Valladolid
7/14/2025
We went on a day trip to Valladolid which is about a half hour north of Segovia by fast train (75 miles). We attempted getting to the train station from the bus stop closest to our apartment. Our prior trips to the train station had been from a further stop on a different bus, but we wanted to do a practice run for Wednesday when we need to take the bus to the train station with our luggage. The sign at the stop clearly said it went to the train station … it didn’t.
I asked when we got on and the driver said “no” but was nice enough to let us know when we were at the end of the line and needed to get off and get a connection to a different bus to get to the train station. We were tracking on Google maps which thought there were additional stops and a better one to connect from but it was wrong too. You seriously can’t trust any of the signs in Spain! We got off and had to wait about 15 minutes for the #12 bus to get to the train station. Long story short, our bus ride(s) to get a couple miles out of town to the train station took about an hour. Twice the time it took to get to Valladolid!
We chose to go to Valladolid because we were wanting to get into the wine region. Valladolid wasn’t our first choice, but the town we really wanted to go to would have taken an additional hour to get to via public transportation. We toyed with the idea of renting a car and doing an overnight, but getting wine tasting appointments was proving to be almost impossible and didn’t seem worth the cost of the car and hotel. So we chose Valladolid and hoped for the best.
I was able to secure one definite reservation at a wine bar for a wine and cheese tasting, but everything else was a crap shoot. I did some research and mapped out something of a walking tour of things to see, but it all fell apart rather quickly. To be honest, I don’t remember much of the day! Grady should probably be writing this portion of the blog, but there’s no telling what he would say about me!!
We arrived and had 2 stops mapped on our home-made walking tour before our tasting. The first stop was the cathedral and tower – but they were closed. We snapped one photo from the outside and went on our way.
The second stop was this very cool passage way (Gutierrez Passage) that is basically a covered shopping arcade that serves as a cut through between two streets. The concept became popular in Paris where there are quite a few passages, but there are only 3 in all of Spain. Because the cathedral had been closed, we were now ahead of schedule and had a little time to kill, so we found a cool restaurant/bar in the Gutierrez Passage and had a glass of wine (in hindsight, probably not the best choice!)
Next, we headed to the wine bar for our tasting (and to finally add to our wine bar count which has suffered since arriving in Spain!). To say it was AMAZING would be such an understatement!! We had the place to ourselves, and the owner ran the tasting. Many of the wines were from his family winery and they were all delicious!
First, let’s define the word “tasting”… when I hear the word tasting, I picture about a sip or two in the bottom of the glass – NOT SO in this tasting. Every “taste” was a full glass. We started with vermouth (which we had never had before and was actually pretty good). Vermouth isn’t just a drink in Spain; it is a serious tradition. They drink it early in the day before lunch, especially on Sundays after church.
After the vermouth, he broke out a cheese plate and we proceeded to “taste” 4 different wines. All so yummy! And he gave us so much information and history about the area and about Spain. The rest of the day is a little fuzzy for me 😊
Following the tasting, we were pretty buzzed - actually, Grady was buzzed… I was TRASHED. He parked my drunk butt on a park bench and got us some ice cream. It didn’t sober me up, but it was yummy.
We found the market which was next on my list of stops. Most of the stalls were closing down, but we managed to find one that was still open and had a bit more to eat. We pretty much abandoned the rest of my “walking tour” and just wandered around after that. We snapped a few pictures and ended the day at an outdoor café near the train station for another bite to eat and a final glass of wine (yes… I had another!)
So all in all, Valladolid was just a day of non-stop eating and drinking!
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