Roman Gold Mines & Mountain Wine｜罗马金矿与山地葡萄酒
August 4, Tuesday｜8月4日，周二
The Wine Journey Begins｜真正的酒乡之旅开始了
The real Spanish wine country journey finally began.
真正的西班牙酒乡之旅，终于开始了。
We took the high-speed train from Madrid to León, a journey of around two hours. Once we arrived, we wanted something simple for lunch, since we were not staying overnight in León. Unfortunately, almost everything around the train station seemed to be a cafeteria — food on display, but somehow not actually available for lunch.
早上从马德里坐高铁前往 León，车程大约两个小时。中午抵达后，我们想吃点简餐，因为晚上并不住在莱昂。可惜火车站附近几乎都是 cafeteria，明明看得到食物，却并不供应。
And then we discovered one of León’s rather interesting local traditions.
原来，这是 León 一个非常有意思的传统。
Order a drink, get free tapas. If you want food, you drink first.
点饮料，免费送 Tapas。要吃东西，先要喝。
Most of the locals were ordering drinks, mainly wine, beer and other alcoholic beverages. We, however, didn’t really want to start drinking so early in the morning, so we ordered juice, coffee and mineral water instead.
店里很多当地人都点了饮料，主要是葡萄酒、啤酒以及其他酒水。但我们不想一大早就开始喝酒，于是点了果汁、咖啡和矿泉水。
The bill was relatively small, and the owner seemed noticeably reluctant to bring us the complimentary tapas.
因为消费金额比较低，老板明显有些不太情愿送 Tapas。
It was, admittedly, a little awkward. Luckily, we were leaving León almost immediately anyway.
多少还是有点尴尬。好在我们马上就要离开 León 了。
Perhaps European drinking culture is also cultivated through a little bit of “competition” — and a little bit of commercial temptation.
看来，欧洲的饮酒文化，也是靠一点“卷”和商业诱惑，慢慢培养起来的。
A Little Car-Rental Drama｜取车的小插曲
Our plan was to rent a car in León and officially switch into road-trip mode, driving through Galicia and its wine regions.
我们的计划是从 León 开始租车，正式进入自驾模式，游览 Galicia 及其葡萄酒产区。
The rental company, Europcar, was extremely enthusiastic about offering us an upgrade to an automatic car.
租车公司 Europcar 非常热情地向我们推荐升级自动挡。
We knew exactly what we wanted, though. An automatic may be more comfortable, but a larger car is not necessarily the best choice for the narrow roads and small mountain villages of rural Europe.
但我们非常清楚自己想要什么。自动挡虽然舒服，但更大的车型并不一定适合欧洲乡间那些狭窄的道路和山间小镇。
So we firmly declined.
于是我们果断拒绝。
After all, we had come all the way to Spain. If you are going to drive through the countryside, you might as well do it with a little bit of Latin spirit.
毕竟都已经来到西班牙了。自驾，还是要有一点拉丁族的样子。
Las Médulas — A Roman Gold Mine Carved into the Landscape｜古罗马金矿遗址 Las Médulas
Our first destination was Las Médulas.
第一站，我们去了 Las Médulas。
And it turned out to be one of the most impressive landscapes of the entire trip.
事实证明，这是这次旅行中最令人震撼的景观之一。
Las Médulas is a huge ancient Roman gold-mining site. What makes it truly extraordinary is that the dramatic red mountains in front of you are not entirely natural — they were, to a remarkable extent, created by the Romans themselves.
Las Médulas 是古罗马时期遗留下来的大型金矿遗址。真正厉害的地方在于：眼前这片看起来像天然形成的红色山体，实际上在很大程度上是罗马人“挖”出来的景观。
From the 1st century AD onwards, the Romans extensively mined gold here using a hydraulic technique known as ruina montium. Through a sophisticated system of reservoirs, channels and aqueducts, enormous amounts of water were directed into the mountains.
公元1世纪开始，罗马人在这里大规模开采黄金。他们使用一种被称为 ruina montium 的水力采矿技术，通过庞大的水库、渠道和输水系统，将大量水引入山体。
The pressure of the water would literally break apart and wash away sections of the mountain, allowing the Romans to extract the gold-bearing material.
水流产生巨大的压力，直接冲垮、切割山体，把含金矿石冲刷出来。
Nearly two thousand years later, what remains is an almost surreal landscape: red-orange cliffs, sharp rock formations, enormous caves and valleys surrounded by chestnut trees.
两千年后的今天，留下的却是一片极其魔幻的景观：红橙色的峭壁、尖锐的岩柱、巨大的洞穴，以及被栗树包围的山谷。
Unfortunately, a forest fire last year left many of the trees charred and blackened. It was tragic, but somehow, even the burnt landscape had become part of the scenery — another layer of the story of this place.
可惜，由于去年发生的森林火灾，很多树木已经碳化。当然，这也是一道风景——自然和人类活动留下的痕迹，叠加在同一片土地上。
Today, Las Médulas is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
如今，Las Médulas 已经被列入 UNESCO 世界文化遗产。
Its importance lies not only in the ancient Roman gold mine itself, but also in the way ancient mining technology completely transformed the landscape.
它的价值不仅在于古罗马金矿本身，更在于古代采矿技术彻底改变了当地地貌。
What impressed me most was that people more than a thousand years ago, with none of our modern technology, were already capable of observing, understanding and manipulating nature on such an enormous scale.
而古人在数千年前的条件下，竟然能够想出这样的技术，真的令人佩服。
To observe nature, understand it, master it and make use of it — that is a form of intelligence that never stops being impressive.
对自然的观察、掌握以及利用，本身就是一种大智慧。
Standing there, it was difficult to believe that these red mountains were connected to a mining operation that began almost two thousand years ago.
站在那里，很难相信眼前这些红色山体，竟然与将近两千年前的一项采矿工程有关。
La Siesta: When the Whole Village Disappears｜La Siesta：整个小镇突然消失
There was, however, one very practical problem that day.
不过，这一天也出现了一个非常现实的问题。
We had arrived in a small village near Las Médulas without buying any water.
我们在 Las Médulas 附近的小村庄里，没有买水。
And, of course, it was exactly la siesta time.
而且刚好赶上了 La Siesta。
The whole village seemed to have been put on pause. Apart from tourists, there was almost nobody on the streets. Shops and restaurants were mostly closed, and finding somewhere to buy a bottle of water seemed almost impossible.
整个村庄像突然被按下了暂停键。街上除了游客几乎没人，商店、餐厅基本都关门，想找一个地方买水都非常困难。
La siesta is real. It can genuinely make an entire village disappear for several hours.
La Siesta，是真的会让整个小镇消失几个小时。
Eventually, the Tourist Office reopened. We asked if we could buy some water.
最后终于等到 Tourist Office 开门。我们询问是否可以买水。
The answer was wonderfully Spanish: “Go to the bathroom and fill your bottle.”
工作人员直接告诉我们：去厕所接水。
And so, the tap water from a mountain-town public restroom became our most precious source of hydration that afternoon.
于是，山区公共洗手间的自来水，成为了我们那天下午最重要的解渴利器。
Sometimes, travel is about the small victories.
有时候，旅行就是由这些微小的胜利组成的。
Entering Galicia — O Barco de Valdeorras｜进入 Galicia：O Barco de Valdeorras
After finishing our visit to Las Médulas, we got back into the car and continued west towards O Barco de Valdeorras.
结束 Las Médulas 的游览后，我们重新上车，继续向西前往 O Barco de Valdeorras。
And from this point onwards, the journey had truly entered Galicia.
而从这里开始，旅行真正进入了 Galicia。
The further west we drove, the more rugged the landscape became. More mountains, quieter roads, smaller villages.
随着一路向西，地形越来越崎岖，山越来越多，道路越来越安静，村庄也越来越小。
We were also entering our first real mountain wine region of Galicia — Valdeorras.
同时，我们也第一次真正进入了加利西亚的山地葡萄酒世界——Valdeorras。
The region is best known for its white grape Godello, but the red grape Mencía is equally important to the local wine culture.
这里最著名的是白葡萄品种 Godello，但红葡萄 Mencía 同样是当地非常重要的品种。
For us, this was the beginning of the wine-country part of the trip.
对于我们来说，这才算真正进入了此行的酒乡部分。
A Mountain Village, a Terrace and a Sunset｜山间小村、露台与夕阳
We stayed in a small Airbnb in what was technically a town, although it felt more like a collection of houses scattered across the mountainside.
我们在一个小镇入住。与其说是小镇，不如说是散落在山坡上的一片村庄。
The house itself was small but charming, sitting high on the slope with beautiful views over the surrounding landscape.
Airbnb 很小，却很漂亮，房子坐落在山坡上，可以眺望周围的山地景色。
By dinner time, we found a restaurant even higher up in the mountains.
到了晚餐时间，我们找到了一家位于更高处的山间餐厅。
The summer mountain breeze was wonderfully cool, and sitting on the terrace as the sun slowly disappeared behind the hills was exactly the kind of evening we had imagined when planning this trip.
夏季的山风非常舒服。坐在露台上，看着夕阳慢慢落下，这才是我们出发前想象中的西班牙酒乡夏夜。
The restaurant specialised in grilled meat. The owner enthusiastically recommended the local specialty — old cow beef — but the portions looked enormous, so we decided not to follow his advice.
这里的特色是烤肉。老板疯狂推荐当地特色的老牛肉，但看着分量实在太大，我们最终没有听老板的推荐，而是点了一份以猪肉为主的烤肉拼盘。
And of course, meat calls for a serious red wine.
吃肉，当然要配浓郁的红酒。
I ordered a local Mencía, while Jerome— the traditionalist of the group — went for a Rioja.
我点了当地的 Mencía，而杰哥——我们团队里的传统派——选择了 Rioja。
The house wine by the glass was almost unbelievably cheap — just a little over €2.
这里的杯卖酒特别便宜，只要 2欧多一点。
The Mencía was actually quite good: meaty + fruity, with direct fruit character and a juicy profile that worked beautifully with grilled meat.
Mencía 其实相当不错，meaty + fruity，果味直接，与烤肉搭配得非常舒服。
The Rioja, on the other hand, had noticeably stronger oak influence. Personally, I found the wood a little too dominant.
Rioja 则明显有更强的橡木味。对我来说，木头感稍微有些重。
But Jerome seemed to prefer it.
但杰哥似乎更喜欢这一款。
And that is also part of travelling together: the wine does not always have to be the same.
旅行就是这样——一起吃饭，也不一定要喝同一杯酒。
The Luxury of Being Somewhere Unknown｜身处无人知晓的酒乡，也是一种奢侈
A huge plate of meat, vegetables, local wine — and a final bill that was surprisingly low.
一大盘肉、蔬菜、当地葡萄酒，最后结账时却远低于预期。
Perhaps this is one of the most enjoyable things about travelling through lesser-known wine regions.
或许这正是旅行进入小众酒乡之后最有意思的地方。
You are not paying for the prestige of a famous appellation, the location of a fashionable restaurant, or the so-called “luxury experience”.
你不需要为知名产区的名气、餐厅的地段或者所谓的“高级感”买单。
You are simply eating what people here actually eat, and drinking what people here actually drink.
这里吃的就是当地人吃的东西，喝的就是当地人喝的酒。
And for our first night in Galicia, that felt like the perfect beginning.
而对于我们在 Galicia 的第一个晚上来说，这就是最好的开始。
小杰与小吉——JZ World Travel 
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