La Rioja

La Rioja is the land of the Rio Oja, a tributary of the Ebro, the latter really being more important for irrigation of the region. It is sheltered by the Cantabrian Mountains to the north and various sierras of the Iberian Central System to the south, and the combination of the two factors not only gives it the unique microclimates which make it ideal for growing vines, but also make it agriculturally important for other crops: cereals are grown, for example, and market gardening is particularly important.

The Camino de Santiago. The Camino enters La Rioja at Logroño in the east, and more or less follows the N 120 to Navarrete, Nájera, and Santo Domingo de la Calzada (pilgrims and other visitors are recommended to make the slight detour south to see the monastery at San Millán de la Cogolla). Santo Domingo de la Calzada is especially appealing, being possibly the first purpose-built tourist complex in history, having grown up around a pilgrim's hospital founded there by Santo Domingo himself. It is also the location for the Camino's best known legend.*

Other cities and towns. Logroño, the provincial / regional capital, is a likeable place, but somewhat non-descript. Haro, the capital of the Rioja Alta, Upper Rioja, has much more personality. It is a bustling market town, but quite laid back about it, and great for spending a serious morning's tapeo, followed by one of those extended Spanish lunches that take up most of the afternoon (and coffee and a patcharán could well take you past dusk). Calahorra, the capital of the Rioja Baja, Lower Rioja, is a historical city with a number of interesting buildings and a stretch of Roman road. It too belongs to the Camino de Santiago, not as part of the Camino Francés, but as a stop on the Ruta del Ebro. Ezgaray, in the west of the province, is a picture-postcard small town with a lively social life at weekends, as visitors come both for the town itself and for the adjacent ski resort of Valdezcaray, up in the Sierra de la Demanda.

The Outdoors in La Rioja. The various sierras in the south of the province, separating it from Old Castile, are all crossed by long-distance walking route GR-93 - follow the red and white markings. The Sierra de Cebollera contains a national park of the same name and is notable for its glacial rock formations, as well as its flora and fauna. There are a number of sites of palaeontological interest in the sierra south of Logroño - start at the Centro Paleontológico in the village of Enciso to follow the Dinosaur Route or bits of it.

Practical La Rioja

Food and drink. Rioja wine is important enough to have a section to itself. Riojan gastronomy is also worth the trouble, especially that based on its market garden produce, peppers, tomatos, asparagus, etc. Patatas con chorizo is what it says, potatoes cooked with chorizo sausage, and patatas a la Riojana is the same plus peppers, a little tomato and a dash of morcilla, blood sausage. Menestra de verduras is the speciality of the Rioja Baja: it is a mixture of green beans, asparagus, artichokes and jerusalem artichokes, served in a clay dish. La Rioja's trout rivers are famous, and trucha a la Riojana and trucha con jamón are the same thing, trout stuffed with cured ham and fried. The asados, roasts, of cordero, lamb, or cabrito, kid goat, are distinguished by the meat being lightly soaked in water before being put into the oven.

Getting There. By air. Logroño has a domestic-only airport, for connections with Madrid and Barcelona. The nearest international airport is Bilbao. By train. From Madrid. Not recommended. It is expensive and you will probably have to change and it will take all day. From Barcelona. Slightly more feasible, as there are a few direct trains. By bus. Much more recommendable. Continental Auto runs several buses a day from Madrid for less than 18 € each way, and ALSA operates buses from Barcelona for less than 24 €.

*The Legend. The punchline of the story is the important part, so the beginning can be a little woolly. We have to suppose that a young pilgrim (who is, for some reason, always German) is hanged for a crime he didn't commit, and it is more fun if this is the result of him having spurned a girl; let us suppose for our purposes that a robbery has taken place and she , the innkeeper's daughter, has accused him for revenge, or that she has feigned having been raped, or... write your own version. Whatever, the young man gets hanged, and a certain time (evidently not all that relevant, let's say a couple of days) later, his parents (or friends, or passers by, or...) return to his hanging place and note that he is still (miraculously, thanks to the heavenly intervention of Santo Domingo, or Jesus Christ, or...) alive and breathing. The parents, or friends (enough! I hear you cry) rush to the magistrate, who is sitting down to eat a couple of fine roast chickens, or rather a rooster and a chicken. "Our son is still alive!" they cry, "It's a miracle!" "Nonsense," says the judge, understandably, but becoming the baddie of the film in the process, "he's as dead as these birds." Whereupon the rooster and chicken stand up, make appropriate chicken noises and fly off the table. The magistrate is thus obliged to recognise the miracle and order that the young man be cut down and released. What he did with the chickens is not recorded, but we must suppose that he spared their lives as well, because if you visit the cathedral at Santo Domingo de la Calzada, in one corner you will see a large, curious kind of Renaissance hen coop, about two and a half metres above the floor, where you would expect to see organ pipes. Its interior is lit, and you may be able to make out the live cock and hen that are alway kept there as a reminder of the legend. It is also nearly inevitable that if you mention the name Santo Domingo de la Calzada to a Spaniard, he will recite:
"Santo Domingo de la Calzada,
donde cantó la gallina después de asada,"
(Santo Domingo de la Calzada,
where the chicken crowed after being roasted).