My Rad Trip to Spain
I love Spain. In my opinion, it is the raddest of nations. That's why Elton and I went there for my summer vacation. Here's what we saw, what we did, what we ate. Click on a name in red on the map below to see pictures from that area, or scroll down for more details.
- Getting there: Moline to Detroit to Amsterdam to Madrid. At customs in Amsterdam, I was walking a few paces ahead of Elton, and a security guard stopped him and asked to search his luggage. I stopped too, since I was with him and everything, so the security guard went through all my stuff too. He touched my underwear. I didn't even know him. It was very embarrassing.
- Once we arrived in Madrid, we hopped on a bus and went to Toledo, a small city in Castilla-La Mancha southwest of Madrid. We stayed at Hostal del Cardenal, which was the residence of the Cardenal of Toledo back when such people existed.
- Toledo's cool because it's a medieval city; it has narrow little cobblestone streets and a gorgeous cathedral. It's easy to imagine Don Quijote trotting around on Rocinante in the streets of Toledo.
- The first night, we ate dinner at a place called Abadía. We had a platter of assorted Iberian pork products (jamón ibérico and serrano, chorizo, etc.) and manchego cheese, with garlic and tomato-rubbed bread. Elton got marinated venison medallions in mushroom sauce, and I had bacalao al pil-pil (salt cod in a parsley garlic sauce) with fresh cheese. For dessert we had candied pumpkin ice cream.
- The next day, we ate at the hotel restaurant, which is supposed to be one of the best places in town. First course: trout with parsley potatoes, tortilla a la magra (Spanish omelet with salt pork--you're going to notice a pork theme here); second course: stewed quail with carrots and potatoes; dessert: tiramisù-like cake with pine nuts.
- Next destination: Segovia, which is famous for its castle (the Alcázar) and the Roman aqueduct. Segovia is really easy to get around, even in our rental car (not necessary for within the town, since it's walkable). It's much more sensibly laid-out than Toledo; streets seem more or less perpendicular to one another.
- We stayed at Hotel Los Linajes, where we picked up our vouchers from Discount 25. I was a little nervous about using that service, since it seemed almost too good to be true. What you do is buy the coupons from the website in sets of 5 (250 euros total; 5 coupons at 50 euros each), then make reservations at participating hotels. Fancier-schmancier hotels make require more than one coupon per night, but everywhere we stayed only needed one per night. We didn't stay in flophouses, either; these were mostly 3-star establishments.
- In Segovia, we ate: a snack of beer and tapas in a bar (mushrooms in garlicky tomato sauce, baby squid in in garlic, tomato, and wine). When we asked for the bill, the bartender wouldn't take any money for the food. We got a huge snack for only 2 euros.
- Dinner was at Mesón José María, a local place known for its cochinillo asado (roast suckling pig). First course: smoked salmon salad with white asparagus and avocado, marinated mackeral with olives and onions, chorizo chunks with bread. Second course: the tenderest cochinillo asado you could possibly imagine. Dessert: white chocolate mousse wtih strawberry and kiwi sauces.
- Lunch the next day was at Mesón Campesino. We had gambas al ajillo (shrimp in sizzling garlic oil), spaghetti a la carbonara, chicken with potatoes, and fruit.
- Snack: Magnum bars, which are these wonderful ice cream bars they'll sell you in at any little corner store in Spain and Italy (and other places too, maybe, but those are the places I've had them).
- We drove up to San Sebastián (aka Donostia), in the Basque Country. It's a gorgeous city, maybe my favorite in the whole world. It's centered around the beautiful La Concha bay, and the old quarter of town has the highest bars per square meter in the world. That's where I lived when I studied there in college at the University of the Basque Country. Lucky for me, the classes were really easy and I didn't have to study very much.
- The Basque Country is considered the food capital of Spain, and holy crap did we eat well. Our first night, we celebrated Elton's birthday at Berasategui, which is one of the top restaurants in Europe. Describing the menu would take up more space than I have here, but I'll put an additional page on just for that some time soon.
- Some other food highlights from San Sebastián: going out for drinks and pintxos (Basque tapas), a huge and bloody-rare beef chop in a cider house, strawberries with fresh cream, fresh fruit from the local market. We also went out for Chinese food once, which was pretty good.
- One weird thing about San Sebastián (and other places in Spain, but it was most noticeable here): a disturbing trend among the young and hip crowd is the lady mullet. It wasn't just hicks, either--these seemed like really fashion-forward people. I dearly hope this is a trend that doesn't make it across the Atlantic.
- After several days in San Sebastián, we drove down a little ways south to La Rioja, which is Spain's best wine region. Here is where Discount 25 really paid off. We stayed in a 17th century monastery-turned-4-star hotel (see photo at upper left) for only 50 euros a night. It was really an amazing deal. It was the Monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, located in the village of the same name.
- The natural scenery was just stunning in La Rioja. The mountains were beautiful, and there were flowers everywhere. I took lots of pictures.
- We took a tour of the López de Heredia Viña Tondonia winery in the town of Haro. That was very interesting, and we got to taste some good wines. We brought a couple of bottles back. On the way back to San Millán de la Cogolla, we stopped in the small town of Santo Domingo de la Calzada. We had lunch there, and we visited the cathedral. The cathedral there is famous because they have a shrine where there are always two live chickens. They get changed once a month. They come from a local legend in which a cooked chicken dinner came to life and started hopping around the table. It was weird because the rooster kept squawking, which echoed a lot in the otherwise normal cathedral.
- Food highlights in La Rioja: patatas a la riojana (potatoes in a tomatoey chorizo sauce), seafood soup, trucha a la riojana (roasted trout), braised lamb, pears poached in red wine, coffee-flavored flan.
- Then we went to Cuenca, a town in central Spain. It's best known for having a big gorge and a good contemporary art museum. We saw both. They were very nice.
- We only spent one night in Cuenca, so we didn't eat a whole lot here (we had lunch in a town on the road--notable dessert: manchego cheesecake). We did, however, have Magnum bars, as well as beer and tapas in a bar.
- Our final stop was Madrid. For some reason, I didn't take a lot of pictures there (probably because we spent most of our time in the Prado and Reina Sofía museums, which don't allow photography). I took a few pics at the Royal Palace, though, mostly of chandeliers. I love chandeliers.
- One of the highlights was a meal we had at a really friendly little restaurant with an open grill. First course: an amazing grilled vegetable platter--I had no idea a grilled mushroom could be so good; gazpacho. Second courses: grilled pork ribs with pisto manchego (roast vegetable sauce), salmon al cava (salmon in champagne sauce). We had house wine and a mysterious, unsolicited after-dinner drink as a gift from the restauranteur.
- Then, stupidly, we had to come home. I didn't want to, but I have responsibilities, blah blah blah. Elton got interrogated at the airport again, and once again, I got interrogated as an afterthought. I suspect he's being racially profiled, because nobody seems very interested in searching me until they see I'm with him. Then they feel like they have to search me too, just to be fair. Silly.
- Yawn. I'm still jetlagged. Maybe tomorrow I'll start planning the next trip...