{"id":1232,"date":"2015-05-26T11:07:41","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T18:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/excellentadventure.ca\/?p=1232"},"modified":"2015-05-26T11:07:41","modified_gmt":"2015-05-26T18:07:41","slug":"barb-and-badens-2nd-spanish-adventure-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/2015\/05\/26\/barb-and-badens-2nd-spanish-adventure-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Barb and Baden’s 2nd Spanish Adventure – Final"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSC_4731\"<\/b><\/p>\n

The Technology<\/b><\/p>\n

More so than on any other trip that we\u2019ve made, the technology has played a more significant role than on most trips. Just the fact that I write this travel blog requires that I have some<\/i> technology with me such as my laptop but this isn\u2019t really the focus of this article.
\nOne of the main challenges for Barb and I visiting Spain is the language. Especially making norther Spain the focus of this trip, we\u2019ve found that tourism isn\u2019t as big of a focus and as a result the vast majority of people that we have been dealing with in hotels and restaurants either speak no English or very little. Fair enough, we often get too used to everyone speaking our language in most of the places that we visit.<\/p>\n

One of the technologies that we are using for the first time on this trip that has made a big difference for us is Google Translate app<\/a> on my iPhone. It has the usual capability of being able to translate a written or spoken word or phrase and it will translate which many apps can do. However what the Google Translate app does which we\u2019ve always had challenges with is being able to translate a restaurant menu while you\u2019re looking at it<\/b>. So in situations where you and a waiter can\u2019t reasonably communicate, you can take a menu a menu in Spanish and just holding the iPhone over the menu you see a (fairly decent) translations of the Spanish words right in front of your eyes. The first time that I saw this I was pretty amazed.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_4722\"<\/p>\n

Going Local<\/b><\/p>\n

As I mentioned above, many of the places that we have been to so far in northern Spain don\u2019t seem to have a huge tourism focus. This has it\u2019s pros and cons. One of the biggest pros is that virtually all of the restaurants that we have gone to since arriving in Spain last week have been what we would call \u201clocal\u201d where all of the local people would usually go to eat. In fact in easily 80% of the restaurants where Barb and I have eaten we were clearly the only non-locals.<\/p>\n

We were out driving yesterday exploring the many beaches in this region and stopped off at a small town for lunch. The place that we found was fairly crowded and we were told that there was no menu. Lunch was what was being cooked. Ok, sounds good. We have some good, local red wine which is typical and the food soon starts arriving. We\u2019ve found that it\u2019s typical for lunch to be a fairly large meal and it\u2019s often been 3 courses. In yesterday\u2019s case, it was a chicken noodle soup to start then some potatoes and some meat. Final course is a large veal scallopini (with fries) and we both can barely finish it. And then we\u2019re asked if we want dessert and coffee!<\/p>\n

It looks like most people here seem to get about 2 hours for lunch as we were there for 90 minutes and nobody seemed to be in a hurry to leave. Most stores seem to close in the mid-afternoon so this seems to be consistent with that.<\/p>\n

When I posted my blog update yesterday I added a link to my Excellent Adventure photo web site<\/a>. One of the items that I included on that site is a short video. This was taken a few days ago at a local restaurant called a cidrerie<\/i> which specializes in selling local cider which is very popular in the northern part of Spain especially in the Basque areas. This particular restaurant had an interesting was of pouring it. Most patrons bought a bottle at a time and the waiter would pour a small amount into each glass by holding the bottle and glass far apart with a wooden bucket on the ground to catch the spills. After reading this article<\/a>, it seems that what we saw might be somewhat typical for drinking cider.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_4760\"
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

The Great Outdoors<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve mentioned a few times that the weather that we\u2019ve been experiencing in Spain so far has been hit and miss but generally colder temperatures than normal, occasionally mixed with rain. When we were planning on leaving Llanes we were happy to see that the weather forecast in our next destination was considerably improved in fact we expected to see nothing but sunshine for the rest of our time in Spain.<\/p>\n

After leaving Llanes, we drove about 4 hours westward and are now in the small village of Orell\u00e1n<\/a> in north-western Spain, just north of Portugal.<\/p>\n

So what is it that brought us to Orell\u00e1n? I can probably answer this question by saying that most of the places that I add to our itinerary of any<\/u> place that we travel to will typically be a destination know for good photographic opportunities. Orell\u00e1n is no exception.<\/p>\n

Within walking distance of the place that we are staying here is a site called Las M\u00e9dulas<\/a>. When I was researching possibly coming to see Las M\u00e9dulas a few months ago, the first thing that struck me was that it had the same red, sandstone-coloured rock that reminded me of some places that I had visited in the past. The national parks in Utah and also some of the places we had visited in the Australian outback came to mind.<\/p>\n

Not only does Las M\u00e9dulas have a number of great places to photograph, there\u2019s lots of hiking trails in the areas and after all of the time that Barb and I have spent driving around the Spanish countryside over the past 10 days, getting outside for some exercise is just the thing that we’ve been craving. In the past two days we\u2019ve both been on long hikes through the Las M\u00e9dulas area and the best part is that since we\u2019ve arrived in Orell\u00e1n on Friday the sun has been out all day and the temperatures in the low to mid 20\u2019s. Perfect weather for getting out in the outdoors but not sweltering hot to make it unbearable.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_4803\"<\/p>\n

The Last Stop<\/b><\/p>\n

Saturday would be our last full day in Orell\u00e1n and by Sunday morning, after three days of not driving, we would be back in our car again for the last time as we would be driving southwards to Madrid. Here we would be dropping off our rental car off at the airport and checking onto our hotel in the middle of the city. We have a few days here in Madrid and this is the only destination of this trip to Spain that overlapped with our first trip here in 2003.<\/p>\n

Staying in Madrid will be considerably different than the previous three stages of our trip to Spain for a number of reasons. Probably the most significant is that after only being in small towns in Spain where there really wasn\u2019t a lot of tourism, often being the only ones in a restaurant, we expect that being alone won\u2019t be a big concern once in Madrid.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_4817\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got to admit that being back in a large city is something that I really look forward to on each of our visits to Europe. Being able to have unlimited choices for dining and shopping and also being able to get around without needing to drive really appeals to me. One of the main criteria for choosing a hotel is that we\u2019re near a subway station so getting around the city is very easy.<\/p>\n

One of the first things that we did yesterday on our first full day in Madrid yesterday was purchase a two day unlimited subway ticket so we could get around the city very easily. As I\u2019m writing this last section on Tuesday we\u2019ve been in Madrid since Sunday afternoon and we\u2019ve already done a fair amount of exploring. Barb and I often seek out the main large park in cities and in Madrid the Retiro Park<\/a> was where we spend part of our day. The sun was shining and we walked along the paths watching the people in rowboats in the lake and it was one of those experiences that you have while on vacation that makes travel so enjoyable.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_4810\"<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re in Madrid, one of the must-do things to do is have Churros con Chocolate for breakfast. Basically a deep-fried donut type served with the thickest chocolate drink that you\u2019ve ever tasted. Think chocolate pudding that hasn\u2019t set yet. I have a photo of the churros and chocolate that we had yesterday on my photo blog here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the highlights of our short stay in Madrid has got to be the night out last night to see a flamenco show. We went to a place called Cardamomo Flamenco<\/a> and we had previously made the booking on their web site. Seeing a real live flamenco show is an incredible experience and if you have the opportunity to go to one we both highly recommend it. When we were in Spain last time we also saw a flamenco show but in Seville that time, not Madrid.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1014\"<\/p>\n

And Finally\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n

Today is our last day in Madrid which also means that tomorrow we\u2019ll be returning home to Vancouver. One more unusual thing that I\u2019ll mention that we did today was visited a \u201ccat cafe\u201d called La Gatoteca<\/a>. The scenario is that it\u2019s a place that has a dozen or so cats and you go there and pay for 30 or 60 minutes and get to hang around with the them. The cats would either come and check you out or just totally ignore you and keep sleeping. It was kind of fun and as you might imagine this place kind of has a target audience of people who like cats. They have a pretty substantial amount of \u201cLa Gatoteca\u201d merchandise that you can buy and I think that this is where they make their real money. It all goes to support the cats who all seem to be living pretty well.<\/p>\n

By this time tomorrow Barb and I will be on our flight out of Madrid and on the way home. Before we left for Spain I was reading my blog articles from our first visit here in 2003 and one of the comments that I made back then was how inexpensive Spain was. Based on our observations from this trip, Barb and I continue to feel that Spain is the best value for money of any country that we\u2019ve been to in Europe.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re ending our 2nd Spanish Adventure on a very positive note. The weather has been great for the past week and we\u2019ve had a lot of fun here in Madrid and of all of the other places throughout Spain. We\u2019ll be taking home a lot of great memories and of we already have plans for at least two years into the future for our upcoming Excellent Adventures.<\/p>\n

Until then\u2026<\/p>\n

Baden<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Technology More so than on any other trip that we\u2019ve made, the technology has played a more significant role than on most trips. Just the fact that I write this travel blog requires that I have some technology with me such as my laptop but this isn\u2019t really the focus of this article. One of the main challenges for Barb and I visiting Spain is the language. Especially making norther Spain the focus of this trip, we\u2019ve found that tourism isn\u2019t as big of a focus and as a result the vast majority of people that we have been dealing with in hotels and restaurants either speak no English or very little. Fair enough, we often get too used to everyone speaking our language in most of the places that we visit. One of the technologies that we are using for the first time on this trip that has made a big difference for us is Google Translate app on my iPhone. It has the usual capability of being able to translate a written or spoken word or phrase and it will translate which many apps can do. However what the Google Translate app does which we\u2019ve always had challenges with is being able to translate a restaurant menu while you\u2019re looking at it. So in situations where you and a waiter can\u2019t reasonably communicate, you can take a menu a menu in Spanish and just holding the iPhone over the menu you see a (fairly decent) translations of the Spanish words right in front of your eyes. The first time that I saw this I was pretty amazed. Going Local As I mentioned above, many of the places that we have been to so far in northern Spain don\u2019t seem to have a huge tourism focus. This has it\u2019s pros and cons. One of the biggest pros is that virtually all of the restaurants that we have gone to since arriving in Spain last week have been what we would call \u201clocal\u201d where all of the local people would usually go to eat. In fact in easily 80% of the restaurants where Barb and I have eaten we were clearly the only non-locals. We were out driving yesterday exploring the many beaches in this region and stopped off at a small town for lunch. The place that we found was fairly crowded and we were told that there was no menu. Lunch was what was being cooked. Ok, sounds good. We have some good, local red wine which is typical and the food soon starts arriving. We\u2019ve found that it\u2019s typical for lunch to be a fairly large meal and it\u2019s often been 3 courses. In yesterday\u2019s case, it was a chicken noodle soup to start then some potatoes and some meat. Final course is a large veal scallopini (with fries) and we both can barely finish it. And then we\u2019re asked if we want dessert and coffee! It looks like most people here seem to get about 2 hours for lunch as we were there for 90 minutes and nobody seemed to be in a hurry to leave. Most stores seem to close in the mid-afternoon so this seems to be consistent with that. When I posted my blog update yesterday I added a link to my Excellent Adventure photo web site. One of the items that I included on that site is a short video. This was taken a few days ago at a local restaurant called a cidrerie which specializes in selling local cider which is very popular in the northern part of Spain especially in the Basque areas. This particular restaurant had an interesting was of pouring it. Most patrons bought a bottle at a time and the waiter would pour a small amount into each glass by holding the bottle and glass far apart with a wooden bucket on the ground to catch the spills. After reading this article, it seems that what we saw might be somewhat typical for drinking cider. The Great Outdoors I\u2019ve mentioned a few times that the weather that we\u2019ve been experiencing in Spain so far has been hit and miss but generally colder temperatures than normal, occasionally mixed with rain. When we were planning on leaving Llanes we were happy to see that the weather forecast in our next destination was considerably improved in fact we expected to see nothing but sunshine for the rest of our time in Spain. After leaving Llanes, we drove about 4 hours westward and are now in the small village of Orell\u00e1n in north-western Spain, just north of Portugal. So what is it that brought us to Orell\u00e1n? I can probably answer this question by saying that most of the places that I add to our itinerary of any place that we travel to will typically be a destination know for good photographic opportunities. Orell\u00e1n is no exception. Within walking distance of the place that we are staying here is a site called Las M\u00e9dulas. When I was researching possibly coming to see Las M\u00e9dulas a few months ago, the first thing that struck me was that it had the same red, sandstone-coloured rock that reminded me of some places that I had visited in the past. The national parks in Utah and also some of the places we had visited in the Australian outback came to mind. Not only does Las M\u00e9dulas have a number of great places to photograph, there\u2019s lots of hiking trails in the areas and after all of the time that Barb and I have spent driving around the Spanish countryside over the past 10 days, getting outside for some exercise is just the thing that we’ve been craving. In the past two days we\u2019ve both been on long hikes through the Las M\u00e9dulas area and the best part is that since we\u2019ve arrived in Orell\u00e1n on Friday the sun has been out all day and the temperatures in the low to mid 20\u2019s. Perfect weather for getting out in the outdoors but not sweltering hot to make it unbearable. The Last Stop Saturday would be our last full day in Orell\u00e1n and by Sunday morning, after three days of not driving, we would be back in our car again for the last time as we would be driving southwards to Madrid. Here we would be dropping off our rental car off at the airport and checking onto our hotel in the middle of the city. We have a few days here in Madrid and this is the only destination of this trip to Spain that overlapped with our first trip here in 2003. Staying in Madrid will be considerably different than the previous three stages of our trip to Spain for a number of reasons. Probably the most significant is that after only being in small towns in Spain where there really wasn\u2019t a lot of tourism, often being the only ones in a restaurant, we expect that being alone won\u2019t be a big concern once in Madrid. I\u2019ve got to admit that being back in a large city is something that I really look forward to on each of our visits to Europe. Being able to have unlimited choices for dining and shopping and also being able to get around without needing to drive really appeals to me. One of the main criteria for choosing a hotel is that we\u2019re near a subway station so getting around the city is very easy. One of the first things that we did yesterday on our first full day in Madrid yesterday was purchase a two day unlimited subway ticket so we could get around the city very easily. As I\u2019m writing this last section on Tuesday we\u2019ve been in Madrid since Sunday afternoon and we\u2019ve already done a fair amount of exploring. Barb and I often seek out the main large park in cities and in Madrid the Retiro Park was where we spend part of our day. The sun was shining and we walked along the paths watching the people in rowboats in the lake and it was one of those experiences that you have while on vacation that makes travel so enjoyable. When you\u2019re in Madrid, one of the must-do things to do is have Churros con Chocolate for breakfast. Basically a deep-fried donut type served with the thickest chocolate drink that you\u2019ve ever tasted. Think chocolate pudding that hasn\u2019t set yet. I have a photo of the churros and chocolate that we had yesterday on my photo blog here. One of the highlights of our short stay in Madrid has got to be the night out last night to see a flamenco show. We went to a place called Cardamomo Flamenco and we had previously made the booking on their web site. Seeing a real live flamenco show is an incredible experience and if you have the opportunity to go to one we both highly recommend it. When we were in Spain last time we also saw a flamenco show but in Seville that time, not Madrid. And Finally\u2026 Today is our last day in Madrid which also means that tomorrow we\u2019ll be returning home to Vancouver. One more unusual thing that I\u2019ll mention that we did today was visited a \u201ccat cafe\u201d called La Gatoteca. The scenario is that it\u2019s a place that has a dozen or so cats and you go there and pay for 30 or 60 minutes and get to hang around with the them. The cats would either come and check you out or just totally ignore you and keep sleeping. It was kind of fun and as you might imagine this place kind of has a target audience of people who like cats. They have a pretty substantial amount of \u201cLa Gatoteca\u201d merchandise that you can buy and I think that this is where they make their real money. It all goes to support the cats who all seem to be living pretty well. By this time tomorrow Barb and I will be on our flight out of Madrid and on the way home. Before we left for Spain I was reading my blog articles from our first visit here in 2003 and one of the comments that I made back then was how inexpensive Spain was. Based on our observations from this trip, Barb and I continue to feel that Spain is the best value for money of any country that we\u2019ve been to in Europe. We\u2019re ending our 2nd Spanish Adventure on a very positive note. The weather has been great for the past week and we\u2019ve had a lot of fun here in Madrid and of all of the other places throughout Spain. We\u2019ll be taking home a lot of great memories and of we already have plans for at least two years into the future for our upcoming Excellent Adventures. Until then\u2026 Baden<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spain"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.excellentadventure.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}