Earlier this morning I finally returned from a two week trip to Spain and Portugal. It mirrored in some ways a trip I took 20 years ago with family. Due to that trip, and a couple other short jaunts to Spain over the years, most of this trip was a repeat in a sense. The itinerary was 2-3 days in Barcelona, 1-2 days in Granada and Sevilla each, 3 days in Lisbon, 1-2 days in San Sebastian and Bilbao and a day in Madrid. It was a great trip, the first time leaving the country since the pandemic started. It was also with first two and then four other friends. It was busy and fun enough I didn't open a laptop once - but I still feel some need to talk about it in this forum as I do for most trips, so I'm pulling out the old A to Z routine that I've done before. Here's part one - the As to Ms.
A is for Alhambra
The Alhambra was the main piece of traditional ‘Tourism’ on
the trip and an interesting one for me. I was lucky enough to see a lot of
Western Europe between the ages of 8-10 back, including the Alhambra in 2001.
Outside of a few small hazy memories, I had forgotten most of it. On a second
first trip, I was as astounded as I probably should’ve been in 2001. Back then
I definitely didn’t appreciate it for how beautiful it is, how intricate the
carvings on the columns and walls are, how sprawling and well manicured the
gardens were. The Alhambra is a place you can just get lost in – had we had
done the audioguide we probably would’ve stayed 5-6 hours instead of the three
hours we did. So many great photos of the views, the grounds, the artwork, the
small fountains littering nearly every room – all of it so well maintained.
Revisiting, reliving and experiencing the Alhambra was a central focus of the
first week of the trip for me, and it lived up to it across the board.
B is for Basque Country
I had been previously to each city we visited on this trip
aside from my time in the Basque country. Some of these visits were long enough
ago that for me it was seeing it for the first time (e.g. Granada & Sevilla
– only saw before in 2001), but the Basque region was purely uncharted
territory. And how I loved how different it was. I took a window seat on the
flight from Lisbon to Bilbao, and was astounded by the lush greenery and
rolling hills on our descent. Same with the high cliffs on the coast, the hilly
nature of the cities, and of course how they were still able to tuck that
little but of European glory with the squares and small alleys and the like.
Basque country was unique in many ways, from the great food to the language,
but even in the ways it is similar to more well known parts of Spain, the
unfamiliar remained exciting.
C is for Cervezas
By and large, we’re a beer-imbibing group, though there are
some other beverages to come. That said, we got really good at ordering ‘cinco
cervezas’ (or ‘tres’ for the first part of the trip), which were almost always
brought in these short, squat cups, ice cold and beautiful. Even as a beer snob
that I am, I could get down and enjoy whatever specific version of Spain’s many
generalized beers, from Mahou to Estrella Galicia to San Miguel to even some
newer ones in the Basque region like Rioja. Honestly, the part that will last
with me is the cups. It’s hard to describe the simple beauty of those
cylindrical cups that were omnispresent throughout the trip. I really shouldn’t
stolen one of them – or at the very least see if I could have bought them
somewhere.
D is for Driving
I’ve always been the group’s driver, mostly because I love
driving but also I used to have a van which allowed me to transport most if not
all of our group. I’ve remained the main driver and finally got to flex my musvles
a bit in Europe. That said, what I quickly (re)learned is how different an animal
driving in Europe is. Luckily, Spain is a drive-on-the-right country (still haven’t
driven myself in a drive-on-the-left), and automatic cars are far more prevalent
now, but still it was wild being passed when cruising at the equivalent of
80mph. The standard of speed there is just a different animal – it forces you a
bit to get better, but I’ll never be able to handle the slight turns on what
are nominally highways at the speeds European’s do. I’ll go away just being pleased
I mostly survived this ordeal.
E is for Eating
Aside from sightseeing and things like that, there are two
mainstays in the way plan and experience trips: eating and drinking/nightlife.
Various curfews and protocols from Covid still largely impact the second of
those (ranging from Barcelona’s strict 12:30 curfew, the rest of Spain’s less
strict 1am, and Lisbon’s fairly normal 2am). Well because of that eating took
an even larger importance. Theere were the two fancy meals (to be discussed
with a separate letter), and the quick ones (also separate letter), but this is
a call out to the brilliance of Europe’s eating options but also the style. The
leisurely pace – too leisurely in some cases – that they serve and never ask if
you’re done and need the check. From the food markets, both the overtly
structured (Lisbon TimeOut Market) or more open style like the main market off
of Las Ramblas in Barcelona. Their late night food, with doner kebab, is better
too. The quality is always strong, from random places selling Natas and Jamon
Bocadillos. Both Portugal and Spain are food lovers dreams in every way.
F is for Fish
Both countries are seafood meccas but it really got into
seafood hyperdrive when I reached Portugal and had a duo or sardine and bacalao
nigiri at the TimeOut market. Bacalao (what we would call cod) is everpresent
in both countries and prepared in ways us American’s would find unimagineable.
Same thing with mullet and other fish that were readily included in the two tasting
menu spots we went to. But even on the street, or as toppers for Pintxos, these
two places truly are seafood heavens. If anything, I ate too little seafood
(hard to concentrate on that when the pig and lamb is also so good) but every
fish dish I got was just perfect, as were most octopus dishes I tried. The best
part is with the prevalence of seafood and fish it isn’t even all that
expensive relative to the meat dishes. At the very least, it gave me a lot of ideas
for future Friday cooks.
G is for Gaudi
Gaudi was the defining feature (other than one to come) of
our trip in Barcelona, starting from the first thing we did the first day,
walking by Casa Battli and Milo, two of his iconic strange houses on
Barcelona’s main promenade. It was him in charge of the first real tourist site
that we did, going through Parc Guell. And of course, he gave us the Sagrada
Familia, which was more impressive than I remembered it being. I also am fairly
certain when we last came to Barcelona (2007) that the interior was still
closed – by what we read inside that changed in 2010. This time I got to
inside, and man was it beautiful on the inside as well, haunting and edgy in a
most Gaudi-esque way. Even the outside definitely seemed more finished now with
less scaffolding and cranes than I’ve ever seen it. I take it there is a
timeline until the 2030s but a definite ‘end’ date in sight. While I’m sure it
will end up beautiful, I am slightly worried that we may be overlooking the ‘in
construction’ charm it currently has.
H is for Heat and Sun
One of the best parts of these last two weeks was the immaculate weather, albeit a bit hot at times. There were more days with zero clouds in the sky than there were with rain. The only two times it actively rained hard had little, to no impact on us - being late in the night/overnight in San Sebastian then Bilbao. Other than that it was just beautiful sun, with cool breeze at times that made it livable. Both Spain and Portugal are underrated in their great weather, lack of rain, etc., and this was no different. You can chalk it up to weather, but more it was just Spain and Portugal doing what they do.
I is for Inclines
I don’t like hills – walking down them is fine but I abhor
walking up them. I do it for hikes because there is some great payoff and the
uphill nature of an incline on hike is part of the whole thing. In cities
however? They should be no intersection in that Venn Diagram. Of course, Lisbon
is one of the hillest cities in Europe, something we got very used to on the
way down many times. On the way up however, we avoided it like the plague. What
I didn’t really expect was for similar instances in both San Sebastian
(somewhat manageable) and moreso Bilbao – which was ridiculous. Bilbao was
basically built into a hill – I truly have no idea why anyone in the age when
you could build a city more or less anywhere with a water source did so many
people decide to build cities on hills and cliffs. Like just don’t!
J is for Jamon Iberico
As I mentioned earlier, I had been to most places on this trip before, but some of them long enough ago that I didn’t have a real memory. Some scholars say that memory is very sensory (no idea if any scholars say this….) and one that rushed back is smell. I had a bunch of little sandwiches with that same too-hard bread with slices of thin jamon in them. I know I gobbled those up back in 2001 (and probably in subsequent trips) and did so again on this trip, it being a standard late-breakfast for me all throughout the second half of the trip. It’s so simple – I usually get the version without Cheese – but so effective, so tasty, so
special and so uniquely Spanish in the best sense. It took me a while to remember the brilliance of this little bocadillo, but never again will I forget.
K is for King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella
L is for Las Ramblas
Barcelona has many large streets, most not as noted as Las
Ramblas but many all in all “nicer”. That being in their being a bit wider, a
bit more interesting buildings on each side. Something like Pageis de Gracia with all
the fancy shops and whatnot. But Las Ramblas is special to me in how it inverts
the concept of a road so well – a large pedestrian esplanade in the middle
lined with trees, with little lanes for cars on each side. It truly is the main
‘walking’ thoroughfare in Barcelona, one with jagged sections of pedestrian
road going off it in every direction. Our AirBNB was off one of these roads,
one that cars were not really allowed to traverse, so we get well accustomed to
cabs dropping us off on Las Ramblas. In the end, despite it being touristy and
slightly hawkerish (the tapas restaurants on this street are in my mind the
equivalent of the Olive Garden in Times Square), the beauty in its open-ness,
its life and its centrality is more than enough to deserve its importance
within the culture of Barcelona
M is for Michelin Star Meals
In retrospect, I'm going to turn this into a whole separate post. We had two Michelin-Star meals during the trip, both restaurants also ranked on the World's Top 50 Restaurants list (the one made by San Pellegrino, filled with its own issues but somewhat seen as legitimate). The first was Belcanto in Lisbon (two michelin stars, #42 on the list) and then was Azurmendi near Bilbao (three stars, #14). Both were amazing. Both deserve more spotlight on a subsequent post.
