April 10 and 11
Left Chicago on April 10, 2010. Jason is keeping the house and Shelby company. Lee drove us to O’Hare – what a guy! TSA confiscated my wine opener because it had a 1 inch blade. Then we ate at Macaroni Grill in the terminal where they gave us metal knives and forks. And, on the Iberia flight to Madrid, once again we had metal utensils – including knives. Does anyone with TSA use their brains?
We had decent seats on Iberia – though no window next to our row. They served an OK dinner with free wine – tasty Tempranillo. Wake up American Airlines! For what you pay and charge for swill you can serve decent wine without breaking the bank. Neither of us really slept on the plane. It is just so hard to get comfortable.
We arrived in Madrid around 7:30 and took our time going through customs and then security again. This is our second time through Madrid and having to go through security after customs is a bit odd. We made it to the next terminal for our Barcelona flight about 2 hours early. When we asked about getting on an earlier flight we were quickly shut down. Not happening here! We sat at a café and I had espresso and Sharon had a latte – though she wanted a café Viennese. She says she may have to learn to drink coffee in Europe.
Our uneventful Barcelona flight took about an hour and we both slept through almost the whole thing. We wandered out of the plane and stumbled on the Aerobus, which for 10€ took us right to Placa de Catalunya and our hotel. A good deal.
We had a tasty tapas lunch and a wonderful bottle of Ramon Bilbao Rioja Ciranza then retired to the hotel for a nap – which turned out to be almost four hours! Then a stroll down the Ramblas and back ending up at a pizzeria. What’s with us? In Spain for a day and we are eating Italian! We did have a 50cl of sangria cava that was very good!
Off to bed!
April 12, 2010
We were tired! Slept ‘till 9:00 and then showered and dressed for breakfast at the hotel. They had a nice selection of pastries, meats, cheeses, etc.
We walked down the Ramblas to the Mercat La Boqueria and wandered though all of the merchant displays – meats and fish and poultry and vegetables and fruit! Quite a place. Then it was across the street to Gimeno for Habanos. I bought a selection of Cuban cigars – Montecristo, Cohiba, Le Hoyo du Prince, an Upmann and a nice cigar cutter.
Next we walked to the end of the Ramblas and over to the area of the Barcelona aquarium. We stopped for tea and coffee then walked back up the Ramblas to El Corte Ingles, a major department store with EVERYTHING. Sharon found a new watch – she needed once since she left hers at home. Then on to lunch at Taller de Tapas. We had a delicious lunch of tapas – anchovies, mussels, fried artichoke leaves, salads, a bottle of Navarrita Rose, and finished with flan and cheese.
When we walked out of the restaurant it was raining. We tried to do some sightseeing but headed back to the hotel for a nap. What a life!
After nap time we went back to El Corte Ingles and Colby found some casual pants, we looked at shoes and everything else. Then back to the hotel for a glass of cava and asked the front desk for dinner recommendations.
Dinner was as Barkeno. Delicious. We started with a bottle of Luzon Organic Monastrell (yes I know, our second bottle of the day.) We had salad, prawns, cured jamon, then grilled turbot, and finished with crème Catalan. We stumbled back to the hotel where we are now about to crash.
Tomorrow Banyuls-Sur-Mer.
April 13, 2010
Sharon and I are both paying for our eating and drinking habits of the past couple of days. Neither one of us was 100% this morning. We had a light breakfast at the hotel then packed and checked out by 10:30am. We got on an Aerobus for Terminal 1 and were in our rental car by 11:30am. Our car is a very nice two door Audi A3 with a turbo diesel. With Madeline’s help (our trusty GPS) we navigated out of Barcelona toward France. This car is quite a departure from the Renault Sharon and I had in France two years ago and the Fiat Cubos we drove in Italy. This one has some power and it will move on down the road.
We stopped for lunch around 1:30 at a hotel in Llanca. There were only two other diners in the place. The view was beautiful and the food was delicious. We each had a sangria, a salad, then Sharon had salmon and I had ravioli. There I go with the Italian food again! It was a light but delicious meal. Back on the road we were glad we held back on wine with lunch. The road along the coast was the twistiest either of us can remember! At the border with France there was nothing but a sign and STOP painted on the road. So we stopped and then drove on. More twisties and then we arrived in Banyuls – found Francoise’s apartment, unloaded, took stock, then headed to the market. We thank her so much for the use of this space.
Tonight we are eating simply – cheese, bread, a salad, perhaps some wine.
I’m smoking one of my Habano’s - a Hoyo de Monterrey Habana. I enjoy Hoyo de Monterrey’s and smoke them at home – but not the Cubans of course. This is petite corona size. The wrapper is more veined and a bit darker than the Hoyo’s I am used to and the flavor a bit stronger. But, it is still a medium smoke - smooth and pleasant. Into the last half it picked it a bit of pepper then settled down again. I’m enjoying it with a pastis out on the patio of the flat in Banyuls with a view of the Mediterranean and hillside vineyards. Life is good!
No Wi-Fi so this will wait to be posted perhaps tomorrow.
April 14
This was a quite, lazy day for us. After breakfast of croissants and coffee at the apartment we explored Banyuls – wandering about finding the restaurants and shops. It is a pretty little town. We attempted a visit to Collioure. I say attempted because when we reached the center of town it was packed! It was market day and people and cars were all over. We tried to find parking but were out of luck. Tomorrow will be better! There was excitement on the drive to Collioure – a one lane underpass that I was not prepared for. Surprise!! Watch those road signs.
The weather was overcast all day except for about an hour during lunch. We enjoyed sitting in a spot in the sun, protected from the wind. The restaurant we picked was interesting. Our dining area was across the street from the restaurant which required the two servers to dart back and forth across the street, daring traffic to stop for them. They were slammed with more customers than they expected and were having a terrible time keeping up. Sharon commented that even by French standards the service was terrible! Our lunches were nice, we each had salads. Sharon had smoked salmon and I had a Catalan (anchovies.) We shared 50cl of house rose.
After lunch we packed up our laundry and went to the local laverie. One washer full of clothes was €4,50. We folded and went back to the apartment to hang everything and to enjoy nap time.
Nap time over, it was cocktail time. Wine for Sharon and Pastis for Colby. I also enjoyed my second Cuban cigar – this one was a Montecristo. It was the same size and the Hoyo I had yesterday and the wrapper was also more heavily veined than what I get at home. The cigar was more complex than the Hoyo more levels of flavor. Several times during the smoke it became peppery but then the pepper faded.
For dinner we drove down the hill from the apartment, parked the car, and walked around town a bit. Yes, we could have walked to town but we are being lazy and did not want to trek back up the hill after dinner in the dark. We stopped at a bar for a Kir and use of their Wi-Fi – picked up e-mails and Skyped with John. Then we to La Trattoria – a “Restaurant Italien” but there was little Italian about it! A pichet of wine, le menu of salad, entrée, and dessert. Nothing fancy, decent food. I did have a new experience – bulots. We were out of there by 10:00, done for the night and ready for bed.
April 15
A beautiful morning – sun and some high clouds. Not as chilly as the past few days and not much wind until the afternoon. We drove to Collioure easily, found parking and walked down to the beach.
This is a busy seaside town with many tourists. We wandered though the shops looking particularly for artists – but there was nothing that jumped out at us. We took a break for a hot chocolate and a café at one of the beachfront cafes. We sipped our drinks and enjoyed the sun on our faces. After more walking around visiting shops it was time for lunch. We picked Restaurant San Vicens because it had a lovely view and tables in the sun. We ordered a 50cl bottle of Pot Brial Rose (the best rose so far), and two salade chevre chaud. Back home there is nothing as good as salade chevre chaud in France. Yum! We then went on to entrecote for Sharon and scallops for me. We were both very happy and very satisfied. This is a delicious lunch in a beautiful spot.
Sharon made friends with a local dog who picked her out to beg from – likely because she was eating beef. Though when Sharon was done and the plate removed the dog moved on – obviously she had no more use for Sharon. We recovered our car and went to Anchois Roque and bought some salted anchois, some local sea salt, anchois stuffed olives, and some wine.
As I am writing this I am drinking Croix del la Force a 2004 Banyuls Viex vin doux natural. This is a very nice aperitif wine, slightly sweet with a bit of a nutty flavor. There are many wines here that we see not at all back home. Banyuls and Collioure are just the beginning.
After Collioure we headed back to Banyuls, parked in town and picked up a baguette, some wine, vinegar, new sunglasses for me and then headed back to Francoise’s apartment. I poured the Banyuls wine and Sharon and I sat outside and read. I smoked my third Cuban cigar of the trip – this time an Upmann. This was the best so far and even Sharon said she thought the aroma was better than the others – though she also said that she hoped I didn’t smoke a cigar every day when we got back home!
We are dining in this evening – bread, salad, cheese, anchois, olives, and apples – in other words a local feast.
Pictures later!
April 16, 2010
Last night I made several alternative plans for today’s activities. Sharon’s digestive system has not been cooperating with us and I wanted alternatives that would work. One was a trip to Carcassonne – which would mean about a 2 hour drive each way. The other was to the area of Prades, less than one hour. As it turned out, we both slept somewhat late and then piddled around the apartment too much this morning. In the course of this I pulled out Madeline and our Languedoc-Roussillon guide book and came up with shortened alternatives.
When we finally left here we headed north from Banyuls for Saint-Cyprien. It was supposed to be home to “a flowery Place de la Republique hosting a rainbow of sun bleached wooded shutters and the Centre d’Art Moderne tucked beneath a pergola of lilac blossoms.” We found a locked church, some shuttered windows, the lilac colored pergola, and a hand written cardboard sign announcing Mason Bernard. Saint-Cyprien was a bust. So we tried Satin-Cyprien Plage. Not much better! We parked a walked down to the beach – which was a nice large beach but surrounded by modern apartments and a few shops. No interest there. We drove north past Canet Plage – more modern tourists meccas and ended up in Canet-En-Roussillon which looked interesting though modern and parking was available. We had a wonderful lunch at La Petite Brasserie. We sat outside in the sun, had a wonderful waiter with a sense of humor, the menu was salade, grilled dorade, and dessert. That with a demi pichet of rose and once more, life was good.
After lunch we went west to check out a scenic overlook near Millas – ermitage Forca Real. We did not make it all the way to the top – the road was a bit too steep and narrow for our comfort, but the views were extraordinary and worth the drive. We then took back roads all the way back to Banyuls. We passed through olive grove, fruit groves, vineyards, and small towns. It was a pleasant drive.
Back in Banyuls we bought bread and croissants at the paterisserie then head to the bar for an aperitif and use of their Wi-fi. Then by 6:00pm were back at Francoise’s. Tonight we had another light dinner of salad, bread, cheese and anchovies for me. Night night!
April 17 - Saturday
Clean the apartment and laundry to the laverie and then off to Barcelona. We left Banyuls at about noon and made it to the Barcelona airport by about 2:45. The next step on our adventure was locating the departure point for Monbus to take us to Sitges. Signage at the Barcelona airport is not their strong point. We found the likely sport only indicated by a schedule. The 3:40 bus to Sitges arrived at about 4:15. We loaded our bags under the bus and climbed on – only €5 for both of us to Sitges. During the bus trip Sharon discovered that at each bus stop there was a woman in provocative clothing sitting on a chair at the bus stop. Apparently the accepted method of prostitutes – sit at bus stops.
Katie met us at the bus stop and we walked to the apartment in the old town of Sitges. Katie and Jorge had been working for a week and a half to remodel the apartment and it was beautiful. Tall ceilings white walls, modern furniture and all new. The bath was still a work in process as was the kitchen but it was livable.
Beth and Dave were due in from Chicago today but because of the volcano in Iceland, changed their plans to fly from Chicago to Puerto Rico, then on to Madrid and then to Barcelona. They were still stuck in Puerto Rico.
After settling into the apartment we walked Sitges with Katie and Jorge. A lovely town. Then on to dinner at La Marinata. We all had fish. Sharon’s has little eels on top! She was not especially excited. I thought they were tasty if a bit salty. Jorge and I had the same fish – we do not know what we had but it was delicious.
April 18 – Sunday
Morning café and suis at Café Roy. Sharon is very pleased with here suis – thick hot chocolate with whipped cream on top. We followed up with a morning stroll around town and up and down the beachfront. This is the thing to do in Sitges and we fit right in. Stroll, sit and watch others stroll, stroll to a café and have a café solo and some tea, stroll, find a spot for lunch, stroll, nap, stroll, find a place for dinner, stroll. Oh, while we were strolling we were photographing everything.
During the day we had continual updates from Beth and Dave and their adventures in getting to Sitges. They made it to Madrid and found there were no flights to Barcelona but Iberia was going to put them on a bus. They finally made it here some time after 8:00pm in a taxi from the Barcelona airport. Sharon and Katie and I met them at the train station and walked them to the apartment. They had spent most of the day standing in lines in Madrid – moving from line to line as they were directed. They were finally put on a computer flight to Barcelona. The volcano in Iceland is having a terrible affect on travel in Europe. Rental cars are not available, trains are full, hotels are full, airports are full. We don’t know from day to day which airports will be open and which not.
April 19 – Monday
Morning café and suis at Café Roy then strolling around town. Sharon and I went to the beach and sat watching the passing scene. Then we wandered through town, taking a break for café and tea, then back to the shore where we watched the world go by for a while. Being on vacation is hard work!
We met back at the apartment and then went to lunch at Café Posit where we sat outside in the sun and had a delightful lunch – sharing all of our dishes.
After lunch – at about 5:00pm Dave and I visited the local tobacco store and selected Cuban cigars. We went back to the apartment, poured some brandy and headed to the roof for a smoke. I had a Monte Cristo torpedo which was great. I am enjoying these Habanos.
In the evening we went for Cava at hotel Romantic. It is a lovely hotel with a lush inside courtyard filled with palms and flowers. As we were leaving the hotel we asked for a dinner recommendation and the hotel clerk recommended dinner at La Nansa which was only a short walk from our apartment. It was wonderful. I had a fish soup and then lamb shoulder – both delicious. Sharon had fried artichoke heart and turbot. Fish here has been some of the best prepared I have ever had – and consistent in being perfectly cooked.
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