Laguardia Spain - Dining before 9pm with cardigan wearing bar hoppers

Stepping into the walled town of Laguardia is like stepping back into the middle ages.  This walled town was built in the 10th century, and sets upon a hill and overlooks the valley of vineyards.  When I say walled town the entire town is all within the sand stone color brick walls.  There are no roads inside the town. Just winding walking paths that run through the town.  I can say I have never seen or visited anything like this before.  The town has everything a modern villager will need.  Cafes, restaurants, wine shop, a butcher, and a market.

Finding our B&B was a bit challenging.  Google Maps leads to you to the front gate of the village, which of course you cannot drive through.  I started thinking what have I gotten us into.   We ended up having to call and they talked us through on where to park on the backside of the wall.
We chose to stay at Erletxe, which is a family owned house within the walls of the town.  It is a charming B&B run by several of the family members, which some live on the proiperty.  They were very hospitable and accommodating.  They assisted in planning several activities during our stay, booked a lunch reservation for us, provided a brief history of the town, and overview of the town how to get around and places to eat.

Erletxe offers rooms on the 1st and 2nd floor.  We chose a room on the 2nd floor with a view looking out towards the valley.  The only downside is there a road below, and can be a little noisy in the morning and at night, but was not horrible.  The rooms are cozy, comfortable, but nothing overly fancy. We didn’t spen much time in the room, so it was fine for us.
We arrived around 6pm, and by the time we got settled and got the lay of the village, it was around 7:30is.  By now we are ready to eat. As you probably have heard, Spaniards don’t typically have dinner until after 9pm.  I am usually going to bed by this time.  In Barcelona, we did not seem to run into issues finding place to eat prior to 9.  However, in a smaller town this is a little more challenging. We had c
ouple of restaurant recommendations made by the hotel proprietor, so we headed out to see what we could find.


As we walked through the paths, the town seemed a little quiet.  Just a few other people wondering about.  We located one of the restaurants that was recommended. The door was open, lights were on, and music was playing.  We walked in, and assumed someone might be out in a minute or so to greet us.  Few minutes went by still no one came out to greet us.  We politely said “Hello??  Hello??”…no response.  We waited a few more minutes, and still no sign of anyone.  So we decided to walk around a little more and see if we can find another restaurant. Not much luck finding anything open this early (which sounds doe strange). We returned back to the original restaurant about 20 -30 minutes later.  The door still open, lights on, music playing, but still no sign of anyone.  By now it is probably after 8pm.  We head down the pathway and we see a bar with some tables outside.  There some older gentleman sitting at the bar having a drink.  We ask the bartender if they are serving food now.  He looked a little surprised, but said yes.  YEAH...food. We picked our table outside, and began reviewing the menu.  I do recall a bit of challenge reading the menu, because it was in Basque.  However, we managed to understand some options, and asked if we didn’t. A funny little story about this restaurant. About 5-10 minutes after we placed out order, we see the bartender/waiter/maybe chef too jog out of the restaurant and over to the market across the way.  We saw him pick out a couple of vegetables outside, then he walked inside.  He then came jogging out of the market with a bag in his hand back to the restaurant.  He gave us a little smile has headed back into the restaurant.  Guess he needed some extra ingredients!

It was before 9pm, and the older gentleman headed out the bar and strolled down the walkway.  There about 4 of them, and they all dressed very similar.  They all had on cardigan sweaters or sweater vests with a button down underneath, a pair of khakis or dress pants, topped off with a newspaper style hat.  They all looked very dapper and adorable I must say.  I thought maybe since it Friday night, they get little “dressed up” to hit the bars.  We watched them stroll down the walkway to the next bar.  Shortly after a couple of older couples strolled in.  They gave a bit of strange look.  Either it was obvious we were not from there and/or we were eating before 9.  They too just had a drink and then strolled down the walkway to the next bar.  Then about 20 -30 minutes later the older, dressed up group of gentlemen strolled back up the walkway. Not sure if they were going to hit another bar or turning in for the night.

Once we had just finished up our dinner, and sipping the last drops of our wine, the younger generation of the town started to appear in the bars.  Now it was around 9:30.  However, the younger group had the same way of doing things as the older group of gentlemen.  Have a drink, socialize, pay the bill, and move onto the next bar.

As we could not keep up with the younger group, and I would guess the older gentleman as well, we mozied down the walkway to the town center to the wine shop.  We were going to be doing our drinking in our room.