de Selva and Sailing away to Pamplona



Paella with Charlie, Beth and 10 more



Gambas with salt and garlic and
Calamari with tomate

Alba's Mom and Dad hosted a dinner for all of us foriegners. A completely Catalan meal with home cured anchovys and roasted, marinated potatoes and bread.  It was peter's name day and a wedding aniversary so there was much celebrate.   We did, in style, overlooking the Mediteranean.



Cassidy and Cocqui


 

Judy, Bill and Charlie waiting for the ship to come in

The latest in fisherman footwear

June 29


Our last day and night in Port de la Selva and my first paella!
Woke to wind and white caps in the harbor.  Wind surffing for Cassidy.  Peter and Alba taking us out on Alba VI in shifts cause boat only holds 8 at a time.  Such trials in paradise?  Rough weather shortened our ride - in 40 minutes the crazy waves had us heading back to port to Judy and Trini's relief.  Ate an incredibly delicious refrigerator sandwich lunch at the dock.  Went to meet the fishing boats with their haul of the day, watched the unloading and spoke to the owner and his wife, Cocqui, and they gave us their "share" of the day - consisted mostly of shrimp like crustaceans.  This selection meant paella for dinner.  The house came with a hugh propane cooker and pots to match.  Mosse (Alba's mom) even joined us to see if we would do the paella correctly.  I think we passed muster!  Bill was still doing dishes at midnight and all varieties of puzzles were completed.






Gambas in St Jean pere de Port

Doris on her way to receive
her Pilgrims passport



 June 30
Charlie and I met Doris Jackson in Barcalona and hit the road for Pamplona and preparing for the feria of St Fermin, a lovely saint who I gather liked fireworks, Giants and running with the bulls.  On my last trip to this part of Spain, everything was brown and really dull looking.  It has changed; as we breezed by on the AP roads there were fields of photovoltaics and wind generators on every ridge as well as fields and acres of farms all being irrigated or grain being harvested (so maybe hay) lots and lots!  Had the look of big commercial farming.  I could be wrong.  Closer to Pamplona, the farms are smaller but  the amount of construction is amazing.  It looks like highrises but the city does not seem that crowded.  With 20% unemployment you wonder who is doing all this building.  I need to do some research.


The Pilgrims begin their trek


Doris has wanted to start hiking the Camino de Santiago for years, so we are enabling her in this endeavor, this is not a religious journey for us but after one day of a saunter, I think I better ask for a little divine intervention.

 

We were not the only ones on the trek



Spelling has always been a problem, pronunciation!

 We scoped out the trail on July1st, Drove to Roncesvalles, bought shells (symbol of the trail) and then drove to France for lunch.  St Jean Pied de Port, old walled city that is quaint and washed in sunlight. Lovely lunch at Etche-Ona;  Gambas for Doris, Pipenade Basqueise with jamon and tomatoes for Charlie, and for me, salade de petite chiparones, fisiers de canard confit.  all good and then we had a delicious slightly baked chocolate treat (ni-cuit au chocolate) and a pannecotta with peche.  Siesta time!  This road is part of the grand pre, I am sure but probably wrong.

Sat around the Square in town, had tapas until 10 pm and had dinner, not up to our lunch standard, pizza at Le Mafia.

July 2nd

Hit the trail by 9 am and it moved us along.  Doris was on a mission but as mentioned earlier I like the saunter mode.  Finished by 11:30 and back in town in time for lunch at El Burladero, around the corner from our hotel.  Pigs trotters in almond sauce, Sastido Ibericos, pimento rellenos with crab and pan tostados with tomate.  Again, I let us all down and did not take pics but all was good.. 

We have only had one white wine that was unacceptible, that was in the town of Erro.  It was a biker bar, I should have known better than to order wine there.


Charlie with lamb and a salad


Dinner in Pamplona at Otano - needless to say we were in Spain and dinner couldn't begin before 10 PM - Gazapacho with trimmings, "Pochas" (green and white beans with jamon and peppers), lamb with gravy and mixed salad with goat cheese and nuts.  Dessert ("postres") was just another chocolate treat.

Closest Beth will come to running with the bulls

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'Pochas' bean soup to us


July 3
Doris and I hiked another 6 kilometers (almost 4 miles) over hill and dale, past a cement plant (looked like it had been moved brick by brick from the Hudson valley and reconstructed in Spain).  Kissed Pamplona and Doris good-bye for the time being and Charlie and headed for Bilboa and the Gehry portion of our trip.  Beatiful entry into town greeted by a view of the Guggenheim/Gehry museum.  Checked into our hotel - room with a PRV (Partial River View) and set off for "old town" in search of 15 year old memories.


Memory Lane




Cod in Old town Bilbao, note the crispy spinach




Great menu!



Jam for breakfast

 Accidentally found one of those memories in a local plaza where my sister and I had drinks back in the day.  Dinner (at 10PM of course) at a restaurant named "Delicious" where I had cod with potatoes and almonds and Charlie had Iberian steak with perigord sauce (tasted like a very good brown sauce).  Dessert was, again, a chocolate treat called Pantxineta - sounds like a revolution in the happening.

Our walk from the hotel to Museum
This town has changed in 15 years for the better

Spider Mother

One of our neighbors' desserts

Roasted Peach

Not your standard French toast

Overview of the front of the Museum

Charlie and the Museum mascot
Just to give you an idea of the scale

We loved the museum, Bilbao, the food and the music we hear from the streets

July 4

Celebrated Independence Day by walking (10 minutes) to the museum from our hotel and spending the rest of the day until siesta time being codled by Frank Gehry's modern temple to modern art, Richard Serra's rust clad steel tori,ellipses, esses and semicircles.  Mostly fantastic, some odd (post impressionists, painterly painters, abstractionist) and some just weird.  Had a great time and had lunch in the cafeteria.  I had salmon and anchovy tartare with green lemon cream, hake, eggplant and a soy/plum smudge.  Charlie had compressed lamb with a gorgeous squash swoosh.  Dessert was not chocolate.  I had not your standard french toast with coffee ice cream.  Charlie had a whole roasted peach with vanilla ice and ground almonds.  We then returned to our room for a late afternoon siesta.