2026 Spain Trip: The Tasting Menus, Pt. 1 (EMi & Islares)

EMi

1.) Tuna, Yellowtail & Lacto-Fermented Chili

Love this little tartlettes - such a great chewy, brilliant way to to start the meal. This was also a perfect start to the combination of Spanish proteins and vegetables, and Korean spices, rubs, etc. Just a better combination than you would think.

2.) Gim Bugak, Rice & Nori

The Gim Bugak is a freid rice topped in this case with raw, lightly buttered shrimp, which was just incredible. The Nori itself so crisp - apparently, Spain being the largest producer of food-grade seaweed in teh world, of course most of which is sent away.

3.) Venison, Croustade & Korean Mustard

Another little bite - they brought these out quickly, the last being tartare of venison. Maybe wasn't a huge fan of all three of the little starting bites to be raw preparations, but still they were all tasty and such interesting flavor combinations - I think that became the running theme of the place.

4.) Jerusalem Artichoke & Sage Broth

Man o man was this broth special, just perfect. So smoky, so crisp the artichoke flavor and the sage flavor. It was simple in design but just an incredible way to warm you up before the mains began.

5.) Hamachi, Sea Grapes and Pear

I wouldn't say there were really any misses in teh menu, but this was the msot forgettable in a way, another raw preparation (which would largely change here on out), but the interesting bits were the graps and pear - it was a truly lovely sauce and combination along with the hamachi.

6.) Scallop, Parsnip & XO

The scallop was so slightly seared and smoked, and the aprsnip fried bits were an awesome combination. Not really sure where the XO came in, it was nowhere near as spicy as XO traditionally is, but not sure I needed that as it may have overpowered it.

7.) Wild Boar Aebelskivor

What is an aebelskivor? Well, its a little fried Danish bolinho, normally a dessert, this time filled with perfect shredded wild board, and mushroom sauce below. There was some notes of sweetness as well, fulfilling what an Aebelskivor normally is. Overall, another stand-out dish and the first cooked meat preparation of the day.

8.) Chantarelles & Maracona Almond

Overtime, I start getting more glad of trestaurants like this throwing out a random all veg course. Just stop me about the places taht are largely veg (Indian tasting menus excluded). Here we get just perfectly cooked chantarelle mushrooms, with a great almond sauce. Simple, but beautiful and a nice change of pace.

9.) Foie Gras, Duck, Lobster & Gochugaro

Lavish as hell dish - I guess as their way to overcompensate for the missed meat in teh last dish by tripling up here - from the two pieces of seared foie, one over duck breast and one over lobster. My word it was indulgent, adn fatty and sweet and brilliant.

10.) Besugo, White Kimchi & Squid

The foam was the best part, for a reason - it was foam of lightly cooked shrimp. The fish itself was great, with its crisp skin. For the main fish dish, it was still excellent, if a bit simple I guess. Well, maybe not - teh squid foam is in no way simple.

11.) Venison, Pickled Kohlrabi, Chantarelles & Lobster Curry

As I've grown older and more accustomed to these spots, I have also noticed that often the main meat dish, the final savory, is good but a bit too meat heavy - the old lets give you a perfectly cooked piece of high end beef, with a lovely sauce (lobster), some sides (kohlrabi and chantarelles) and call it a day. Every bit of this dish was cooked perfectly, but still I feel like I had it ten times over.

12.) Cherry, Sake & Acorn

I've not had this ten times over. This was a lovely palatte cleanser, using almond and cherry bits frozen together over a sake crisp. Just an insanely complex dish for what is usually a simple gratin.

13.) Boletus, Seawood Caramel and Matcha

Maybe I shouldn't call the earlier one a palatte cleanser - they certainly didn't. It was mainly just the first of two desserts, and the second one here had some lovely combinations of tastes - the seaweed, the matcha, so much else, but was still a bit of a come down from the prior.

14.) Petit Fours

And Oh, what and ending, with maybe the most visually stunning and diverse set of petit fours. all foru different textures, different plays on various normal Korean desserts. On teh whole, EMi was a really nice spot, if a bit less Spanish as maybe you like. Still, the combination worked wonderfully.

Islares

1.) Small Bites: Sorropotun Broth, Limpet with Seaweed, Octopus with Galician Garlic. 

I put these four together because they were served as four simulatenous bites, and they were all quite interesting. Not too much fancy about them, except for how lovely that broth was, but just a graet way to start the meal just featuring ingredients from Northern Spain (not just Basque Country, but Galicia, Cantabria and Asturias. 

2.) Spider Crab & Lobster Salpicon

A perfect spiral of lobster on top, really well sauced crab underneath. I'm not sure what Salpicon was, but every other part of the dish was nice as well. Really nice real start to just some great Spanish seafood and more than that flavors.

3.) Tigre Spicy Mussell with Galician Chorizo Empanada

And this two parter really took it up a notch. Not sure if it is a good thing when your favorite dish of the day is dish #3, but these two were unreal. The tartlette of mussels was wonderful, but that "empanada" of chorizo and pepper was one of the best things I have eaten in quite a long time. Just a perfect three combined bites.

4.) White Tuna with Basque Bell Pepper Stew

This is the first of many times over the course of Islares, and then Azurmendi to come, that red pepper was featured. Here, the pepper was a spicy, sharp addition to a really well cooked piece of tuna. The dish itself was simple, but truly Spanish in the best way.

5.) Langoustine & Cider-Basque Saustage Stew Talo

Talo is something like a Spanish version of a taco - same principle, and it was lovely to roll this up with great cider braised sausage and foam. Another simple dish but really exhibited the heart of Spanish cuisine. At this point I was really starting to wonder weather the more Spanish-forward approach of Islares would end up with me liking it more than EMi, the latter of which is probably technically more refined.

6.) Karrantza spring ongion, Magano squid and Nokoro Coffee

Hey, look it's another middle of the menu turn to a vegetarian dish, this time with a brillaintly sweet, charred onion. There in theory was squid in teh sauce, but it was baby squid taht was basically pulverized into it. The coffee flavor was way stronger, and was a weird combination but did kind of work.

7.) Erandio Tomato Puff Pastry, Garum and Seaweed Butter

Many know that I don't like raw tomato. I barely like cooked/charred tomato, but I slightly do more than raw, which made this dish edible in my eyes. More than just edible, it was quite, quite good especially with all the other elements. The seaweed butter in particular was such a uniquely umami flavor. All the flavors were helpful to drown out the tomato a bit.

8.) Fresh Summer White Beats with Chicken Skin Stew

The first of two bean-forward dishes and let me say this. I know well cooked beans are really well respected, and tough to do, and beans are a common local star ingredient, but I'm not sure if that beans are for me. The chicken skin stew was awesome, so the dish still ate like a lovely soup, but yeah, I can take or leave beans a bit.

9.) Clams with Asturian White Beans

Hey, it's beans again! But luckily the star was the perfectly, lightly cooked clams and the green sauce which made for another just incredible little soup. Beans probably didn't need to be featured on two of the dishes, but the clams made up for it.

10.) Cantabrian Beef with Anchovy Marinade

Hey look, another perfectly (and in this case I mean perfectly) cooked piece of beef, from a dairy cow local to Cantabria, with a vegetable. The star was the beef, certainly, but nearly as good, or at least as notable was the anchovy sauce (the dark thing) which was sweet and pungent. Great dish.

11.) The Flan

If I sound a bit down on the last three dishes, that would be fair, but this made up for it - a simple flan but easily the sweetest, lightest, fluffiest, most brilliant flan I have ever had. Honestly, this was the best single dish of either of the menus so far.

12.) Valdovino Oxoco Chocolate with Seaweed

A seaweed heavy dessert (both teh green thing and the white blobs were seaweed based)? Sign me up. The chocolate and seaweed combination (and this is real seaweed flavor, not just sea-salt) is a great one.

13.) Goxua & Espelette Paprika

The Goxua was a really dense but flavorful cake underneat the white sauce, and the top gelato had pepper sauce and pepper sprinkles. This was a really weird taste, that mix of sweet, denseness and spiciness, but each bite got better and better. Lovely dessert. Islares knocked the deserts out of the park.

2026 Spain Trip: Bilbao, Pt. 2 (Food & Nightlife)

Bilbao is about food, as is the Basque country in general. Yes, as I mentioned in the other post, that San Sebastian is the more notable of the two main Basque cities, but Bilbao holds it own. It holds its own in top-end spots - of which I went back to Azurmendi, having gone previously in 2021 with my friends, and then a lunch at Islares, another michelin tasting menu spot right in the heart of the city, with a view of the Guggenheim across the road. But it also damn great at just serving up pintxo's - little pieces of brilliance on top of bread that line the bar tops of so many bars in Bilbao.

Pintxos come in all shapes and forms in terms of how they are offered, stylized and how important they are to every place. Of my six meals in Bilbao, I had pintxos for four of them, including both of my dinners Thursday and Friday night (Azurmendi being the other dinner). At those times, things get crowded, and there is also the unknown of when places stop giving pintxos, especially on Thursday, with the continuing trend of bars staying open a good hour after they stop selling food.

But the food, oh the food. The first spot was actually an accident - arriving early into Bilbao, I had some extra tikme to kill before both my AirBNB opened up and my work day started. I googled for a few names near the bus station as I had my suitcase, and foudn a spot named Kami, which was a tiny but well furnished bar serving some truly gourmet tapas. I call these tapas becasue they weren't classic pintxos (stuff over bread), but were incredible, from eating a mussel and seawood broth in a mussel cracker, an incredible mushroom quiche and the one thing that was the most like a pintxo, a braised oxtail stew with a smoky, chared red pepper on top. This was a random spot, not near most of hte heavy pintxos/bar areas, and it was excellent - a great way to start.

The other pintxos lunch was on Saturday, where I didn't want to eat too much before Azurmendi at night, and went to maybe the opposite of Kami, a super well known pintxos bar that has maybe turned it into a science, named El Globo right in the heart of the new town. El Globy has four bars, one on each side which is really two pairs of two (as they offer the same pintxos). Like most, you just squeeze into a spot on the bar top and call out what drink you want (cervezas, poured ice cold each time), and which pintxos you want. Here I got a few - a lovely fried squid and caremalized onions, a squid ink gratin (lovely cheesy and messy), a smoked salmon and crab, and a txistorra (a long, thin sausage). These were all quite familiar, but the incredibly throughput of El Globo was amazing.

My two tapas dinners were a bit more of me roaming around the old town, starting at Nueva Plaza, a lovely little old square that I didn't realize until I went there that I had gone there in 2021 when my friends and I went on a similar pintxos crawl. My first stop this time was definitely one of the ones we went to last time, Bar Bilbao, with its notable blue tile interior and similar to El Globo set-up, a place that was mostly just spinning pintxos. They were closing soon, so didn't have the full selection but still ahd some great ones - a little duck crepe with raspberry, a duck and brie, a jamon, egg and red pepper, and then a small duck wrapped in nori. The beer here was also about as cold and refreshing as ever.

From there, I walked around the old town trying to find places still open, which was Berton, which is the first foray into a different type of pintxo restaurant which is where it is a a-la-carte restaurant with a full menu, but also serves pintxos and some raciones (appetizer size things, I guess) in the bar area. There's a lot of these, including Berton where I came too late to order steak cooked in a little charcoal grill table-side, but could get a few more skewer type tapas. That wasn't enough, so I found a brillaitn little spot that I went back to on Friday Night as well, which is Taska Beltz.

Hard to describe really, it is more of a bar, with two super gregarious bartenders/owners. Their main offering are vermouth based cocktails made from their own local vermouth. They also have a great wine collection. And of course they have food - no tapas but larger raciones, including a set of 5-6 meat and seafood dishes cooked in this brilliant pepper-based sauce in a clay pot. I got on Thursday pieces of pork belly slathered in this, which was incredible. Friday was a set of mussels which was good, but the freshness of the mussels salinity didn't mix perfectly. Still, the scene itself was great - the best being when one of the bartenders jokingly yelled at two foreigners who came in asking for Sangria that no they don't ahve it because Sangria is Spanish and they are not in Spain.

The last stop to talk about was Victor Montes, which is in the Berton sense of it beinga  very well established restaurant in the Plaza Nueva, but has a large pintxos part as well, where I got a few goodies, one with a txistorra baked into a roll, then a great one with two duck dumplings and pickled onion, then a jamon queso and ham croquette, and finally a fried squid. Victor Montes was probably the platonic ideal of this mix of the restaurant.

The food is amazing in Bilbao and eating at these pintxos spots to some degree involves some drinking (though not required), and generally goes to about 11pm-12am, which helps paper over the fact they're cocktail game, at least in Summer, is pretty non-existent. There are a few named spots, but the most convenient to get to, Puente, was oddly closed both times I went around 12am, despite theri website very clearly saying their closing time was 2am. And much like Toledo, most clubs are shut for summer (and there was no Circulo del Arte). No problem, however, because the beer game in Bilbao is wonderful. I've already talkeda bout the super cold draft copas in the pintxo bars, but even beyond that had some incredible spots.

My favorite was Mumbo Jumbo Taproom, which has ten taps, all Spanish craft beers including five of their own (Mumbo Jumbo), including both an amazing hazy and a graet porter. It was a place right off the river, with just a graet set-up, great set of people and very much after my heart. Equally nice was Sunset Blvd, a bar in a sea of bars on a stretch right as you get to the old town frmo above, which has an amazing beer bottle collection, from various Spanish craft beers to tons of imports, including Delirium, and this weird device that allows you to basically take a Guiness can and mkae it into an imprmptu draft. And then to end the night was Skulls Metal Pub, so picked because of the great music, the interesting crowd, and that they had AC. They also had two local IPAs in bottles, and the bartender was a great guy. In the end, Bilbao is more about the food than the nightlife, but the nightlife wasn't bad just more low-key, which is again not a bad thing.

And of course I will cover Islares and Azurmendi in a separate post, but needless to say, both were absolutely excellent, and really helps pair the Pintxos and Tasting Menus approach to Bilbao, which I do think is the way to go, and put a capstone on this great, weird, trip.

2026 Spain Trip: Bilbao, Pt. 1 (The Sights)

The only constant in this trip from initial planning stages was I would end in Bilbao, to take advantage of United's relatively new non-stop from Bilbao to Newark. Also I wanted to see Bilbao again, as my first trip happened at a time when there were still some serious covid restrictions. We ran through the city quickly in a day and a half, and while we ahd fun, I got the sense I missed out on a lot. After being here for two days, that logic held firmly true. Bilbao is a wonderful little hamlet in the valley in beautiful basque country.

That said, I did have one major issue, and that was an unexpected one. The weather was in theory beautiful - highs in the low 80s, lows in the high 60s. Like that seems perfect. But it was very, very humid (though rarely rained), and because it never gets too hot, no one has AC, or the few that do didn't turn it on. My AirBNB didn't have AC, but has three good fans set-up. That was fine, but so many times I went to pintxo bars and places where inside it was becoming a sauna, but outside it was lovely. I mean this in a literal sense - I preferred the weather in Toledo and Zaragoza - way hotter, but far less humid and everything is air conditioned. Anyway, fancy American AC-boy talk over.

The sights were great, from the couple I re-did from last time (mostly the Guggenheim Museum) to all the new ones. Let's start with the Guggenheim - it is funnny how much more interesting this one is structurally (the museum itself, I mean) than the New York version. The building is beautiful, and outside itself you have things like the iconic Puppy flower sculpture in front, and myriad other sculptures (including one Mind Flayer looking thing) out back. Inside also has some excellent stuff. One exhibit remains the same, this weird one of various arcs and circles of iron that you can walk through - somehow this is a big hit. I don't get it, to be honest. No matter, because the rest of the museum was fabulous. The biggest current exhibit was this Japanese American artist who makes just stunning floating sculptures out of wrought iron and thread and stuff. Then there was of course thier own collection, from multiple Basquiat's to Warhols to much more. The Guggenheim is always a great time - there is a reason why it is so iconic in Bilbao.

The only sad aspect, sites wise, was the other famous museum in Bilbao, the Museum of Fine Arts, is undergoing heavy, heavy renovations and construction, so like 80% of it is closed. They have left one wing untouched, whicih is mostly modern art. It is still lovely (though one of the exhibits was way too "modern" for me), and left entry free for the time being, but giving who knows if I will make another trip to Bilbao again, it was sad not to see the museum properly.

There were a bunch of new sites though, from two really nice churches, the more famous being the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, which had some amazing alter work, and some really gorgeous squares, or more commonly in Bilbao - circles, so well dressed, flowered, manicured. The city really is just gorgeous in every area. The final indoor site was an audible, when on Saturday morning there was a rain that was expected to last until around 12:15, so I went to the closest museum to me, right down the steps from my AirBNB to the old town (steps meaning a few hundered of them), which was the Euskal Museum, which is something like a Basque heritage museum. The Basque Country is famously a quasi-country - a place which would prefer to be independent (similar to Catalunya). They have their own language (which is like impossible to describe), and very much a unique culture, so this really well kept museum was a nice way to learn more about it.

I clarified indoor sites, because there were some nice outdoor ones, particularly a nice hike down from the Artxandako Park, which you can reach by either hiking up (I didn't do this) or taking the Artxandako Funnikular. The funicular itself is easy, short and quite lovely, and the views from the top are splendid. There is a nice path extending about 30 minutes to the West from the top that takes you past three or four other viewpoints, all with just beautiful views of Bilbao, from the Guggenheim, to the one actual skyscraper (which isn't really tall in reality, but still stands out a ton), to the glistening San Mames (the satdium where Atletic Bilbao - more known as Atletic Club) plays. Bilbao is a larger city than you think, even if it quite walkable, and the city being in this little valley of Bilbao is quite stark. It becomse quickly clear from this vantage point that it isn't surrounded by hills, but it is a canyon.

If this felt like a short summation of Bilbao in terms of the sites, that is true, but only because Bilbao, as any place in Basque country, is still food and lifestyle first. While Bilbao isn't San Sebastian in terms of quality of pintxos, it is like only 10% worse, adn has some of the best restaurants in teh world in its metro area. The nightlife is quite good, if less crazy as the rest of Spain - they like their beer here in a way that the rest of Spain doesn't. As you will see, from a gastronomic perspective, Bilbao is very much a city after my heart.

2026 Spain Trip: Zaragoza, Pt. 2 (The Food & Nightlife)

This weird work during the day and evening thing has made me realize that I'm not quite sure if I've actually had real meals in Spain. Certainly, I had a couple in my time in Zaragoza, but the others were having a collection of Tapas / Small Plates - which I guess is really what eating in Spain is all about anyway. The dinners particularly, were essentially math challenges - with me getting out of work anywhere from 10:00 - 11 local time, and most places stopping serving food around then. It is weird, Spain rightly is called out as a place where people eat late, but at least in Zaragoza what that seems to be translated to is everyone eats between 9-11pm. Most tapas bars, tavernas, etc., stay open until midnight, but usually stop serving food at 11. 

Because I was visiting midweek, there was also few places to go after dinner - which I had the luxury of doing as my work would only start around 2pm the next day. There were a few places I did still enjoy though. Firstly, some tabernas stay open until 1am during the week, but where I patronized was other spots. One was a gem - a place named Rock & Blues Bar, which is what the name says. It has live music nearly daily, though midweek the live shwos are usually between 7-10. Before or after that, it plays exclusively rock music, of all types. Its a big place, with a central square bar in the middle and seating all over, including outside. Rock-themed or Rock-music playing bars seem to be big time in Spain, as I would learn today as I write this in Bilbao that has a handful of them. In Bilbao too they stay open later than most.

Anyway. the drink selection at Rock & Blues Bar was standard fare, but they had decent beer options. Mostly standard regional drafts, the main one being Ambar which was decent, but also a good bottle selection including a couple IPAs. And like I had already learned in Toledo - alcohol when you get outside of Madrid, is very chaep. Most of the beers were 3-4 euros. On the whole, the Rock & Blues bar was perfect for Monday and Tuesday night. It was fairly empty Monday, but by Tuesday got fairly crowded. What really helped me was they have series of like theater type seats on teh side of the wall in the area with the stage in pairs, but one of the pairs had a broken seat - so that was perfect for a solo traveler, as given there seems to be a firm "everyone must be indoors after twelve" rule, it did get fairly crowded.

The other spot was on Wednesday Night, where I was surprised my curiousity to try a second place won out over my normally winning sense of familiarity. The place was on my list - La Belle Epoque, a 1920s themed cocktail bar on a strip of bars / clubs (most of them seedy looking) on a stretch south of the old town. They make all interesting cocktails from teh old days, and the very Italian bartender made me a couple of his concoctions. No idea if La Belle Epoque is as good as cocktail bars get in the city (I wasn't expecting to go to any) but it was still quite good.

Now to the food - I mentioned the tabernas and tapas bars, well most of them are in what I would say is a 3x3 stretch right in teh center of the old town, named as El Tubo. Most of the tabernas have El Tubo in their name. Walking those alleys are exactly what you expect when you think of streets of tapas bars in Spain - most with people spilling out into the street, enjoying small plates, snacks and drinks. Again, most I walked by had already stopped selling food, but all looked inviting. Tuesday Night I went to two tapas spots in El Tubo area, first at Bar Pilares, which had normal good fare - the little bunches of things on bread, but also a really nice fried pork belly app. The second spot though was more notable - Carmelo Bar, a small tapas shop (granted, good amount of seating outside) that serves fairly elevated tapas, one of which is their main offering - the Caramelo, which is Aragonesque braised lamb (which as I will get to, is incredible), potatoes over bread tapa, which was understandably incredible.

I also stuck to tapas for lunch on Wedensday after my intended restaurant was closed. This was El Truco (also in El Tubo area) which notably is gluten free, but that didn't stop their tapas & raciones (effectively slightly bigger dishes) from still being excellent, getting a couple small ones including a luxurious cod fritter, and a tap de chuleta (little cut of rib-eye) which was incredibly grilled. The final El Tubo spot was Wednesday night, where I could only get off work around 11:15, and went to Meli Del Tubo, which is a fancier tapas spot (decor wise) but still sold some classics, though with some elevated plating and the like, the best being a oxtail stew braised tapa. Also had some great scallop and octopus options as well.

Now, I didn't only do tapas - my dinner Monday and lunch Tuesday were at more normal restaurants. Let's start with Tuesday lunch at Restaurant El Fuelle, a large spot with a charming old school decor and just classic dishes. I got a sausage sampler (excellent, including a murcilla - blood sausage), a shaved tuna and red pepper salad (lovely, acidic) and then a aragonesque lamb over potatoes stew, which was amazing, though as I will get to a lesser version of the same dish I had the night before. Lamb is what Zaragoza does best, and it was incredibly juicy. El Fuelle gave a lot, to the point I took half of that dish home.

The last meal to mention was probably the single best, as I started Zaragoza with a bang, at Restaurante Palomeque, which is just a star place. I had a brilliant oxtail croquette, maybe the best fried cod I have ever had (along with great sauces and red pepper), and then one of the best lambs I have had this side of Borago. So perfectly roasted, such crackly, brilliant skin, such juicy flesh. It was also along with potatoes (this is I guess a standard dish) but the potatoes too were cooked, spiced and stewed brilliantly. Oh man, would I wish to have that everyday. But alas, I also enjoyed my wanders around El Tubo.

To finish the writings on Zaragoza, overall I leaved purely happy with the sights, with the food, with teh bars, with the lifestyle. This is true Spain - a large city where it feels like everyone knows each other, where it feels like no one works, where it feels like each spot is brimming with life. I also enjoyed my test case of doing this work from Europe for a week thing. I plan on re-running it on a more frequent basis - it truly makes more sense in a weird way than say working from a location in teh same time zone. The 3-4 hours in the morning were perfect to see everything, adn the 2-3 hours at night the same. Also got super lucky it was a fairly light work week, but luck is all you need to have a great time in Zaragoza.

2026 Spain Trip: Zaragoza, Pt. 1 (The Sights)

So, on this trip I would be working Monday through Thursday, taking the subsequent Friday off in Bilbao. There was a large overhanging question - where would I spend these days, hwhere I would largely be working from 2:30pm to around 11pm local time (assuming I could manufacture a fairly light week to be done at 5pm most days. The answer was going to be one of the secondary cities in Spain that my parents went to on their trip earlier. In the end, it came down to Toledo, Segovia, Cordoba and Zaragoza - one of those was going to be the weekend spot, one the largely work week spot. After a lot of ruminating (read: a couple days furiously googling stuff) I decided on Toledo on the weekend and Zaragoza for the week. It made sense in theory - Toledo the more touristy place, Zaragoza the way bigger actual city. At the time I didn't know how big Zaragoza was - it is the 4th biggest city in Spain (after Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia). It acted like it to, providing a great three days around working.

Because I got lucky that this was a quiet week, the working actually was a net positive. The weather in Zaragoza was brutal - roughly highs of 95-104 each day. Not too humid, but still, ridiculously hot. But when ti was that hot, I was of course inside, in a very well air conditioned apartment (central AC even) not realizing the world was baking outside. I would do sightseeing in the mornings when it was noticeably cooler, generally from 9:30am - 12:30 on Tuesday and Wednesday, grab a nice lunch and then start working. And because it was a light week, I woudl re-emerge around 11pm when it was cooler (still hot) and still lively and have fun in the Zaragoza-ian night.

So, about Zaragoza, today it is very much a working city. There weren't too many tourist (or at least how i judge that, not too many people clearly not speaking Spanish). But there are a lot of people. It is a center of commerce, of industry, of life. It also has a really interesting history, being the stie in Spain that Augustus Caesar gave his name - to which one of the ancient names of the city is Caeseragusta. There are still Roman ruins lying under the city, some partially excavated, including a large amphitheater (or at least the remnants of such). The city itself has no real old town, it is all somewaht European, except for a large pedestrian only area near its center that houses two churches - each better than the other in terms of beauty and importance. You can't escape Catholicism in Europe, man.

Thats where the sights really start - the dueling churches of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar and the Cathedral of Zaragoza. They are both equally brilliant in their own ways. The Basilica is in conventional terms, better - it is bigger, more hauntingly beautiful. The faux-alter area around wehre Mary appeared on a pillar (hence the name) is glorious. So is the actual altar. It is everything you want out of a large European church. Sadly, they didn't in theory let you take photos - though many people did, and that particular "rule" was similar to all of the main sights in Zaragoza weirdly. The Basilica was awesome.

So was the Cathedral, which despite being considerably smaller had some of the best of one type of feature I have ever seen. Namely, their side altars were audacious. They were also quite different - some had black marble work, some white marble, some wood. But no matter the material, they were all brilliant. The main altar itself was way overshadoweed by the brilliance along the sides. Not sure how it came to be this way - I really should look up the backstory of why we have varying materials and designs and what not but it all worked so well.

Lest you think the only sights are churches, Zaragoza has some other hidden beauties as well. Let's start with the other well known sight, the Aljafaria Palace a Moorish palace turned into the current Argaon Parliament (Aragon being the state that Zaragoza is the capital of). It's hard to describe why I was slightly disappointed by the Palace. Granted, it was beautiful, and the stone work on the columns and frescoes and tesserals were all phenomenal, but what did it is when I googled about it, I was told it was huge and would take two hrs. I went, and it took 45 minutes. No idea where the two hours came from, but what you realize when you go, is that a good 60% of it is closed off because it houses the current day state government offices. I blame my googling more than the actual place, because the place itself was still quite beautiful.

There are also some museums - two of which actually reside in the little stretch between the two cathedrals. First is a weird roving exhibit type museum housed in an old muslim arch building, that right now explored the legacy of a famous Spanish photographer. I love art museums to no end (as weird as that sounds to admit) but even I draw the line at photography. Not a fan. Thsi was fun, but it would've been better if they were highlighting anything else. La Lonja museum because it is roving exhibits. The other museum, the Alma Mater, was a lot better, as it focused on the histor yof the city, of the catholic influence of the artwork in the city overitme. It is fairly small (but not expensive) but does a great job of giving a lot of information about how Zaragoza came to be and why it is so important religiously. 

The last museum, and last sight in all honesty, I went to, was a bit of a weird one, in that it is called th4e Centro de Historias, a beautiful modern building inside while the outside facade is of a church. Inside are random roving exhibits and despite the name, none were really mdoern. Hell., one of the three floors was an exhibit on Marilyn Monroe. Now, she is a timeless beauty, so it was still interesting, but not what I expected when venturing into a museum in Zaragoza. Less than that was origami, but hte top floor was dedicated to Origami, which weirdly is an export that Zaragoza took to quite a lot. The exhibit is amazing, easily worth the price of admission (5 euros) - as I saw origami at a level that was heretofore inconceivable, from all kinds of animals to hobbits (there was a bit LOTR section) to so much more. Didn't realize origami meant this...

In the end, the sights of Zaragoza as a whole can probably be seen in a day if you had all day. I didn't have all day. I had three to foiur hours in the morning of two days, and I saw it all. I went back and forth on where was the best place to spend the work week and I think I guessed right about Zaragoza, especially since I could escape its 100 degree weather right at the time it was at its peak.

Veronica Mars v Buffy the Vampire Slayer - the (Subjective) Objective Head to Head

I've only done this concept once before, when comparing New York and London as cities. That was fun, to be sure, but biased - I was doing it knowing I would rank New York on top. I want to rerun the exercise for a comparison where I don't have a clear favorite going in - and that is which show is ultimately better between to similar late-90's/early-00's masterpieces on WB/UPN featuring hot blonde leads in high-school to college being badasses, but also known for the wide worlds they built. the brilliance of their respective creators, and to some degree, their lasting influence. Of course, I am talking about Veronica Mars and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is timely because Veronica Mars randomly re-appeared on NETFLIX after many years off of any streaming service. I hadn't done a rewatch from start to finish ever (had rewatched Season 1 maybe 1.5 times), but I did it - super quick. It's a brilliant show. Better than I remembered. But when I look at my Top 20 Dramas list from last year, I have Buffy ranked higher. I didn't think that was crazy at the time, but I did want to give it a critical view given how much those shows were compared to each other at the time. Would that hold up to more detailed scrutiny. As always (meaning as like the one previous time I did this), I am pickjing some randpom criteria to rank them against each other, splitting up five points, and let's see where we go.

As a very high level and probably unfair caveat - I will say I am only comparing the first five saesons of Buffy vs all of Veronica Mars - otherwise it seems about crazy to compare a show with seven years of histroy with one of three.

The Lead (Veronica Mars / Kristen Bell vs. Buffy Summers / Sarah Michelle Gellar)

I'll fast forward - I am calling this a draw at 5v5. I didn't score anything a 5-5 in my London v New York list, but I think I have to here. It is so hard to say one is better. I think Kristen Bell is the better actor, but the Buffy character also had to do way more in terms of the physical work, the stunts. The biggest difference between the two shows is there was nothing supernatural about Veronica Mars (which will help its case in further categories). There was a lot of that in Buffy, and SMG got most of that and she knocked that out of the park. If I'm grading on difficulty, it is even, though I guess to close, I am not sure if SMG could play Veronica Mars equally well, but Kristen Bell proably could do the Buffy role. This isn't grading teh actresses though, just the character and actress combo. So let's go with a draw. To summarize, these are two of the best female lead characters ever written in television and two great, great performances perfectly balancing spunkiness, smartness, sexiness. Just awesome work.

Draw 5-5

The Gang (Xander, Willow, Giles v Keith, Wallace, Logan)

It's hard to define who should go in this group given not every character was there every season, and many can work in my next category. But if we limit it to these - the three characters who were omnipresent in every season in Xander, Willow and Giles for Buffy and Keith, Wallace and Logan for Veronica Mars, it gets super tough. I kind of want to chicken out and go 5-5 again, but I do think there is an advantage here for Buffy - and namely that her love interest was almost never Xander while of course Logan was the primary will-they/won't-they for Veronica. It gave the three of Buffy side a bit more family nature. A bit more of the true gang - and of course all three were brilliant performances. Alyson Hannigan as Willow was one of my first TV crushes (she remains in my HOF). Giles may not be Keith Mars good, but pretty damn close. Keith is the only thing giving me pause here because he was so damn instrumental - in a way Joyce Summers never was, but ultimately I have to lean Buffy - there's a reason why the "Scooby Gang" concept was named after the Buffy folks.

Buffy wins 6-4

The Dark Gang (Angel, Spike vs. Weevil, Logan)

I have big bads later, so for this I am excluding Angel's half season as the big-bad in Season 2. Anyway, despite loving Spike and Angel being instrumental, I am going to go Veronica Mars here. Weevil may be one of the most interesting, nuanced characters written on a mass audience type show, a very gray character in a world that still was mostly black and white. And Logan's brilliance as a character and performance shouild go without saying. On the other side, Spike was largely too black or white (vs being black and white) and while Angel was great and Boreanaz good in that role, I almost unfairly want to dock points for him being too good for the show in some ways and starting his spinoff. VM wins here, but still close.

Veronica Mars wins 6-4

The Extended Folks (Joyce, Dawn, Cordelia, Oz, Anya, Jenny, Jonathan vs. Mac, Duncan, Vinnie, Sheriff Lamb, Cliff, Dick, Beaver, Clemmons, Leo, Madison)

VM wins pretty easily here. Buffy for better or worse was about the core group, their anti-hero equivalents, and the big bads. The rest of the show was all window dressing. For this comparison, I trued to limit myself to people that showed up in more than one season. And it is so clear that the extended cast of Veronica Mars was far more enriching, enthralling and interesting. Buffy created an interesting stage to show some focused sotries with its core cast. Veronica Mars created a real world with dozens of 3D characters that all brought something. Also, reading taht VM list, it is clear how much of the comedy in the show (and it was very funny) came from this set of extended characters. It helps when Rob Thomas seems to have the Ken Marino's of the world on speed dial. Also a super underrated VM character is Principal Clemmons - which is also a nice testament to the differing views / points of the show. Buffy turned its high school principal into a Big Bad. VM turned it into a unwitting but ultimately caring ally.

Veronica Mars win 8-2

The Big Bads (The Master, Spike, Angel, The Mayor, Riley, The Fiath vs. .... Aaron Echolls, I guess)

This one is hard to judge because each show took very different approaches to its villains, but by design. Veronica Mars was a film noir, in that the mystery was the story, so the big bad was only revealed at the end. When we realized it was Aaron Echolls who killed Lily, it made the way he was presented to that point so much richer, and made his brief actions in SEason 2 so much more meaningful. That was a great big bad, but ultimately, Veronica Mars wasn't about Bid Bads, it was about story. Buffy was - hell it helped coin the term. The Buffy Big Bads were a special group, each quite terrifying and different. It's a credit to the creative team that they could cycle through so many good ideas there. Buffy wins by default, but VM would have had a super hard time matching it anyway

Buffy wins 9-1 (only because Aaron was a pretty damn perfectly composed and performed character)

The Season Long Arcs (self-explanatory)

Well, Veronica Mars clears up here; the fact that they are mysteries helps a ton, because Veronica Mars generally did a great job of giving enough clues, enough progress throughout. Yes, maybe they waited a bit too long to do that in Season 2's main storyline, but the last then four to five episodes were phenomenal in making up for that lost time. Season 1 was about as perfect a long form mystery can be told, including the rape storyline as well (even if that was later somewhat retconned in Season 2). Buffy had season long arcs, but it is a bit lesser when you know from the start who the bad guy is and what his motivations are. Veronica Mars did about as good a job of mixing this in a dramedy as any show since maybe Season 1 of Desperate Housewives (which, even if it doesn't sound that way, is high, high praise). 

Veronica Mars wins 7-3

The Mystery of the Week (self-explanatory)

The other flip side then is Buffy generally did better in mystery of the week (mini-big bads). Not by a ton, as there were some phenomenal ones with Veronica Mars, tackling all sorts of real world stories and anguishes for teenagers. But still, Buffy was able to make the stakes that much more, and more interesting on a week to week basis. Granted, there was some lows, but some of the mystery of the weeks on Buffy were damn compelling truly standing on their own, at least a slightly better hit rate there than Veronica Mars - you can tell when as mentioend earlier, in Season 2 they tried being a more "Story of the Week" type show, but struggled a bit. Just a bit

Buffy wins 6-4

The Tone:

Tone may silently be the biggest thing I look from in my TV shows I watch - things like The Wire or Arrested Development that set up tone so early are loves for me. Well, here one of these does it perfectly because it almost has to, and the other wwaffles a bit. Veronica Mars is a noir and that is the tone and it is that from day one, from moment one with the voiceovers and it is so damn good in that. You never have a question of what type of show VM is - a noir and class divide. Buffy changes tone all the time by design - at its heart it is a coming of age mixed with fantasy, but it almost intentionally remained a bit changeable week to week. This is not a bad thing, given the category I will go to next, but it does hurt its consistency a bit.

Veronica Mars wins 8-2

The Flexibility:

In a weird way, this and the last category are extensions of the prior two around season long arcs and mystery of the week. As here too, I generally think because Buffy wasn't built on such a solid, required tone as film noir in a class war setting like Veronica Mars, it had the flexibiltiy to be so many things. They could get away with an episode that is a musical, or one where everyone loses their voice, or random asides with mystics and Aztec princesses Part of that is Whedon's brilliance, and the performers, but mostly it is because by nature Buffy was less grounded in reality, so it could be zanier, more flexible, more strange. It played that beautifully.

Buffy wins 7-3

The Portrayal of High School Dynamics:

Veronica Mars clears this a ton - the upside of being a show grounded in reality. Veronica Mars also did a lot better placing Veronica. Like, it is obvious that Kristen Bell is attractive, so there is no point pretending she wouldn't be popular - so the conceit that she was popular but then made an outcast, worked so well. It allowed it to be reasonable she would associate more with Neptune's lower class, and the more dork/dweeb/d downsides of high school world. The actual high school related plots, from proms to college sports to the school newspaper, to fairs, to so much else, was just almost always so well done - especially the running thing around the Kane grant keeping even grades as meaningful. Buffy did some of this - mostly stuff around relationships, but when the main characters are all fighting the end of the literal world each week, it is ahrd to focus on who stole the school mascot.

Veronica Mars wins 9-1

The Portrayal of College Dynamics:

Buffy takes this, but nowhere near as one-sidedly as VM on high school. Part of this is almost by default - we got multiple years of Buffy in college; even using Season 5 as a cutoff it was two years. Veronica Mars got one, and then was cancelled and might be somewhat because it didn't adjust all that well to college enviornment. The stories did high school so well, they didn't age up appropriately. Buffy though was almost always a college show masquerading in high school for years - going to college allowed them to get much more ersious with relationships, with deaths of parents, with mentoring, with being real adults. Maybe Veronica Mars would've gotten there, but hard to give it credit on some level of faith.

Buffy wins 7-3

The Portrayal of Real World Dynamics:

When I first laid out the categories, and before giving it much thought, I assumed I would score this as a huge win for Veronica Mars, and I still think that wins out and mainly because the class politics were so well done. Again, using the narrative device of a girl who can toe both sides of that equation was genius, and characters like Weevil, the Fitzpatricks, the random other non-09ers were so well done. Also, so were the 09ers. There were some written as complete bozos (Madison Sinclair, mostly) but the show went to good effect to give some shades of light to your Logans (even at his worst), Duncan, hell, even Dick. It showed lfie wasn't always perfect on teh right side of the tracks either. Anyway, for Buffy - it still did some of this better than I remembered - around class as well, ironically. But also around desertment, jealousy, resentment, and longing. Thsi starts bleeding into my next topic, but to give Buffy some credit, it was more grounded in teh real world than I remembered.

Veronica Mars wins 7-3

The Portrayal of Metaphysical / Emotional Dynamics:

I hate to have this but I need to, but of course Buffy wins by default here. I added the emotional tag because if it was just metaphysical, well Buffy is literally a fantasy show competing against a noir real world one. Emotionally though, Veronica held its own mostly in the relationship between Veronica and Keith, which was maybe the single best parent - child relationship I have seen on screen. You really felt every time Keith's life was in trouble that Kristen Bell herself was sobbing. it was raw, it was real. But still the show has nothing on Buffy - from exploring love, faith, destiny and so much more, Buffy took on heady topics, philosopchical topics with deftness.

Buffy wins 8-2

The Creators Extended Universe (The World of Rob Thomas vs. Joss Whendon)

Here's a random upset - I think this goes to Rob Thomas, even before docking anything on Whedon for whats come out about how he treated certain actors. The Whedon-verse is much beloved, as Angel was a good show and he was involved in other successful projects before notably penning The Avengers and Age of Ultron. Well, the devil's in that last bit - Age of Ultron was not good, and honestly on Rewatch, I personally think the Avengers is now almost overrated. Whedon was a genius - but you know what, so is Rob Thomas. A little show called Party Down anyone - which also spawned or re-spawnred careers of Adam Scott (right before Parks), Lizzy Kaplan, hell arguably even Jane Lynch. Thomas then created his own Vereonica Mars inspired iZombie, which was excellent. And from what we know, Thomas has not verbally abused and demoralized any cast members and generally seems like a super well beloved guy. So Veronica Mars nabs this one.

Veronica Mars wins 7-3 (6-4 with a docked point because of Whedon's now understood awfulness)

The Timeless-ness:

The challenge at the end is Buffy is just more lasting - it was more popular at the time, had the crazier fanbase and lives on in the consciousness more than Veronica Mars does - for better or worse. Things like the Scooby Gang, the Big Bad, there are seminal terms in TV-world that are based on Buffy. So many leading teen heroines are compared to Buffy Summers before being compared to Veronica Mars. Noir is still a popular genre - but mostly still on film. Buffy in teh end will last in the zeitgeist longer, and that does mean something.

Buffy wins 7-3

Final Score: Veronica Mars 78  defeats  Buffy the Vampire Slayer 72

Damn clsoe in the end - some of this is a manufactured result because so many were two sides of the same question where Buffy was better in one and Veronica Mars the other (best example - the High School v COllege questions). But I do think there is a reality where Veronica Mars is the better show. Now, what may help is it did end after three years - Season 3 was definitely the weakest and maybe if it continues, it struggles. But Season 4 (put out 13 years later) was technically part of this and showed that while they may have struggled in College, they wouldn't have struggled in straight adult hood.

Overall though, both are absolutely fantastic shows that anyone should watch. They are far better, deeper and more well made, well acted, well written and well done than their silly taglines or "explain it to me in a sentene" would on. It starts with the two incredible lead performances, adn then how they branh out of that. I won't go and undo my earlier rankings which placed Buffy ahead of Veronica Mars on my favorite TV show list, but I do think people are missing out on Veronica Mars.

The Delight in the Downfall of Mike Lombardi

Yesterday, Mike Lombardi, the "General Manager" of UNC Football (still wild to me we are at a point where a GM title is necessary in college sports...), a move with unclear reasons behind it, but still one the world is celebrating because little by little everyone has come to the realization your dear writer has had since about 2009, that this guy is a fraud of frauds.

Now, we don't know what the HR incident that caused this was, Hopefully it isn't anything serious (in terms of long term distress to any victim), but clearly it was enough for UNC to act swiftly to a guy who seemed to have protected status as Bill Belichick's homie. But thank God. Piling on Mike Lombardi is not unique at this point. The world at large has seemed to come around to his charlatan-ness. Pablo Torre had an amazing episode of Pablo Find's Out last year systemitically uncovering the steaming piles of buillshit behind Lombardi's whole career - how Bill Walsh and Al Davis, who he used to cite to no end, specifically the Walsh connection, both thougth he was a pointless, no talent lacky. It was clear from 2009 or so, whenever he came up with that stupid "Blue Chip" theory he espoused countless times on Simmons's podcast (to which Simmons of course just nodded along with). It was dumb then, he was dumb then, he is dumb now. Let's all rejoice his meal ticket has seemed to end.

I just want to say it now - I was super early into realizing how much buillshit Mike Lombardi was aboiut. See the below:

September, 2013: "The Browns GM is Mike Lombardi, who came off as a babbling idiot in his many appearances on The BS Report. How he possibly got another job as a GM is beyond me"

October, 2010: "Of course, Mike Lombardi still thinks McDaniels shits gold tulips and pisses Bud Light, but fuck him too." / ok - I admit tat might have been harsh, but Lombardi was a pure "McDaniels is a genius and certain great head coach espouser"

I'm shocked those are the only two times I wrote his name (per my quick Ctrl+F-ing) but hell yeah, one was in 2010 of all things. Lombardi was a blowhard from the beginning. He came up with the dumbest theories, and somehow was never questioned on it. The fact he vastly overstated his role under Bill Walsh somehow never made it to light. Al Davis skewered him on his way out from Oakland, but that was at the point Davis himself was a bit senile so no one took him seriously. Simmons platformed him - it helped that he glazed the Pats every chance he could (more on that shortly), but Lombardi just somehow stayed relevant.

Well, one person made him stay relevant, the real puppet-master to some degree behind all of this - that man of course being Bill Belichick. The one person in that Pablo Torre episode who notable was not secretly revealted to think Lombardi is a steaming pile of shit was Belichick. For whatever reason, Belichick seems to truthfully believe Lombardi is a smart football man. I don't get it. No one does. Maybe Lombardi has some kompromat - but more likely Belichick just has a weird, unending blind spot here. Belichick brought him out of the retirement home, the discard bin, to UNC and of course that has blown up.

Granted, Belichick himself has blown up, from all the Jordon Hudson stuff, to the shitty team play, to everything else, but even in that sense Lombardi's shittiness shone out. It was Lombardi, not Belichick, who coined the phrase that UNC was the "33rd Team" before proceeding to have them suck shit. It was Lombardi who was super arrogant with the UNC media, despite having no college football credentials, let alone fairly fake, trumped up NFL credentials. It was Lombardi who came off worse in every moment - for Belichick this is probably an example of teh game just passing him by. For Lombardi, he never had the game in the first place.

There are so many people associated with the 2001-2018 Patriots that I hate that I should make a power ranking of this some day. But higher than you would think on that list is Mike Lombardi. At least for most of the others, from BB and Brady of course, to so many of the other players, I had to admit they are at least talented. Lombardi never was - from his first stupid BS Report (when it was called that) appearance where he subjected our ears to his inane, kindergarten-level reasons Blue-Chip theory, to him openly praising every Patriots move (Albert Haynesworth and Derrick Burgess were my favorites) to so much more, it was clear Lombardi was a stupid fuck from the beginning. I am more than glad not only has the world caught on but also his rancid personality couldn't help himself. Bon Voyage, Mike Lombardi - we will see you in valhalla.

2026 Spain Trip: Toledo, Pt. 2 (Food & Nightlife)

I only had one true full night out in Toledo, the Saturday Night, after the last minute audible to stay in Madrid on Friday night. A decision I do not regret, but did place a lot of importance on Saturday Night to get a sense of late night in Toledo. I was able to do so, and to some degree do so on Sunday, because being six hours ahead of Europe means I can stay up late on Sunday night, sleep in on Monday morning (admittedly, more sleep on a train to Zaragoza) and then start work rested and ready. It's the opposite of the woeful Sundays in my myriad Mountain Time Zone trips. Now, the prospect of working from 2pm to 1am every day doesn't seem to fun eiuther. What I'm saying, is if there was some land right in the middle of the Atlantic, I would probably move there (the Azores probably comes closest). Anyway, random asides aside, let's get to it and start with the food, because that deserves its own fun.\

My first meal in Toledo was a journey because my planned spot was too full (not sure how, there were empty tables...) and the second choices was the same (at least this time, no empty tables). So I went next door to the second place (where I was able to go to dinner on Sunday) to a place I didn't ahve on my list, but had some good reviews - called Taberna del Pescador. Despite the name, their menu wasn't just fish and seafood, but I limited myself to such, getting their Menu del Dia, where you pick one of many options for starter, main and dessert. It was great, as you would expect, from the starter of a truly refreshing, wonderful Octopus salad, with the octopus just so lightly dressed in acid, and then a main of grilled grouper with otehr things, which was incredible. Grouper is a fairly non traditional fish, but every time I have had it, it has been wonderful. For a spot I didn't know of until 30 seconds before eating there, it was a great place. Showed when I just beat the lunch rush (it was ~1:30) and many people came in after and were told to wait.

Lunch on Sunday was similarly audibile-ized, when my planned spot was randomly closed. Now, it isn't too random - probably many places shut down for a few weeks in summer (the weird dichotomy of a lot of Europe closing in summer when that is the busy season...). The spot would've been great to try some famous stews, but I did that anyways at Taberna Skala, which was perfect - it was a low key tavern with some great dishes. I tried the famous in Toledo Carmacusa stew, which is a braised pork stew with peas taht is just lovely, and then I got a dish taht I can only describe as indulgent perfection. Nominally it was slightly fried lamb shoulder, which is what it was, but it had this almost too crunchy crust and then just the fattiest, most delicious parts of the lamb (including collagen, fat and such tendedr meat). It probably set me back a few thousand calories despite the tiny size, but it was too good to pass up.

The dinners were more notable, starting with the Sunday night (as Saturday Night was basically a tasting menu that I will cover separately) at Taberno Botero, one of the more well regarded, fancier Taberna's (think of them as Spanish Izakayas) in Toledo - a place where I was lucky to snag one of the tables in the bar area as their upstairs restaurant was fully booked. They serve all the same rations downstairs and I enjoyed the hell out of some wonderful things, from a Manchego Flower fried with partride terrine (wonderful), to a pig ear tostada, and then the best was a oxtail dumpling plate with morel mushroom cream. It was audacious, it was wonderful, it was a place I wish I came with a half dozen people so we could try the entire menu. 

Saturday dinner at Adolfo was nearly as good - a Michelin Guide spot that serves a fairly timid eight course tasting menu for 88 euros. The food was immaculate, from two brilliantly cooked prawn creations with such great sauces (a beautiful almond cream being the star on one of them) to a wonderful piece of venison to end it. The other star of Adolfo is their wine cellar which you get a tour of at the beginning which has some ten rooms in nooks and crannies with wines of all places and price points. I went for a relatively cheap bottle, whcih of course Adolfo lets you take home the remainings of. Will cover each course later, but it was a great meal.

Ok, let's get to the night stuff. I had shortlisted a few places, with another qeustion mark as to late night EDM because Toledo doesn't have many spots and most were closed for the summer. We'll get to how that wonderfully resolved itself later, but let's quickly hit the other spots. The first was a great craft brewery called Cerveceria Abadia, which was also a stunning space of two levels, with crazy bathrooms that was this little semi outdoor space with little tepee pods for each stall. The beer itself was good, but weirdly out of the six taps only two were theirs - with three from another craft brewery. Anyway, the decor, and limited but great collection of tapas of which I sampled two, were great.

Similarly cool was Taberna de Livingstone, which is a wonderful bar with foosball, pool tables, a little dance floor, music videso being projected, and the owners being a husband and wife both in their sixties who took it all in. It was just an amazing vibe and an amazing place - the husband loving that I was ordering "Johnnies" (red label and soda) and a place that had Guiness on tap. I could've spent the night at Livingstone, but I did want to take one last risk on the EDM side.

See, two blocks away from Livingstone sits Circulo del Arte, which is an art and culture space by day and makeshift EDM club by night housed in the old church like building. Beautifull setting, great idea, but on its website it showed no new shows until September. However, it sat a minute away from Livngstone, so I wandered over, and even when outside it didn't seem like much was going on inside, but I step in and what do I see but a DJ with a fairly simple sound system standing on the altar in front of a floodlight space behind him - immaculate. It was fairly empty, arriving at around 1:45, but Livingstone (and msot other places) close aroudn 2:30, so aruond then it got fairly crowded and it was just amazing. That was a perfect way to end the one main night in Toledo. Technically there are a few other EDM spots open during the non-summer but I can't imagine any being as beautiful a setting as this one.

The other great way to end a night in Spain is sipping Mahous outside in a square with floodlight buildings on top of you, and that is what I did to end Sunday, getting a couple last few at Junipero, a graet Taberna in the shadow of the Alcazar and the main square (which is really a triangle). It was hot during hte day, but lovely 75 or so at night and that setting, while not as hauntingly beautiful as the Circulo del Arte, was a great spot to imbibe life as well and end my time in Toledo, a place that is about as good a weekend getaway as I could have imagined.

2026 Spain Trip: Toledo, Pt. 1 (Intro & The Sights)

So, after the brief dalliance with Madrid, the trip to secondary Spanish towns/cities begins earnestly with this little longer dalliance with Toledo - the city on a hill, the old capital. Toledo is only a 35-minute train ride out of Madrid, meaning despite my goings around town the night prior in Madrid, I was able to get to Toledo by 11:45, where my AirBNB host luckily was able to let me in early, and off we went. 

Toledo is a town on a hill, with beautiful series of alleyways, corridors, overhangs, and general history and brilliance in their streets. Its a very small city - today only about 80,000 permanent residents, most of which live outside the hilly center district, but on weekends, where tons of people (like me) take the 35-minute hop from Madrid and make a weekend or day of it, the city seems a lot more vibrant. The old district is lovely - yes in a way that is so reminiscent of so many other Europeans cities with their narrow alleys and passages, but here you get that with teh added bonus of great tapas bars, marzipan shops (the local delicacy) and scores and scores of shops selling swords. See, Toledo has a background in iron and steel work and sword-making. Today, roughly 90% of the shops are selling mass produced tourist fare, but there remains a few generational spots being more inventive. Needless to say I did get one, albeit small that was actually named a letter opener (it is still quite sharp however).

Anyway, to the sights, of which Toledo has many all tucked in this city center that is probably a 25-minute walk from one corner to the other. Overtime, I got the hang of which routes would miminize inclines. The middle of the middle is the highest part, with teh exception of the land around the Alcazar (fortress - no surprise they put that in the highest spot). My AirBNB was right in the heart of everything, aboute a 5-10 minute walk to most places. The sights as mentioned are numerous, but most are also fairly quick to take in. Helps when three are churches, or four if you count a monastery as well.

The first stop was the Church of St Thomas, which while the church was reasonably nice, the real star of the show is a large painting in the knave by El Greco. That name rings loud in Toledo - a son of the place, Greco's works are scattered around, but this is probably the most impressive showcase, a giant painting featuring the funeral of some martyr or some-such (oddly, not Saint Thomas). It is haunting, in very much an El Greco way (as I would soon come to learn moreso). It was a quick stop, but a breathtaking one. The next was the St. James Monestary, which takes up much of let's call it the Northwest corner of the old town. It isn't too big, but quite intricate woodwork, paintings, carvings, and some haunting rooms. The main church in teh complex has some of the most detailed stone-work I've seen in a baroque era building. Here, the church is the star of the show, and makes its mark.

The final two religious bits I saved for Sunday, first being the Church of the Jesuits. If there was any less than stop, it probably was this, but part of that is large scale renovations to its face and bell tower which took away some of the beauty. The inside was lovely, with some really well made side altars (and main altar) but it was a comedown from the Monastery and the site to come - the grand daddy of Toledo - the main Cathedral Primada de Toledo, which was magnificent - right there with the great Cathedrals of Europe, seriously. The intricate carving everywhere, the stunning gold altars, the audacious gold monstrance, the supremely gothic main altar and choir area (oddly placed in the middle of the church). Then you go to the real stars - the sacristy in the back is basically a mini art museum - housing numerouse Greco's (the famous series of apostles paintings), and a ceiling that while smaller than the sistine chapel, is similar in regality. Oh, and then they've added a real art museum.

The cathedral turns 800 this year, and to celebrate that they converted half the church into a makeshift museum. It requires a separate ticket, but very much is literally an art museum in this church. It was hard to discern if all the pieces you see are tied to Toledo, nevertheless tied to the cathedral, but doesn't matter. It was stellar. It makes it pretty clear this cathedral is no more as a practicing church, but it was still a truly special spot.

There were a few non-religious sights as well (lest we think Europe is only about its wasteful Cathlocisim roots). First was the El Greco house and museum - its a bit of a strange sight that is a converted house (with no connection to El Greco) turned to make it look like a house of his time, that way in its back houses a ton of original Greco's (and a few rooms with his students and imitators), including the series of his paintings of saints (some of these being copies, with the real ones in teh cathedral). They are stunning, especially to get so up close. You really so quickly get his distinctive, angular style that just oozes out of the paintings.

The last sight in city center to note was the Alcazar, which has been painstakingly turned into a museum dedicated to Spain's military history, but when we say Spain here we mean from the early Visigothic days, through Catholicism, through all the stuff in teh 1800s warring with France and what-not, to France, to now. It essentially works better in a way as a Spanish History museum told through the lens of the wars - from tons of exhibits on swords, guns, artillerary, uniforms, flags (a lovely exhibit showing the various flags with originals from teh 1400s to now) set in this fortress that also gives you great views of the new city below it. This is the one sight that took a long time (90 minutes), though I guess if you add in the makeshift museum, the main Cathedral took similarly long.

The last sight to note is not in the city old town, but opposite it in the hills with the flowing, rocky Targus river in between - which is named the Mirador del Valle (Valley View), which is just an incredible viewpoint to see old town Toledo on the hill. From there, you really get a better sense of the topography, with all the old town starting a good 40-50m above the river and then extending another 30-40 upwards. The Alcazar and The Cathedral stick out with regality, but so much else of the city is quite beautiful as well. The whole thing, especially as you get later in the day, is just magnificent. If not for the sun setting at nearly 10pm around here, I would've tried harder to come at sunset. Oh well, for the one brief time I escaped the old city walls, I was treated to a magnificent view.

**Up Next: the food and nightlife

2026 Spain Trip: Madrid (plus Lufthansa)

This is less a trip and more a pairing of weekends, with me thinking I can work US hours in Spain in the middle. The idea came to me months and months ago - initially a trip to pair a long weekend in Provence (plan was to take the Friday and Monday off) and then a long weekend in Bilbao (Friday off). I kept the Bilbao part, but due to both cost (flying from Provence to Bilbao is not easy or cheap) and jealousy of my parents trip to see random interior Spanish cities, it converted overtime to just Spain. After some hemming and hawing, it became the first weekend in Toledo (keeping Friday off), the following weekend in Bilbao, and most of the wroking week in Zaragoza - where the idea is to sightsee on Tuesday and Wednesday from 9-2pm, adn then work from 2pm-1am each day. Not sure I will make it - but the Zaragoza experiment write-up is for later.

Due to the insanity of direct flights to Spain, I booked the flight out via Munich which then involved a five hour layover before the flight to Madrid. There was the option for a 1hr layover, but with my recent luck on flights leaving Newark, I didn't want to risk it. In the end, it was the sunniest, most beautiful day in New York in weeks, and the flight arrived in Munich thirty minutes early. I can't ever win when choosing layovers. But because of the long layover, I was due to land in Madrid at 5:20pm - which after some research made it nonsensical to get to Toledo that night vs enjoying an evening and night in Madrid before leaving for Toledo in the morning (it is about a 35-minute train).

Not like I am complaining about being arm-twisted to spend a night in Madrid. Somehow, I haven';t done that in sixteen years since my 2010 trip to Madrid on my Spring Break (before visiting my sister in London and then with family in Greece). That was a notable trip, because it was the first time I wrote about travel in this blog. Hell, that was the first time ever traveling on my own. It was a seminal four days in Madrid - where I made the decision never to stay in a shared room hostel ever again (even on my RTW trip which was mostly hostels, always paid a bit extra for my own room). It was the start of something amazing - also I loved Madrid. The first time I did my ranking of Favorite International Cities was in 2013 and I had Madrid ranked #1. It stayed that way for a while until I gave in and just went with my heart and said I like Cape Town more. After a night in Madrid - I still do, but I remembered just why I loved the city in the first place.

First a quick couple paragraphs about the flight. I was really curious how the flight would go as this was the first time I flew across an ocean in economy since my 2024 trip to Hungary, Finland and Estonia, where I flew Lufthansa from Newark to Frankfurt. Now, that is more a function of me not really going to Europe aside from a work trip earlier this year where work paid for business. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by Lufthansa's service and plane quality - a big imrpovement from when I flew them. The seat itself reclined way more than I am used to for Economy, their pillow was soft as hell. The seatback screen was huge (for economy), and the food was geniunely good. Now, it wasn't a lot, but their Japanese Curry Chicken tasted like it was supposed to, and overall Lufthansa was a nice experience. The only tough part wasn't even their fault - there was turbulence after they served food but before they could collect peoples trays, which left the lights on for a redeye flight for an extra 30 minutes. Anyway, the flight was good, but I only slept probably parts of four hours.

I did manage to sleep well in the Munich Lufthansa lounge, which was like most Lufthansa Senator lounges in that it is just OK in every way. I went to both the non-Schengen lounge (to sleep and get breakfast, before going through immigration) and the Schengen one, and they were roughyl the same. In fact, I am pretty sure they were physically on top of each other. 

For the second flight, I actually got upgraded on the longer than I expected flight from Munich to Madrid (2h15m). I believe it was because they had oversold economy, but they didn't tell me this. Now, as some know, inter-Europe business means you are in a normal economy seat but they block the middle seat. So the seat itself is nothign special. What was special was they served a really nice full lunch - including a lovely beet-cured salmon starter and one of the better short-rib dishes I have had on a plane. Lufthansa! Who knew! 

Anyway, now let's get to the real event. Madrid itself is huge, but the center of the city is smaller than you think. I got an AirBNB literally in the shadows of the Reina Sofia museum (nominally the South West corner of the main city center) and msot things I went to were nominally walking distance. The first thing I went to was the Reina Sofia - speedrunning the historic museum in the one hour I had before my dinner at EMi (a two-star Michelin spot that is less expensive than the other 2/3-star joints in Madrid). The Reina Sofia is most famous for housing Guernica - Pablo Picasso's truly beathtaking, large portrait of a city and country at war. Of course, the room that housed Guernica was packed, and the museum itself was quite crowded (again, Spain - very busy with tourists in Summer...), but was lovely. I did find the Contemporary Art floor a tad too modern for my liking, but the two floors below it that encircle a courtyard were both lovely - from Guernica (still imposing and lovely, despite the crowds) to the various Dali's and Rivera's and so much more. For what is the second most famous / important art museum in Madrid, the Reina Sofia is a great spot.

From there, I took an uber of to EMi - which sits in the North East corner of the city center. I could have walked it in one hour. I mean, I was never going to, but you can conceivably do so. EMi was brilliant - a young chef who has worked all over, from Atomix in NY (most recently) to Azurmendi (where I am closing the trip) to many others, and has taken ingredients from his native Galicia (North East Spain) and set it to largely Korean inspired preaprations for a truly wonderful menu. As with most trips, I will do a post at the end detailing the four tasting menus I will be eating at.

The meal lasted from 8:30 to 11:00 (normal dinner times, by Spain standards) and the city was coming alive. The night was my oyster and to start I took an uber back to the real city center, to Plaza Callao and first soaked in the sights and people and verve for a bit. Madrid really comes alive in a way I haven't seen in Europe outside of maybe Istanbul. Sure, as a ton of the signage showed, there was still some lingering revelry from their World Cup win five days earlier, but Madrid was alive. 

I had a plan to visit two cocktail spots and maybe a craft beer spot before ending my night at one of the few EDM clubs that wasnt yet closed for the summer (seriously, a ton are basically shut from Mid-July to end of August). In the end, I only went to one cocktail spot - The Alchemist, and my second choice club, but loved them both.

The Alchemist is a block off of Callao, and is a really classic upmarket cocktail spot, though priced reasonably. The two bartenders were excellent, the drinks were really well crafted, from their own preparations (including a really nice acid / sweet take on a martini) to their spinified version of classics. In the end, I stayed there partially because it was lovely, but also because it was walking distance from the Cadavra Club, which was my planned EDM spot for the night as it was having its end of the summer / closing night. That turned out to be a curse, as it was probably more crowded than usual because of that fact, so despite me pre-buying a ticket there was a line that seemed to be moving at glacial pace. So I cut my losses and ubered over to El Sotano, another EDM spot that is more mainstream but was still quite good. The drinks were cheap, the place was well ventilated, the two DJs I heard parts of were both good, and it was overall a lovely way to end the night, me calling it at 3:30 (with a planned 11am train to Toledo) when it closes at 6 - where I probably woudl ahve lasted another 30-45 minutes had I not been dead tired.

Overall, while I didn't really see Madrid in any real sense, it was just a treat to get a fairly last minute planned ten hours strolling around what remains my second favorite city. Truly, it was literally ten days ago when I realized I would only get to Toledo by like 9pm, that I made the decision to stay in Madrid the first night, and I am so happy I did.

Spain really is just the best, and to me Madrid, with its blending of all parts of Spanish culture, sits above other places as the top city to visit. I've been to Barcelona; I admit it is excellent - Madrid is just better, especially if like me, you don't really care about beaches. You can say cities in Andalusia (Granada, Sevilla, Malaga) are nicer for a short visit, and nothing beats the food in teh Basque region, but if all you want to do is understand what makes Spain great - there is no better place to see this than Madrid.