A Beer For Strange Climates

Category: Spain

  • Cervezas La Pedriza

    Cervezas La Pedriza

    North of Madrid lie mountains. The city reminds me of Denver, in its position on a high plain, backed up by large-scale rocks beckoning you out of the bustle and into the hills. My love had once lived in Madrid, and climbed on the walls and boulders around La Pedriza. My modest climbing career had…

  • Alhambras in Zafarraya

    Alhambras in Zafarraya

    The drive over the tracks took us up and around the mountains…just getting out of our friends’ house near the shadows of La Maroma, the grand mountain in the Sierras de Tejeda. The lady turns purple in the sunset, but we had the full afternoon sun upon her as we set out. This corner of…

  • Sangria on La Rambla

    Sangria on La Rambla

    You’ll forgive us if we forgot to ask for no straws. The August sun beat onto us as we stepped out onto La Rambla from our hotel in Barcelona. A quirk of planning meant we would spend the night there on our way from a glorious week in Collioure, France, to the south of Spain.…

  • BierKraft, Sevilla

    BierKraft, Sevilla

    When the bartender totaled up my purchases, he nodded with appreciation. Buenas elecciones! So proud, I felt, after a fun evening sipping from the selection of draft craft beers at BierKraft in the heart of Sevilla. We had visited before, stopping in the afternoon with our dogs, for a respite during our regular ventures into…

  • La Botica De La Cerveza, Málaga

    La Botica De La Cerveza, Málaga

    Not far from the castillo in what was once (and still is) the rough border/port town of Málaga, wandering the side streets and into La Victoria, you can find the craft beer sene percolating away, giving you options beyond the Guinness and the Cruzcampos you might be subjected to on the Plaza de la Merced.…

  • Hops & Dreams in Sevilla

    Hops & Dreams in Sevilla

    It was a snapshot in time and we crossed paths for a few moments. S agreed that the man striking up conversation with us looked a lot like Bill Nighy—except we found out he was a Dane, moving from place to place, following work around the world as a musician and producer.  Maybe it was…

  • The Spaniard’s Chocolate

    The Spaniard’s Chocolate

    The Spanish can be intense. You know it when you walk into a restaurant in Spain: If the noise level isn’t over 90 decibels, look at your watch. It’s not 10 pm yet. In the south, in Andalucia, they’ve built their towns on defensible hills, fortified against attack, with steep climbs to achieve them. A…

  • O Parador do Santiago

    O Parador do Santiago

    To walk under the arch into the parador at Santiago de Compostela is to complete a pilgrimage even if only from your car outside the plaza. The old walls of the former hospital calm and heal you with their cool, quiet depths, as they must have travelers and penitents—and kings—centuries ago. We came to Santiago…