Riffs on Northern Spain

The Spanish are learning.  Sometimes when we would get a water (me) or Coke zero (Carol), there would be more than ice cube in the glass.  There is hope for Europe yet.

I'm pretty certain that Spanish food is better than Italian food.  There is more variety, and nothing tastes as good as Spanish ham.  If you have a bad meal in Spain, you chose poorly.  The other observation about Spanish tapas (or "pintxos" in Basque country) is to at least try everything put in front of you. . .even if it sounds or looks questionable (why yes, Torie, that comment was written for your benefit!).  We've eaten a bunch of weird things on this trip, and most have been delicious.

Love the traffic circles in Spain, always have, always will.  Nice solution to keep traffic moving.  The stop lights?  Not so much.  When you come to a stop, you can no longer see the main traffic light.  There is a little light eye level on the post, so you have to find it and watch it to know when to go.

I know the custom, but it is weird to be walking around at lunch and have stores closed, to not open again until 3, 4, or even 5 pm.

The difference between the austere desert like landscape in Aragon and the verdant green of Basque country and, so far, the rest of the north, is quite striking.  In addition, the mountains here are quite striking, carved into sharp peaks with many jagged edges.

We were quite happy with both places we rented.  We got a taste of country life in Ainzon, and city/beach life in San Sebastian.  Both had HHI refrigerators (every episode of House Hunters International that is set in Europe features Americans stunned by the tiny size of the fridge.  Did not bother us any, we were only staying two nights in each place, so we did not come close to filling the fridges. Both had washers, but no dryers, so we relied on the sun.

The laundry from Ainzon did not dry overnight, so Carol spread it all over our luggage in the back of the car.  Most of it finished drying as it baked in the sun whilst we were parked in Pamplona.  The sun was strong enough in San Sebastian that the laundry dried.

Carol and I have always loved to travel, whether it is to the cities, the mountains, the land of ice, the water. . .and we still continue to get a special thrill when we walk through cathedrals built 500-1,000 years ago, and see sculptures and carvings dating back nearly that long.  Perhaps it is a sense of history, or the jaw-dropping buildings they built, but we never get tired of seeing the beauty in these works of man to honor God.

So far, I would have to rank Zaragoza first, San Sebastian second, Pamplona third, Ainzon fourth, and Bilbao way down the list.  Ainzon was great, because it was good to get out and roam the stark countryside, but since most of it is closed and barren, it does not rank as highly as the first three.

On a more serious note, two unconnected tragedies have just happened, one here in Spain and one at home.  The national disruption of the vote in Catalonia for independence is unconscionable.  Even if it is a non-binding or illegal vote, the idea the Spanish government would use rubber bullets to try and disrupt the vote is just nuts.  Talk, talk is better than what happened.  And, of course, the more sobering is the Las Vegas shooting, which does take some of the joy out of this trip.