Spain

Bullring or bullfight

/ Greg / 10 Comments

Prior to our trip to Spain, I really struggled with the question of whether or not to attend a bullfight.  We had a chance to see a major end of the season event in Madrid, and when I travel, I’m usually all in to experience a slice of unique culture.  On one hand, bullfighting still holds a special place in the hearts of many in Spain. This was a chance to see something truly Spanish, and at its most prestigious and highest level. Part sport, part art, part spectacle, there was something very appealing in an opportunity to experience this part of the world through an event so entrenched in its culture, even if it may not appeal to my Canadian senses. But on the other hand, I love animals (though, conflicted, still eat them) and don’t think I could bear watching six bulls be killed over a two hour period.  It was a once in a lifetime type opportunity, but I wasn’t sure I had the stomach for it.

A few weeks before leaving, I decided against seeing the bullfight (to the telling relief of everyone who knows me well), and opted instead to visit the Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla to see one of the most decorated bullrings in the world.   Shortly after arriving in Seville by train from Madrid, my wife and I walked up to the gates of the Baroque styled amphitheatre and purchased tickets for one of the scheduled tours.

Plaza de Toros in Seville

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Scenes around Madrid

/ Greg / 2 Comments

For the last word on seven spectacular days in Madrid back in October, I present an assortment of the sights that didn’t end up in anything else I’ve written since my visit.   Here is a pictorial essay on some odds and ends from Madrid, a city that captivated me.

The quaint street of our apartment in La Latina, well away from the throngs of tourists – Calle San Isidro Labrador:

Calle San Isidro Labrador

Around the corner from our apartment, this was the view we had every day and night on the walk home from the subway after being out on the town – Real Basilica de San Francisco el Grande:

Real Basilica de San Francisco el Grande

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A Champions League rout in Madrid

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Before leaving for our trip to Spain, I was poking around looking at club football schedules to see if I could wrap a second match into our two weeks with a day trip outside of Madrid or Seville.  Being the soccer fan neophyte that I am, it was only a couple weeks before our trip that I realized I should check the Champions League schedule as Madrid’s two teams and Sevilla FC were all in the competition.   To my astonishment and excitement, on the second last night of our trip, Atletico Madrid was playing a Champions League match at home.  Splurging for great seats, I tucked two tickets into our luggage for the trip across the pond.

To say I was excited heading to the match would be an understatement.  We took the metro to the south west edge of the city and walked to the Estadio Vincente Calderón.  The streets fanning out from the stadium were already filling with fans more than an hour before kickoff and every twenty feet or so there was a table selling merchandise in the red, white and pale blue of Atletico.

After entering the stadium, we started to make our way toward our seats. Coming out of the concourse on the second level, we emerged to the sight of the pitch in the late evening light.  Beautiful.

Entering Estadio Vicente Calderón

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A week of tapas in Madrid

/ Greg / 3 Comments

Not one single proper sit down meal in two weeks in Spain.  Honestly.  Zero.  Nada.  I was far too enamoured with the idea of tapas to give away precious space in my stomach to a “normal” three course meal.   See, tapas is the perfect solution to my natural inclination to inhabit more informal and casual eating and drinking establishments and for my desire not to commit to one portion of any food.  If you’ve ever eaten in a group with me, you’ll know me as the person eyeing everyone else’s dish with envy.  For a week in Madrid (and I’ll write separately on my tapas adventures in Seville later – this post will be long enough as it is), I hopped, skipped and jumped my way through some outstanding bars and snacks.

I got started on my first afternoon in Madrid at the Mercado San Miguel.  Jammed wall to wall with people having the same idea as me, I did a circle of the eating stalls before settling on a perfectly perfumed paella served with a rustic Rioja.  The server made sure I had my fair share of the charred rice bits in my dish (those alone should be a snack!).  My first tapas in Spain was a rousing success.

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Searching out craft beer in Spain

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Spain and craft beer.  Not two concepts that you’d immediately place together.  In tapas bars in Madrid and Seville, there would always be one tap, and ordering a beer meant having whatever brand was flowing.  Not that this was a bad thing.  The beer was always ice cold, and while eating salty olives, perfectly sliced ham, or any of the other culinary staples in Spain, it made for a great pairing.   Thirsting for something a little different, over two weeks in Spain, I had a few opportunities to dig a little deeper for a beer culture that is emerging, if still at the fringes.

Thanks to an article by the wonderful travel blog, Bite-Sized Travel (written by a fellow Haligonian!) I was inspired to chart a course of a few craft beer locations and beers in Madrid, Seville and Cordoba.   My first stop was Fábrica Maravillas, less than a 5 minute walk north from the Gran Via metro.  It’s a brewery in the back, small pub in the front kind of place.  I tried two of their beers – the Malasaña (left; named after the neighbourhood in which the brewery is located; a well-balanced American-style piney IPA) and a bitter (right; light and easy drinking).  This was also the start of my love affair with the plump, salty olives of Spain.   The only thing missing from this visit was the pub’s resident pug, who, if he was around, may have enticed me to stay for a third or fourth beer.

Afternoon drinks at Fabrica Maravillas

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El Retiro on a perfect fall day

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Everyone I knew who had been to Madrid implored me to visit Retiro Park during my time in the city.   Saying that was good advice would be an understatement.  After an afternoon spent wandering around the Reina Sofía museum, on a spectacular October day, we walked about fifteen minutes to make our way inside “El Retiro” through one of its western gates.

This park couldn’t be anything less than stunningly beautiful even on its worst day, but in the middle of fall on a mid-week day with the leaves starting to change colour and the park not overrun by visitors, it had a very special charm:

Late afternoon in Retiro Park

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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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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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