24 Hours in Malaga, Spain

Last Saturday, seeking sunshine and tapas, I flew to Malaga, Spain to join Jon for the tail end of his work trip there. Although Malaga gets 300 days of sunshine a year, I managed to arrive on a rainy afternoon. But despite the damp weather, I had plenty of tasty tapas and managed to catch [...]

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Cafe Viena, Barcelona (sometimes tourists are right)

When Jon and I arrived in Barcelona, we arrived hungry. Because it still was too early in the day for a real meal, when we read this April 2009 New York Times description of Cafe Viena as serving “a perfect snack,” we thought we’d give the place a try. So we asked our B&B owner [...]

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Bar Mut, Barcelona

Although I’ve always read that Barcelona is no tapas town (this article, for example, explains how Catalunyans historically preferred a full sit-down meal), Jon and I couldn’t resist the siren call of small plates in Spain. On the high end of the tapas spectrum was Bar Mut, which is a short walk from Diagonal metro [...]

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Gresca restaurant, Barcelona

Jon and I really enjoyed most of our meals in Barcelona, but the stand-out for us was dinner at Gresca.  This July 2008 NYT article on “bistronomia” described the restaurant thus:  “Gresca practices bistronomia, which means it’s one of a growing number of Barcelona restaurants dedicated to offering high quality, contemporary — and yes, occasionally [...]

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Back from (Eating in) Barcelona

The first time I visited Barcelona was in November 2005, and back then, I made the mistake of not making any dinner reservations in advance, which meant that by the time I rang up highly-sought-after Barcelona restaurants, I was too late. So instead of swanking it up at the likes of Comerc 24, I ate [...]

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Fuente de la Acena and El Molino de Palacios, Spain

For this post, my last on the Ribera del Duero wine region, I wanted to talk about restaurants. There are lots of places in the region that serve traditional food (i.e., roast suckling pig and roast suckling lamb), but in hopes of something more updated, we tried two more upscale places I’d read about: the [...]

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Visiting Vineyards in the Ribera del Duero, Spain

Rioja is everywhere. But where-oh-where can you buy or drink Ribera del Duero wines? After spending a few days exploring the vineyards around the towns of Castrillo de Duero, Pesquera de Duero, Quintanilla de Onesimo and Penafiel, I think it’s a both a shame and a benefit that the Ribera hasn’t made the same maketing [...]

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Mayor de Migueloa and Marques de Riscal, Laguardia, Spain

So generally, I’m a planner kind of person. Especially for holidays abroad. Yet somehow I overlooked how much a “daytrip” from the Ribera del Duero to Rioja was – how shall we say – ambitious. I mean, a simple google map search (now) reveals it’s a 227 km (140-mile) drive between Penafiel and Laguardia. Apparently, [...]

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Restaurante Jose Maria, Segovia, Spain

Our one wine-free day during our Ribera del Duero trip last week was when we flew into Madrid and hopped on the AVE train to meet our friends Colleen and Mike in Segovia. We spent a day there to eat a long lunch and do a little sightseeing before driving to Castrillo de Duero, our [...]

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Looking for Good Eats in the Ribera del Duero

Three weeks from now, Jon and I (along with our friends at Philatraveler) are going to spend a week in the Ribera del Duero, the part of Spain that’s home to wines like Pingus and Vega Sicilia. We’ve rented a house near Penafiel/Valladolid (for cheap because it’s low season), and we’re in the process of [...]

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April 2006: Granada, Cordoba, Seville

In April 2006, Jon and I spent three days in Granada, one day in Cordoba, and two days in Seville during semana santa, which is the week that ends with Easter Sunday. Below are a few notes from our trip, starting with Granada and ending with Seville. Casa de los Migueletes, Calle Benalua 11 (Plaza [...]

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San Sebastian: pintxos, and Elkano in Getaria

One of the best things about San Sebastian (in fact the thing that sets it apart from the perhaps-better-known shore town in Basque country, Biarritz) is its beach and boardwalk. Jon and I loved our runs along the boardwalk, past the Playa de Ondarreta and down to the Paseo del Peine del Viento. The boardwalk [...]

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San Sebastian – Getaria – Bilbao

With our trusty rented Peugeot, we were able to make a day trip to Bilbao, stopping in Getaria for lunch. Getaria is a small fishing town just 15 minutes west of San Sebastian along the A-8, and we passed some gorgeous seaside scenery on the way. Like seaside towns the world over, Getaria is perched [...]

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Mugaritz Restaurant, San Sebastian, Spain

On Friday night, we had a 10 pm reservation at Mugaritz, (Aldura aldea, 20, Errenteria). The instructions you follow from San Sebastian (from the restaurant’s website) to reach Mugaritz are laughable, but they’re dead accurate. Example: “You’ll go past the Al Campo hypermarket. Drive on for a further 3 or 4 km, going up a [...]

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San Sebastian, Spain: Back to Bacalao

Jon and I are on a long-weekend trip to Basque country (aka the part of Spain that’s near the border with France). We landed in Biarritz (France) yesterday, where it was pouring rain and gray outside. Not ideal when you are planning your weekend on the coast. At some point during our 40-minute drive from [...]

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