Wednesday, March 24, 2010
It's not what you think
My latest work for the Cheese Society is totally making me want to adopt some kids. How freakin' cute are they?!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
fotográfia
Yesterday I figured out a much more practical and cooler way to blog my photos, though youtube and picasa took forEVer to upload this right. I wish I could have edited the photo changes to the music changes, but it was a very simple slideshow template. I need to do another one of these of my Russia photos sometime (Luba, music suggestions?)
Click on the 4 arrows on the bottom right to see the video in full screen and clicking on 1080p makes it crisp: here's a 4 minute vacation to Spain.
Click on the 4 arrows on the bottom right to see the video in full screen and clicking on 1080p makes it crisp: here's a 4 minute vacation to Spain.
Saturday, March 06, 2010
finalmente
I don't think I'll have time to upload photos this morning because this computer has a lot of issues, but here's an update...
We loved the town of Arcos deep in the "Frontera" of Andalucia which is both the rural part of Spain and the most touristed in the summer because the towns are so tiny, charming, and gorgeous, and in another month the casas will all have flowers flowing off their black iron terraces. Early March is still Winter here and too soon for tourists so in many ways we had the place to ourselves.
Driving on the hilly roads of Arcos was to put it modestly, challenging, and to put it realistically, like being on a rollercoaster that had gone off the tracks. Chris and I both could feel our sore knuckles the rest of the evening - me from clenching the steering wheel and him from the bottom of his seat, I guess.
To give you an idea, the cobblestone roads of the town had AT BEST six inches of space on either side of my car (and I have one of the smallest cars you can rent!!) with a lot of little archways where you can't see who's on the other side, plus there's always oncoming mopeds and other cars that seem to not use any kind of signal or system to decide who's turn it is to go... you just hold your breath and pray and curse all at once. There's also pedestrians everywhere. It was hard.
Also the rules of a normal road don't apply, people park on sidewalks and squeeze by each other on what clearly is one, long, one-way street until another car comes in the opposite direction. I really wanted to see Arcos because there's no reliable way to get there on train or bus but geesh, maybe a taxi would have been sufficient.
Thank heaven we managed to land a parking space on the plaza outside our hotel at the very top of the town, and left the car for 2 days while we walked around in a little rain and ducked into pubs for wine and tapas. One tapas bar we found with only 6 tables and 2 other guests on my birthday was SO nice to us when we ordered tons of food and dipping sauces (we were starving by the time anything opened for dinner at 9:30 p.m.) that they brought us two rounds of caramel vodka from the freezer "a la casa" after dinner. I am not a vodka person but it was a really good desert! Plus when you're hotel is three blocks away on foot, it's all good.
The drive through the rest of the frontera towns was one of the prettiest places on Earth, reminded me of the drive to Big Sur, and I will post some pictures when I can. We saw lots of furry mountain goats and sheep with long un-bobbed tails on the side of the road, as well as pretty beige bulls with long horns grazing gracefully. There were few cars, so going around 30 mph tight hairpin bends wasn't so bad, and we listened to Van Morrison, Newton Faulkner, Ray LaMontagne and David Gray and chilled.
Finally our last night here was in Malaga, a big vacationer's city that looks a lot like Miami, only newer and still being developed. There's condos and villas on steep mountains overlooking the ocean and our parador here is beautiful, though less quaint than everywhere else we've been. It also was up a steep, not well marked hill -- I'm starting to realize the reason that our hotels are always up a long, winding, steep driveway, is because they ARE real castles and had to be up above so they could be fortified from attackers. The drive here was also rough at times but because it's a big city on a major highway in rush hour and the hotel had lousy directions on their web site, but we managed. We're here for the airport, so we can catch a cheap flight back to Barcelona tonight and fly back to the States tomorrow.
Hasta Luego.
We loved the town of Arcos deep in the "Frontera" of Andalucia which is both the rural part of Spain and the most touristed in the summer because the towns are so tiny, charming, and gorgeous, and in another month the casas will all have flowers flowing off their black iron terraces. Early March is still Winter here and too soon for tourists so in many ways we had the place to ourselves.
Driving on the hilly roads of Arcos was to put it modestly, challenging, and to put it realistically, like being on a rollercoaster that had gone off the tracks. Chris and I both could feel our sore knuckles the rest of the evening - me from clenching the steering wheel and him from the bottom of his seat, I guess.
To give you an idea, the cobblestone roads of the town had AT BEST six inches of space on either side of my car (and I have one of the smallest cars you can rent!!) with a lot of little archways where you can't see who's on the other side, plus there's always oncoming mopeds and other cars that seem to not use any kind of signal or system to decide who's turn it is to go... you just hold your breath and pray and curse all at once. There's also pedestrians everywhere. It was hard.
Also the rules of a normal road don't apply, people park on sidewalks and squeeze by each other on what clearly is one, long, one-way street until another car comes in the opposite direction. I really wanted to see Arcos because there's no reliable way to get there on train or bus but geesh, maybe a taxi would have been sufficient.
Thank heaven we managed to land a parking space on the plaza outside our hotel at the very top of the town, and left the car for 2 days while we walked around in a little rain and ducked into pubs for wine and tapas. One tapas bar we found with only 6 tables and 2 other guests on my birthday was SO nice to us when we ordered tons of food and dipping sauces (we were starving by the time anything opened for dinner at 9:30 p.m.) that they brought us two rounds of caramel vodka from the freezer "a la casa" after dinner. I am not a vodka person but it was a really good desert! Plus when you're hotel is three blocks away on foot, it's all good.
The drive through the rest of the frontera towns was one of the prettiest places on Earth, reminded me of the drive to Big Sur, and I will post some pictures when I can. We saw lots of furry mountain goats and sheep with long un-bobbed tails on the side of the road, as well as pretty beige bulls with long horns grazing gracefully. There were few cars, so going around 30 mph tight hairpin bends wasn't so bad, and we listened to Van Morrison, Newton Faulkner, Ray LaMontagne and David Gray and chilled.
Finally our last night here was in Malaga, a big vacationer's city that looks a lot like Miami, only newer and still being developed. There's condos and villas on steep mountains overlooking the ocean and our parador here is beautiful, though less quaint than everywhere else we've been. It also was up a steep, not well marked hill -- I'm starting to realize the reason that our hotels are always up a long, winding, steep driveway, is because they ARE real castles and had to be up above so they could be fortified from attackers. The drive here was also rough at times but because it's a big city on a major highway in rush hour and the hotel had lousy directions on their web site, but we managed. We're here for the airport, so we can catch a cheap flight back to Barcelona tonight and fly back to the States tomorrow.
Hasta Luego.
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
feliz compleanos
Today we got to Arcos de la Frontera, deep in white wine and olive growing country, where it's gone from warm & light jacket weather to sporadically down pouring and blowing us away with high winds, but it's fine for walking around and ducking into shops and cafes as the weather turns. The roads are extremely pequeño and cobbled which feels like a car commercial, only terrifying. I can't imagine how the delivery trucks do it. I managed to just barely squeak up the hill without hitting anything or anyone. 
We just finished two little birthday tarts from a bakery in town. 
Instead of a parador, we're in one of those family pensions that Rick Steves always recommends highly called La Convento with the freshly made breakfast, and funnily enough, our room was named "The Rick Steves Room" since he visits a lot and probably has given them tons of business with his books. Chris can't stop cracking up about it.
We just finished two little birthday tarts from a bakery in town. Instead of a parador, we're in one of those family pensions that Rick Steves always recommends highly called La Convento with the freshly made breakfast, and funnily enough, our room was named "The Rick Steves Room" since he visits a lot and probably has given them tons of business with his books. Chris can't stop cracking up about it.Here´s a video of the balcony from our room... admittedly a little gray and rainy but the scenery is gorgeous and green.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
in Zafra, saw Cuenca, on to Arcos mañana
Etamos bueno! All's well!
Our first day on the road was a little rocky in more ways than one: the car kept sticking in gears (probably my fault) especially when we were stuck at a stop light, on a hill, with another car breathing down my neck a few inches behind me...which it's fair to say made Chris just about ready to jump out the window and hop on the next plane home. But he handled it pretty well and I´m proud of us for getting through that, really. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Our first of the paradores (historic castles that were turned into hotels) took about 7 hours from Barcelona! It was only 5 hours based on the map but there was getting out of Barcelona that took an hour (thank God it was a quiet Sunday morning) plus we had eaten dinner around midnight the night before, so we were beat, plus the roads we took crossed SIERRAS or a 3,000 foot mountain range with little switchbacks.
So it was 7 hours in the put-put-putting car but on very well-maintained highways and the scenery looked like a combination of Tuscan vineyards, Montana or Yosemite (mountainy forests), and Wyoming (dusty one-street towns) along the way. I think in just these two days we´ve driven through 12 Spanish provinces and four major regions (La Mancha, Catalonia, Aragon, Castilla and now Extremadura) so I am so glad we rented a car. Our highest concern is that no one steals it and we generally just pay 4 euros a day for parking in a garage with a policia watching it.
Finally we arrived at the parador around 10 at night and it was was up a steep, steep hill on a cliff overlooking a gorge in Cuenca and we´re talking about a 15th century road, ain´t no guide rails. We parked and checked in, only to find out that you have to cross a little pedestrian bridge OVER the gorge on foot to get to the town and restaurants and Chris is terrified of heights. Oh Lord. So we ate in the castle (bleh) and the next morning I crossed the bridge while Chris took the long way around (down the long hill, back up a long hill). I seriously can´t believe they don´t mention that rickety bridge in any of the books or brochures or photos I had seen of that town.
Yesterday we left Cuenca for Zafra, another few hours drive, which is a tiny little hill town in Andalucia (the culturally rich region of Spain) which turns out to be a little sleepy and gray and rainy even -- we've hardly seen any tourists -- but it was just what we needed. Less sites, more putting our feet up and sleeping in.
Meat is pretty much 80% of the diet in Spain, so we tend to look or ask for well rounded restaurants that the locals like. The restaurant we found for lunch today was the most savory goat cheese salad I´ve ever had in my life and plenty of vino tinto (red wine) which is cheap and local, so very fresh.
The castle we´re at here in Zafra is from 1443 and extremely romantic and gorgeous. The room has enormous dark brown double doored windows that open to the plaza below.
Zafra:
Cuenca:
little village of Albaraccin along the way:
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