Day 8 La Seu d'Urgell

La Seu d'Urgell

Checked out and did the three hour drive from Girona to La Seu d'Urgell by way of N-260. It's a mostly two lane road that runs right down the center of the Spanish Pyrenees next to France. It was an awesome drive with miles and miles of twisting roads with enough switchbacks to get this old Geezer worn out. Surprisingly there was little traffic which made it all the more pleasant. The Pyrenees are impressive, especially when you're in the middle of them with mountains in every direction. We arrived in downtown La Seu d'Ugrell around one and checked into the smallish Hotel Andria - an okay place right in the middle of the old part of town.

We decided to do a big lunch and something light in the evening. The hotel manager recommended the Cal Teo for a reasonable meal. Walked up the road to Cal Teo where pleasant great waitress sat us and took our order which consisted of...a lot. For starters (see picture) we had FOIE GRAS, two types of pates, cod fish salad with tomatoes, and the ever present tomato bread. There has not been one meal where we weren't given tomato bread whether we wanted it or not. They hardly ever ask, they just bring it and most of the time you get charged a buck or two. Anyhow, this was the first time the toasted bread (and it's always good bread) came with 3 cloves of skin-on garlic, and half of a tomato. I just looked at it like I knew what I was going to do with it. She knew right away I had noooo idea. She politely showed me (with a smile) - cut the garlic in half but don't take the skin off - it keeps your fingers from smelling like garlic. Then rub the garlic all over the bread before squeezing the tomato innards on the bread. Then take the olive oil and drizzle it on top of everything. It's interesting trying to get the tastes to balance. The past week we must have tasted at least ten different tomato breads and each one had it's own characteristics. Neat. It's a lot like bruschetta but with less stuff. The main course consisted of steak frites. The steak was less than a half an inch thick, crusty and rare. No matter how hot I get the grill or pan, I cannot do that. The other thing we ordered was grilled rabbit - Sylvia wan't interested. I thought it was very good. Dessert consisted of flan and quark with honey. Oh!, we also ordered a bottle of wine, and not wanting to seem cheap I ordered a nine dollar bottle. It didn't have a label or even a cork, but it was good. All was good and the waitress was fun. Of course the foie gras made my day. Spent the rest of the day walking around town just checking things out. La Seu is not a particularly touristy sort of town, it's mostly locals just going about their business. The town center is comprised of tiny shops most of which are less that 300-500 square feet. Each block seemed to have several little well stocked grocery stores that specialized in something a little different. That's in addition to all the butcher, cheese, and pastry shops. You can walk the old town in less than two hours and there's lots of interesting things to see.

Partially eaten appetizers

At night we just went across the street to an outdoor cafe and had a few drinks. Agreeing not to have dinner just didn't seem right to me, so I found a pizza joint and got a small one to take back to the room just in case Sylvia got hungry. I'm such a nice guy.