The baldie is fled, long live the baldie!
The business (basically a CRM database) passed into better hands in 2012. These materials remain here for cannibalisation and amusement.
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- Language All our guides are native English speakers and speak the local language fluently.
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Barcelona tours - Taste wine and visit village chapels and bars in the Penedès near Vilafranca
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Overview
This walk takes you through the heart of the Penedès, one of Spain's most interesting (and tasty) wine regions, with a fine selection of local bars to cheer your spirits en route.
We start in an ancient village on the Roman road from Cadiz to Rome (Hannibal came this way), featuring a 10th century castle and a village telly station.
Then we walk along olive tree-lined tracks through vineyards and past farms (1, 2 (Montserrat in distance), 3, 4) to ...
(Before we get to where we're going to, if you tell us in advance we can fix up a short tasting of some excellent wines on a small farm just off the path. Back to the chase:)
... a small settlement with one of the prettiest Romanesque chapels you're ever likely to see (1, 2,) and some quite extraordinary Gothic murals (weekdays only).
There's a very nice bar in the village where we can either take a snack or, if you tell us in advance, have a superb traditional-style meal with excellent local ingredients and wines.
Next stop is another small settlement with a rather pretty church and usually a couple of elderly market gardeners to talk to, followed by an optional visit to the remains of a Republican Civil War airfield and air raid shelter.
Then a hill-top shrine with glorious views over the country, and down a country track into Vilafranca, the beautiful small town around which the local wine industry is based.
If you want to see the markets in Vilafranca and don't want to get up too early, we can do this walk in reverse.
Itinerary
Details
| Grade | leisurely |
| Base | Barcelona (Meeting point information here, where relevant - make sure you have the right one!) |
| Location tags | Alt Penedès, Avinyonet del Penedès, Barcelona, Catalonia, La Granada del Penedès, Les Cabanyes del Penedès, Pacs del Penedès, Sant Martí Sarroca, Santa Fe del Penedès, Vilafranca del Penedès, Vilobí del Penedès, |
| Theme tags | archaeology, architecture, gastronomy, history, literature, military, nature, |
| Your guide(s) | Mr Baldie |
| Walking distance | 13 km / 8.08 miles |
| Walking time | 4 hr |
| Total return travel time from base to walk | 2 hr |
| Total time from "hello" to "goodbye" | 6.60 hr |
| Fiestas and markets in places we go through - combine a walk and some partying or shopping! |
Note that there are also events in most places on January 6 (Three Kings), Carnival, Easter, April 23 (St George), June 23 (St John), and September 11 (Catalan regional/national day) |
Photos
Comments
Page URL
You can find all this information, as well as the booking form, at http://oreneta.com/baldie/baldie/spanish-walking-tours/barcelona-walking-tours/barcelona-country-walks/village-bars-and-churches-in-wine-country/Roughly how much will it cost?
N.B. This form and the B2C business have retired. Contacts here.| your group | |
|---|---|
| number of people in your group (kids 0-2 don't count, kids 3-16 = 0.5) |
This is the total size of the group. Unlike other (city) tours, you won't have to share your guide with a couple of dozen strangers. |
Book this tour
- Fill in your details and submit the form below.
- If you just want more info, we'll send you that.
- Otherwise we'll send you full information, a fixed price, and details of how to pay securely. (If you pay via Paypal or Google Checkout, we'll quote and bill you in British pounds. This marginally reduces our admin costs and, barring a sudden collapse of your currency, doesn't hurt you.)
- If after you have paid you change your mind about the day or the walk, or if the weather is really bad, then we'll try out best to offer you another option. Our cancellation and refund policy is here.
- Barcelona walking tours
- leisurely walking tours
- archaeology walking tours
- architecture walking tours
- gastronomy walking tours
- history walking tours
- literature walking tours
- military walking tours
- nature walking tours
- Alt Penedès walking tours
- Avinyonet del Penedès walking tours
- Barcelona walking tours
- Catalonia walking tours
- La Granada del Penedès walking tours
- Les Cabanyes del Penedès walking tours
- Pacs del Penedès walking tours
- Sant Martí Sarroca walking tours
- Santa Fe del Penedès walking tours
- Vilafranca del Penedès walking tours
- Vilobí del Penedès walking tours
[...] During this walk the other day with the man who threw his underpants at Tom Jones and his gorgeous new missus we had [...]
[...] tend to become somewhat weary and confused during my annual donkey walk, and the finer details of this particular beast’s unstable relationship with the bell-tower [...]
[...] Vilafranca is a quiet country town, but the weekly market attracts an interesting range of pickpockets. Hopefully numbers will increase as the works in the main square are completed and the recession begins to bite. This lady put her hand into S’s pocket at a vegetable stall: [...]
[...] an apoplectic hunchback who guards a medieval castle/chapel complex on the bicycle ride variant of this walk. His platform is terror. His talent is driving his beat-up Seat at high speed into the group, [...]
[...] Fuet is called llonganissa in Valencia and longaniza in Spain generally. It’s a dry, cured, thin pork sausage in intestine or similar. The nearest equivalent Rohwurst I can think of is Landjí¤ger. If you hand over your five euros, then don’t eat all four sausages at once. (On this walk.) [...]
[...] fine, but he drinks so much of his stuff himself that the market remains a fairly vague concept. My favourite class act used to do a lot of business in the Far East, so prices may be coming down shortly. It is to be [...]
[...] Council-owned bar, Les Cabanyes del Penedès, Catalonia, Spain, seen on this walk. [...]
[...] Dunno if the museum idea will work out, but this is good news from Joan Saumell and his people. On this walk. [...]
[...] In the town hall of Les Cabanyes del Penedès, on this walk: [...]
[...] was the Saudis, but we’re keeping an open mind just in case Abdullah wants to bring the harem wine-tasting this [...]
[...] plant on the Castellbisbal side of the Llobregat, taken from the train on the way back from this walk. You'd have to be quicker than me to get the satanic flames flickering inside. It makes me think of [...]
[...] reminds one of the custom of throwing donkeys off church towers in such benighted places as this. More modern animal sacrifice here. All grist to this mill, slowly taking shape twixt other [...]
[...] This pay-as-you-walk page may also interest newbies. ] [...]