lunch ended up taking about two hours and then afterward Lauren and I we were so exhausted that we skipped the next winery tour (don’t worry, samples weren’t included) and took a nap before venturing out to explore the city of Almendralejo.

Wine! ...and jamon.



Our second day found us driving to Mérida, a city known for the Archaeological Ensemble of Mérida, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The ruins in this city give excellent insight into what a capital city of the Roman Empire was like; I was particularly taken with the theater, which was quite impressive. I would like to tell you more about the site but I didn’t learn much because I escaped the tour group and went exploring on my own so that I could get pictures of the area without people walking into my shots.

Archway leading into the... oh, shoot, I wasn't listening...

The stage

It's two stories. Told you, impressive.

In the stands of the theater



The last stop before lunch was to the Museo Nacional de Arte Romano which, unlike the Museum of Wine Science , was quite interesting and kept my attention for the whole time we were there. I took quite a few pictures of exhibits but I won’t bore you with posting many of them. It’s just that I kept seeing all of these fabulous mosaics that I had to get a picture of, then I’d walk into the next room and see an even more fabulous one that I just had to have a picture of, then I’d walk upstairs and… well, you get the idea. After lunch and an uneventful stop at the Parador (which are historic buildings in Spain that have been renovated and turning into hotels) in Zafra we made our way home. 

Just one example of many!