Day 8 Ruta del Vino, wine and cooking demonstration. Paradores in Jaen

Lovely breakfast once again. We meet at 830 for a route review them walked about 15 minutes to a bus. He offered masks but did not have enough for everyone. Jose gave more information about our day on the bus but he was seat-belted in the back and we stayed in the front.

The bus microphone did not work so we missed most of what he said. I know we are going for olive oil tasting and a place to buy a bike jersey.

After a bus ride past fields of grain and olive trees we started our ride. After 12.7 miles and 1000 feet of climbing we ended up at winery and olive oil and balsamic vinegar farm.

We did wine tasting and they gave us wonderful tapas.

I actually like the second one and we bought two bottles of it.

We plan to split one tonight and tomorrow night and take the second one to Barcelona.

From there, most people got a ride to the start of the bike path. I think there were four of us who decided to ride the whole thing.

After another 25 miles and 2300 feet of climbing we ended up at an organic farm where they gave us lunch. After the climbing portion of the ride we got cold. It was windy and sprinkling.

They had Andalucia bike jerseys but we were not really impressed with them so we didn't get one. Paul and I sat around freezing until they said they would load the bus to take us to the hotel. The whole countryside around us is covered in olive trees. Total miles 37.9 and 3300 feet of climbing and currently 20k steps

It was then that Paul figured out we don't have a corkscrew to open the wine. I'm sure the hotel can help us out. We have an hour bus ride to the hotel and then dinner at 8:00. We are very well fed today.