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Spain and Portugal 2014 |
Salem, NY to Madrid, 5 into 6 Nov
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Mindy (Wendy K's cousin) and Tony (her husband and yes, they both married Tonies) asked us to join them on a great circle route around Spain and Portugal in November when Tony would turn 60. As they had joined us when I turned 60, we said why not, and started planning. When we started packing, Lilly, the lynx point siamese, knew something was happening and hopped into the suitcase in an attempt to be part of it. Alas, she had to stay home, but we did get a house-sitter so she had company in our absence. This is the exact same sentence that started our trips to France in 2012 and 2014. She is predictable.
We looked at many alternatives and given the arduousness of the connections, we ended up choosing United from Albany to Newark to Brussels to Madrid - three legs in BusinessFirst Class. The first leg had nothing first class about it. The Newark to Brussels leg featured pods with over 100 movies available. Each pod had an amazing bed that could twist you into a pretzel if you weren't careful, but it could also become a lie-flat bed on which we actually managed to sleep. The food was better than the back of the bus and plentiful: a five course dinner and a breakfast squeezed into 7 hours, from a 7PM takeoff to a 2AM (EST) landing. Unfortunately, the sommelier-chosen wines were not much better than the ones I bought when I was paying my way through college. |
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Our final leg was funny and sweet. It wasn't full and they didn't call various groups. So group 1 (First class) joined the scrum to board the plane - not an auspicious start. We got on a small airbus and took our seats in the second row. My aisle seat had a sign that stated that the rest of the plane was the above and beyond class or something like that pointing out that it wasn't first class, but certainly not saying second class. As far as I could tell, the only difference between our first class seats and the rest of the plane was the sign. I found out that I was wrong as soon as I took off my sport coat. Before I could fold it and put it in the overhead compartment, a stewardess arrived and asked if she could hang it in the closet. When the cabin door was locked, it became obvious that we were the only two people in the six seats of first class. The stewardess offered us drinks before take-off and as there wasn't even a curtain separating us from the above and beyonds they all watched enviously. We also got more drinks as soon as she was released from her seat, followed by warm towels, and apologies for the slowness of our cooked breakfast. The cooked breakfast arrived with three small loaves of bread each, some chicken nuggets on a bed of cooked spinach, a cheese and leek brioche, and a dessert. All this was happening at about 3 to 4AM our time after eating a large dinner and a breakfast on the second leg. We arrived in Madrid on time and met our friends just outside our baggage hall. They had arrived two hours earlier via a Delta flight but waited for us (and their last piece of luggage). Eventually a Delta agent brought over the luggage, apologized profusely, got a cart and pushed almost all of our luggage to the Avis counter. Tony had used some points for the two week car rental but I needed to get signed on as another driver (90€ extra). Mindy and Tony's recently graduated son, Colin, came with them. Both he and Tony were already listed as drivers at an extra 90€ for Colin. I forgot my Garmin so we had to rent a Tomtom (another 90€), but that was only 270€ for the Touran VW that would haul the five of us around (plus luggage) for the next two weeks. Colin sorted out the Tomtom and after one complete circle of the Madrid Airport we were heading into center of the city. Our visit in 2012 taught us to bring euros with us and to get more as required from ATMs. Our Scottrade Bank account linked to our Scottrade brokerage account will reimburse us for any ATM fees worldwide and they give good rates on the exchange. I had saved some euros from St Martin last winter and our trip to France earlier year. It turned out that Tony's Merrill Lynch Plus card had a chip, so no problems. We will get the credit card float and points/miles/cash back for every purchase. |
Madrid 6/7 Nov
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We got into town and circled the plaza next to Atocha station, as the Tomtom would not accept a street number. We eventually found number 11, 60 Balconies. We had rented a three bedroom, two bath apartment with a full kitchen, a large living/dining area, and two balconies overlooking the plaza. Our bedroom had an on-suite bath and a window into an air shaft, quite quiet. The other bedrooms used a bath in the hall. One bedroom looked onto the air shaft and the other looked out to the plaza. It's a toss-up, view versus street noise, but I prefer quietude and generally sleep with my eyes closed so the view is unimportant. The unit was modern, clean, a short walk to the Prado and Rien Sofia museums, and a bargain at about 70€ per bedroom. We unloaded the luggage and parked the car at 25€ per day. After settling into the apartment, we went out in search of sustenance. We found some Serrano and Iberico ham, chorizo, some cheese, some bread, and several bottles of wine all within walking distance. We came back to have a great lunch in the apartment followed by naps. |
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On the left is another hotel in this area. Nice neighbors, but I think I prefer our apartment. On the right is Atocha station taken from just outside our hotel. Below left is a filigree top on a building that we wandered past as we were seeking sustenance. Below center is a church on the grounds of the Prado Museum. Below right is a magpie, also on the grounds of the Prado. |
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| On Friday night (7 Nov) we went to La Quimera (The Chimera) for tapas and a flamenco show. Our dinner was good, but not as good as the previous (or the next). We had a bowl of tiny chorizo and a bowl of dates wrapped in bacon (probably the best serving of the evening). There was some cured salmon with a tasty bit of cream cheese-like topping on a bit of bread, also good. A fresh and hot tortilla with cheese and potatoes arrived. It was good, but wasn't as tasty as the one from the night before. There also was a plate of several cheeses with mango jam. It all added up to more than enough food. The dinner and show cost 31€ and included a large glass of red wine. Nonetheless, we added another bottle for the table of five for an additional 20€, bringing the total to about $45 per head for dinner and a show. We took cabs to get here as it would have been quite a walk. A ten minute cab ride cost us a mere 10€. The dancing was certainly entertaining and demanded attention because it overpowered conversation. A good night and not very expensive for what we got. | ||
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Madrid to Barcelona - Friday, 7-10 November
| On Saturday morning we dropped 50€ to get our car out of the cheap parking garage and headed for Barcelona. We had actually moved somewhat to European time in that we were dining at an appropriate hour, and in Spain dinner starts about 9PM. However, we were a bit sleep deprived so despite going to bed at the right time, we woke up late. Consequently we were a bit late leaving Madrid (11AM) and were looking at a six hour drive to Barcelona. After two hours of driving, we had not reached Zaragoza, but it was 1PM. A check of the Michelin Guide showed a one fork/spoon restaurant in Calatayud: Posada Arco de San Miguel. In this town of about 21,000 people we found the restaurant near a small parking lot on a square celebrating the nearby Arch of St Michael which crossed over the street. |
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We entered a rather small area on the first floor and things did not look promising. I asked the bartender if we could have lunch and he sent me to the maitre'd. Things were starting to look better and when he led us upstairs to a private dining room, things looked very good. They looked great when he delivered a four course menu of the day for 16€, about $20! Our obliging waitress took the typical tourist photo (right) as we were well into our lunch. We had started with a bruschetta with a topping of chaca with piquillo. The latter is a pepper. The former leads to lots of off-color and weird non-comestibles, but I did find one mention of crab/surimi. Whatever, it tasted pretty good (below left, behind the wine). We had five choices for a first plate: a soup of white beans, pork, and chicken that Martha liked (below center). I had a crispy phyllo dough pouch containing setas (wild mushrooms) with shrimp and leeks and a drizzle of Modena balsamic, which combines many of my favorite tastes and textures, a truly wonderful plate (below right). We also tried a salad from Aragon with a great bit of ham from Teruel, and a rice dish with setas, shrimp, an egg, and a drizzle of truffle oil. |
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| Martha's main course was a duck confit with a tart/sweet sauce on a bed of bed of potatoes (right). The bed, like most in Europe was rather small, but there were potatoes (right). I had a solomillo (loin) of Iberico pork with hongos (below left). Hongos are farmed mushrooms. You gotta love a culture that thinks the distinction deserves two different words. It was fabulous. We also had a roasted pig's knuckle with caramelized setas (below center) and salt cod in papilotte with a topping of garlic. Everybody had a coffee flan for dessert, a bit of a pick-me-up after such a large lunch with about four hours of driving ahead of us. All in all, it was a very good, and inexpensive lunch for five at 114€, about $140, or $28 each. |
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We got into Barcelona a bit after sunset, not good for finding a hotel in a strange city. The Tomtom helped, but left us parked illegally as we looked for our the Denit Hotel on foot. We found it, found out where there parking garage was, dropped off the luggage, parked the car, and returned on a dark and stormy night. All right, it was a dark and drizzly night. It's only a three star hotel, and not very expensive, but we like it. It's new, bright, clean, and convenient. It has free Wifi, but not enough as at 7:30 on a Monday evening I cannot log in as there are too many users already logged in. |
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That evening we strolled out from our hotel past the Obama store (below left) on Catalonia Plaza. Tony, a Florida lawyer, suggested they were selling influence. In the plaza, all the statues were decorated with yellow scarves (right). This was the Sunday that the Catalonians were voting on separation from Spain and the yellow team wanted separation. Sound a bit like a small island wanting to separate from its group of islands? Next morning, we read that 80% of the two million people who voted wanted separation. As I recall the TOT in SXM was increased shortly after they realized the "benefits" of separation. The devil lies in the details and the details include apportioning the government debt and assets. Good luck.
Around the corner we put our name in at the end of an hour long queue at Ciudad Condal for dinner. It had been recommended by the hotel staff and by a major crowd of people inside and outside the restaurant (below center). |
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We meandered about the area and found Piscolabis restaurant with five seats at the bar. We sat down for a glass of wine and a first round of tapas. The Alcorte wine was pretty good (below left) and the tapas have already been forgotten. Moreover, the bar seating was uncomfortable for dining and we were in the entry on a rather cool evening. Worse yet, the bartender was also the cashier. After handling money, he would proceed to take a rather hands-on approach to mixology and food prep or service. After we finished a few mediocre tapas plates we found that we had wasted about an hour and returned to Ciudad Condal. We were told about 15 minutes so I got a bottle of wine and five glasses at the crowded bar. We soon had a table and tapas, including squid (below center), octopus, and artichokes (below right). With a few more tapas plates and another bottle of wine, we had spent $100. With the extra bottle of wine in the bar and the wine and tapas at Piscolabis we had spent about $170 or about $34 each for a great evening.
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On Sunday (9 Nov) we walked over to the Picasso Museum. On the way, we passed a Gaudi-like cathedral next to the Diocesan Museum of Barcelona. The museum houses
religious art, medieval paintings, and artifacts. The museum is in the former charity house and the photos are of the cathedral. The shot on the right shows the height of the interior and below left is the front. There was a band working on native Catalan music in the courtyard. We continued on to the hard-to-find Picasso Museum. It is essentially nothing but Picassos, but not the ones that made him famous several times over his lifetime. He was a very good painter, classically-trained, and made the painting below center when he was 16. He continued reinventing himself via Surrealism, Cubism, his Rose Period, his Blue Period, etc until he died in 1973. The best of these paintings are elsewhere. There is a fantastic re-interpretation of Diego Velázquez's Las Meninas, which we had just seen in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Most of the studies that Picasso made of the various parts of the painting are shown and a final compilation of them is the centerpiece. |
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| Our visit started in the morning and it turns out that the ticket is good for the entire day. So, at 1PM we took a break for lunch at the near-by Taperia 20, named after its location at 20 Princesa Street. We met a very personable gentlemen who knew his menu and wine list and English, although my Spanish has been working well enough, so far. He recommended a local wine from Montsant to go with our paella (below center). It appears that our photographer concentrated on dining rather than photography, as the paella pan arrived at the table with more rice and toppings. The next row has foie gras with caramelized onions on a crusty, toasted baguette (left), a large assortment of earthy wild mushrooms (many of which were devoured before the photo op (center), and very tasty grilled shrimp on a bed of crisp lettuce. All in all it was a very good lunch in a comfortable setting. Add in the good service and good wine and we had a great meal for 79€, about $100 or $20 each with two bottles of wine. |
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The Boggs family returned to the hotel, while Martha and I soldiered on, returning to the Picasso Museum. Martha is ABD PhD Rutgers in Art History, so she makes a great tour guide. We actually went through every gallery and the temporary exposition, a series of photographs of Picasso by David Douglas Duncan, II. On the way back we saw the police putting screens on their vehicles in anticipation of an exciting evening after the ballots were tallied.
All the walking tired Martha out and she was suffering a bit from a head cold so she took to her bed while I went with the others to the Taberna del Cobre, yet another tapas bar. On the left is some squid topped with local ham and on the right is a very tasty selection of grilled veg. It was a pretty good meal, but we liked Ciudad Condal better. |
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| On Monday (10 Nov) we rambled down the Rambla to the statue of Christopher Columbus at the shore (below left). The man we call Columbus was born Cristoforo Colombo in the Republic of Genoa. Isabella and Ferdinand were the monarchs of two powerful Northern Spanish provinces who married and proceeded to take over most of the Iberian peninsula. He eventually convinced them that he could get to China, Japan, and India by heading west. His estimate of the circumference of the globe was much too low even though a quite accurate estimate had been made by Aristotle and confirmed by Eratosthenes about two mellinia earlier. And while some Scandinavians may have known that there was at least one continent in the way, Columbus can't be faulted for that miscalculation. He did make four voyages to the New World over ten years and spent several years there but never admitted that Jamaica was not Japan, etc. He was summoned to discuss his first voyage with the Catholic monarchs in Barcelona. Over 300 years later the monument was built in Barcelona commemorating that meeting. The statue is on a 200 foot high column, but from the right angle he appears to be standing on a distant hill. He has to compete with other sculptures on the waterfront, including a shrimp. | ||
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A friend had been here for the Barcelona Olympics about fifteen years ago and gave us an address for a cava and tapas bar. We found it and it was much like the tapas bars I remember when I worked in Puertollano on La Mancha in 1975. Start with sawdust on the floor, add used napkins as the day progresses, not exactly up to US standards, but one should concentrate on the food which was great. We started with several tapas plates including a mixed sausage plate (right), artichokes, anchovies, olives and peppers. Everyone but Martha added a sandwich featuring ham with various other ingredients. All for less than 40 euros ($10 each) with two bottles of pink cava. |
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| On our last evening in Barcelona we went to Senyor Parellada, rated as a Bib restaurant by Michelin. Bib restaurants are supposed to serve good food at good prices. The place was a beautiful throwback to an earlier century. The menu was long and interesting. The waiter obviously wanted to be someplace else. Three of the five of us ordered starters and while we were still working on that course, an under-waiter showed up with second courses, some of which could have been ours. We sent him away and shortly thereafter a more senior waiter brought them over again. I think we convinced him that we were still dining on the starters.
Then there was the wine. Our waiter poured a initial round of Cava, never refilled that round and never came to pour the red wine. Luckily he had pulled the cork so the wine could breathe. Moreover, his attitude and demeanor were sour. The food was good, the place was beautiful, we won't be back soon. |
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Barcelona to San Sebastian - 11-12 November
| On the way into San Sebastian we stopped in the little town of Lleida for lunch at El Celler del Roser based on its one knife/fork rating in the Michelin Guide. It was a bit difficult to find and being on a pedestrian-only street, a bit of trouble as it was raining. The entrance and the staff were quite welcoming, however, and soon we were enjoying a local wine, Artesia, a red, called tinto in Spanish, nigre in Catalan. A word about the language: Spanish and Catalan are close, and Basque is similar to Catalan. My four years of high school Spanish worked well enough to allow me to work in Argentina, Spain, and Mexico and vacation in Mexico, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, and Spain. However, while I can decipher much of the Catalan menus, I am not sure of any of the pronunciations. Traveling from northeast Spain to northwest Spain takes one from Catalonia to the Basque country, severely testing my abilities. Things will get worse as we enter Portugal. Having lived in a Portuguese neighborhood in Cambridge (MA), I can authoritatively state that I could not understand a word of it. We tried to get a few vegetables in our diet with the eggplant (center) and the vegetable soup (right), but ... | ||
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| ... couldn't resist a nice bit of pasta (below left). We moved on to a salmon "hamburger" (center) some roasted chicken with potatoes, ... | ||
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| ... some very small snails (left), which were difficult to extract, a very tasty and large sausage with potatoes and some much-needed veg (center), and some squid with (what else?) potatoes (right)! All this for 64€ or $16 each. | ||
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We drove for over five hours and with a late start and a stop for lunch, we arrived after dark. This hotel was better than most as they actually had chained off parking spots at their front door and there was a parking garage entrance right there! Rather quickly we unloaded the luggage, parked the car, and checked into the Astoria 7. The hotel took its name from the previous use of the building as a 7 screen mini-plex. They continued this theme with movie actor photos in the public spaces, a large library of videos for use in conjunction with vcr players in the room, rooms named after movie stars with images in the rooms, staff uniforms with with a profile of Alfred Hitchcock, and even a cameo appearance by Al in the lobby. We stayed one night and paid 103€, about $130, for a very clean, bright, and swanky room with parking and a breakfast.
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We asked the hotel staff about dinner and they sent us to Sidreria Salaberria two blocks away. We started with some wine (left) and some small plates of octopus and shrimp (below right). We moved on to a grilled chicken with french fries, croquettes, and a bit of salad (below left), chorizo (below center), and some great steak with a fried egg (?), french fries, and salad (below right). All were great and I'm sure another bottle of wine was involved, bringing the total to about 70€, $18 each - a bargain for good food and good wine. |
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| On the morning of 12 Nov we walked from the Hotel Astoria to the old part of the city, closer to the water. We passed this imposing church and the market in the newer part of the city and reached the shore to find the two views below. The old part of the city was a veritable warren of narrow pedestrian only streets filled with shops. |
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| We found Bar Martinez in the Michelin and used their map to find it in the old town. We squeezed five people into a table and had a rather nice lunch. I suspect it was rather liquid as the photographer neglected his duties. Nonetheless, we have a shot down the long bar filled with available plates, a shot of bolete mushrooms, and the Boggs with their depleted plates. We have an entry of 100€ for the lunch, $25 each. |
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San Sebastian to Gijon - 12-13 November
| We drove on to Gijon, arriving after dark and had the usual problem finding a hotel with minimal signage. After finding the hotel we had the problem of finding a place to park to unload the luggage and get it into the hotel, followed by the problem of finding a parking garage for the car. We stayed at Hotel Central in a decent, but not luxurious room with Wifi. It was a short walk to Cencerro Restaurant (recommended by Michelin) where we met the most hospitable waiter who brought us a very nice local wine: Escolinas (right). We were treated to a bit of cod sashimi (below left) and ordered two more starters: wild mushrooms (below center) and carpaccio (below right). |
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| Martha ordered a speciality of beef cheeks (right) with spicy guacamole (right) and below we ordered some croquettes, a lovely piece of cod loin, and some venison with a tasty sauce. After that, things got out of control as the most hospitable waiter used his excellent English and friendly demeanor to coax us into our first dessert that was not part of a set menu! |
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| It was hazelnut ice cream and hazelnut tort (below). We also made the mistake of asking our helpful waiter about the brandy that he had available. He returned to the table with his two favorites and we ended up with a brandy tasting of his five favorites (right). It had been a wonderful evening and we asked for the check, thinking we were through, but he returned to the table and offered us a half bottle of ice apple cider (far right). We spent 224€, about $55 each, for what I think was the best meal so far. |
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The next morning we continued on our journey to Porto in northern Portugal, using the Michelin to help us find a restaurant along the way. We found the Posada de las Misas, a Bib restaurant in the Michelin Guide, but it took a while to find it on the ground. After a scintillating discussion with a more grizzled, possibly older gentleman standing in doorway of a bar we headed to the top of the hill in the oldest part of the town. It was near 2PM, but lunch was still available and we were led to a room with a spectacular view over a currently unused balcony. In truth, the rainy weather didn't help the view and made the balcony tables unusable. We ordered some wine (Sierra Cantabria Crianza) and water, the Boggs were included. In an attempt to get something other than meat in our diet, we ordered a soup with local beans (below center, one bean was brought to the table by the waitress as a demo) and a local version of a caprese salad enhanced by cured duck breast (below right). |
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We also had a beef stew (left), venison tenderloin, and cod. All were great and on a sunny day this would have been a spectacular lunch, especially at 100€, $25 each. We tried to bring home the beautiful water bottle shown above, but the waitress didn't approve. We pushed on to Porto and had the same problem with pedestrian only streets in the fading light as it rained. We did manage to send a scout ahead on foot to ascertain the situation. He returned and told us to drive down the pedestrian street to the hotel, unload the luggage, and circle around to the back for hotel parking. |
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Shortly thereafter, we were checked into Grand Hotel Porto (above right). I couldn't help but be reminded of the movie Grand Hotel Budapest as it was ornate with very proper and helpful staff. The breakfast buffet was probably the best of our trip. Another plus for the hotel was its great location. This was especially handy as the parking garage was across the street from Abadia Restaurant. After we unpacked and rested a bit, we wound our way through the bowels of the hotel, exited the parking garage, and dashed into the front door of this iconic Portuguese restaurant. It doesn't make the Michelin and is probably a bit over-priced, but it is cavernous, spreading over a couple floors. I think they have a floor for tourists with waiters that speak excellent English. The bad news is that they can talk you into expensive wine. I asked them for a good wine and pointed to the under 20€ section of the wine list. I got a recommendation in the under 40€ section. It was nice and we have the gang of five hoisting a bit of it (below left). Below right is a salad, another chapter in our quest for vegetables. We also had clams (far below left) and a cheese platter (far below center) as starters. |
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We had several interesting main courses including tripe with beans (above right) and Iberico pork topped with pineapple, accompanied by house-made fat potato chips (left). At some point we needed another bottle of wine and again, I got boosted from the under 20€ section to the over 30€ section. Both were good wines, but by the time we needed a third bottle, I forced the wine steward to choose one under 20€ - a small victory. All savings were soon spent on a fine selection of after dinner ports (right). Our bill came to 230€, almost $60 each. For all my complaining about expensive wine, one must remember that it is difficult to find a wine priced under 30€ in Saint Martin. |
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| However, in my defense, there are plenty of good wines priced under 20€ in Spain and Portugal. If a customer asks for a recommendation in the under 20€ range, he should get one. |
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The next morning (14 Nov) we did a bit of sightseeing as we attempted to walk down to the harbor. The Spanish churches were a bit gory but the Portuguese churches are over the top. On the left is a bit of beheading. On the right is the Virgin Mary. We were heading for the harbor to check out some Port houses and have lunch at Tonho Restaurant. Unfortunately, we had trouble finding street signs and and it started to rain even harder. We hailed a cab and reached the harbor. The rain held off and we wandered around various restaurants and shops selling tiles, porcelain, cork products, tourist junk, etc. (below left). |
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Ultimately it became 1PM and time for our reservations at Tonho. The restaurant is on the second level with a great view across the Douro River. Most of the port houses are on the other side. The photo on the right shows Taylor's, Offley, and Dow's. We entered the restaurant and were offered the primo table, a four-top in front of the window overlooking the bridge on the left and sweeping down the river to the Port houses on the right. As we had just made reservations that morning, it suggests that the hype about "reservations are a must" was a trifle overstated, at least for a rainy, mid-November Friday lunch. Obviously, all their outside tables were not in use and we still got a great table. |
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We settled in and rather soon a very clean gull landed outside and complained about the lack of outside diners to maintain his diet. This had to be one of the finest specimens I have ever seen. I have been amazed at how clean Spain and Portugal have been and how many times I have seen recycle bins for glass. They also have them for paper and plastic, but not as many. Soon a colorful boat headed upriver for our viewing pleasure. Lower left shows the gang of four at the afore-mentioned primo table. We were down one as the youngster could not keep up with the torrid touristic pace of his elders. Or maybe he was bored witless. |
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Our aps (above left) were carrots with cilantro, marinated octopus, and rabbit, also with a marinade, though very light. Our main courses were a monkfish stew with shrimp, rice, and tomatoes (above right) and a pork and clam dish with potatoes and pickled vegetables (left). Service was friendly and fast as there were only two other tables. The reservations required hype seems to be total nonsense in November. The wines were good at reasonable prices. The cost was 146€, about $50 per person. I thought this was a pretty good price considering that 63€ went toward our three bottles of wine. The rain had stopped so after lunch we wandered about the port and found the Port Institute. We sampled seven different ports including 10, 20, and 40 year old varieties at a cost of 8.50€. Next was a cab back to the hotel for some rest. Martha and I decided to rest for the rest of the night, with the exception of a trip to the market for a bottle of vino tinto. |
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Porto to Lisbon - 15/16 November
| On the morning of Saturday 15 November, we started on a three hour journey to Lisbon. We got a fairly early start and made it to Sintra, just outside Lisbon, for a lunch at Arola. It's a restaurant on a golf course. Despite that, it was recommended by Michelin. It was beautiful and the restaurant dining room took advantage of the beautiful view as the photo on the left shows. We ordered a bottle of Casa Pancas tinto. It was such a nice bottle for a mere 20€ that we drank two of them. I had something called a coco which was a very thin crust pizza. Needless to say, I had Iberico pork and pimientos. Other main courses were a crab dip with thin, toasted bread strips (below center), a scallop (far below left), a platter of Iberico pork (far below center), some ravioli, and a double cheeseburger (the diner shall remain nameless). All pretty good at a cost of 160€, or about $40 each. |
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We arrived in Lisbon with a bit of sunshine and after two circles of Plaza Rossio, we found a very small
Hotel Metropole sign in an area of absolutely no parking. We pulled onto the sidewalk, unloaded the luggage, and went into the lobby, leaving Colin at the wheel. I got the scoop on parking, and went out to find Colin and the car gone. He showed up on his third lap around the plaza as the local constabulary frowned on parking on the sidewalk. It only took a couple shots on the parking lot to get the car stowed away. During the time we were booked in Lisbon, Mr Boggs would turn 60. Unfortunately, like my birthday in France two months ago, it was difficult to get reservations in a one star restaurant on short notice. Tony's birthday would be on 16 November (tomorrow) but nothing was available, so we opted for the blowout dinner at Belcanto Restaurant on the evening that we arrived, the day before the actual birthday. It was a short walk from the our hotel on Plaza Rossio. One star restaurants generally feature multi-course meals containing the best of high cost exotic foods prepared with painstaking effort. I've heard tales of kitchen slaves peeling peas. These restaurants also do not have any inexpensive wine. Two and three star restaurants usually have the same food but better physical plants in better locations with more servers and larger wine lists. There were four set menus starting with the Belcanto Menu, Portuguese Cuisine Revisited, at 145€ (everyone at the table had to order it), a Disquiet Menu at 110€, inspired by The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa, a Seabreeze menu at 90€ featuring sea food and the Classics Menu which has dishes that have remained on the a la carte menu for several years also at 90€. I ordered this and, in theory, it was a four course dinner, but I think I had about eight courses including an amuse bouche. My table mates ordered two courses a la carte and also got several lagniappes. Starred restaurants also serve many, small courses. Many of these courses are not mentioned on the menu. They also have several choices for bread and Belcanto certainly had that and three types of butter (below right). |
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| This restaurant featured molecular gastronomy, not my favorite, and this version was certainly quite twee. We started with several lagniappes that helped to clarify what the odd serving dishes on the table might do. One was a lovely frozen taste explosion. It essentially was a citrus-flavored liquid with an eggshell thin frozen crust (below left). The next round had a Dali-esque bit of sashimi hanging off one of the serving dishes, a shrimp dumpling in a tasty broth, and something that looked like a Ferrero-Rocher chocolate ball, but was savory instead - all cute, highly crafted, and tasty (center). My first course was called "The garden of the goose that laid the golden eggs." It contained a lightly cooked egg covered with gold leaf, crunchy bread, and mushrooms (below right). I actually have three more photos of very small tastes that arrived unbidden. | ||
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| Another lagniappe was olives, three ways, including a martini. Martha ordered a dish entitled Wave Breaking, containing tiny shrimp and bivalves (moules) and featuring seawater and sand, represented by a foam and some sand colored edible. The first photo shows the giant clam shell that was used as the serving dish and the next is a bit of a close-up of the tiny moules and the foam (below right). | ||
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| My fish course was also on the menu as a main course, Dip in the Sea, sea bass with seaweed and bivalves (right). Someone had ordered the pot-au-feu made with a giant red shrimp from the Algarve region of Portugal to the south (below left). My main course was the suckling pig revisited, with fried potatoes and orange. (no photo) Other main courses were the beef loin, slightly smoked with rosemary, bone marrow, and garlic purée (below center). Martha's main course was the codfish fritters with rice and local red beans (below right). |
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By now we had reached desserts. I had a tangerine concoction that wasn't a tangerine (below left) and the birthday boy had a custard tart in mille-feuille with cinnamon ice cream (below center). Thankfully, no one put a candle in it. We all shared in a dessert extravaganza (right). Dinner consisted of many courses, but they were all small, and the price of wines limited our drinking, so we all felt fine after several hours of eating and drinking. It was an impressive display of effort and cost about $180 each. There was a restaurant on St Martin that veered into this sort of cuisine several years ago and I stopped dining there. I like a smallish appetizer (possibly shared with a beautiful woman) and a main course with a decent amount of protein, a starch, and a veg. That sounds like a balanced meal and a reasonable way to spend a couple hours at most. I don't mind discussing the wine list with a sommelier, but when a banker is required to discuss financing options, I lose interest. For a different take on this meal, Martha called the tiny tastes precious, not twee, and loved the whole experience. |
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The next morning, after breakfast, we decided to walk a portion of a self-guided tour set out in Rick Steve's 2014 Portugal travel guide. We chose a portion of the walking tour of the districts of Lisbon called the Barrio Alto and Chiado, starting at stop number three on the list because we had to turn around go back uphill to get to the correct starting spot. The stop was the church Sao Roque. Admission is free on Sundays. The church was built in the 16th century as one of Portugal's first Jesuit churches. Despite it's connection to God, the church had a horrible history of bad luck. Over the years it has been destroyed or partially destroyed by two fires and the 1755 earthquake that destroyed most of what was then Lisbon.
If you look at the church, particularly its interior you may think it looks like the Vatican. That's because it was made in Rome, disassembled and shipped to Lisbon. Per square foot, it was the most expensive chapel ever constructed in Portugal.
From the church we went to a different celebration ritual: a brewery called Cervejaria da Trendade. No food was served until 2 o'clock so we settled for three of the locally-brewed beverage. The men thought it tasted great and at 4.95€ it was a bargain for all three. From there we walked down Largo do Carmo, past the headquarters of the National Guard where police officers stand wearing ceremonial uniforms, without the stern visages and unresponsive countenances you see in the Buckingham Palace guards. These guys were standing around joking, waving their ceremonial sabers, and smoking cigarettes. But, they looked good doing it. Europe is not entirely homogenized despite the European Union. We walked past the National Guard headquarters to the Elevador de Santa Justa. In 1902 an architect, possibly inspired by the Eiffel Tower, completed this 150 foot tall iron elevator connecting the lower and upper parts of the town. The designer attempted to match the spires of the ruined church near the top of the elevator. We walked out onto the observation bridge connected to the elevator and took a few pictures and viewed a very nice vista all the way to river. |
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We walked past the hotel and crossed the Praca do Rossio continuing down Porta Sam Amato looking for Casa do Alentejo restaurant. This restaurant is recommended by Michelin and specializes in eponymous cuisine. It was located in the third floor of a Moorish looking building that serves as a cultural and social center people for this southern province of Portugal.
There was plenty of seating when we arrived, but the restaurant soon filled to overflowing and they sat a few couple tables in the outside waiting area to handle the overflow. We had the soup of the day featuring coriander (below left), an appetizer of stuffed squid (background below center), one fried pork chunks with potatoes and clams (foreground below center), lamb shank (far below left), one roast pork with rice and applesauce (far below center), and one stew with seafood (far below right). We did not have our usual two bottles of wine with lunch. We had three. They were all reservas and very good. All told, the meal was 114.30€ or about $35 a person. |
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| After lunch we returned to the hotel and at about 5:00 PM the hotel sent a bellman to the Boggs' room with a complicated bottle of sparkling wine to celebrate his birthday. We were summoned to help in the celebrations and we discussed what to do for dinner, consulting the Michelin guide. It appeared that Gambrinas was recommended and close. Tony checked out the restaurant's website, strangely finding the menu only in Russian and English. After several minutes of exploring the menu he discovered that he was browsing a restaurant in Brooklyn, New York with the same name. He found the the website for the restaurant in Lisbon with an extensive but expensive menu. Nonetheless, we decided to seek a reservation. Tony went to the front desk and had them call the restaurant only to find that they were booked. Plan B. He asked the manager at the desk of the hotel what he would recommend that was similar to Gambrinas. The manager liked Sacramento, Tony agreed, and we were booked for 8:30 PM. It was a convenient ten minute walk. The decor was new by Portugese standards and the food was some of the best we have had. We dined on shrimp in garlic sauce (gambas au ajillo), caeser salad, sopa de caldo verde, grilled tiger shrimp, pork back strap, a grilled rib eye, chicken breast stuffed with game sausage, and lamb chops. Add 2 bottles of vino tinto de la casa (house red wine) and we had another yummy dinner. All of that was 156.50€, about $40 each. |
Lisbon to Sevilla- 17/19 November
| On Monday, 17 Nov, Colin and I fetched the car and with the usual iteration or four, we got back to the hotel, pulled up on the sidewalk and with the precision of a Nascar pit crew got the luggage in the wayback, the passengers in the back seat, hopped in the front, and headed off to Sevilla. We stopped for lunch at Taberno El Condado in Huelva (in Spain), about an hour outside of Sevilla. The restaurant was in the Michelin with a two knife/fork rating. The entrance (right) was loaded with Iberian ham. We let the bar staff select our food and wine, for the most part. We had a plate of sliced jamon, shrimp in garlic, sliced pork tenderloin (solomio), sliced pork shoulder (presa), sliced pork loin (lomo) and roasted red peppers with tuna and consumed a couple bottles of vino tinto. It was a pretty good lunch at 113€, about $28 per person. |
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| That evening we decided to try Don Juan de Alamanes rated one knife/fork by Michelin. They also mentioned that it was modern, spacious, and offered updated traditional cuisine. We ordered a Pagos de Fuente Reina 2012 and found it to be pretty good. It's in the corner of the photo below left with a plate of artichokes and shrimp. The center photo shows lactarius mushrooms, called niscalos in Spanish, with a soft-boiled egg. The third photo shows a creamy and tasty gazpacho with an abundance of additions. Pairing the shrimp with the artichokes and the mushrooms with the egg are examples of updating of the traditional cuisine, as is the creamy gazpacho, especially with all the additions. I admit we were getting a bit tired of the same dishes at all the tapas bars. This was a welcome surprise. | ||
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For main courses (albeit still tapas) we had tasty fried squid (below left), Albondigas (meatballs, made with venison) with mushrooms (a shiitake, I believe, below center), and a small portion of paella (below right). |
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On the left is a very tasty bit of ox tail with chives and root veg in a concentrated broth. The beef was tender, presumably from long cooking, and the total effect was a taste sensation. Hard to believe, but there is only one bottle of wine on the bill which came to 93€, about $23 each for a superb meal. On the right is the Cathedral lit up well enough for a photo at 10PM as we walked home. It turns out we had more wine when we got home to the apartment. |
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| After lunch we backtracked the tour finding a statue of Don Juan which caused me to wonder why a fictional trickster deserved a restaurant named after him and now a statue. Well, he was from Sevilla and I guess you accept your famous people despite their imperfections. In any event he supposedly met one of his conquests at an address near this plaza. Hence the statue. We walked back through passageways so narrow that I brushed both shoulders, passing many trinket shops. We reached the Alcazar and proceeded to the Cathedral where we paid 8€ for Martha and a mere 4€ for those of us on pension to go inside. That's the organ below center. I believe it has over 7000 pipes? Columbus is buried here, although this is a disputed "fact." It's an impressive, but not well lit, tomb, hence no photo. Further below are two interior shots giving an idea of the size and splendor of the cathedral. On the right is a 1/4 scale model of the statue at the top of the bell tower. Based on my bad eyes looking up to the top of tower, I thought she was holding a satellite dish. |
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| Below left is a photo of the bullring taken from the bell tower. There is no bullfighting at this time as the season is earlier in the fall. The next photo shows the minarets at the Alcazar piercing the sky, also taken from the bell tower. The final photo is the front of the cathedral with the bell tower rising in the background. | ||
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After the visit, we bought some Rioja Crianza for about 10€ and returned to the apartment. Two bottles later we decided we needed dinner so we consulted both Rick Steve's and the Michelin travel guides. We settled on Casa Morales, a tapas bar recommended in both guides, conveniently located about five minutes from the apartment. The place was quite full, but we managed to squeeze in around the last table in the room. We got menus and ordered a Hoyos de Eduardo Morales Valdepenas Tinto, a wine from my youth working in Puertollano up on La Mancha a few hundred kilometers from Sevilla. It was priced at a mere 6€ per bottle and I was given a major portion of merde from my drinking companions. The empty bottle is in the right side food picture below. For our next two bottles I got the ingrates some Cune Rioja Crianza.
As these photos show, the dining room was surrounded by these rather large olive oil jugs. The middle photo is a table-full of Boggs and the far right shows Colin and my grey hair ordering more food. |
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| For dinner we had a chorizo assortment (below left), a cod special (below left), grilled octopus and potatoes (center), two versions of abondigas (meatballs, veal and squid, below right), a ham and egg special (below right), habas (beans & sausage, below right), pimientos (marinated red bell peppers with tuna), a tortilla, smoked-marinated mussels, and some blue cheese. The total cost was 66.5€, about $17 each. Not bad for three bottles of wine and a great time? It makes up for some of the larger tabs we have run up. It appears that when Rick Steve and Michelin recommend a place, it's a real winner. | ||
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On Wednesday, 19 Nov, we busied ourselves around the apartment, washing clothes and writing all this nonsense. Eventually we mad a very nice lunch using bread, cheese, olives, and sausage we had left over from Madrid, and provisions we picked up earlier in Sevilla. The local larders provided pate of Iberico ham and foie gras mousse. In addition with sparkling water (with an unsuspected citrus flavor, damn Spanish-language), roasted red peppers, brown tomatoes, and more Rioja wine.
After lunch we went inside the Alcazar (9.5€ for Martha, 2€ for the aged scribe). It belongs to the state and in fact, King Philip VI uses the upper levels as his residence in Sevilla, although he is not here full time. The Moors constructed of the Alcazar (King's Palace) and occupied it until 1334 when Castilan King Pedro evicted them. On the right is an interior patio and below from left to right we have a doorway, an interior and a ceiling. |
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On the right is a shot of a small part of one of the gardens. Below left to right is an intricate section of wall, some fabulous wall tiles, and lovely flowering tree in the gardens. Further below is a fountain spilling into a large pool. At one point this was the water supply for the Alcazar. In the center is a beautiful and intricate alcove and on the right is a spectacular hallway. All in all, it looked like a place fit for a King. Colin had seen enough and went back to the apartment to nap. Mindy and Tony went off to by trinkets and we spent some more time in the gardens. |
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| There were several more choices for dinner in both the Michelin and Steve's Guide. Our choice was Azotea Bar run by Juan Antonio (as in John Anthony) and his friend Janine from San Diego as in California. It was an English friendly gourmet tapas bar that had good food at a reasonable price. It is located not too far from our dinner spot last night, Casa Morales. We got there a bit early and had to wait for them to open at 8PM. We killed the time by browsing through a super mercado looking for cava (Spanish sparking wine). We found some for 2.15€ but declined to buy it assuming that it was too cheap to be any good. When Azotea opened, Mindy was the first through the door. I ordered a 2010 Sierra Cantabria Crianza. It was good, but when it was gone, I sought advice from the friendly, knowlegable, and English-speaking waiter. He recommended the XIII Lunas. That's not a wierd Basque word, it is the Roman numeral for 13 and lunas is moons. Thus, 13 Moons, which is one year which is the amount of time this wine spends in the bottle before being released. It is worth the wait. |
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| For dinner we started with artichokes, croquetas del chef, and grilled octopus with potato puree, all left to right below. each had a little something special. The artichokes had two soft-boiled eggs . You may be noticing that the Spanish tend to serve eggs on into the afternoon and evening - warms the cockles of a chicken farmer's heart. The croquetas came not with plain potatoes, but with potato purée. The grilled octopus also had a nice sauce. | ||
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| Below, we continued with a cod filet with basil and garlic, tuna with salad and veg, pork cheeks in wine sauce with potatoes. Again they all had a little extra, if only a very tasty sauce. It was all very good food. With three bottles of Rioja the cost was 122€. Which brings us to a little deception I caught the day before on the purchase at Don Juan. I noticed that I had signed a receipt saying the transaction currency was US dollars and I agreed to a "2% markup on the wholesale rate" with "NO COMMISSION" proudly sitting in a sea of white space. Like all travelers, I have a credit card that offers me the wholesale rate with no commission and no mark-up (what's the dif?), so I had just been taken for 2%, about $2.50. Small potatoes, but if you got a potato from every customer, you'd have several potatoes. I warned Tony about this and he noticed that Azotea did the same thing. He complained and they said that they had already put the transaction through in dollars and could not cancel it. The receipt you get says that you were offered a choice of currencies for the transaction (which he never was). The largest font at the top of the receipt said "THANK YOU FOR VISITING OUR CITY" and the next largest font at the bottom said "NO REFUND." This one also claimed a 3% mark-up, less than $5.00 on our bill, but they should have asked as their receipt said they had. In trying to make it up to us they gave us five shots of Lemoncello. Watch out for this scam. I suspect it will hit SXM soon. | ||
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Sevilla to Madrid - 21-22 November
| We went through the usual moving day drill, find the ticket for the car park, find the car park, find the payment machine, try the credit card, after it fails, hope the machine takes a 50€ note, when that fails, hope there is someone in the office who will take a 50€ bill, find the car, find the hotel driving on pedestrian streets, park on the sidewalk, and load the luggage. Oftentimes the Tomtom hadn't found the satellites that it lost when we descended into the bowels of the car park. That meant that we had no idea which way to go when we were finally ready to go. Ultimately, the Tomtom kicked in and we were heading for Madrid. As always, we checked the route and looked in the Michelin and Steve's Guide. As Michelin covers all cities and Rick Steve only covers major cities, we generally had to rely on the Michelin for lunches on journey days. Unfortunately we were traveling across the middle of Spain, aka La Mancha, and other than rain, there is not much there. We did find Trujillo on the route and a very nice restaurant attached to Hotel Victoria in Trujillo. We started with the local Trampel Tinto. The restaurant had quite a bit of ham and offered an 18€ platter with two types of ham and two sausages (below left). |
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| We also got some squid with a mayo-based sauce as an ap (above center). Mindy had a chicken breast with salad and fries (8€, above right). Martha went with the stuffed peppers in a cheesy sauce (right). The male side of the gang of five opted for the menu at 16€. It offered an ap, a main course, a dessert and a drink (we went with wine). I had a local speciality, chorizo with pepper and a fried egg on a bed of bread crumbs. The chorizo, pepper, and egg were fine, but the thrill of the local bread crumb thing eluded me (below left). Tony had a tasty beef stew (below center). Colin had a steak (below right). Our desserts were a cheesecake, custard, and flan (far below , left to right). As we all started with a glass of the house wine (three of which came with the set menu), we only bought one bottle and the total came to 98€, about $25 each. Good food, good service, great lunch. |
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We drove on into Madrid and unfortunately could not return to the same lovely apartment that we had for our arrival. Hostal Gonzalo was in the same area, but older with no view and no kitchen but much cheaper. Everything worked, it was comfortable, clean, and convenient, being very close to the Prado and the Thyssen museums and a Starbucks. It was the usual hotel with no parking so we backed up traffic and unloaded the luggage. Colin and I headed off to park the car while Tony, Mindy, and Martha struggled up three flights of stairs with the luggage. There was an elevator that could accept two people or one person and on bag or two bags. Remember, it was cheap.
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| We got back to the hostal and went out for a bit of a walk and some reconnoitering for dinner. We had Rick Steve's Guide, the Michelin Guide, a tapas tour guide of the neighborhood and then Martha found a cookware shop. Inside was a paella pan that she coveted and a friendly gentleman who was visiting the woman who owned the shop. He gave us about a half dozen recommendations during an hour of food-related discussion in Spanglish. Unfortunately, the first two of his recommendation were booked. Eventually we found ourselves on Calle de Cervantes, where not only our hotel was located, but also Cerveceria Cervantes, a beershop/tapas bar that somebody had mentioned. The beer made Colin happy and the rest of us worked through two bottles ot $14 Rioja. We weren't terribly hungry but managed a bit of octopus. some beans for Martha, and a quarter kilo of langoustines with garlic. The were proud of their seafood and offered much of it by weight. The nice waiter brought out the three different sizes of shrimp-like creatures to show us what we would get. We closed with a Cervantes salad in order to get some veg. They put some tuna on it. Good food, good time, good prices (only $110€, about $27 each), and a nice and honest waiter who saved Martha's purse until we returned for it later that evening! |
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On Friday 21 Nov we got an early start and walked over to the Reina Sofia Museum. The link will take you to Guernica by Picasso, their most famous painting. This museum takes up where the Prado leaves off, starting around 1900 with cubism, surrealism, etc. They also don't like cameras, so visit their website. Admission is 8€ with no senior discounts. It's a big museum and Martha's thesis and area of study was art from this century, so we spent all of the morning here and walked over toward the Thyssen Museum across from the Prado on the other side of our hostal. On the sides are views from the exterior glass elevators, interesting, but not a great skyline. |
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As we walked along we noticed that we were next to Los Rotos, a restaurant name we recognized. They had nice photos of one-skillet dishes, many with eggs. On the right is an interesting garlic soup with an egg and , unfortunately, too much salt. The other dishes were better. Below is a beef stew (no egg), a ham, egg, and potato skillet, and a mushroom egg and potato skillet. We had some some inexpensive wine and only spent about 60€, $15 per person. |
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| After lunch we continued on to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. The museum started as the private collection of Heinrich, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon (1875-1947) and his son, Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza (1921-2002). The son married Carmen "Tita" Cervera (Miss Spain in 1961) in 1981. The Baron's application to expand his home in Lugano to house the collection was rejected by the Lugano city council in 1988. His wife was instrumental in bringing the collection to this building across the street from the Prado. In 2004 Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza donated over 200 works to museum. Three world class museums within walking distance of one another are rare and in this case, even more magical as they are so complementary. The money for this came from the ThyssenKrupp Corporation. Most of the elevators that we have been using on this vacation were made by Thyssen. |
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The oldest continually operating restaurant is Restaurante Botin (founded 1725), just off the Plaza Mayor, about a 20 minute walk from our hotel. It was a fairly warm evening and we all felt rather spry so we left at 7:30 for our 8:00PM reservations. We arrived a bit early and found a throng of people, mostly tourists, waiting for the doors to open. No Spaniard would have dinner at this early hour. Moreover, this is one of the most touristy restaurants in this tourist-infested area. And we are tourists. We trudged up two narrow flights of stairs to get to our table. The menu was in English, the waiter spoke perfect English and was quite helpful. We ordered two appetizers, ham with pineapple and anchovies with peppers. I found a Vina Ardanza Rioja Reserva 2005 for only 35€, about $44. That is a great bargain in a world class restaurant for a nine-year old wine. I loved it. I just bought a case of it here in the US and paid $27 per bottle. The two appetizers were fine, nothing terribly inventive, but great ham and very good pineapple, though a cliché, is very tasty. We started with a bottle of their house wine, a crianza, for 18€, about $24. When we finished both bottles we ordered another Ardanza. | |
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| The speciality of the house is roast suckling pig. We actually had a whole pig at their short-lived outpost in Miami, but at this time we did not have enough people so we got two portions of pig (below left), a steak (center), veal (right), and a chicken. Everything was good, although, as usual, a bit light on veg. The total bill came to 264€ and for the first time on our entire trip, at this last restaurant over 17 days, I got a bill with a spot available for a tip. We really were in a tourist restaurant. | ||
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| We walked back past this cow sticking out of a clothing shop and this well lit facade. Lots of action on this Friday night. We stopped into this tavern to sample five different Spanish brandies. Certainly the cheap one was a bit harsh, but the other four were quite good. A fine way to end a couple weeks seeing most of Spain and Portugal. | ||
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| The next morning we did one more baggage/car maneuver and headed to the airport. We did take a wrong turn (I think my Garmin is much better than this old Tomtom), but got it corrected and had plenty of time to check in. We had some breakfast in the business class lounge, followed by an uneventful flight to Franfort. We spent more time in the lounge there and headed for DC on a Lufthansa flight. The lie-flat business class was comfy with plenty of movies available and the food and wine were mediocre. More lounge time in DC as we waited for a late flight to Albany. We got in about 11:30PM and got home at about 1AM, having been awake for about 26 hours. I slept well, if not long, awakening at 6AM. We spent about 2700€, about $3300 for two great weeks. The airfare cost about the same. | ||