Travel

Gluten-free tapas in Madrid

/ Greg / 1 Comment

Prior to our fall trip to Spain, while I was researching tapas joins and all the interesting dishes I was going to be trying, my wife had resigned herself to two weeks of jamón ibérico as a staple of her diet on the account of her Celiac.  Not that plates of jamón ibérico are a bad consolation prize, but for her, she had accepted that she wouldn’t be sampling widely from the menu as we saddled up to bar after bar.

Thanks to Taberna La Concha in Madrid, my wife got the Spanish tapas experience she thought she would miss out on.   On our second night in Madrid, we wandered about ten minutes from our La Latina apartment and  held court at a little table in the basement of the bar.  My wife’s face lit up when she was presented with a dedicated gluten-free menu and I turned the night’s ordering over to her.  The first dish: anchovies in pesto

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A million bats under my feet

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The last word on my Austin visit back in October goes to one of that city’s most famous attractions.  Each summer evening, the world’s largest urban bat colony flies out from under the Congress Avenue Bridge into the night.   And by largest, I’m taking about more than a million bats taking flight over the course of a few minutes.

Wanting to get a prime spot on the bridge, I arrived about 30 minutes before sundown where a good crowd had already taken their places:

Waiting on the Congress Avenue Bridge

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Favourite travel experiences of 2015

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Another year has passed, and I again feel fortunate to have watched a great deal of the world pass below me out an airplane window on journeys east and west of Halifax.  After a stretch of years traveling where food wasn’t as much of a focus, for a second year in a row, many of my favourite travel experiences have to do with food and drink or have a meal as a focal point to a memorable moment.  The other unifying theme this year was “quiet” with many of my favourite experiences being unexpected, subtle, or reflective in nature.  After time spent in British Columbia, Southern California, Mexico, Texas and Spain, here are my favourite travel experiences from 2015.

1. Tapas with my wife in Madrid – Thinking this would be a more difficult trip for my wife to enjoy the food culture of Spain (as she must eat a strict gluten-free diet on account of Celiac disease), we were both blown away by Taberna la Concha in the La Latina neighbourhood near our rented apartment.  The dedicated gluten-free menu and the quality of the food gave my wife an authentic Spanish experience.  It was so good, we went back another night and had a second amazing experience.  To see her face light up on those two nights (like mine was for the other nights of the trip) was a great thing to see.

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Touring the Texas State Capitol

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I hadn’t formally planned a tour of the Texas State Capitol building when I visited Austin, but while wandering around the grounds, I considered popping my head inside to check on a tour and to steal at least a few minutes of air conditioning on a baking hot afternoon.  That air conditioning was needed because I first explored the grounds outside what is a truly beautiful building.

Texas state capitol building

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Texas through tacos and barbecue

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I have a confession to make.  Nearing the end of a week in Texas spent sampling some really good craft beer and eating almost solely at barbecue and taco joints, I thought about ordering a salad.   Luckily, I didn’t follow through on that crazy idea until I got back home.

On my first day in Houston, after taking in an exciting Astros game, a short walk got me to Jackson Street BBQ.  It was almost next door to the ballpark, and even if I tried to get lost, my nose would have been able to follow the smell of smoky meat right to their front door.  My first Texas barbecue experience was delicious as I tried the sampler plate with sausage, ribs and brisket, a side of beans, and an Oktoberfest ale from Saint Arnold Brewing:

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Modern art at the Reina Sofia

/ Greg / 2 Comments

My wife and I have been taking a decidedly “less is more” approach to museum visits on our last few trips.  When our plans for Madrid started to come together, it was pretty clear there were two can’t miss museums for us – the Museo del Prado (no photography allowed inside, so I won’t write here about it other than to say it was a remarkable experience to roam through it on a rainy fall day) and the museum of 20th century art, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.

I generally favour more modern art, so the Reina Sofía was actually higher on my list than the Prado.  There were a number of pieces I was very excited to see inside the museum, but on entry, I was surprised (really, it was only a lack of advance reading/research) to find some great modern pieces in an outside courtyard by some of my favourite artists.  First, “Carmen” by Alexander Calder caught my attention and brought me back to a childhood experience of seeing a Calder piece in Montreal as well as seeing some of his other installations in Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, and outside Copenhagen.

"Carmen" by Alexander Calder

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Exploring public art in Austin

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Aside from the baking hot temperatures and the smell of barbeque wafting around what seemed like every corner, I didn’t feel like I was deep in the heart of Texas during my Austin stay.   The city felt beautifully out of place compared with all of my preconceived notions of “Texas-ness”.  In exploring a few parts of the city on foot, the vibrant and plentiful public art reinforced the “Keep Austin Weird” vibe that I fell for within an hour of first arriving.

Right across the street from my motel on South Congress Avenue was the “I love you so much” mural on the wall of Jo’s Coffee (a place I would later laze away a few hours with a book).  The simple mural by Amy Cook was a scrawled love letter to her partner Liz (the owner of Jo’s Coffee).  Simple and profound, I felt the love directed to me each time I walked past.

"I love you so much" at Jo's

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The Bernabéu

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I’ve been to Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park.  To Soldier Field.  To the Air Canada Centre in Toronto – the homes of some of the most storied North American sports teams.   Although the league schedule for Spain’s top soccer league didn’t line up for me getting to see Real Madrid play, I did make sure to visit their historic ground, the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu.

Real Madrid offers a truly remarkable tour of their stadium.  You buy a ticket, walk inside, then get to guide yourself through the tour with no one shuffling you along quicker than you want.   Stop one on the tour is way up in the cheap seats for a panoramic view, or as I would call it, the view that my limited funds would likely procure if I bought a ticket.  Wow.

View of Santiago Bernabéu

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Texas craft beers and bars

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One week in Texas, split between Houston and Austin, gave me plenty of opportunities to sample a number of craft beers from the state.  The refreshment of the beverages (and the air conditioning in the bars) was much needed as the temperatures were pushing into the 30s the entire trip.  Here are a few of the beers I got to try and a couple of the craft beer bars I visited in Houston and Austin:

Mongoose Versus Cobra – Houston

On the way back from a Sunday afternoon Houston Texans game, I got off the train a couple of stops early so I could pop into Mongoose Versus Cobra.    This was my kind of bar – very laid back and mellow.  Here I tried two Texas beers – on the left, an Uncle Billy’s Lazy Day Lager, and on the right, a Buffalo Bayou 1836.  I liked the 1836 the best with its malty taste and dry finish.  It was unique and reminded me of a cross between a British bitters ale and an American pale ale.  I couldn’t resist perhaps the perfect beer snack of chicharrón with chile sauce, salt and lime.

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