Finca La Estacada

Jill and I took a little pre-vacation vacation. :) We wanted to do something while she was here and looked into about a million different options (including renting a car and driving to the French side of the Pyrenees Mountains). Really what we wanted was to lay by the pool, have quiet and relax (and let's be honest, after six months of city life, I was dying to be out in the country)... so settled on a vineyard just southeast of Madrid.

On Monday we purchased our bus tickets...

...and on Tuesday morning we loaded up our bags...

...on the Madrid to Cuenca bus...

...and we were off!

It only took about an hour to get to the little one-horse town of Tarancón.

We called a taxi...

...and he drove us to the vineyard!

We checked in, a little bit in awe of how beautiful it was, unpacked our bags, and went to the pool straightaway.

This was the view from the pool. I mean really. {sigh}

These smelled amazing.

We had some diet coke and olives, read our books and waited for dinner.

One of the things I love about Spain is that almost every restaurant has a "menu del día" at lunch time, which typically consists of two courses, beverage, and dessert. This place had a dinner "menu" for hotel guests that was a steal. The food was incredible. I about died of excitement that one of the options was grilled vegetables.

The terrace was a perfect place to enjoy the morning (or afternoon, or evening...), read and spend time with Jesus :)
Breakfast was included, and it was also amazing.

{coffee! yay!}

Oh yes, I knitted by the pool.

It was delightful. {More on that project when it's finished.}

{Can you spy Jill in this picture?}

ALSO included in our booking was a trip to the spa through the relaxing water circuit (whirlpools, saunas, aromatherapy, etc).

Obviously, many hours were wiled away at the pool and reading our fantasy novels. (If you like the fantasy genre, The Name of the Wind is really good.)

Friday we packed up and I went down to check out and ask the girl at the front desk to call a taxi for us. She called, and called someone else, and someone else... and about 10 phone calls, and no luck later, she suggested that either they have the Guardia Civil gentlemen drive us, or she would take us herself. Ha! As it turned out, she had some nice young man (some sort of relation to the vineyard? who knows) run us to town in his BMW. So we enjoyed a little more sunshine while we waited for the bus.

It was seriously the most perfect few days. The benefits of traveling with your best friend of a decade include, good conversation, lots of laughing, an no expectations except to relax and do whatever in the world we wanted.