I know it has been quite a while since my last update. The frenetic pace of my trip has seemed to increase in the last week or so, and I have opted to spend what little time I had left in Spain to seeing things, instead of telling you all about it. Forgive me for my rationality. I am sitting in an "internet" cafe in Amsterdam right now writing this update. I have a 24 hour layover between Madrid and Seattle in this fine city, and so I decided to hang out and try to check out some sights before heading to the airport. So, here follows my final update from Europe, although I hope to post a final update on my trip once I return to the States and have some time to defrag.
SEGOVIA
It seems like months ago that I was in Segovia. I headed over that way because the Roman Aqueduct is located smach in the middle of town. It is in incredible condition, mostly due to an intensive restoration project in the 80s and 90s. No mortar at all holds the massive structure together, and I took plenty of pictures at all angles and light levels. On my first day in town, I trekked up the hill to drop off my backpack at my hostel, then headed over to the Alcazar, the Segovian fortress. As with most old fortresses in Spain, it began as a Roman fortress, then was built up by the Moors, then converted to a Christian stronghold after the Reconquista. Unfortunately, most of it burned down in the mid-1800s, so its present iteration is a much-restored, highly romanticized version of its earlier self. Allegedly, this castle was the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle, although I've heard the same said about the Neuschwanstein Castle just outside of Munich. Now having seen both castles up close and personal, I'd say the Alcazar looks a bit more authentic. There is a giant, four-storey moat (enpty) encircling the castle, and some serious dungeons as well as gorgeous towers with sweeping viewrs of Castilla y Leon. Fun fact: Isabel (as in Colombus' patron) was crowned queen of Castille in a church in Segovia, so they loves them some Queen Isabel in Segovia. After visiting the Alcazar, I cleaned up at my hostel before heading out to treat myself to a fancy dinner at Casa Duque, which has been serving up Segovia's specialty, cochinillo asado (roast suckling pig), for something like 150 years. And it shows. That was some delicious pig. and the other 4 courses were pretty fantastic. I was a typical tourist and took pictures of every course, so those will come shortly. I went to go find a bar to listen to some music after dinner, but like 40% of my Lonely Planet guide recommendations, the bar was no longer there. So I just went back to see the aquaduct at night and had some wine in the square and took pictures. The next morning, I went to see the Cathedral, which was pretty gorgeous, then had a quick lunch at a pastry shop before heading over to the Museum of Contemporatry Art, which had this interesting exhibit about the origin of painting as interpreted by a Greek legend, and it's implications on form and beauty. I enjoyed it, but like a lot of contemporary art, I felt like the artist was sort of browbeating me with the point she was trying to make. The museum also had a garden attached to it, and I saw two of the tiniest kittens I have ever seen living under one of the sculptures. I spent the afternoon wandering around Segovia before taking dinner in the plaza (roast suckling lamb this time, which I thought was mediocre). The next morning, I caught a bus to Burgos, in northern Castilla Leon.
BURGOS
I really liked Burgos. I got a good first impression because the owner of my hostel was a really kindly older guy, and we bonded over cooking crawfish when he found out I was from Louisiana. Then I found an open farmacia (pharmacy), and one of the clerks helped me find relatively small, inexpensive versions of all the shampoo, contact solution, toothpaste, etc. that I had run out of the previous day. Farmacias in Spain are not at all like Walgreens in the US. They stick to the narrower definiton of pharmacy, carrying only medicines and personal hygiene products. And they usually only have display products up, and you have to ask for the item you want so they can pull it oput of the back or a side drawer. Anyway, after my farmacia outing, I asked the hostel owner if there were any good walking paths nmearby, and he pointed me towards one that took me about 2 kilometers outside town, walking up the river toward a wooded area with a manufactured beach. It was a beautiful walk, and it felt nice to take a walk where I wasn't surrounded on all sides by tourists in a rush with screaming children. It took me a few hours to get all the way out and back, and I paused in the park at the end of the trail to continue reading DQ (Don Quixote - not Dairy Queen). The next day, I decided to pay homage to El Cid, who was born and raised just outside of Burgos. You may have seen the "historical" fiction movie starring Sophia Loren and Charlton Heston. Apparently he wasn't quite as valliant and Christian as the movie portrayed, but people seldom are. Either way, Burgos plays up their connection to El Cid, even though he spent his latter days and died in Valencia. His remains are buried in the Burgos Cathedral (typically extravagant and beautiful for Spain). There are several statues of El Cid in and around town, so I went to check them out, and saw the interesting artistic licenses taken. I had a famulous lunch at a vegan restaurant in the old quarter. I have long held a prejudice against vegan food, because I find most vegans pretty insufferable as a bunch (although I have known a few who are cool and not holier-than-thou about it). However, after so many weeks of bread and pork products, I felt like I was craving something with lots of vegetables and not a lot of processed fats. I gotta say, I've been totally coverted to the merits of vegan food by that restaurant alone. It was one of the best meals I had in Spain, and all vegan. While I'm not in danger of becoming a full vegan (I could not live without seafood, first of all), I think it couldn't hurt to incorporate a bit more vegan-inspired cuisine into my diet. I think as a rule people eat far too much shit, and the idea that we have to have a meat with every meal has become less appetizing to me as I get older. So look forward to vegan cooking experiences in future blog posts. Anyway, after a lunch that was delicious and filling without being heavy (!), I took a hike up to the Castillo (castle) at the top of the hill. Unfortunately, it was closed the day I was there so I couldn't go inside, but the trail was lovely and I got some great views and pictures of Burgos from the top. On my way back down I stopped over the Puente de Santa Maria, and passed under the Arco (arch) of the same name. The Arco usually has a museum inside, but it was closed to set up for the next exhibit. It sounds like some of the sights were a bust, but I really enjoyed myself in Burgos because the people were incredibly nice, the views were beautiful, and it felt a bit more relaxed than the previous few places I had been in Spain.
LA RIOJA (LOGRONO, HARO, BRIONES)
The next morning, I got up and caught an early bus to Logrono, in the heart of La Rioja, Spanish wine country. My hostel room was a single, which was nice, and had a small terrace overlooking the old town square. I spent my first afternoon just walking around, as I usually do, exploring and getting a feel for the town. I passed some great wine shops and wineskin shops (still handmade) and walked over a few bridges that cross the Ebro River. Logrono owes much of its growth during medieval times to the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail, and the town is very mindful of its history, with plenty of establishments catering to pilgrims and the trademark scallop shell decorating many a streetsign, wall, or walking path. I pintxo-hopped my way through the old quarter that evening, drinking quite a bit of red wine (I was in wine country...I had to...) before heading up to my hostel. I intended on taking an early bus out to Haro, which is supposedly the best please to visit bodegas (wineries) in La Rioja. I had a really lame experience in Haro (even though I got there by 11 am, none of the sights were open yet, none of the wineries would accept visits without a pre-arranged appointment, and this crotchety old dude who ran the sandwich shop in the bus station kept insisting he didn't understand me and wouldn't let me but a sandwich - fuck him, p.s.), so decided to cut out early in favor of nearby Briones, a tiny town of 900 people that is home to the incredible four-floor Dinastia Vivanco museum. The Vivanco family (or dynasty, as the name of the museum implies) is a major wine producer in La Rioja, and has been mproducing wine for several generations. The current owner has this awesome cheesey introduction video that everyone has to watch before entering the museum, and it discusses how he built the museum to pay homage to the land that has given the family its livelihood. The museum houses a thorough history of wine and wine-making, with massive exhibits and videos of barrel-making, wine bottle-blowing, wineskin-crafting, corking, and the world's largest collection of wine openers (seriously). There was also a ton of incredibly well-preserved artifacts of wine bottles, bowls, and art related to wine and its uses dating back from phoenician times to the present. It has got to be one of the most impressive private museums I have ever seen. Briones is such a small town that it has no real bus stop...so you have to just ask around town to see where the buses pick you up. It's completely unmarked, and I talked to about 5 different elderly folks (there seem to be few native young people in rural Spain) who told me roughly similar directions, so I hung out near a park bench that seemed to corrrespond to where most were telling me to go, and eventually, lucked out and caught a bus back to Logrono. That evening I had dinner in the square and a real ass 20 piece Mexican mariachi band was performing. It was SO refreshing to hear a Mexican accent again. No lisping at all. Wonderful. I stayed out a bit later than I anticipated that night (my waiter kept buying me glasses of wine) but eventually called it a night and got up the next morning to rush to catch my train for Zaragoza, with a connecting train to Barcelona. I was in such a rush, that I left my new jacket (that I purchased in San Sebastian) in the closet. I realized it about 10 minutes before my train pulled into Barcelona that afternoon, and I new that it was long gone by that point. I hope whoever finds it puts it to good use. In the meantime, I will pour a little out for my bitchin jacket that I thought would be the pride and joy of my trip to Spain. Sigh.
I need to head out now. Will finish my update a little later.
SEGOVIA
It seems like months ago that I was in Segovia. I headed over that way because the Roman Aqueduct is located smach in the middle of town. It is in incredible condition, mostly due to an intensive restoration project in the 80s and 90s. No mortar at all holds the massive structure together, and I took plenty of pictures at all angles and light levels. On my first day in town, I trekked up the hill to drop off my backpack at my hostel, then headed over to the Alcazar, the Segovian fortress. As with most old fortresses in Spain, it began as a Roman fortress, then was built up by the Moors, then converted to a Christian stronghold after the Reconquista. Unfortunately, most of it burned down in the mid-1800s, so its present iteration is a much-restored, highly romanticized version of its earlier self. Allegedly, this castle was the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle, although I've heard the same said about the Neuschwanstein Castle just outside of Munich. Now having seen both castles up close and personal, I'd say the Alcazar looks a bit more authentic. There is a giant, four-storey moat (enpty) encircling the castle, and some serious dungeons as well as gorgeous towers with sweeping viewrs of Castilla y Leon. Fun fact: Isabel (as in Colombus' patron) was crowned queen of Castille in a church in Segovia, so they loves them some Queen Isabel in Segovia. After visiting the Alcazar, I cleaned up at my hostel before heading out to treat myself to a fancy dinner at Casa Duque, which has been serving up Segovia's specialty, cochinillo asado (roast suckling pig), for something like 150 years. And it shows. That was some delicious pig. and the other 4 courses were pretty fantastic. I was a typical tourist and took pictures of every course, so those will come shortly. I went to go find a bar to listen to some music after dinner, but like 40% of my Lonely Planet guide recommendations, the bar was no longer there. So I just went back to see the aquaduct at night and had some wine in the square and took pictures. The next morning, I went to see the Cathedral, which was pretty gorgeous, then had a quick lunch at a pastry shop before heading over to the Museum of Contemporatry Art, which had this interesting exhibit about the origin of painting as interpreted by a Greek legend, and it's implications on form and beauty. I enjoyed it, but like a lot of contemporary art, I felt like the artist was sort of browbeating me with the point she was trying to make. The museum also had a garden attached to it, and I saw two of the tiniest kittens I have ever seen living under one of the sculptures. I spent the afternoon wandering around Segovia before taking dinner in the plaza (roast suckling lamb this time, which I thought was mediocre). The next morning, I caught a bus to Burgos, in northern Castilla Leon.
BURGOS
I really liked Burgos. I got a good first impression because the owner of my hostel was a really kindly older guy, and we bonded over cooking crawfish when he found out I was from Louisiana. Then I found an open farmacia (pharmacy), and one of the clerks helped me find relatively small, inexpensive versions of all the shampoo, contact solution, toothpaste, etc. that I had run out of the previous day. Farmacias in Spain are not at all like Walgreens in the US. They stick to the narrower definiton of pharmacy, carrying only medicines and personal hygiene products. And they usually only have display products up, and you have to ask for the item you want so they can pull it oput of the back or a side drawer. Anyway, after my farmacia outing, I asked the hostel owner if there were any good walking paths nmearby, and he pointed me towards one that took me about 2 kilometers outside town, walking up the river toward a wooded area with a manufactured beach. It was a beautiful walk, and it felt nice to take a walk where I wasn't surrounded on all sides by tourists in a rush with screaming children. It took me a few hours to get all the way out and back, and I paused in the park at the end of the trail to continue reading DQ (Don Quixote - not Dairy Queen). The next day, I decided to pay homage to El Cid, who was born and raised just outside of Burgos. You may have seen the "historical" fiction movie starring Sophia Loren and Charlton Heston. Apparently he wasn't quite as valliant and Christian as the movie portrayed, but people seldom are. Either way, Burgos plays up their connection to El Cid, even though he spent his latter days and died in Valencia. His remains are buried in the Burgos Cathedral (typically extravagant and beautiful for Spain). There are several statues of El Cid in and around town, so I went to check them out, and saw the interesting artistic licenses taken. I had a famulous lunch at a vegan restaurant in the old quarter. I have long held a prejudice against vegan food, because I find most vegans pretty insufferable as a bunch (although I have known a few who are cool and not holier-than-thou about it). However, after so many weeks of bread and pork products, I felt like I was craving something with lots of vegetables and not a lot of processed fats. I gotta say, I've been totally coverted to the merits of vegan food by that restaurant alone. It was one of the best meals I had in Spain, and all vegan. While I'm not in danger of becoming a full vegan (I could not live without seafood, first of all), I think it couldn't hurt to incorporate a bit more vegan-inspired cuisine into my diet. I think as a rule people eat far too much shit, and the idea that we have to have a meat with every meal has become less appetizing to me as I get older. So look forward to vegan cooking experiences in future blog posts. Anyway, after a lunch that was delicious and filling without being heavy (!), I took a hike up to the Castillo (castle) at the top of the hill. Unfortunately, it was closed the day I was there so I couldn't go inside, but the trail was lovely and I got some great views and pictures of Burgos from the top. On my way back down I stopped over the Puente de Santa Maria, and passed under the Arco (arch) of the same name. The Arco usually has a museum inside, but it was closed to set up for the next exhibit. It sounds like some of the sights were a bust, but I really enjoyed myself in Burgos because the people were incredibly nice, the views were beautiful, and it felt a bit more relaxed than the previous few places I had been in Spain.
LA RIOJA (LOGRONO, HARO, BRIONES)
The next morning, I got up and caught an early bus to Logrono, in the heart of La Rioja, Spanish wine country. My hostel room was a single, which was nice, and had a small terrace overlooking the old town square. I spent my first afternoon just walking around, as I usually do, exploring and getting a feel for the town. I passed some great wine shops and wineskin shops (still handmade) and walked over a few bridges that cross the Ebro River. Logrono owes much of its growth during medieval times to the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail, and the town is very mindful of its history, with plenty of establishments catering to pilgrims and the trademark scallop shell decorating many a streetsign, wall, or walking path. I pintxo-hopped my way through the old quarter that evening, drinking quite a bit of red wine (I was in wine country...I had to...) before heading up to my hostel. I intended on taking an early bus out to Haro, which is supposedly the best please to visit bodegas (wineries) in La Rioja. I had a really lame experience in Haro (even though I got there by 11 am, none of the sights were open yet, none of the wineries would accept visits without a pre-arranged appointment, and this crotchety old dude who ran the sandwich shop in the bus station kept insisting he didn't understand me and wouldn't let me but a sandwich - fuck him, p.s.), so decided to cut out early in favor of nearby Briones, a tiny town of 900 people that is home to the incredible four-floor Dinastia Vivanco museum. The Vivanco family (or dynasty, as the name of the museum implies) is a major wine producer in La Rioja, and has been mproducing wine for several generations. The current owner has this awesome cheesey introduction video that everyone has to watch before entering the museum, and it discusses how he built the museum to pay homage to the land that has given the family its livelihood. The museum houses a thorough history of wine and wine-making, with massive exhibits and videos of barrel-making, wine bottle-blowing, wineskin-crafting, corking, and the world's largest collection of wine openers (seriously). There was also a ton of incredibly well-preserved artifacts of wine bottles, bowls, and art related to wine and its uses dating back from phoenician times to the present. It has got to be one of the most impressive private museums I have ever seen. Briones is such a small town that it has no real bus stop...so you have to just ask around town to see where the buses pick you up. It's completely unmarked, and I talked to about 5 different elderly folks (there seem to be few native young people in rural Spain) who told me roughly similar directions, so I hung out near a park bench that seemed to corrrespond to where most were telling me to go, and eventually, lucked out and caught a bus back to Logrono. That evening I had dinner in the square and a real ass 20 piece Mexican mariachi band was performing. It was SO refreshing to hear a Mexican accent again. No lisping at all. Wonderful. I stayed out a bit later than I anticipated that night (my waiter kept buying me glasses of wine) but eventually called it a night and got up the next morning to rush to catch my train for Zaragoza, with a connecting train to Barcelona. I was in such a rush, that I left my new jacket (that I purchased in San Sebastian) in the closet. I realized it about 10 minutes before my train pulled into Barcelona that afternoon, and I new that it was long gone by that point. I hope whoever finds it puts it to good use. In the meantime, I will pour a little out for my bitchin jacket that I thought would be the pride and joy of my trip to Spain. Sigh.
I need to head out now. Will finish my update a little later.
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