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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…
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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…
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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.…
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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…
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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…