A Swiss visitor and a weekend getaway into Picos

Janine became the first official visitor when she came over on Friday from Switzerland, and we set out on a weekend trip into the mountains. After some last minute scrambling to figure out numbers, and reserve accommodation, we started praying to the weather gods and were treated to a lovely mini-holiday!

First, to stock up on food and drink for the weekend....

Stocking up at Eroski--we made sure it's not all junk food in there!

We arrived in Baró just around 11:30pm or so and got into a bit of a jam....in the dark, we couldn't see where to park and ended up getting stuck in some mud.... After several attempts of jamming bits of wood and stone underneath to gain traction (unsuccessful though we tried hard), we found two neighbours who helped push the car out. I was too busy cheering to get a shot of that bit... ;)

A bit of a misadventure to start off Friday night...

After that little glitch, the boys were even more ravenous and started working on how to get the bbq going....

Now if only it would light easily and strongly....

The boys dig into the bbq meats after all the excitement...this was about 1:30am or so....

Cooking up some veggies to balance out the diet

Sergio warms up in front of the cozy fireplace

The distinguishing facade of our little weekend cabin (the blue section on the left, not the collapsing one on the right) :)

Loft/attic of the house--beautiful wood and lots of light

Saturday morning (okay so it was afternoon by the time we woke up and got going...) was looking a bit grey so we decided to head to Potes (the biggest village in the mountains here) for a bit of a walk and explore. But first, lunch at Meson de Los Llanos, for some typical mountain eats....

Oscar tucks into a vat of warm broth with some noodles--cocido part 1

Tom is grinning from ear to ear with a plate full of meat--part two of cocido liebanego

Mmmm.....happy and full of food

My much-coveted cheesecake...in the end, I was left with only half of it!

From the restaurant, we walked up into the towns and with the sun peeking out amongst the grey skies and drizzle, we caught sight of a rainbow over the valley!

The weather was good but we were tired and had bought a ton of stuff, so that night, we cooked up a feast and just hung out playing games and singing folk songs into the night... ;)

A fondue feast in a cabin in the mountains.....how suitable! :)

Fondue forks could be a hazard in the hands of some...

Bread bits mark who is losing the card games...

The next morning (okay, it was afternoon again), we got up to lovely sunshine and beautiful views, and cleaned up our stuff to go. We packed up and headed to the gondola at Fuente De, to go up up up and perhaps do a bit of hiking. Unfortunately, there was still quite a bit of snow, so we trekked a tiny bit and sloshed around, then turned back, since we weren't equipped with snowshoes, poles and bags of rations.

A lovely view from the house

Group shot by the lookout of Fuente De

Yes, it is May, but there is still lots of snow up high!

After a bit of a snowy hike, picnic time--everyone has their own personal sandwich!

We headed back towards home and made some short detours along the way....a bit of highway congestion and a pit stop for a unique religious experience...

A little bit of countryside traffic

Not photoshopped--it's a real postcard shot of the mountains!

Who treks along the cliffs to go to mass, and when??

A non-trip related photo that I really liked. We were by the beach one day and there were tons and tons of snails bathing on the plants lining the boardwalk. Thought it was really cool. :)

Snails galore basking in the sun by the beach

Friends, food and free labour

Another mishmash of random photos from the last little while.

Updates below include:

1) social gatherings for various occasions

2)more kitchen experiments

3)toiling in the fields

4)Spanish Mother's Day

5)this is the way they move their things....

1) Out of town visitors, special meals and another party at home

One of Ruben's Spanish friends has been living in Dublin for a while now, and brought along 3 friends for a short trip of wining and dining. On Saturday night, we went out with a bunch of others, and the Irish group went all out. Heck, they were stuck for longer than expected due to the ash clouds wreaking havoc at airports, so why not party to the fullest? :)

Tom is thrilled with the "best tortillas in the world"--he set the record that night, with the consumption of 3 large pintxos worth, topped with various items, and is now a super fan. If only CruzBlanca would hire him as their spokesperson... ;)

Not everyone is a Spaniard--who's the odd one out?

This year my birthday fell on a weekday so we went out to celebrate the following Saturday, with a nice seafood meal on a lovely sunny day. Still windy and slightly chilly, but you take what you can get on the north coast. :) We went to the area of town that's filled with seafood joints, and were told at one place that they were full until 5:30pm (for lunch...we got there around 3pm...) so we went next door. Casa Silvio was a cute little family-run place, and they know their stuff, since they have a fishing history. The photos on the wall showed various members of the clan with their catches, and famous folks (none of which I knew) coming to dine. We tried different things, such as centollo (the big crab below) and rodaballo (flounder) and then had dessert. Mmmmm.....lovely, super filling and interesting!

My birthday seafood feast involved "centollo", known as the European spider crab, or spiny spider crab. The shell is thick and solid, so no biting or else you break your teeth! Mmmm....it was good, but took a while to hack through and pick out every last morsel!

After lunch, a celebratory drink in the sunshine, on the patio of the luxurious five-star Hotel Real. This is where the royals and VIPs come to stay when they are in town, and we decided it was a good treat for once in our lives. :) The views of the bay are spectacular!

A light dinner at home turned into a bit of an event again...we had thought that simple finger foods wouldn't be too much work, but somehow things just always take forever. Only professional training will help us organise this party-planning business better, I suppose. :) It was a success though, and everyone LOVED the sushi (lovingly assembled by new sushi-student Tom) and falafels (new recipe, with modifications due to lack of ingredients)--these were devoured first and foremost. A fun night with lots of laughs, yummy eats, and great company.

Graeme doesn't look too impressed by Jessica's chopstick skills.....We had some takers on the chopstick using, but some gave up after a few attempts. One day, I will make chopstick-usage a trend here in Spain..... ;)

Tom looks a bit puzzled with the concept....

Raul is thinking hard about what to eat next...

2) Kitchen experiments full-steam ahead!

These are called "percebes". Someone said they were "cockles" in English but I have no idea. They were yummy--they look like little claws on the outside but inside is kind of like a mini geoduck. You yank on the bit between the white claw part and the dark stem. It opens and reveals the meaty bit that you eat. Quite a lot of work to get all the little ones, but they were yummy. Cost a fortune in the restaurants since they are rare and difficult to collect, but we got a good deal and decided to give it a try....

Falafel attempt number one--surprising they didn't fall apart while being fried! These ones had fresh parsley and were slightly softer due to the extra moisture, but with fresh-homemade naan (altered from a random recipe, of course), tzatziki and some veggies, it was a healthy and delicious new success! :)

Satay beef and veggie stirfry with vermicelli base....mmmmmmmmmmm.......

3) Working in the fields

Ruben's family owns a piece of land in Loredo, close to the beach, and there is a tiny cabin where they go and spend time in the summer when the weather is nice. Just a getaway, out of the city and into nature. It's very peaceful there, since the surrounding homes are mostly vacation spots for people from all over the place, so there is hardly any noise.

The land, as you can sort of see, is quite big. It's not flat (that concept is foreign up here in the rugged and mountainous north), and there are pine trees. That means pine cones and branches and various bits and pieces littering the ground. Which makes for difficult and possibly machine-wrecking lawn-mowing. So step one was to go around collecting pinecones and branches with the wheelbarrow. That was my job for the day. Voluntarily, of course. :)

Around 12pm, we arrived and started to unload and get started. See how high the grass has gotten in just one week? This is the "before" shot.

There were lots of weeds and tall grasses for interesting creatures, so I tried to snap a few of the pretty butterflies that were getting chased away by the boot-wearing girl stomping around, or the noisy grass-hacking monstrosity that was making its way around, destroying their landing areas. It was difficult getting close enough for a shot without scaring them off....I wasn't slacking off!!

Help arrived partway through and Ruben's dad ended up with a face full of grass bits and shirt covered with grass stains as he made his way around

The super heavy-duty mower, that is like a quad with its mega-wheels, and 3 speeds, plus reverse. I gave it a go but it was like a scene out of a cartoon, with me being towed by the power, as I tried to wrestle it around curves and steer it wildly into turns. It was entertaining but not graceful, haha! ;D

The end of a long 4 hours, the mower is loaded back into the trailer, and you can see that the grass has been defeated by our determination. Luckily it didn't rain, though the forecast was bad, and we came equipped with boots. At the end it was sunny and hot and made for slightly easier work....

4) Spanish Mother's Day

Unlike Canada and the UK, it is the first Sunday of May. So we went out for a seafood lunch in Somo in a nice restaurant called El Galeon. It was packed full of eager diners, and we ran into some people that they hadn't seen in years, so after the meal, there was frantic catching-up. :)

To start, some rabas (fried squid) and large clams...mmmm... We also had changurro (crab meat from the centollo pictured above) mixed with a creamy tomato sauce, but I forgot to get a shot of that.

Then the main course was the famous "mero" (Wikipedia says they are "groupers" in English....don't know what those are either....)--apparently the BEST fish there is. And no, the Spaniards NEVER exaggerate.... ;D It was yummy, and huge!

Marcelino was eager to try this dessert since he had seen it earlier when other people ordered...here he is happily enjoying it! Flaky pastry with cream.....

Someone has their eye on my dessert... ;)

A photographer friend came to visit at the posada (guesthouse) of Ruben's aunt and cousin, and took some family shots. I got one where the dog was looking at the camera, but the people weren't paying attention... ;)

5) One day, I was in the city centre of Santander and saw this truck parked in the pedestrian-only area. Someone waaaaaayyyyyy up in one of the higher flats was moving. So rather than go through the inside of the building, it's common here to send this machine up and load things out and down on a motorized platform. Seemed a bit precarious at times......

I was on the 6th floor of the opposite building teaching a class, watching them load and unload boxes and such. That's a long way down.....

Loading up with boxes to send down.... What if you owned a grand piano?!?!?!

The Barcelona story--take 2

Once upon a time, there were 3 girls who decided to go to Europe for the first time ever, backpacking around various countries together. They had never gone before, and amongst them, spoke lots of English and Chinese, a bit of French and nothing of Spanish, Greek, or Italian. However, with English, enthusiasm and lots of courage they thought they could conquer the world and so set off across the waters to explore a new continent.

After about two weeks making their way down from London through various French towns, they came upon Barcelona, the much-talked about Spanish city that isn't quite so Spanish as a mix of various cultures, backgrounds and commercialism. The dazzling works of Gaudi impressed them, and along with the other half a billion tourists, they made their way around town, admiring the legacy he left behind.

On the second to last day, they decided to go up to the Olympic park in Montjuic and that's when their innocence was shattered. While waiting for the bus, a suspicious looking figured lurked around, but they didn't think anything of him since he was just a young guy probably waiting to go somewhere. Within a split second, everything changed. The sketchy fellow raced around the shelter, snatched the bag off one of the girls and raced down the street. She screamed, and chased after him, while the other two suddenly realised what had happened. They sprang into action but the boy had already started running down the steps and into the forests below. The victim tripped and fell in her flipflops while racing down after him, and within a minute, had lost sight of the attacker.

A few hours later, the girls were in the local hospital waiting for treatment for the girl who fell and injured herself while chasing the thief. The other two had accompanied her in the ambulance, after some help from two tourists who translated to a local woman who called the police. The girls spoke to a pair of cops up by the mountain, and then another set outside the hospital, in rough French, since one of them said he spoke French. In fact, what he spoke was Catalan and communication was far from smooth. While the victim was waiting for treatment from non-English speaking medical staff, the other two phoned the Canadian embassy and the family of the third girl to tell them what happened.

About 15 hours later, the morning had arrived and the girls set off to the Canadian consulate to sort out paperwork that the girl required, since she no longer had her passport or her Canadian student visa. In the end, she flew to London to get all this organised at the Canadian embassy and then ended up going home because of the complications in paperwork, and her injuries. The other two continued on, having had their enjoyment shattered, and were left with a poor image of Barcelona and an intense desire to leave the city, after meeting quite a few other tourists in the hospital who were robbed and injured that same day.

TAKE 2:

The second time to Barcelona after a few years of hiatus ended in a much better way, resulting in a look a Parc Guell, which was skipped in the hurry to get out of town during the first trip, and lots and lots of walking around with two wonderful guides who knew a lot of history and told me cool stories. The city is an interesting mix of artsy types, hippies, tacky tourist shops, hoards of tourists and a strong, passionate Catalan-presence.

Ahhhh...a fitting quote for the boy from the north coast!

La Rambla del Mar at night

Christopher Columbus pointing to.....that's not the way to America, Chris!

We rented a shared apartment in the Gothic neighbourhood, right smack-dab in the city centre. The location was fantastic, the room was huge and it was new, but just a wee bit noisy at night....earplugs did wonders though! :)

The shared kitchen was fabulous and only one other couple used it and they didn't do so much cooking. Money saved with some good home-cooked meals, enjoyed out on the terrace right outside of the glass doors.

One of the coolest street performers in Las Ramblas--we never did see him set up in the mornings, so my curiosity of his little floating seat is still not satisfied! We also saw a Messi impersonator, and a Ronaldinho busker--both had great techniques and dazzled the crowd with their tricks.

And now, the works of Gaudi.....his works make the city much more cheerful, and brighten up the town with the colours and whimsical styles:

Walking along the sidewalk is so much more fun with these patterns to look at!

Casa Batlló

La Pedrera (Casa Milà), an awesome building inside and out (we saw a program on tv about it, and this woman who lives there has a flat with 6 or 7 rooms, many cool windows and a kitchen with 4 entrances!)

Does anyone know what this says?? It was hard to see up so high, but looks like "please" even though it really can't be....now I'm very curious!

The streets seem so much cooler with decorative lights like this

The entrance of Parc Guell--as you can see there are swarms of tourists....

I want this on my ceiling!

I love the colours and curvy patterns!

Touches of Gaudi pop up amongst the skyline

Panorama of Barcelona from Parc Guell

This continues from above because I don't think you can stitch them together on here....

The famous Sagrada Familia....a church with cool whimsical touches

Another funky Gaudi lampost in the park near the Arc de Triomphe (yes there is one in Barcelona, but it's Modernist-style with many colours!)

We were in town during Easter, and there is a big Andalucian (southern Spain) presence here in Catalunya, so the festivities were big and plentiful.

The crowd listening to the mass in front of the cathedral (don't know why they weren't inside....)

Leading the procession, and followed by their clean-up duo....

The typical garb is unusual and shocking for some people...

Barefoot in the procession means you have something to confess to, and therefore need to sacrifice and show your dedication, or something like that....

The famous Boqueria market, which sells everything from fruits and veg, to fish and meat, to random bits and pieces of ethical food. The unfortunate part was the mounts of tourists that made it impossible to walk around, let alone look at or shop for anything. I can't imagine how the locals get in there to do their daily shopping (we saw some but felt sorry for them having to push through the crowds of photo-taking foreigners....like me!)

Elbow to elbow with the other 4 million (just a random exaggeration..it seemed like millions....) tourists inside the famous Boqueria market

Mmmmm...lovely offerings of fungi! :D

Fresh juices for sale at the fruit stands--what lovely colours!

Time for food, music and the beach:

We ordered two "pan tomaca" (toast with tomato puree and olive oil-- a Catalunyan specialty) thinking that it was two slices, but this was the first order that came through......luckily we caught them in time to stop them from making the other one....

This funky South American group playing near the beach had the crowd eating out of their hands! They played great music, were funny and full of enthusiasm!

Skaters chilling out by the beach

Palau de la Musica at night....

A cool band playing in Parc Guell