Spain is known for its red wine, something that I know me and my friends took advantage of while we were in Alcal�. There’s nothing quite as perfect as some good tapas with a little bit of red wine on the side.

We took a bus from Alcala at about 8 am (a little too early for me), and were off to Le�n! The scenery on the way was gorgeous, rows and rows of grape vines and farms all over. Our first stop was a winery called Bodega de Yllera. We have all learned to love wine while being in Spain, and were definitely more than a little excited to visit Yllera. We were promised some tapas at the end, and nothing attracts young students quite as much as food and alcohol.

There were two parts of the tour. There was the main, modern, factory which was where their wine is made currently, and also the historic winery. We started off in the modern facility, and got to see the whole process that goes into making their wine.  In the wine cellar there were thousands of barrels of wine, just chilling you know, aging.

At the end of the first tour we got to sample a few different types of wine with cheese, how very European! It was delicious, and of course there was some chorizo, or pork sausage, for us to snack on as well. Then we hopped on our bus to get the tour of the historic winery.

It was actually pretty kitschy but I liked it! They taught us a little greek mythology lesson about Ariadne being trapped in a labyrinth and then proceeded to take us through the winery’s underground tunnels. The tunnel was filled with old bottles of wine and painting depicting different parts of the story, and at the end we all bought some wine to take home to our host families. It was a great trip!

Location: Leon, Spain