Day 9 Galway

No full Irish breakfast for me this morning, absolutely no way. I'm going down to the hotel restaurant and order fruit and yogurt. Well, that's what I said. When I got there the only thing they had was a buffet with all the fixings of a full Irish breakfast. I couldn't help it, until I was done I had consumed a full Irish breakfast. Damn, I was bloated again, I'll never learn. Sylvia was much smarter and stayed in the room and drank coffee.

It was mid morning until we left for the Cliffs of Moher. It was an easy hour and a half drive with no incidents or lively discussions. By this time we were barely talking anyhow. When we arrived I was surprised to see mostly open fields with a rather large parking lot and no visitors center. We got out and were directed by

smallish signs that said Visitor Center. It was really cool. It was buried in the

Visitor's Center

hillside and hardly visible on the walk up, but once inside it opened up into a pretty large display room with a restaurant, snack bar, little theater, displays, restrooms, and information center. We spent some time there and saw a movie about the cliffs. After leaving the visitors center you walk a quarter mile up to the cliff walk and are greeted with spectacular views of cliffs that rise 600 feet above the Atlantic Ocean and continue on for miles. It's well worth the trip just for this view. But if you're an outdoor enthusiast, you could do the whole walk along the edge for seven miles. I would have loved to do the 14 miles round trip from Doolin to Liscannor...30 years ago. We only spent a little over an hour there, but it was worth the drive and would visit the cliffs anytime I was in the area.

Driving back to Galway we stopped for a late lunch in the village of Kinvara only to find that every lunch place in town closes on Tuesday except for the Hotel Merriman. It was late so we ate there instead of driving farther up the road. Sylvia ordered the smoked haddock poached in milk with mashed potatoes. It sounded weird, but she thought that besides the lemon sole she ordered the other day, it was the best fish she had in Ireland. As for myself, I wanted to try the crumbled cod with chips and salad. I ordered it only because I imagined that crumbled meant smushed into little pieces, and I just had to see how they did that! Damn, it meant bread crumbs, so I had fish and chips again. It was good though. Got back to the hotel around 4 with way too much time to kill before dinner.

After hanging out and doing nothing for a couple of hours we still weren't hungry, so we went out at seven a walked about awhile and decided to stop in a pub or two. The first was King's Head and then Garavans. The last stop was The Front Door where we ate anyway. Sylvia did the pizza and I finally had Irish Beef Stew, both good. Obviously we spent time in a lot of pubs, but never found a favorite, they're all good.Tomorrow we leave Galway for someplace nearer to the airport.

You can actually walk the entire length of the cliffs. About 7 miles.

Cliffs of Moher

Cliffs of Moher

Day 8 Galway

It's laundry day and my first job was to find someplace to get the laundry done. It took awhile but there was a little place up the street and he said it would be done by five. There was no desire for a monster breakfast this morning, so we had a scone and coffee and got an early start. Sylvia has a cold and was in no mood to rush around. We had no plans for anyplace special, just a walk around the city and take the sights in. Galway's not a town with a lot of museums, it's mostly about the street atmosphere and the labyrinth of alleyways with shops, pubs, and just great entertainment. We spent 4 or 5 hours walking around Salt Hill, the

eastern part of town, the waterfront, and followed the canals up stream. It's a very fun and interesting walking town. The major problem with it is that it has 504 pubs, and I couldn't go to all of them. I wanted to try though, but Sylvia wasn't up for it and that was a good thing. Although when Sylvia went shopping I did manage to stop in a little pub called Tis Coili. There was about 20 old local guys, a grizzly old dog, and Old Bill - no women. The guys were laughing, singing and just having a ball. The old dog just sat there with a ball in his mouth, and Old Bill just sat there with a pint and smiled. I picked up the laundry on the way back to the hotel and Sylvia said they did a great job.

Walkway between the river and canal

We went out to get something to eat around 7 and stopped for a drink at the Bunch of Grapes. You'd think it specialized in wine...nope, just beer. Sylvia had wine anyhow, and I didn't. Since Sylvia had a cold and wasn't hungry and I was getting tired of fish, we opted for something different and went to a pub on High street called the Front Door Bar. Sylvia ordered soup and I ordered one of my favorites, a prosciutto and arugula pizza cooked crispy. Honestly, I've never had a better pizza anywhere. I ate way more than I wanted to. Afterwards we just went back to Jury's, had a Jameson's and crashed. Tomorrow we're planning on driving down to see the Cliffs of Moher.

Low tide and boats grounded

Day 7 Galway

Time to go to Galway, but not without reneging on my vow to never do a Full Irish Breakfast again. I just had to do it one more time, this time with sausage, bacon, tomato, poached egg, mushrooms, and black and white pudding. It was filling, but good. Maybe I'll try it one more time?

We checked out of our comfortable guest house with their fabulous breakfasts and headed the 150 miles up to Galway. The weather was good and the drive was easy, except that we left Dingle by way of Connor Pass. It was a really scenic ride with sheep on the road and everything, but at the top of the mountain it turns into several miles of one lane road with two lanes of traffic and got a little tedious for me, frantic for Sylvia. It all ended well and we got to Galway uneventfully, except that the navigator and the driver have trouble hearing/paying attention to each other and it did lead to a few lively moments. We arrived around 2 and checked into the Jury Hotel. The Jury, being a large semi luxury hotel, isn't the type of hotel we normally like, but it was convenient, had parking nearby, and at a perfect location. They put us in a great room on the Corrib River. The Corrib is actually used by fly fishermen in the summer for salmon fishing. It's extremely fast and perfect for salmon. It had to be one of the best rooms view wise in the hotel.

View from the room

As usual the first thing on the agenda was to walk the town and try to get things figured out. After an hour of walking about we checked out a couple of pubs; Fibber Magee's, Seven, and Busker Brown's, finally deciding on Busker, mostly because Ireland was playing France in the Rugby World Cup and all the pubs were packed, and Busker happened to have two seats at the bar. Watching the match with all the excitement was fun and we're glad Ireland won because the fans in the pub were pretty passionate. Consumed a bit of beer and food there too. Sylvia had a Chicken Caesar Salad and I had fish and chips. All okay. That was the end of the day. Our first impressions of Galway were good ones so we extended our stay to three nights. More on Galway tomorrow after spending a whole day there.

Day 6 Dingle

The first thing we had to do today was decide where we were going when we leave Dingle tomorrow. After a somewhat lively discussion about whether to go north to Galway or south to Cork, "we" decided she wanted to go to Galway.

Scrambled and Salmon

Therefore I made a reservation for two nights at a Jury hotel right downtown Galway. Once that was done it was on to breakfast. Sylvia had the specialty of the house, porridge with dark brown sugar, cream, and shot of Drambuie. I on the other hand, decided to stay sober and have scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, but I was very jealous.

With those two important things over with, we got started on a long day on a drive around the Ring of Kerry. It was similar to yesterday's drive except it was 200 miles instead of 60, One hundred and twenty of those miles would be on the Ring of Kerry. The drive from Dingle took us along some cute towns on the north shore before getting to Portmagee at the end of the peninsula. We had to go over the bridge to see what was going on in Knightstown only to find they were running a marathon around the island. We managed to get around the mess and continue up the spectacular scenery of the south shore. It was 2 o'clock when we got to the pretty little town of Kenmar. We stopped for lunch at the Atlantic Bar and had more Seafood Chowder - I was starting to get a little bit tired of it. Sylvia went for the shoe leather pork chops. We walked around town a bit and it seemed like a pretty good place to spend a few days. It was an hour and a half drive from there back to Dingle and it was nice to get back. It was hard driving with narrow twisting roads, no shoulder, and high speeds. If I had to decide which drive was best, Dingle Peninsula or Ring of Kerry, I'd have to say Dingle because it's less miles and has a somewhat more interesting history. Both are beautiful, but the south shore of the Ring has the most picturesque spots. But as you see from day 5, Dingle isn't too shabby, plus the story of the people who lived on the Blasket Islands makes your heart bleed.

For dinner we walked into town and decided on the John Benny Pub. Sylvia had corned beef and cabbage and I went for the hake and mashed potatoes again. The fish here's pretty good and without a doubt fresh. One of the things Dingle's noted for is Irish music. Every evening after 9:30 most every pub has live music and it's really good...I think. Anyhow, we stuck around for an hour or so to listen and enjoy.

Tomorrow we go to Galway for at least two days. Our stay in Dingle was great, I wish it was longer. The people here were the most friendly and happy people I've ever experienced. They just seem to enjoy being around other people. And the history of the area seems long and special. I felt privileged just being here.

Views from the south shore of The Ring of Kerry

Day 5 Dingle

The day started off with a great breakfast; a mushroom and blue cheese omelette

Doesn't look like an omelette?

for me, and a savory Eggs Benedict for Sylvia. Right after breakfast we did the highly recommended 30 mile Dingle Peninsula drive. The first thing that amazed me was that fuchsia grow wild around here, the roads are lined with hedgerows of them. The whole peninsula is spectacular, I couldn't even begin to describe it. The history and simple beauty is unlike anything I've seen. The drive's not hard, there's a few narrow, single lane spots, but overall it's pretty easy and with a few stops it takes about three or four hours. One stop not to miss is the Blasket Center which is a museum of sorts that does a great job of describing the history of the Blasket Islands. Another stop that I decided not to miss was the pub at the Ceann Sibeal Hotel in the town of Ballyferriter - okay, by then I was thirsty, big deal. We had the fish chowder with a Guinness and it was pretty okay. Well worth the stop and I'd go back. When we got back to Dingle we walked the town again and had a beer at Murphy's before going to the hotel. By the way, Sylvia doesn't drink beer but she's trying to drink Guinness. I sometimes help her finish it.

In the evening we opted for some pub grub at Paul Geaney's Pub. It was only

Banoffee Pie

seven o'clock so we were a little early for dinner and that was a good thing because it started filling up right after we got there. I had hake and Sylvia went the beef route. Everything was good, but the Banoffee Pie we had for dessert was great. They had the New Zealand, Tsonga rugby match on which I was interested in for a short time. I've never been able to figure out the rules of rugby anyhow. Tomorrow we want to do the Ring of Kerry drive and it's a long day, so we got back to the room by 9:30 and called it a night.

Day 4 Dingle

View from the room

It's time to leave Dublin and it was a very nice stay - I'd recommend it to anybody, especially to anybody who likes beer. I got up very early and went for an early morning walk and found a little shop that had a small steak and kidney pie and I had that with coffee and sat there for awhile and enjoyed watching the all the hubbub and morning commuters. Afterwards I went back to the hotel and got Sylvia and we walked for about 20 minutes with our luggage to a rental car place and picked up a small car and were on our way towards Dingle before 10. The drive was pleasant enough with a few narrow roads, just enough to cause me to ding the passenger side mirror. Again this was no problem, except Sylvia was my passenger. Do you think she said anything?... She hardly ever uses that kind of language.

Dinner at Global Village

We arrived in Dingle around 2 and checked in to the Heatons Guest House. It's a pleasant 16 room place that overlooks the water. Dingle's a town of 1,600 people and the whole peninsula has 10,000 residents.We settled in and walked 15 minutes into town to find a place for dinner. We ended up making reservation at the Global Village restaurant but not before stopping for a pint at Barr Na Sraide Pub before walking back to the guest house.

The dinner at the Global Village was very, very good. For appetizers I ordered duck liver parfait and duck leg rillette and Sylvia had the cream cheese croquette. For the main course, and since the Dingle Peninsula is home to 100,000 sheep,  I ordered an all lamb dish of steak, liver, belly, neck, and a mini Shepard's Pie. And, since Dingle's a fishing port, Sylvia ordered mackerel, and lemon sole with a duck fat fried potato. The desserts were great too. Stuffed again!

On the waddle back we stopped at John Benny's Pub for a pint and watched the Germany Ireland soccer match. There was an enthusiastic group of both Germans and Irish in the pub. It was a lot of fun and we watched until the half was over and then went back to the guest house to watch the ending. Surprisingly Ireland won 1-0. Obviously the Germans couldn't understand it.

Day 3 Dublin

The best weather day so far. I got up early and went up to a coffee shop and sat there and watched people come to work. I sat there for about an hour just enjoying the morning. Once Sylvia got up and ready we walked up to the Guinness factory and took a tour. It's the best brewery tour I've been on and well worth the $16 admission. It takes about an hour to cover the seven floors before getting to the top observation tower where you get a pint and a fabulous view of the Dublin. On the way back to town we stopped at Leo Burdock's Fish and Chips shop. It's supposed to be the best fish and chips in Dublin and it was very good. After finishing the fish we made plane reservation for the trip to Edinburgh on the 15th. All went well so we walked about town for the 50th time and bellied up to the bar at Kehoe's Pub. It's another famous old pub that is exactly like it was over 100 years ago, and it looked it. The beers tasted good though. We walked around some more and again stopped at the Gin Palace and Porterhouse pubs. We had dinner at Porterhouse and it was pretty good, it's a neat place.We ended the night at the bar next to hotel called Turks Head. I don't know how it got it's name, but it seemed appropriate. Tomorrow morning we pick up a car and leave Dublin and drive 180 miles on the wrong side of the road across Ireland to Dingle.

After a busy night at the pub

Flower piles everywhere

Day 2 Dublin

The day started off with breakfast at the hotel. I ordered what they call a Full Irish Breakfast, a traditional breakfast that consists of eggs, sausage, bacon (actually more like ham), mushrooms, roasted tomato, potatoes, beans, and toast. Whew! I ate it, but I won't do that again. Sylvia's a bit more sensible and went much lighter. I finished it all and waddled back up to the room for a bit before heading across town to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. It wasn't crowded so we walked right in and did the audio tour - it was interesting and well worth seeing, especially since it only took an hour. What I thought was really cool was the library. It's a huge old, tall wooden structure with vaulted ceilings containing over 200,000 very old and ancient books. It looked like something out of a Harry Potter movie.

Fish Pie

Matt the Thresher

Still feeling stuffed from breakfast, a big walk seemed in order so we walked over to St Stephen's Green and wandered around. It's a beautiful 22 acre park in the middle of town with not much in the way of flowers for this time of year, but you could imagine how pretty it must look in summer. After an hour of walking it was getting time for lunch and I wasn't a bit hungry, but duty called, so we found a restaurant recommend to us by Randy and Noreen called Matt The Thresher (crazy name huh?).  This restaurant is somewhat noted for the time Michelle Obama, Natasha and Malia went there and ate lunch.  The menu looked pretty good so we gave it a try anyhow. We ordered a wine with a grape that I wasn't familiar with called Piquepoul. It's a white wine that goes well with seafood and ended up working perfectly with what we ordered. I had Seafood Chowder and Fish Pie - like Shepard's Pie only with fish and a cream sauce. Sylvia had a Yellow Beet and Apple soup, and a Smoked Hake Fishcake. Everything was excellent and the restaurant was well worth going too. I'd go back, no problem.

Waddling again, we walked back to the Grafton St. shopping area and just

looked around at all the shops...and pubs. When we couldn't waddle much longer, we stopped in O'Neill's Pub, an famous old traditional Irish pub with a lot of little nooks and crannies scattered about. The main bar has 45 beers on tap and since we were there, I ordered one. Although I couldn't eat another thing, the food served cafeteria style looked great. After that we headed back to the hotel for a bit. Around 6 o'clock we decided to skip dinner and walk across the river to another part of town. After an hour of walking it started to drizzle, and amazingly we just happened to walk by a place called the Gin Palace - what a find! It a busy gin joint that keeps about 150 gins around. They have lots of beer too but gin is their thing. After chatting with Derek our bartender, he made us a drink with Dingle gin on the rocks with an orange slice and a cinnamon stick. It was really good, even Sylvia liked it and she hates gin. That one was so good that I had to try something else so Derek made me a drink with Bertha's Revenge gin and cucumber. Bertha's Revenge gin is made from milk and Bertha was the oldest cow ever. She lived to be 48 and gave birth to 39 calves. The Gin Palace is a great place and yes I would go back again...maybe tomorrow.


Today was a Hallmark Day. Today was the first time in the gazillion years that I've known Sylvia that she's asked ME how to spell something. She asked me how to spell Guinness. It's just one more thing that proving that the "Golden Years" are bullshit. BTW, I actually didn't spell it, I just said it had two n's...I thought.

Day 1 Dublin

Okay, so I decided to do this damn blog again.  A trip to Ireland seemed like a good idea since we had been planning on going to a wedding in Edinburgh, Scotland on October 17. So we booked an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin from Dulles airport at a pretty good rate of $750. The plane left yesterday (Sunday) at 5:20  pm and overall it was a pretty good flight with not so good food, but the flight attendants were very nice and it wasn't crowded. We hoped to get a few hours sleep on the way over, but as usual that didn't work out. The plane landed ahead of schedule at 5 am local time and it was raining. This was going to be a long day. We grabbed a bus from the airport to city center Dublin and it left us off five or six blocks from the hotel which was no problem except that it was pouring rain, which was no problem either except that Sylvia was along. She toughed it out and hardly said a word...for a while. The hotel we booked was the Paramount Hotel and our room wasn't ready, but the receptionist was nice enough to give us a temporary room to store our wet stuff in and let us dry out a bit. Feeling pretty tired but not wanting to take a nap, we found a coffee shop and hung out until the rain let up. We walked around town trying to get a feel for the area and it didn't take long to realize that there's no shortage of pubs in Dublin.

Around noon we stopped in The Temple Bar pub and had a not so good sandwich with wine and beer, then ambled back to the hotel to swap rooms and get a bit settled. The room was smallish but okay except it only had one electric outlet and it was going to be a challenge to keep two phones, two tablets, and a laptop charged up. I can't even talk about the hair dryer issue.

Later in the afternoon we walked up to the Christ Church Cathedral for a brief tour and it was fairly interesting. Afterwards, feeling a bit parched, we stopped at the The Hairy Lemon pub and had a bit to drink, then up the block to J. Grogan's pub for another. Hairy Lemon's has a good looking menu and we'll probably go back there again sometime. J. Grogan's was a true pub and the only food they had was a cooler full of cheese sandwiches. We'll probably go back there again too. We then walked about a bit more and decided to eat a light dinner. Since we hadn't slept since we left home, we thought it a good idea to eat early. We decided to try out the Porterhouse pub up the street from the hotel. It was a good choice, I had a terrific seafood chowder and Sylvia had two smoked salmon and cod fishcakes that she really liked. I'd like to back there too. We got back to the hotel early and it didn't take long to fall asleep well before nine.

One thing of interest was the language. I've been to at least a dozen countries in Europe and language was never a problem, but it's amazing that here we're all speaking English and most of the time I can't understand a damn thing they're saying. Hopefully my ear will get tuned up to the Irish brogue. Meanwhile I'll continue to pretend to know what they said and just nod like an idiot.

Day 13 San Sebastian

Dropped my computer and broke it. Too hard to type on this cell phone. No more blogging. Planning on being home Thursday.

Day 12 San Sebastian, Bilboa

Guggenheim

Left the apartment at 8:30 for a leisurely Sunday morning drive over to Bilboa primarily to see the Guggenheim Museum. Got there just after 10, parked in an adjacent lot and spent 45 minutes trying to find the damn entrance. The Guggenheim is a magnificent building - that's about the best I can say. I cannot imagine what's going through the artists minds when they're creating this "Art". We didn't stay very long. The highlight for me was the giant cat (or maybe it was a dog) outside the building. It was made up entirely with flowers, all pansies. Afterwards we walked around town a bit, most of the shops were closed. I guess it was around one when we headed back to San Sebastian. We had hoped to go back by way of the coastal road, but a lack of planning and communication lead to some confusion (on my part of course), and we ended up going straight back to the apartment. Decided to do the coast drive on Tuesday.

Guggenheim Cat

Towards evening we walked down the river through the Gros section and over to Old Town. Spent a few hours there wandering around and watching the kids play while we sat at a cafe. Had a few Pintxos and a more than a few wines before going back to the apartment.

Day 11 San Sebastin

It was a pleasant two and a half hour drive over to San Sebastian on the Atlantic coast. The Pyrenees go all the way to San Sebastian and although they're not as big as they are midway between coasts, they're still absolutely beautiful and interesting. The road was wide and the drive was easy and relaxing. Somehow we missed out on the lively discussions...until we got to San Sebastian.

Pintxos Bar

San Sebastian's a big town, much bigger than I envisioned. We had trouble finding our apartment, but once we did it was fine. It was a 10 minute walk to the shopping district and a 20 minute walk to Old Town and none of it was uphill. Had a bit of lunch in the shopping district then went back to the apartment to unpack. In the evening we walked back to Old Town to try out their famous tapas. I don't know what Old Town's like during the week, but on Saturday night it's crazy, everybody's out, from little kids to geezers (I know, I know). After stopping at three tapas bars I learned several things. First, boy my posts about the tapas in Jaca and Barcelona were written with zero knowledge about tapas. The stuff they call tapas in Catalan cannot be compared to the ones in Basque country. In Basque country they're called pintxos (PEEN - chohs),  and it's not unusual for a bar to have 40 or 50 different pintxos sitting on the bar. Second, I learned how to order at these bars; First you stand there in front of the pintxos bar looking stupid (not hard to do), and when the bartender says something in Spanish, just nod your head yes and he'll give you a plate. Next, fill your plate with pintxos and stand there looking stupid again and when the bartender speaks to you, just say cerveza or vino and when he gives you a beer or wine, hand him a 20 Euro note and hope you get change back. The third thing I learned is it's considered rude to leave a used napkin on the table or bar, you're suppose to throw them on the floor. I learned this from Rick Steves and verified it by noticing all the crumpled up napkins on the floor. We hit three bars and had 7 pintxos, some were okay, some were excellent and most were unbelievable. They all looked good so it's really hard to pick. The fish ones weren't so good because they got cold sitting on the bar. That was all my tapas (pintxos) lessons for the evening, my mind was exhausted and I'll probably forget by morning anyhow. I can learn this stuff all over again. Getting old is cool, always learning...over and over.

Day 10 Jaca

Jaca's an easy town to fall in love with. Like so many old towns in Europe, the streets are narrow with little if any automobiles so walking is a natural pastime. It's extremely family oriented with kids playing about everywhere. It seemed to me that the fathers are unusually active in the family, especially by giving the little ones a lot of attention. It's not at all unusual to see a Dad pushing a stroller down the street without the Mom anywhere around. I found it easy to relax on a bench or in a cafe and watch the goings-on. Everyone hangs out in town strolling about and stopping to chat with friends or meeting in the cafes for a tapas and a glass of wine.

Paletilla de Ternasco

Okay, here's what we did today. After a typical breakfast of coffee, croissant, and some cheese, we walked across the street to Castle Jaca's Citadel, a huge pentagonal fortress built in the late 16th century that retains each and every one of it's characteristic features; dry moat, bastions, scarps, barracks, tunnels, and a beautiful entrance way with a drawbridge. We were not allowed in unless we took the tour which was only given in Spanish. The tour guide was great, after each stop she would come over to us and try and explain in broken English what we were looking at. Most of what she said we couldn't comprehend but it was nice that she tried. At the end of the tour we could go in the museum that contained 35,000 miniatures of the various militarys throughout history. It even had an exhibit of our Civil War. The whole thing was very well done and enjoyable. Afterwards we went through the process of deciding whether to have a big lunch and light dinner, or little lunch and big dinner. Big lunch won so we managed to find the recommended Restaurante Las 3 Renas. Since we were in the Aragon region of Spain and Aragon is famous for it's lamb (some say the best in the world), we decided to do an Aragonese meal. First came something called Migas del pastor. Best we could tell it was crumbled old bread mixed with olive oil, ham, onions, and maybe some other stuff. It was actually pretty tasty. The main course though was Paletilla de Ternasco - lamb shoulder (pictured above). That was excellent! As you can see from the picture it was a whole shoulder and leg from a very small lamb. It was a lot to eat, but I managed, Sylvia didn't. I don't think I've ever had lamb this good. I highly suggest if anyone gets to the Aragon region of Spain they should try the lamb. I was too stuffed to do much the rest of the afternoon. Around 7 o'clock we went back out to walk, watch, and test the wine. After a half hour of walking we stopped at a tapas bar Sylvia had her eyes on the past few days called Cobarcho. We sat inside and had a glass of wine and waited. About 8 o'clock they started putting tapas on the bar - 16 different ones, each one looking better than the last. They were by far the best tapas I've seen since we've been in Spain. Every one looked delicious and most all contained some kind of fish. Most people would just get one or maybe two and generally didn't eat the bread. Still full from lunch, we had NOTHING. I think I regret it.

Tapas 1 - Upper left - octopus, mussel, squid on each tapa
                Upper right - ricotta type cheese with anchovy
                Center - sardine with anchovy, onion, pepper

Tapas 1

Tapas 2 Upper left - fried sardine

             Lower left - I don't know

             Upper right - mushrooms

             Lower right - tomato, jamon, cheese, black sausage

Tapas 2

Day 9 Jaca

N-260

Today was a five hour drive to the town of Jaca through the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen. The N-260 route through the Pyrenees (a total of 10 hours) is sensory overload. The Alps and the Rockies might have slightly higher peaks, but the Pyrenees have the most varied and beautiful views of any drive I've ever taken. Ninety five percent of the time you're looking at something that defies description. I'm at a loss for adjectives - stunning maybe. It is not an easy drive; it's two lanes and in parts only one and a half so sometimes you have to pull over for cars coming from the other direction. Trucks are another story - in two cases I had to back up at a turn. Fortunately, there's not much traffic and zero traffic lights. There are a 1000 turns; my left arm was tired from steering as my right was constantly shifting, always in third of fourth gear never in fifth. A car with an automatic shift is not the way to go. I would recommend this drive for anyone (note the N-260 road at the bottom of the picture). It's hard to get good pictures since there are not many places to pull over. I would love to do it again only from west to east, with a driver, a good camera and a bottle of scotch. It's a dream ride for motorcyclists and geologists alike.

Dessert

Checked into the Hotel Mur around two o'clock and went up to the room. I had made reservations for only one night, but after seeing the hotel, the room and a little bit of the town, we decided to spend two nights in Jaca. The room was small by American standards, but a more than adequate. The hotel built in 1875 was cute, the amenities up to date and only cost $60 a night with breakfast. A quick walk around town had showed us there was plenty to do, with lots of attractions, restaurants and shops. What impressed me the most was that I saw no English menus and from what I could tell no tourists - similar to Le Seu but a little larger town.

Later we walked around town, went into the Cathedral, looked in the shops, and tried to figure out what restaurant to have dinner. None of the restaurants opened until 8:30, and since we hadn't eaten lunch, we were the first ones in the Meson Serrablo. Started off with some fantastic mushrooms and scrambled eggs, followed by wild boar stew for me, and lamb parts for Sylvia - both were good. Dessert was ice cream with custard and fruit something or other - should have ordered two or three. Tired and stuffed we got back to the room by 10:30 and crashed.

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.

Day 7 Girona, Begur, Palamos

Begur

Got up, had a cup of coffee and drove over to Begur on the Mediterranean coast. It's a little hilltop town of less than 4,000 people that looks over the Med. We parked and walked up to the town center and had the usual cup of coffee at one of the several outdoor cafes. There's an old castle at the very top of a hill that we were not willing to scale, but there were plenty of little shops, cafes, restaurants and hotels to investigate. It's just another centuries old quaint, beautiful little European village.  There's no doubt in my mind that Begur is a magical place that one could easily spend 3 or 4 nights in. I would recommend it to anyone and if I ever came back this way I would strongly consider staying in Begur.

It wasn't lunchtime yet so we drove down the coast to Palamos, a larger fishing town that sits right on the Med. We walked around checking out many of the restaurants before deciding to have lunch at marBionic. We picked it for no apparent reason except it was outside, open, and not crowded (not necessarily good) and served seafood. The restaurants over here are pretty empty at one o'clock and crowded by two. It was hard to decide what to order from an extensive menu so we over ordered. A bottle of local wine, white anchovies in vinegar, octopus, squid plus whatever came with it...terrific, as you can see from the picture. There's was no way we could finish it, but is was really good. Drove back to Girona afterwards and swore we would not eat anything the rest of the day.

Around 8 o'clock I got hungry so for the last time did the walk down the hill, and the climb back up the mountain. Had a few drinks and a little bite to eat. Back at the hotel I got on the internet and made reservations for tomorrow at a hotel in La Seu d'Urgell, a town in the Pyrenees. In fact I made four of them. I guess I was a little impatient with their website. I even ran them out of double rooms. A long telephone conversation with a lady whose English didn't quite mesh with mine corrected this (I hope). We'll find out tomorrow.

Palamos - Anchovies, Octopus, Squid

Day 6 Girona

Cathedral Steps

Not being able to make up our minds where to go today we decided to stay in Girona. It was rather late when we left the hotel, walked down the hill, stopped in a cafe had coffee with a croissant, and got ready to play tourist. However, the only major tourista sites were the Catedral de Girona and the wall around the city. A walk through the town takes you over to the Cathedral. It's a tough 90 steps up to the front door (I don't think they call it the front door, but I don't know what). I have no idea how some people make it to church because it was hard for us. We took the audio tour which took about an hour. It's a pretty impressive church, but the audio tour didn't work very well - you'd press a number and something entirely different would start playing. I would still recommend it if anyone's interested enough to come to Girona. Getting from the cathedral to the wall was again an all uphill walk. There are many walled cities in Europe and this one has been well maintained and exceptional. Took a couple of pictures and decided it was time for lunch. We settled on a little outdoor cafe and had sangria and something else. Well satisfied, we walked BACK up the mountain to the hotel and waited for dinner.

Walked back down the hill around 7:30 and went over to the other end of town and found a little local outdoor cafe. I had a couple of beers, Sylvia had two wines, they gave us olives and chips and the total bill was six dollars...pretty good deal. We weren't very hungry and couldn't decide where we wanted to eat, so we walked back thought town intending to go back to the hotel when hidden away in an alley saw an Irish pub. All of a sudden I got thirsty again and thought it might be a good idea to go in for a Guinness. I was surprised to see a group of people getting together to play Irish music. They turned out to be pretty good so we stayed and had sandwiches and listened for awhile. It was a harder than usual walk back up the mountain. Tomorrow we'll be driving over to the Mediterranean coast to look around and have a little lunch. It should be a lively kind of day.

A little Irish Pub

Day 5 Girona

Left Barcelona this morning. It was a good stay. Took the bus to the airport, picked up the rental car, and headed north from Barcelona up the Mediterranean coast to Girona. This part of the country is called the Costa Brava and is interesting because the whole way up there is the road, next to the road is the railroad, then a path next to the beach , and the beach all the way up the coast. So you can walk, drive, or take a train the entire length of the Costa Brava. It was a pleasant drive since it was Sunday and there was little traffic. We eventually got to Girona, even with GPS finding our hotel - AC Palau de Bellavista - was a bit of a problem, but after a bit of lively discussion we managed to get there. It's a beautiful new and modern hotel and we knew it was little outside of the old town, but we didn't know it was up a mountain. We found out soon enough that it took 15 minutes to get to old town but at least 30 to get back. We made several trips, one to partake in a bit of sangria and a pizza, and the other for dinner. The pizza was uninteresting and the sangria a bit better. However, dinner was another story. It was Sunday night and there's very few restaurants open. We wandered around for quite awhile looking for something interesting before deciding on Restaurant Llevataps. It was before 9 and there weren't many people there so we weren't very sure about it. It turned out was a pretty good pick and enjoyed it a lot. Sylvia ordered a perfectly done duck breast in a sweet potato puree, and I had cod over an apple and black pudding puree - I have no idea what a black pudding is but it was good. The highlight of the dinner was dessert, especially the chocolate truffles with flake salt and olive oil they made to look like fish roe. We also ordered tarte tatin with ice cream. The place was full when we left and headed back up the mountain...well, semi-mountain.  

Day 4 Barcelona

Casa Battlo Living Room

Casa Battlo

Today is National Spain Day. We know this because very early in the morning we heard the crowds gathering at the Placa Catalyuna singing, chanting, and blowing those damn horns they blow at soccer matches - Vuvuzelas I think they're called. Hoards of people we marching down the street carrying Catalan and Spainish flags. Never-the-less, it was a pretty 70 degree day for sightseeing, so we walked up to the Casa Batllo, and another fantastically interesting building by Antoni Gaudi - he did the Basilica we were in yesterday. This is something of a wonderland though. There was hardly a straight line in the building, everything was curves and arches. You were made to feel like you were under the ocean. This is a worthwhile one hour stop.  It's best to look at these pictures because I could not possibly describe it and they're much better than mine. .(http://www.casabatllo.es/en/image-gallery/)

Afterwards we had a little quick lunch at a Mom and Pop tapas bar. It was pretty generic except for the meatballs. If I could ever make meatballs like this I'd never leave home. They were really, really good. We ate quickly because we had tickets for a two o'clock tour through the Palau (palace) de la Musica Catalana. It is considered the most beautiful building in Barcelona. You would certainly not get an argument from me. The tour itself wasn't very interesting, in fact it was rather boring. But it only lasted 45 minutes and it's the only way you can get in. It's well worth visiting. For better pictures try the following link (http://www.palaumusica.cat/en/photo-gallery_23608)

Palau de la Musica Catalana

Later in the evening we walked back to the el Born area for a few drinks while we thought about where we would like to have dinner. After being Tapa-ized the past four days something different seemed necessary.  Walking around we happened upon Dunne's Irish Restaurant and Bar...perfect. Not hesitating, we walked in and I ordered and a Guinness and Irish Stew, and Sylvia decided on vodka and fish and chips. What a great foil for tapas. The fish was excellent and the stew was overloaded with tender and tasty beef. Fattened up, we walked back to the apartment through La Rambla and the mass of partiers. It was enough for the evening as discussions were getting lively.  Tomorrow we head up the coast to Girona for a few days. Girona is the heart of Catalonia and from what I hear it should be interesting.

Day 3 Barcelona

Sylvia's Fish and Ratatouille

Bill's Octopus and Lentils

It's Raining! No matter, it's still fairly warm. Got up this morning and did my daily duty of going out and bringing back croissants, but not before I had a double espresso to jolt the old system into moving about. Today we walked over to the el Born, a bohemian-chic neighborhood comprised of narrow winding streets and alleys full of bars, restaurants and tiny shops. The first place we stumbled into was the Church of Santa Maria del Mar where there was an all violin orchestra performing. We sat in a pew and listened for a bit, then attempted to visit the Picasso museum. Unbelievably the line was 45 minutes long and people were actually standing in the rain waiting for tickets. It was at that point that I decided that I was no longer a Picasso fan - never was actually. Instead we headed over to the Santa Caterina Market and were pleased to see it was a neighborhood kind of market. It had most of the same stuff as La Boqueria Market without the swarm of tourists. Leaving the market it started to rain a bit harder, and since it was after two o'clock lunch was in order. Apparently everyone else had the same idea, however we managed to find a small "Normal" restaurant up a quiet alley called Origens. Sylvia had pumpkin saffron soup and a whole fish dish, and I had an octopus and lentil salad (I'm on a diet).  I entertained myself by drinking several beers (part of my diet) and watched Sylvia wrestle with a whole fish - she also had dessert and I didn't :). Afterwards we walked a bit more, then went back to the apartment to dry off just before the rain stopped. So far el Born is my favorite neighborhood and I would prefer to stay in that vicinity if ever in Barcelona again.

We went back out in the evening to see if we could get into one of the higher recommended tapas bars. Supposedly they're long waiting lines after 9. We checked them out around 8 and the both were packed. Eventually we settled on Restaurant Taller de Tapas. We ordered salt cod and parsley fritters, bellota jamon croquettes, grilled prawns, grilled sausage with white beans, and tomato bread - no dessert, but a bottle of wine.  Overall it was very good. The Spanish wines are very inexpensive and it's rare to find one that costs more than $25, plus they're all very drinkable, but then that just might be me.

Day 2 Barcelona

Jamon at La Boqueria

Okay, so today is suppose to be a major walk so I loaded up on ibuprofen and we headed out down La Rambla which is Barcelona's main boulevard that runs a mile and a half from Avenue Diagonal down to the waterfront. It's Barcelona's answer to le Champs Elysees. Like Elysees it's very touristy but it's a walk you have to do. The most impressive thing was La Boqueria market. One thing we try to do anyplace we visit is to check out the local markets, and La Boqueria didn't disappoint. Of all the markets we've visited in Europe, I don't remember any better than this one, and there is no comparison to anything I've seen in the U.S. It's well worth the trip, and before we leave here I think I'll go again. Instead of walking back up La Rambla, we came back through the Barri Gotic distric which is the oldest part of Barcelona. It's streets are narrow, winding lanes with lots of little classic antique shops, bars, and Roman ruins. You could spend the better part of the day just wandering this area. We did stop in the Cathedral of Barcelona and it's pretty impressive. Seeing as the old knees were getting sore, I requested that we stop for lunch and Sylvia was kind (or thirsty) enough to agree. We managed to find a "Normal" restaurant (non-tapas) near the apartment on Ronda Sant Pere called Cullera de Boix. We had to wait a few minutes until they started serving lunch at one (that's normal), so we had libations while waiting. It was a pleasant day and we sat outside and ordered a pork tenderloin with a creamed red pepper sauce and a squid stuffed with mushrooms served with an ink sauce. Both were terrific, the pork actually tasted like pork and my stuffed squid was great. There was no doubt in my mind it would be light tapas in the evening.

Sagrada Fabilia

After lunch we took a taxi up to the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia, the biggest church I have ever seen and it's not even finished. It's a Gaudi designed church that was started in 1882 and is not expected to be completed for another 30 years - yep, that's a total 132 years. It's an amazing Basilica and worth a trip as it's the number one attraction in Barcelona. We walked back to the Plaza Catalunya area via El Born section of town and decided that tomorrow we would spend more time there. After six hours of steady walking we decided a rest before dinner would be good, so we had a few cocktails in preparation for some kinda-light tapas.

Jamon at Qu Qu

Okay, so we didn't have some kinda-light tapas - it was more than we could eat. The above picture is of the assorted jamon and sausages is ONE of the tapas we had. The restaurant was a Rick Steves recommendation Qu Qu and although he's normally right on, he missed on this one. Tomorrow's another day in Barcelona and for sure it'll be light tapas.

Day 1 Barcelona

It's been quite a while since I've written anything about traveling, so I guess I'd better do this one. Yesterday we left good ol' Solomons Island for northern Spain. Since we're old, retired, lazy and incapable of much planning, the best we could come up with was to leave on October 8 for Barcelona, spend four nights there, then spend a five or six days hanging around the Pyrenees before finishing up in the Basque towns of San Sebastian and Bilboa. We expect to return home after 16 days of doing whatever happens.

Plaza Catalunya

The trip over to Barcelona via Amsterdam was uneventful and after arriving we bus'd it from the airport to the studio apartment we rented right on the Plaza Catalunya. It's just the kind of touristy location I try to avoid. But since we don't know anything about Barcelona we decided to stay there because it's central to a lot of interesting things and convenient for transportation purposes. We arrived around noon, got the keys to the flat, dumped off the bags, and walked 5 or 6 blocks in each direction to get a feel for the neighborhood. Of course we had a little snack - a bottle of wine and 6 or 7 different tapas (or tapai?) in a little cafe down a side street just off the Plaza Catalunya. I was amazed how anyone (me) could take four years of Spanish and not remember anything except "buenos dias". Even when I said that, people would just look at me with a silly grin wondering what geezer tour bus I had just wandered off from.

With little more than a couple of hours of walking about my first impressions are that it's a lot prettier than I thought and the architecture's absolutely amazing - lots of tress and incredibly beautiful ornate buildings. The shopping too was unexpected, all the Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, and Montblanc type stores are here. It's kind of strange though because the people don't dress very fashionably - although how would I know. Surprisingly, Barcelona may have more outdoor cafes than Paris. On some streets the whole block is taken up with these little cafes serving beer, wine, and tapas. It's hard to find what we would consider a "normal" restaurant. This should prove to be one of my favorite things in Spain. On the other end of the spectrum though is the traffic - scooters, bikes, and taxis everywhere. I've noticed that people don't jaywalk very much and I think it's because the taxis are just looking for moving targets and be semi-legal about it. Overall though, Barcelona is a terrific city and I think we're going to enjoy it.