The town is quite small and, as you already know, completely empty. It didn't particularly stand out until we arrived at the Plaza del Coso, a huge, sandfilled square in the middle of town surrounded by a hodgepodge of balconied wooden houses. This square doubled as the town center and bullring (although not simultaneously). One very strange arrangement here is that, several centuries ago, the occupants of these homes sold the rights to viewing the bullfights while keeping their homes as a way to raise money. So on days when there are bullfights, the current owners of these rights occupy the balconies and windows overlooking the ring, while the homeowners are relegated to the back of the house, which I have to imagine caused some friction over the years.

We went into town for lunch, which was easier said than done. We appeared to be the only people in the town, and we walked around looking for any hint of life, that may lead to food. Finally we passed a restaurant, or at least a house with the word restaurant on it. We opened the door, and entered an empty room with a bar. We kept walking around and wandered downstairs into the basement, which appeared to be a wine cellar, full of barrels of wine. Here we found some tables and a waiter, who welcomed us, then left us at the table. We waited for quite a while for menus, but this restaurant skips that step since they only offer one type of food and one type of drink. As we learned, penafiel is famous for its suckling lamb as well as its wine, and there are a half dozen of these subterranean restaurants in town, all serving the same thing. The meat is a baby lamb, less than a month old, roasted in a slow cooking oven for many hours, resulting in a big hunk of meat you eat with a spoon because it's so soft, and wash down with a bottle of the house red. And that's it, no starters, sides or desserts, but Somchai was in heaven.

The castle is well worth a look for its unique architecture, which many people have noticed looks like a boat marooned on top of a hill. It's also got great views over the lush surrounding hills and the historical town below. The one big drawback is that the castle now houses a museum of wine. Ordinarily I'm a big fan of all things wine related, but this museum is quite dull, and you have to go on a long, guided tour of the museum to see any of the castle. The town actually deserves a much higher wine profile, because it's at the center of the Ribera del Duero wine region, which produces some of Spain's most prestigious wine.

111. Penafiel

Next we spent a fair amount of time in Penafiel (the n should have a tilda, that squiggly thing, on top of it, but I don't know how to type that on my Anglo keyboard). It's in a fairly attractive corner of Segovia province, hillier and greener than most of the area surrounding Madrid. The town is dominated by the deceptively awesome castle lining the hill above town. I say deceptive because the castle was built to fit the shape of the narrow ridge, ie very long and very narrow. The castle has been owned for many centuries by the Marquis of Penafiel, whose family still owns it