Los Gigantes parade

Gigantes photos

Morella and northern Valencia

The wine region of Priorat is named after the priory of Scala Dei. The priory is built on the spot a shepherd saw angels ascending and descending a ladder to heaven around 1200 A.D. (Scala Dei = ladder to God). This should not be confused with a Led Zeppelin song with a similar name. The priory was  home to an order of cloistered nuns and one of their cells has been restored to historical standards. This place was in complete ruins the first time I visited here in 1996 A.D. There is now a fancy visitor center and extensive restoration under is way. The church abandoned the priory in the 1830s and it was sacked and burned by the locals shortly thereafter. That will tell you something about the popularity of these kinds of places in former times.
We drove on to the mountain top town of Siurana. There was a castle here that was the last Moorish outpost to fall in Catalunya. The pictures here really don't do it justice. There is a beautiful lake nearby that we plan to revisit for swimming and fishing. Both Scala Dei and Siurana are less than an hour from our house.  

Scala Dei and Siurana

Ramon Bargallo' and his son, Jordi, invited me out to look at their finca in the Priorat outside of El Molar. They have a beautiful vineyard planted on the true Priorat slate (llicorella). One section of the vineyard is over 100 years old. These guys have been very helpful to me. They also have almonds and olives planted. They showed me an area where what they call "javeliu" (wild hogs) had been messing with their grapes and almonds. In fact, I saw  a place in the olives next to Finca Alta that looked like hogs had been active. It might be time to go into trapping mode. The last two pictures are of a young Garnatxa vineyard that is about as perfectly planted and cared for as any I've ever seen. It belongs to some relatives of the Bargallo's and the fruit also goes to Torres.

Bargallo' finca in the Priorat.