Castilla de Peñafiel y the Museo del Vino

Castilla de Peñafiel y the Museo del Vino

The next stop on our trip was the Castilla de Peñafiel, and added bonus was that the museum of wine was located within the castle as well.

Below is a picture taken from the bus as we approached the Castle. You can see the calcified rock below it.

A Spanish friend of mine told me before I went that the castle is unusual in Spain, as most of the castle (and there are so many) are rectangular or square in design. As you can see from some of the pictures below the castle was made to fit the top of the hill, and has a lot of beautiful rounded towers. In the picture below you can see a view of the valley from the castle. It looks like a picture taken in the 60's because of all of the dust in the air. All of those lined field are actually rows of wine grapes. 

 I am going to go ahead and let you all down now. Javi and I had about 15 minutes to go to the museum of wine, so we did not get to taste anything. Luckily lot of the information about wine production in the main exhibit we ran through was information we had already learned from Three Sheets. (The Three Sheets show combines a travel show with learning about drinking customs from other parts of the world, which is cool, unfortunately it is only available to watch online in the US.)

The only photo I have to represent the Museum is a model of the castle made out of wine corks. At least the cork gnomes have a place to stay.

We had a guided tour through the castle. The guided tour was huge (around 100 people) so I did not always get to hear what the guide had to say. Below (click to enlarge) is a good view of the tower with the Castilla Y León shield on it.

 As per usual, the view of the town with it's Spanish style rooftops was very charming.

Can you make out the dirt square in the photo? (Click to enlarge.) It is where the town's events and bullfights happen. The people that live around that square are obligated to rent out their balconies during the "performances" meaning strangers get to walk through their houses!

 I would tell you more about what we learned about the castle, but I will never be able to unlearn some of those facts and I do not wish to pass it on. Let's just say we should all be grateful we did not live in medieval Spain. Let's stick with charming. Look a suit of armor in a skirt!

 A beautiful Spanish castle on a gloriously sunny day. I am glad that I got to see it.