Through Galicia to Portugal: Part 2-Portugal

The highways through Spain and Portugal were great. The biggest problem was that each highway seems to have 3 or 4 names or numbers which can be very confusing. It helps if the navigator and driver are separate individuals and the navi-guesser has the Google maps iPhone app. Worth every euro of roaming charges! There was 1 road where the toll was 25 euros, gulp. Good thing that both countries use the same currency.
We passed through miles of orchards of some mysterious espaliered small tree with glistening smooth bark and contorted limbs that was (and still is!) unknown to me. Didn't seem to be a filbert or a chestnut and wasn't any other common fruit or nut. Drat-no pictures.
Portugal was different almost immediately. We passed some beautiful beaches and took a road break. The water wasn't frigid; Tom said he would have gone swimming except for...[insert pertinent excuse]

 We had an excellent lunch which was about half the price of a comparable lunch in Spain. Difference #1: Portugal is less expensive than Spain. We drove on to Braga, where we spent the night and then on to Oporto. Here's a map of Portugal:
http://www.golisbon.com/maps/portugal-map.html
Braga was mildly interesting. There's a cathedral which is more austere than most Spanish cathedrals, and a recently discovered Roman bath that is still under excavation. The explanation of how the Romans used the baths was interesting. There were wood burning furnaces under the ceramic floors and hot air circulated through underground chambers.

We soon noted other differences between Spain and Portugal: Difference #2: Rather than stucco or wood, the houses are covered in beautiful ceramic tiles!

We also noticed that in northern Portugal, there were more single family homes, with large gardens, rather than the high rise apartments we usually see in Spain. We were also able to eat a full dinner as early as 7:30 p.m. AMAZING. Differences #3 and #4.
I thought the city of Oporto was fun, probably because we happened upon a wine and port tasting room/restaurant where we spent a couple of enjoyable hours eating and drinking with kind and knowledgeable people. Who knew there were so many types of port to try? Not to mention the white and red wines from the Douro River Valley. The city covers some steep hills, reminding me of San Francisco and there were definitely some dodgy areas similar to the Tenderloin. The cathedral was a big heap of grey stone with an interior that looked like an art history text book illustrating different architectural styles. This wall gothic, that asp renaissance, some baroque over there, etc.

We didn't spend the night in Oporto, though. We drove through the twilight into the Douro Valley to a winery/hotel Tom found. Even in the dark, we could sense the elegance of the hotel. Maybe a little too elegant for the likes of us! They make wines and port, although the process is very different from the California wine making processes. They still smash some of the grapes by foot-I job that I feel uniquely qualified for.

We really enjoyed the countryside around the hotel. The river is magnificent. Wide, clean and, of course, at this time of year flowing swiftly. It's one the largest rivers in the Iberian peninsula, flowing 897 kilometers from Soria Spain to Oporto, Portugal.


.Near  full of small vineyards alternating with olives, almonds and citrus. I think it must be spectacular during the summer and fall. What do you think?

The orchards around the hotel were particularly nice. We had fresh orange juice every morning and I ate a few almonds that were left on the trees.

This post seems to go on and on. We were only in Portugal 5 days, Ellen. Next stop, Salamanca.

Thru Galicia to Portugal: Part 1-The Cheese Festival

I am sitting in our living room thinking about how it SNOWED in Bilbao yesterday and comparing it to the mild, spring-like weather we had in Galicia, when I realized that you, my blog following friends, were unaware of our car trip. I'll try to remedy that in the next few blogs.
Tom doesn't usually troll through the internet, but about 2 weeks ago he did, and he found a female Galician piper he really liked. According to Tom, "she looks like a model", which I think means he found her very attractive. Or maybe just curiously different from the current administration. Regardless, he got very excited when he found that she was playing at the Festo do Queixo in Arzúa, Galicia the following weekend. [note: my Spanish hasn't deteriorated, this means Cheese Festival in Galician]. Here's where Arzúa is located:
http://www.worldandcitymaps.com/europe/spain/galicia/arzua/
A cheap (100 euros!) car rental later, we were on the road.
We first stopped in Santander to visit my friend Mary's sister, Bernadette. Santander is a surprisingly large city with several lovely beaches. I can imagine how busy it gets in the summer. Bernie was grand and showed us around a bit.

 

We had a long drive to Arzúa though, so after lunch we hit the road, arriving in the dark, with some difficulty. This is rural Spain, with few posted roads and generated some anxious moments for the navigator who always likes her courses to run smoothly. 

But what a special place! I would highly recommend Casa Brandariz in Dombodán, outside of Arzúa to anyone who values history and charm above luxury. It was very comfortable, with some of the kindest and most generous hosts, Eduardo and Carmen, that I've ever met. Imagine, when we told Carmen how much we liked the wine, she told us that the 2011 vintage had won an award at a big wine festival in Brussels and offered to try to find us a bottle of the 2011 to buy. Mr Brandariz, Eduardo's father, made us a gift of a bottle! He wouldn't even let us pay for it.

church next to Casa Brandariz

Parts of the house are over 500 years old. The yogurt, honey and meat we ate came from the farm.
The festo itself was a unique cultural experience. There were 50-odd booths of commercial cheese producers, mostly local (1 French and 1 Italian); about 25 small producers were represented. Cow, sheep and goat milk cheeses were available, but for some reason there were no mixed milk cheeses. All styles of cheese, but a soft tangy style seems to be a regional specialty. Some of the small producers were selling local honey too. Everyone was handing out samples of cheese and, if there was honey available, samples of that too.

The wildest thing were the other attendees at the fair. There were 10 or 12 huge buses filled with little old Galicians. I could look them directly in the eye-must be a reflection of our common Celtic ancestry!-and they packed the hall and the food tents. They were fierce too. They weren't about to let any cheese samples get away from them and they elbowed and pushed their way through the ever growing crowds in an exemplary way.
Ah, the food!! What would a fair be without food? In a uniquely Galician way there were vendors of prepared foods:

And foods that needed more prep:

are these ears? the ones on the left are pig tails

yes, this is a dried pig face

And then the food tents, where those fierce, small people gathered to eat octopus, drink thick wine, and smile at the strange 'mericans:

we opted for the ribs; they were yummy

Tom didn't come for the food though, he came for the piper, remember? Before the piper came other traditional music, and very entertaining it was. You can hear a sample of Galician music here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzF35iRocJA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4ZlFky4Imc

The piper was quite a... well... experience? Full of energy and a cross between traditional and rock. She also plays piano and tours with Yoyo Ma, so Cristina Pato is an amazing musician. She had a fantastic singer with her, who sang several songs the whole crowd (excepting Tom and Ellen, that is) knew, and they all sang along

Hope you enjoy this bit of her music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teauoWFZgGg
next blog: Portugal

Madrid

On Sunday last we took the premium bus to Madrid to party, visit excellent museums and more excellent friends and, most importantly, try to get our pending and frustrating visa issues resolved.  Happily, we had success on all fronts, as you'll see below. However, for those of you who find the details of bureaucracy tedious, or are tired of me whining about the non-lucrative residence visa process, I'll post information on the visa separately. 
The premium bus ride was easy and very comfortable; there's a 'flight' attendant who offers food and drinks, and a better entertainment system than most airlines. Free internet access too. We originally planned to take the train, but there's no train to Madrid on Sundays, and David talked up the premium bus to the point where we thought we'd try it. It was so popular that we decided to take the bus back to Bilbao, too.
We hopped off in the long distance bus terminal on Avenida de América and walked a short distance to the metro, where, 2 stops later we were met by our friend Teresa and her mother. We spent 3 days with them and Teresa help getting our residence papers was invaluable. She also recommended the Hotel Inter Plaza San Martín, where we spent another 3 days.

Descalzes Reales

The walls of Descalzes Reales convent and museum are just outside the hotel's entrance. It's one of my favorite places in Madrid and we ended our visit to Madrid with a 45 minute guided tour. The convent was founded in 1559 by Juana of Austria, an infanta of Spain and designed to hold just 33 nuns, each with their own miniature chapel or altar they cared for. The nuns were, and still are, sequestered from the world, meaning that once they entered, they never left and never saw or spoke to anyone outside the order. The convent attracted wealthy and titled women, some young, some widowed and some both. Maybe it was a convenient place to stash "embarrassments" or "wild women". Ah, the stories the walls could tell! Their dowries were significant and made the convent one of the wealthiest in the country, with the dowry money invested in tapestries, paintings and holy relics. The novices also brought portraits of their family with them and as a result, there's an amazing assortment of royal portraiture. The guide took pains to ensure we understood that the convent didn't just accept wealthy women, and this must be true, because by the mid 1900s the nuns were pretty much destitute as they couldn't sell any of their treasures. Thank God for tourists! Now the guided tours through unused areas of the convent support the community of 33 nuns.
We also spent 6 hours at the Prado, a personal new best for maximum time in a museum. Love this museum! Unfortunately, no photos allowed, unlike the Reina Sofia museum. Although much of the modern art in Reina Sofia leaves me cold, there were a few memorable pieces, aside from Picasso's Guernica.

Tom really liked this one

Of course, there were the obligatory walks, dinners and glasses of cava, wine or sherry. We loved a new trendy spot called Mercado San Miguel, a traditional market that has been updated while preserving it's beautiful ironwork. A lovely spot, with interesting tapas, wine bars and trendy stalls selling gourmet items, like truffle salt, my new favorite.

so cold I bought the new hat

 Gotta run, we are driving to Portugal today, after we stop in Santander to lunch with Mary McLaughin's sister.

Plaza Mayor at night

Plaza Mayor by day