Toledo

We left Madrid again to go on a longer journey around the southern half of the Iberian penninsula.  We hoped to be able to hitchhike and Couchsurf as much as possible.  Our first stop on our journey was Toledo.






Toledo is very rich with history.  It is a beautiful little citadel, with stairways and narrow passageways.  Formerly the capital of Spain, there is a lot to see in a very small space.  It is interesting to see evidence of the former coexistence of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam in this city.  All three religions were practiced at one time or another.  Today of course, as in much of southern Europe, it is predominantly Catholic.

We had a great time in Toledo with our young hosts.  They took us out to this strange little bar.  A long narrow corridor with little tables filled with hipsters.  They were our first hosts in Spain, and they turned out to be a lot of fun.

Recipe: Tortilla de Patatas

Our favorite travel food is the Spanish tortilla de patatas.  It is the perfect food to share with people.  It is not difficult to make, and is very portable.  It also happens to be delicious.

If you are from North America, you might think we are talking about the flat bread that accompanies Mexican food.  Tortilla de patatas (also known as tortilla Española) is not a bread, it is an omelette.  In Spain, tortilla literally means 'omelette'.  Thus, tortilla de patatas is a potato omelette.  Here is how we make it:

Ingredients:

• 2 large potatoes
• 1/2 large onion
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• 1 litre olive oil
• salt
• baking powder
• 5-6 large eggs

*You will need a stick-free saute pan about 22 cm (9") in diameter and a plate large enough to cover the pan.

Let's get started.  Peel the potatoes and cut into slices approximately 3x3x1cm (1"x1"x1/2") in size.  We do this by holding the potato in one hand and ripping the slices off with a small pairing knife, but you can slice on a cutting board if you prefer.  Fill your stick-free pan with olive oil.  Where you live and the price of olive oil will dictate how much you can use.  We will easily use 3/4 of a litre.  You want to use a lot of olive oil, so the potatoes soak it up.  It gives the tortilla a lot of flavor. If you can not afford to use so much oil, use as much as you feel comfortable with.  But, remember that if you use the recommended amount of oil, you will remove the potatoes after they are cooked and save the rest of the oil for use later.  The oil will not be wasted!

Put the pan on medium heat and start slowly cooking the potatoes.  The slower the better.  You want the potatoes to be tender, but not browned.  While the potatoes start cooking, coarsely chop the onion and green bell pepper.  These are not mandatory, but give some color and additional flavor.  Put them in the pan with the potatoes.  As the vegetables slowly cook in the oil, the onion will slightly caramelize, giving a wonderful flavor.

Once the potatoes are soft and the onions are golden, you can remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon or spatula and put them in a large mixing bowl.  Make sure to drain a much of the oil from the potatoes as possible.  Afterwards, you can strain the oil and place it in a jar for use on the next tortilla!

Next add a teaspoon of baking powder, salt, and the eggs to the potatoes.  Add salt to your taste. The number of eggs depends on the size of your potatoes, and how runny you want the tortilla mix.  I usually add the eggs one at a time and fold them in gently.  The final product should look like the photo below.

Now that you have your tortilla mix, you need to reheat your skillet (with the oil already removed).  There should be only a small amount of oil in the pan to keep it stick free.  This is the part of the process where having a stick free pan is obligatory.  Put the pan on medium high heat.  Heat the pan, but not to the point where the oil is smoking.  Once hot, pour the tortilla mix into the pan, distributing evenly across the bottom.

The tortilla will only cook on this first side for a short period; it will only cook long enough to get a firm outer membrane.  You may need to turn the heat down a little if it seems like the pan is too hot.

Once a cooked shell has formed on the bottom of the tortilla, you will need to flip it.  Take a large plate, and place it over the top of the pan.  Hold one hand on top of the plate to secure it over the pan.  Holding the handle firmly with the other hand, flip the pan and plate over so that the tortilla flops out of the pan and down onto the plate.  It is best to do this over the sink so that any spill will not make a mess on the stove or floor.

Now that the half-cooked tortilla is on the plate, you will need to slide it off the plate back into the hot pan so that the other side can get cooked.  You should repeat this flipping process multiple times to keep the outside from burning while making sure that the inside gets cooked.  You can keep the heat at medium low during this process.

Once you feel the inside of the tortilla is sufficiently cooked, you can flip it out onto a clean plate.  The finished product will look a bit like a large wheel of cheese.

You can eat the tortilla with bread and salad, with gazpacho, or just by itself.  Enjoy!

El Escorial

The monastery of El Escorial is just a short train ride from Madrid.  This monastery was built by Philip II of Spain as part of his massive campaign against the rising Protestant movement.  This monastery was traditionally the home of the king, and after he built it, Philip II passed the rest of his life there.  The monastery itself is very beautiful.  Enormous murals of battles and biblical scenes grace the walls.  Engraved hardwood panels adorn the walls where the remains of Spain's kings and queens rest.  And the garden, always my favorite part, is just beautiful.

Segovia & La Granja

 One day, we decided to go to Segovia and La Granja.  We got on the train and rode to Segovia to see the aqueduct and the castle.  The aqueduct is one of the best preserved in Spain, and is quite impressive.  Where it enters the city's citadel, it reaches 28.5m (93.5ft) tall.  This is the main entrance to the citadel, and passing under the enormous arches of the aqueduct make you appreciate the engineering of the Romans.  This citadel is nice; a typical citadel of winding streets.  When you reach the opposite end of the citadel from the aqueduct, you come to the Segovia Alcazar.  This castle is like a castle of fairy tales.  Inside it is rather simple.  Large open rooms.  Some painted rooms.  It was not so much a palace as a fortress, but it is still quite beautiful.

After visiting the castle and aqueduct of Segovia, we got on a bus to go to La Granja.  In Spanish, "granja" means farm, but La Granja is nothing like a farm.  It's a royal palace, and a very impressive palace at that!  The interior was lavishly furnished as most palaces are.  What was the greatest was the gardens.  This palace has half a dozen intricately sculpted fountains scattered throughout it's acreage.  Probably the most fun of all was the hedge maze.  If you know me at all, you know just how much I adore mazes.  We had so much fun in the maze we were almost late to catch the last bus back to Madrid, and we had to run to catch it! 

Barcelona

Barcelona is probably one of the main destinations for tourists in Spain.  Many people you speak to will tell you it was one of their favorite cities to visit.  Almost all will tell you that they liked it better than Madrid.  For me, the difference between Madrid and Barcelona is minor.  Sure if you like the sea, Barcelona might win.  But, who wants to swim at a beach in a major city.  The fact is that there is a lot of ship traffic coming in and out of the port, and the water is bound to be dirtier than beaches elsewhere.  Many people note that Barcelona is more interesting because of the hip culture in the Barrio Gotico.  You can get a similar scene in Madrid too though, that scene just happens to be outside the most touristic part of the city, where in Barcelona it is the touristic part.  It's just more obvious in Barcelona than in Madrid.




Barcelona has some very interesting sights.  You have the works of Gaudi, which of course are grotesque in their lavishness.  The beach, although I would rather swim elsewhere, has quite a nice boardwalk.  There are nice parks, and you can watch the friquis down on La Rambla.  For young people this is a pretty awesome place to visit, because the Barrio Gotico has plenty of enticing aromas filtrating out from balconies and windows.  For many, it is a fun city.

I personally don't love Barcelona.  My time there was not the most enjoyable - we go there to visit Javier's eye doctor.  If I were to spend time as a tourist in Spain, I would much rather spend time in Cordoba, Granada, Sevilla, and at the beach in the south.  (Of course I would make the same argument for Madrid.  There are just more interesting places than these two big cities.)

Navarra and Pamplona

Javi's mother and father live in Navarra just north of Pamplona, so we have spent quite some time there.  The hills rising up to the Pyrenees are beautiful and green in the spring and summer.  We spent most of our time in a tiny village called Zubiri.

In Zubiri, there is not very much to do except hike.  So, almost everyday, we would head to the mountains.  We would take the narrow road up into the hills past other villages.  We would watch the sheep in the pastures next to the road.  It was always so quiet; like there was nobody else in the world.

On our hikes I would always be happy to check out the plants and trees.  In the lower areas there were beech trees (left) and up higher were the European larch (right).  On one of the paths we would take, the pines had an extreme infestation by some insects (below).  Almost all the trees had these nests hanging from their limbs.

One of my favorite walks was to this little village 5km from Zubiri.  We would never see anybody there.  It seemed almost deserted.

Back in Pamplona, there plenty to do.  You can go to one of the main squares and see the hotel where Hemmingway stayed so long ago, you can take a walk along a portion of El Camino de Santiago, or you can just go get some tapas and relax.  The city itself is nice.  With its winding roads that the bulls of San Fermin try to navigate.  Pamplona is famous for its San Fermin Festivities - also called the running of the bulls - but we will get to that later.

San Sebastian - Tapas, tapas, tapas!!

If you like tapas, then San Sebastian in the Basque country is the place for you.  This beautiful little coastal town has some very fine dining.  You can spend a whole afternoon hopping from bar to bar, eating seafood, embutidos, cheeses, and drinking fine wines.  We spent an afternoon doing just that, and by the end we were absolutely satiated.  The city is nice in itself.  It has the same feel as any coastal resort for kings.  Grand facades on all the buildings and an immense boardwalk.