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Published: December 22nd 2008
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Adios Espanya
It's hard to believe we have been here for so long and covered so much ground by anna and david It was a grand farewell to Spain. A tour befitting our time there - revisiting some of our favourite places, and sharing some of them with friends and family. We flew back into
Barcelona where we spent a few days catching up on some admin and spending some time around and about the back alleys, having drinks with Chris and Carmen and dinner with Pete and Nuria and a couple of their friends.
Weekend in Premia de Dalt - 30th Birthday Celebration #1 We then headed to
Premia de Dalt (just north / east of Barcelona) to a gorgeous, massive Catalan style manor house surrounded by seemingly endless grounds. It was fantastic. We were joined late on the Friday night by Julie and Chris, Yvette and Dom, and Bega, some of my best friends from uni. The catalyst was my 30th birthday, but really it was a fantastic excuse to spend a great weekend in a great part of Spain. Premia de Dalt isn’t a particularly touristy part of the world, so there wasn’t a lot to see and do, but we didn’t need much, chilling out in the little village of the town,
and hanging out around the majestic balconies of the house
(and enjoying a few drinks to celebrate Anna turning 30). On the Sunday we took a trip south of Barcelona to Garraf where we had lunch in a kiosk by the beach. It was great to be soaking up some sea air. After seeing Dom and Yvette off, the rest of us headed into the hills to investigate the cava region of Penedes. It was the most disappointing wine region I have ever been too (including a struggling area in Germany). There were no nice places to stop and have a drink overlooking the vineyards and where there was a nice patch of vines, there was usually an electrical tower or highway to ruin the vista. Nevermind, we now know. Thankfully the region’s cava is better than it’s tourism!
The final night we enjoyed a dinner cooked by the family who owned the house. It was fantastic - a local fish stock with rice soup, followed by tortilla and deer served with raspberry jam and a couple of bottles of red. It was simple and fantastic! The next day, Chris and Jules, and David and I, had a
final wander of the streets of Barcelona and some lunch in a very “authentic” (very edgy but a bit sad with many homeless / alcoholic inhabitants) square.
Return to Madrid catching up in Sitges on the way Having said goodbye to the crew, David and I headed south of Barcelona again for a night in
Sitges. We had arranged to have dinner with Luisa and Miguel, the gorgeous couple with whom I stayed for a couple of weeks the first time I was in Spain studying. We had stayed in touch, exchanging postcards etc, until the language gap got too big again. I was really looking forward to being able to see them again with better Spanish under my belt.
It was a fantastic evening. Miguel, who is a chef by trade and host by nature, had introduced me to some sensational and new, if sometimes challenging (e.g. not a fan of pig’s trotters) food last time I was in Sitges. He excelled himself once again, serving up a delicious soup
(Thai inspired), followed by fideua, a local dish similar to paella but made with small noodles, and finished off with homemade truffles. This was all
Volvemos a casa
David with Luisa and Miguel, my hosts last time I was in Spain, with whom we had a fantastic dinner of soup followed by fiduea, and finished with chocolate truffles washed down by some great Spanish wine (Miguel has completed a course in oenology too). And you wonder why I love the place and wanted to go back. Sooo good.
It was really good to see Miguel and Luisa again, and we appreciated their warm welcome. It was frustrating that we couldn’t speak more (we had been speaking too much English for too long already), but we could understand what they said, and make ourselves understood when needed!
(It was a great night and Anna is being modest - the conversation flowed very smoothly). Making our way to Madrid, we took the coast road south a bit further and spent a night in
Peniscola. This is a touristy seaside village that had a charming old town, and just the right quantity of people given it was out of season. We got a great hotel deal online, and understood why when we saw how many hotels the town had.
From Peniscola, we headed north away from the coast spending a night in
Cuenca. The surrounding area is truly sensational and I think we must have been lucky enough to be there at the best time of year -
the autumn colours were breathtaking. We explored about the countryside a bit, being underwhelmed by an “enchanted city” which turned out to be a block of woodland with great big rocks that someone had imagined looked like boats, faces, seals, etc. I think someone had a good time making it all up.
We were happy to head home to one of the most gorgeous little cottages I’ve ever seen, with an open fire and bedroom carved into the rock face that the house was built out from. It was very cool!
Back “home” in Madrid Finally, we were back in
Madrid. It was sooo good to be back. It felt like coming home. We were joined by my parents for my 30th birthday and the following few days. It was a really special week.
Before Mum and Dad joined us, David took me for a really special birthday dinner at La Broche, a fancy pants restaurant run by one of the ex-apprentices from elBulli (apparently the best restaurant in the world with millions of reservation requests and only a few thousand sittings a year). It was
amazing. An absolute taste and visual sensation, if amusing at
times in its daintiness. A real treat in a year of watching the budget!
One of the highlights was a perfect miniature ham and cheese toasted sandwich - the size of a shrinky dink. Mum and Dad joined us the next day and we set about cramming an experiential tour, of as many of our favourite parts of Madrid as possible, into a few days. We also finally got to the Prado, getting a free ride with Mum and Dad’s fast paced tour group.
It was good to make it to the Prado finally after getting as close as the queue with Chris and Julie. It was when we left Madrid and headed north to Navarra and a small town (pop: 90) called
Orisoain outside of Pamplona, that we all felt like we were really on holiday. The village was as quaint and genuine as I had hoped, the house perfect and the five days we spent exploring the region including Olite, and it’s wine museum, Pamplona and San Sebastian, were sensational.
We joined a walking tour in Pamplona under the understanding that this would allow us access to the bull ring. It didn’t unfortunately, so we
Anna with her folks at El Abuelo ...
... a favourite spot of ours for baby garlic prawns spent two hours following a tour all in Spanish (OK for me, not so good for Mum and Dad) for little gain. We could have shown Mum and Dad the path we took. Nevermind, some great pinxos made things better! Live and learn!
Thankfully, great weather for a walk along the water and the always fantastic pinxos to revive us meant our day in San Sebastian couldn’t have been better.
Our rented home for the week had a wood fired oven out the back that we couldn’t resist, so Mum and Dad rolled up their sleeves one night to make a massive pizza dinner that we ate sitting around the oven
(... and it went down a treat. The 5 days in the casa rural with Anna's parents was brilliant, it was really enjoyable to hang out with them in the Spanish countryside and relax around the fireplace. A perfect birthday week for Anna I think). Yup!
Our last night, on the way back to Madrid, was spent in
Siguenza. It was freezing and we escaped into a warm restaurant for a cosy lunch of roasted lamb and roasted kid that put all of us into
a food coma for the remainder of the day.
Then, a bit teary eyed (well I was), we saw Mum and Dad off to Paris and headed to catch our plane to London for the next leg.
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