Home comes to Ireland

Friends

Home…what is it that we miss about home…without hesitation our friends. We have certainly made wonderful friends in Ireland; life long friends, we think and hope.  Last week, though, home came to Dublin.  An idea for a visit evolved into a reality… and our dear friends, Erica, Brian, Maddie and Aidan decided to spend their spring break in Ireland. What a wonderful treat! To be around friends who you know well plus the added bonus of staying together gives you opportunity to get to know each other even more, more time to laugh, tell stories, go places, learn things together, share food…

Emmie was beside herself, counting the days until Maddie’s arrival.  Her friends would ask at me in the morning at school about Maddie. At first simple questions, “Is Emmie’s friend, Maddie really coming to visit or will we get to meet Maddie?” Other days they probed more, “Will Maddie come to school?  Do you have a picture of Maddie…?” Needless to say, Emmie had been telling her her friends about Maddie and sharing her excitement. Sending Emmie to school on the day of their arrival was her challenge; in fact a bit tortuous from her point of view since they would get to the house hours before the end of her school day.  I’ll never forget the precious sight of their reunion when Maddie, Erica, Aidan and I went to meet Emmie at the end of the day.  Very sweet. Perhaps even more adorable and lovely was their reunion on the following Friday when the Kings returned to Dublin from traveling in other parts of Ireland. Deep sigh, ahm friendship…

Each one of us can recall special moments during the King’s visit which gives me pause to remind myself how truly special they are and how lucky we are to have them as friends.

We did not plan much that first day, so they could settle in after much traveling and get accustomed to the new time zone;  it was grand to simply catch up with each other. Once home from school, several of the neighborhood kids played out on the lawn; Maddie and Aidan joined in the fun of running around with Carl, Henry and little David and of course Emma and Emmie.

The following day while the girls were at school and Scott worked, the King clan and I ventured to City Center.  We walked around Trinity College, Grafton Street and Stephen’s Green. Once it was the end of the school day and time to meet Emmie and Grace, they continued to look around the City Centre, Brian taught a class at Trinity and we planned to rendez-vous later for dinner.

Brian, Aidan and Maddie near the Trinity Arch.

Strolling around St. Stephen’s Green

Look who I got to sit next to over lunch!

Before heading to our favorite gastropub L. Mulligan’s, however,  we connected at Grogan’s pub across from Dublin Castle.  Quite amusing to watch Brian get a few tips from the barman about pouring a proper Guinness! Indeed, good craic!

Guinness proud

We spent several hours gabbing, laughing, & eating at Mulligan’s; we had two tables right next to each other, so the kids and adults could enjoy time with their contemporaries.

Discussing the finer points of the menu – beer and whiskey…

The next day each family rented a car, and we took a drive to Glendalough, county Wicklow!  I had heard wonderful recommendations from several local friends and people- Emmie’s school secretary mentioned on a good day it is breathtaking…. and with a little, shall we say, Irish luck we had a gorgeous day. We drove the scenic route there, many twisting and curving roads with amazing vistas. There were many cyclists along the road, working hard with the steep  climbs; we stopped once to get an extra glimpse back at the valley.

En route to Glendalough- cyclists riding hard

What a view!

Stopping for a gander

Glendalough was buzzing with visitors; locals and tourists alike! A glorious day, really!  We strolled around the trails seeing both lakes and other parts of this early medieval monastic settlement founded by St. Kevin.  We read in our brochure that young (St.)  Kevin traveled to Glendalough and lived in the “hollow of a tree” and returned at some later time to find a monastery where he became well known as a holy man bringing much attention to the area.   It was wonderful to watch all four of the kids enjoy the time outside, rambling around, climbing trees, getting a lesson from Brian on skipping stones, as well as observing the frog spawn along one area of the boardwalk. Emmie’s class is reporting signs of spring across Europe, so the frog spawn sighting was very exciting!

Brian and Erica enjoying the sunny weather!

All 4 in a tree

Celtic Gravestone at Glendalough

The round tower

Looking for sheep

Smiling girls

Frog spawn- Do you see the frog?

Though we brought snacks with us, after all our walking, we were hungry and ready for a proper meal. My friend Anne-Marie recommended a lovely spot that her sister had recently brought their mom. We were glad to have called for a reservation. Wicklow Heather was lovely. After a long day, hanging out at the house watching some Gaelic Football and simply relaxing was grand and much needed.

On Sunday we ventured just shy of a half hour to Malahide Castle.  We were fortunate with  another nice day weather wise. Following our tour of the castle which, was in the Talbot family for 800 years, we were greeted by blue skies and sunshine perfect for roaming the lovely gardens.  Flowers and plants are just starting to bloom- in another month or two it’ll truly be a sight.

Maladhide Castle

One of the oldest trees in Dublin

Beauty !

Sometime in the afternoon we went our separate ways. Erica, Brian and the kids headed west to explore more of the country and we headed home as Grace had homework and Scott needed to prepare for his trip to Stockholm.

It was certainly a treat to have the Kings return to Dublin the following Friday and hear about their days of adventure seeing the Cliffs or Moor, The Ring of Kerry, Bunratty Castle and more. We are excited to visit many of these places ourselves. Saying good bye and see them depart the next morning was sad.  Many memories to treasure; we are ever grateful for their visit and all our friends in Ireland and back home.

Midterm Break -España: Back to Barcelona and home…

Back to Barcelona

Departing Toledo for our journey back to Barcelona signaled our trip was coming to a end.  We were to fly back to Dublin the next morning.  The Parador served a delicious breakfast, and it was here we realized how many others were also staying at the inn. As Scott brought some of the bags to the car, the girls and I did our final sweep in the room and dropped the keys at the front desk. Unintentionally we almost left without signing for our bill; believing we were all set since they had our credit card number on file. While we snapped some photos in the plaza,  the girls; well mainly Emmie took to galloping and jumping over these short cement pillars.  As is often the case with these type of choices and sibling interactions, somehow… there was a tumble and Emmie’s chin hit the pavers. Our poor girl; in pain, bleeding yet so brave. Just as she got rid of the last abrasion on her chi from the pool from the summer.  We went back in the parador to wash off her cut; I had band aids (called plastics in Ireland) but no Neosporin type cream.  Note to self: bring an adequate  stock of medical supplies!  Thus, a new opportunity later in the evening to challenge Scott’s language skills at the 24 hour pharmacy.

the pillar

Not only did we hear the bull moo from our GPS, we also saw several of these bull billboards along the motorway.

For our one night in Barcelona during this leg of the trip, we stayed in a hotel recommended by Scott’s friend and colleague, Jessica.  Thanks, Jessica!  Our hotel was in a similar area to where our apartment was during our last visit, but still discovered new streets to explore.  The hotel’s front desk concierge recommended a few spots close by for dinner and when we asked about the El Born neighborhood, he emphasized avoiding places that were well lit and had large menus outside in English, stick to the dark unmarked places.  Excellent tip; poking around we found one to our liking!

Prior to dinner, however, we found ourselves at a parade… a Carnival parade to be exact. Who knew… ?  Han’t the season of Lent already begun? Scott and then Emmie and Grace heard the excitement on the street as I spoke to the concierge, and after investigating saw a parade in the distance. Not knowing what the goings on outside were all about and concentrating on my conversation about restaurants, I was not intending to be the hold-up. Once outside; though, we got lucky and found the parade in front of the Barcelona cathedral.  Quite festive and fun!  Different than our last Carnival parade… this one included lots of fireworks; fireworks with large wand-like sparklers and ones shooting out of the mouths of horses and dragons being led by parade participants.  The parade volunteers and experienced crowd wore hats as it seemed to avoid the flying sparks. It was chilly, so we too were fortunate to have hats. It was not only was it exciting to watch the parade but also the crowd; people danced, sang and clapped to the beat of the drums. Another serendipitous opportunity.

The Carnival Parade in Barcelona

The fire (work) breathing dragon

Watching the Carnival parade

The parade from afar

On a side note, as we were walking to dinner, we passed a tapas bar where two people caught my eye.  I do have a keen memory for faces, I must admit.  I’ll notice someone in the line at the post office or grocery store and can identify them when I see them somewhere else. In this instance it was a young couple from our walking tour in Madrid and here they were in Barcelona. I sort of wanted to go in and say hello, not that we even spoke too much on the tour, but my family (daughters) thought I’d embarrass myself or them.

We enjoyed our last dinner in Barcelona….more small plates of excellent food. Gosh we will miss this incredible food and culture!

The next day we briefly looked around the Barcelona Cathedral where the parade ended. We also had  enough time before heading to the airport to walk along the beach. Beautiful! One might miss the fact that Barcelona is a port city if you don’t venture out to the ocean.  We bought breakfast food and a couple of sandwiches to bring with us. And then it was time to go home…

Gracias, España, disfrutamos de nuestro viaje y la estancia en su hermoso país! (Spanish speakers, I used Google translate on this one, so you’ll have to let me know if this is said correctly.) Thank you, Spain we enjoyed our visit to your beautiful country!)

Barcelona Cathedral during the day

The beach – volleyball net ready to go.

Early morning stroll

Midterm Break -España: Toledo

Toledo

Started the day in Madrid with a morning walk down to the Mercado for breakfast. After four or five stops, we finally got Grace some sunglasses on the walk back to the apartment. Then, Holy Toledo! Amazing. An hour drive south and we entered a whole other world.

Coming in to town

Toledo!

We first went to our parador. The parador system is made up of buildings all across Spain, many that were former historical buildings, that have been converted by the government into hotels. Thanks Jean for the tip that led us to the paradors. The parador in Toledo was a monastery and is long and low on a hillside facing the city, but on the other side of the river. This gave us a spectacular view of the town in all its glory. We got settled into our rooms and headed back across the river to explore.

Toledo Parador

The view from our room’s balcony!

On the back deck of the parador- what a view!

The cathedral in Toledo was legitimately breath taking, and is part of the origin of the phrase “Holy Toledo.”  It was the former capital of Spain, and in many respects remains the cultural and religious center of the country. The cathedral is spectacular in its intricacy and diversity of ornamentation and is large enough to allow the whole population of Toledo to attend mass. The audio tour was great and free with the ticket. Each section of the church seemed to be a world onto itself, with different styles and forms of decoration. My personal favorite was the, Coro, choir area; with two tiers of stalls beautifully carved dark wood. Two levels of seating, the lower tier of which has “mercy seats”, a small extension to the front edge of the seat bottom that when folded up allowed choir memebers to stand also allowed them the mercy of a partial seat. This was one of the most, if not the most spectacular churches we have seen anywhere in the world.

The Cathedral
(Thanks http://www.sacred-destinations.com)

Central west portal

Portal of the clock entrance

First glimpses inside

Entrance to the Sacristy-& New Museums where the Moorish influence is obvious.

One of the many garments from the 16 & 17 century on display near the Sacristy.  Remarkable detail.

El Transparente, an intricate alter of marble & bronze. The name has to do with the skylights above, allowing light in for the angels and more…

Sometimes it’s difficult to know if it’s a particular place that evokes emotions or if these already present feelings are just intensified by the place. I found myself very emotional as I wandered through the cathedral and listening to the audio-tour. Having to pause actually at various points and collect myself, wipe my tears, take a breath. The girls would glance over and say are you ok, Mom? And Scott squeezed my hand knowing.  I carried thoughts of friends and family who face challenges that seem… nothing less than unfair. Perhaps in this beautiful place of worship, which took 200 years or so to build-touched by generations of artists, craftsman, workers, prayers would be more likely to be heard. Silly, I know: we are told you can pray anywhere when we are very young, your prayers are heard anywhere, anytime.  Yet, I still found myself wondering…

Only a portion of the Capilla Mayor, which summarizes the New Testament.

Choir area

Up close at one of the medieval choir stalls

The gilded monstrance (where the consecrated Host is kept) It is still carried through the streets of Toledo during the feast of Corpus Christi.

The city itself is a medieval complexity of winding streets. Almost every second shop is a steel/knife shop as Toledo is known for its steel. We also noticed several Damascene shops. Dating back to the Middle Ages, it is the art of decorating non-precious metals with gold, especially jewelry. Toledo is the center for this art brought to Spain by the Arabs. There is also a tremendous number of sweetshops with a particular focus on marzipan treats, and even convent cookies like those we found in Madrid. The day was mild with some sun, so we walked around a bit, with a sort of meandering goal (only kind on these streets) of making it to the el Greco museum.

Exploring Old Town

Knife and sword shops

Damascene artist at work

Window of a pastry shop where we stopped for a snack; everything is made by the nuns. Yes, those are dolls.

Dulces shop

Venta De Dolces- Here we purchased some almond cookies for later consumption..

I have a whole new respect for el Greco (literally means “the Greek”) after the trip. Really an innovator, a genius and a little bit mad. We saw his famous “The Disrobing of Christ” in the cathedral, but at the museum we got to see more of his work and have it put in context. The museum is a wonderful change, in that is a recreation of el Greco’s home in Toledo. The paintings are hung on walls, but the place is very much open to the outdoors, like a real Spanish home. It seemed strange not to be in a place that was atmospherically controlled when viewing masterpieces from the Renaissance, though I guess cathedrals are much the same way. The main masterpiece to see here is “St. Bernardino of Siena”, a portrait that exemplifies all of el Greco’s innovations, from elongated figures to almost impressionist like use of paint, including leaving primer to show through the paint for a natural effect. Honestly, I was more taken by “Portrait of the Marquis of Vega-Inclán”, which was just lovely in it simplicity and modernity.

Museo Del Greco

At the Museo Del Greco

Portrait of the Marquis de la Vega-Inclán

St. Bernardino of Siena

El Greco was the first painter to show St. Peter on his own as the subject acknowledging his guilt with tears present.

Street signs on the ground leading to the synagogueJumping…practice

After culture, there is always food. We headed to a tapas bar (surprise), that had been suggested by our guide, Rick Steve’s. We arrived during the interstices (6:30 pm), so most of the tables were closed and there were just two barmen. The proper food was not going to be served until 8, when civilized Spanish folks are ready for dinner. So, we had a glass of wine (or fanta for the girls) and the gratis tapa that comes with wine when in the Madrid area, usually bread with jamon or bread with hummus. It kept us alive, and eventually the kitchen opened, and we could find a table upstairs and order some hot tapas. The food was excellent, and we discovered a new favorite – Bomba, a ball of meat breaded and deep fried with two sauces. There was also a wonderful Catalan chickpea stew with paprika. And we remained stunned by the total check which was only 20€, seems unfair to give us this much good food and wine for such good value.

Dinner in Toledo- Happy!!

The last treat of the day was a small shop just half a block from our restaurant, Jacinta & Maria Chocolates. We (really Christine, as usual) made friends with the owner, Frank (called Paco) in the sweets shop where we got candy for the girls, chocolate and wine for the adults. As a special treat Paco asked for the girls’ names and hand wrote a calligraphy bookmark for Christine with  both names on it. Just the sort of lovely little touch and story that makes travel such a wonderful experience.

Chocolate, dried fruit and nut shop in Toledo… such a fantastic find!

Sweet shop in Toledo… Hmm, what to chose?

Ah, well, there was one treat left for us. When we got back to the parador and walked out to our balcony to have a last look at the city and a nightcap, the cathedral and the old palace were both lit up, along with much of the city. Just a final spectacular ending to another amazing day in Spain.

The view from our room’s balcony!

Midterm Break -España: Madrid

Madrid

Yes, the drive from San Sebastián to Madrid was long 5+ hours, yet, it gave us the chance to see more of Spain’s changing topography, more windmills, sound familiar; and read sections of our guide book. – Attempting a quick study of Madrid and Barcelona’s culture and history as well as its painful period under Franco’s rule.

Beautiful drive

Windmills in the distance

We decreased the amount of times, we’d call out to Grace and Emmie in the backseat to look up and “take a look” or “you should really look out the window” to only the truly spectacular scenery. The girls read and watched an Irish movie, Sharon had loaned us, The War or the Buttons and loved it.

Driving in Madrid with its narrow streets speckled with short metal posts to discourage drivers from parking on the sidewalk, made it certainly a challenge. We couldn’t easily pullover. I missed our airbnb host, Laura’s email attachments with the local map, but after locating the apartment what we really needed to find was parking. We had few photos of street maps for and near Laura’s apartment and after speaking with her on the phone, she gave us a few suggestions; however again the challenge was to navigate through the neighborhood maze. I remember, Kate mentioning the challenge of driving and need for comic relief on their family trip to Spain.

Laura was friendly and accommodating; the apartment decorated with cool and interesting art and furniture, some of her own in fact giving it and comfortable and stylish appearance.

One view of our apartment in Madrid

The door leading to the balcony

Look what Grace found a small window connecting her bedroom to the hallway.

Learning The Museo Reina Sofia had free entry on our first evening, we dashed there to spend time before dinner.  Naturally, we were looking forward to viewing Picasso’s Guernica we’ve heard and read about… And of course we had just been to the Picasso Museum in Barcelona.  The curator arranged the collections to include film from the same decade with the paintings- helping the viewers to understand the social circumstances of the time period. Exploring the collection from 1900- 1945, we browsed Spanish artists and such as Dali, Alberti Gris, Miro, and others. As we approached one of the other galleries, the larger group of people congregating indicated we had arrived at Picasso’s Guernica.  We lingered and stared.  Quite powerful…and moving especially after learning the motivation and reason for paining this masterpiece and the fact that Picasso would not see it return to Spain.

~ Palacio Real de Madrid 

A beautiful clear and sunny day to stroll around the Palacio Real de Madrid plaza and wander its grandiose rooms, armory and Royal Pharmacy. The Spanish Palace is impressive and lavish! Listening to the audio-tour, and walking from room to room, I noticed how Spanish Kings would add to the palace’s collections of art and riches but also wondered if they were simply trying to outdo each other…Perhaps a bit of both. It turns out, however, a few of the monarchs genuinely adored their fathers and grandfathers; one converted his grandfathers’s bedroom into a shrine dedicated to him.  We noted influence and fascination with the Orient, several palaces not only this one included elements or rooms dedicated to the Orient. Rooms hung tapestries in the winter and paintings in the warmer months.  Makes sense- with attempting to keep these large rooms warmer. Hanging throughout the palace are paintings by Velázquez, Goya, Rubens, El Greco and Caravaggio.

Palacio Real de Madrid

In front of Palacio Real de Madrid

Why not a second photo of us…

Prado – Another fantastic museum. viewing many of the great masterpieces. We try to balance the right amount of time, what ever that means, because one can easily spend hours, days in museums.

A Mad Hatter at the Prado- Couldn’t convince Grace or even Emmie to have some tea with him.

Highlights included:

-Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights,

-Francisco de Goya y Lucientes,  The Third of May 1808 in Madrid: the executions on Principe Pio hill,  Saturn devouring one of his sons &  Dog half-submerged

-Peter Paul Rubens, The Three Graces

-and the most famous of Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez’s works, Las Meninas, or The Family of Felipe IV

Dog half-submerged by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes

Bought an abstract print of a bull by a local artist selling her work outside the museum. Yea!

Plaza Puerta del Sol– The heart of the historic center. Here we noticed various street performers and adored the recommended bakery/coffee shop La Mallorquina (a Madrid institution, opened in1894). Went twice actually-it’s very reasonably priced and fantastic. Lucky to find a spot at the counter with the daily commuters. This place is bustling with locals and tourists, and it is obvious the staff are not new; they know what they are doing. Standing at the same area of the counter for both visits, we had the same waiter. He must be used to tourists snapping photos because when he saw me raise my phone, he graciously looked over and smiled- One might even call it a pose.  We tried the rosquillas, kind of like a doughnut tontas (plain) & listas (with icing) and one other; its name escaping me and delicious coffee and steaming chocolate; the second visit we sampled other scrumptious treats, one being similar to coated french toasts. A fond memory!

Some of the best street performers in Plaza de Sol.

Our friendly waiter at La Mallorquina.

Mercado de San Miguel – An old market that has been recently renovated. Similar to other markets like this, as you can buy fresh produce, cheese ad other provisions, but different than the one we visited in Barcelona as it has more of an emphasis on food and tapas bars. Of course playing to all our interests and satisfying the exploratory need, we tried a few different things; fruit skewers, smoothie, oysters, spanish omelet, wine..

Mercado de San Miguel

Oysters at the Market

Our oyster sampler plate at the market

The oldest door in Madrid

The oldest door in Madrid- the Moor influence is seen in the archway.

Convento del Corpus Christi – This was a fun experience; we read about in our guide-book and had to try…   We buzzed at the wooden door that says Venta de Dulces (Sweets for Sale)  and entered with another Spanish woman, and although anticipated going through the steps of ordering cookies from this sisters in this cloistered convent on our own, we did have some help. A cleaning woman must have heard us and despite the signs directing, she led us to room with the special Lazy Susan where we attempted to understand the dulces of the day, there was a menu too.  Between the  assistance of the woman working there, the Spanish woman also visiting for the first time and the sisters of Convento del Corpus Christi, we purchased some tasty tea cookies with candied fruit in the center by putting our money on the Lazy Susan. They were not serving the almond cookies we had practiced ordering and recommended in the guide book; this experience also felt special since Emmie attends Corpus Christi school in Dublin.

Corpus Christi convent where the Hieronimus nuns make cookies.

Walking tour-  Informative. Met in Plaza de Mayor and walked by some places we had already been, and new ones as well; it is nice to hear about a place from a local’s perspective.

Plaza de Major

On our walking tour

The painted tiled street signs- Historically the literacy rates were low, so pictures were necessary to help people navigate. They are beautiful and tell the story of the street’s name.

Painted street signs

Emmie was thrilled to use some of her birthday money to purchase a Real Madrid shirt #7 with Ronaldo’s number!

Success with shopping- Emmie with her Real Madrid shirt!

Up the next morning a little wandering around and a quick breakfast at the Mercado de San Miguel before heading to Toledo.

last visit to Mercado de San Miguel

Midterm Break-The Journey Continues: San Sebastián

San Sebastián

At times it seemed as though we were headed for a mountain holiday destination rather than what we thought was the coast and beach. Yes, admittedly we knew it certainly would not be summer weather, but we were hoping for a little warmth. According to the forecast, however, we would be facing clouds and potential rain for this portion of our Spanish holiday.  Several Spaniards during our trip remarked, “Ah, San Sebastián, always has rain.” Some even called it the Dublin of Spain. How’d we miss that in our planning?

The drive from Montserrat to San Sebastián was marked with various sized hilly and mountainous plateaus, miles of windmills, followed by higher climbs, snowy peaks and tunnels through the mountains.  Scott and I were both reminded of Colorado. Faced with rain, snow, heavy rain, sleet, and ice, watching the signs and trusted directions of Jane, our GPS navigator, we wondered when the topography would change and we’d glimpse the coast or water.  Again questioning if we were going the right way…remembering, it was dark, so we may not see the coast easily.

Drive from Montserrat to San Sebastián

Windmills along the motorway

(Side note: We were also struck withe the rest stops along the motorways) Yes, at some you can purchase your coffee or drink to go, para llevar, but it seemed more customary to stay and enjoy your beverage of choice at the counter or a table.  One rest stop even had white table clothes. Quite nice, really, less garbage and encourages people that it is about the journey and not simply the destination.

Reststop en route to San Sabastian.

Stopping for petrol en route to San Sebastián.

Once you climb up, you have to come down the other side was the case as we drove down twisting switchbacks and curvy roads to land in the valley leading to San Sebastián.  We met our Airbnb host in front of the apartment and since there was no parking, he jumped into the back seat with the girls. With his very little English and our very little Spanish between the three of us, he successfully led us to a parking garage.  Raphael was very kind, helped us transport our belongings to the apartment in the rain. Olga’s Beach House, as it was titled on Airbnb, was quite a modern place. The beach theme kept us imagining how beautiful San Sebastián would be in the later spring and summer.

The Basque region is known as a mecca of cuisine, having one of the highest concentrations of Michelin star restaurants per captia in the world. We asked Raphael for his local recommendations and he suggested two of the his favorite pintxos bars in the old town.

So, after unpacking and freshening up a bit, we then made our way to Old Town.  Scott located the first pintxos bar on the map prior to leaving and with ease we strolled there. He really is such a quick study at maps.  Walking into Zeruka, we were instantly struck by the counter full of creative and unusual food displayed on slate or various size plates.  It is customary with tapas or pintxos to order one or two with a drink and move on to another bar. Perhaps, due to our hunger from driving all day and little food, or perhaps our excitement and interest to expand our culinary experiences, we ordered nine or ten.  Darn, how American of us. Most all of the tapas were simply fun to look at; what an innovative chef. The waitress, kindly explained any of the dishes we were curious about. I like to know people’s names and I really wish I remembered her name, I even asked twice.  We each chose about 2-3 pintxos and naturally shared. Most of the dishes you choose, they take away to warm and create more of a presentation. This was something we had not seen as often in Barcelona.

The counter at Zeruka filled with creative and delicious pinxtos!

One delectable choice was their signature dish, the lobster shooter, bovante. How to describe it? A two bite size piece lobster (they say you should eat it as one) with all sorts of yumminess resting on a herbed fried cracker that is on top of a shot glass filled with rose water and dry ice. The rose water was just for the smell it added to the dish. Just yummy richness. Another memorable dish was their signature dessert, the Bob Limon. It was like a rich creamy yogurt with a sort of gelatin balloon filled with apricot juice. It comes looking like a fried egg with the balloon resting in the yogurt. There was also a sort of sponge cake with it. The big surprise was the Sichuan button. We will never forget the taste and sensation in our mouths, like sour pop rocks that make your whole mouth tingle for 20 minutes. We were quite pleased with Grace and Emmie’s willingness to sampling different kinds of food.  We enjoyed our experience at Zeruko so much that we returned the following night for just a few pinxtos after a few pinxtos at other places (much more Spanish of us).

Zeruka’s lobster shooter

~The second day we started with a relaxing coffee, steaming chocolate, fresh squeezed orange juice which seems to be popular all over Spain, and scrumptious pastries at Argitan. We had a ball gawking at every homemade sweet in the cases.  Numerous temptations for Valentine’s Day. The owner was kind, friendly noticeably appreciate of our interest and enthusiastic comments. Finding a table easily upstairs was definitely a positive point to being in San Sebastián in the off-season.  Though the rain was mostly intermittent and at times steady, we still watched a handful of surfers bobbing in the water waiting for action. It was evident that a population of the locals care about the world’s oceans as noted by signs around the town and stores like TWOTHIRDS. Poking around town, browsing in shops and taking in the town’s architecture, buying a replacement umbrella, and flat cap for Scott. Before heading home to siesta, we sampled a tapas at another recommended spot.

Breakfast and other treats found at Argitan.

Windows full of Valentine’s Day treats!

The TWOTHIRDS Store in San Sebastián, which has an ecological mission around the world’s oceans!

Can you spot the surfer?

Though a similar routine with food, we were more than happy to try a couple of other pinxtos bars.We really enjoyed Borda Berri and even more La Cuchara de San Telmo. Again realizing how lucky we were to find space at the counter in the off season. It also allowed us the opportunity to talk with the barman, Freddy, a really nice guy. Fascinating to hear about the difference in Spanish from his perspective bering raised in South America.  Here and at other places we sampled and enjoyed different wines.The beef cheeks were incredible- melt in your mouth, sensational and the chocolate ganache dessert- fantastic! A relaxed atmosphere, a soccer match was on, not Barcelona but Real Madrid, the Spaniards clearly love their football.

The next day, the rain held off, and we took advantage of our last morning walking on the beach before departing for Madrid. Many dog walkers were also taking a stroll, and even with the cool temperatures, we noticed several swimmers- clearly a habit or lifestyle. We remarked about how Phoebe would love to run on the beach and play in the water. Indeed, we are grateful of Shannon and Phil’s care for her this whole year.

Breakfast to go…so we can stroll along beach. Another fabulous chocolate and pastry shop.

Yes, another photo of walking… I just love these shots!

A walk on the beach