Incredible food

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Wow. Last time I was in the Basque Region, I was just coming out of the hospital for dehydration and couldn´t eat much other than yogurt and bread. I had heard that the food here was good, but I had no idea how good it could be. Last night we went into a bustling tapas bar (always good that it´s busy) and pushed our way through to the endless platters of appetizers. They handed us a plate and let us pick our tapas by hand. Stuffed eggplant rolls, grilled shrimp with ham, spinach and garlic filled tarts, codfish and potato tarts, marinated white fish with pesto sauce...yum. I could dine this way forever!

Tonight we hit a real restaurant for the tasting menu, a 5 course meal with fresh baked bread and wine included, por supuesto. I´m so full I can barely type. My favorite course (surprisingly not the dessert) was a filet cooked rare (as all fabulous meat is) wrapped in a handmade dough and covered in a duck, cream gravy. Ooh, la, la...it was fine.

Besides the food, we try to burn a few calories. The beach is gorgeous and features some raft things with slipper slides and diving boards, the catch being that you must swim out a 1/4 mile to get to them. So we swim like hell to the rafts and back and do sit-ups before taking our 2 hour siesta. Then we run along the boardwalk at sunset. Life is rough in Spain.

Mañana we take the car out of the parking lot and head to Pamplona. We aren´t sure what all there is to do there during the non-bull run season, but I just finished reading some Hemingway for inspiration. The next day we drive through Olite for a wine tour and onto Barcelona for a few days.

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