Saturday, September 28, 2019

A Parade for Eli Manning?

After Maddy caught a cab back to the airport, and Amsterdam, we hung out at the apartment for a while before heading to dinner at Meneghina, near the Park.  A cozy little Italian place (for a change of pace from Spanish food), the food was great, and, more importantly, the woman running the restaurant gushed over my wine selection.

I was looking for an Italian red, but perused the Spanish reds just to see what they had.  I spotted a L'Infernal RIU.  Years ago, when Carol and I were first getting into wine, I had bought a wine from Trio Infernal, three French winemakers who went in together on a vineyard in Priorat.

This is the second restaurant we've been to that has L'Infernal on the wine list, and the second time the waiter was pleasantly surprised by my choice.  And, no, not every bottle of wine I choose is affirmed by the waiter when I order it.  Remember, Spanish waiters do not expect to be tipped, so they are not just sucking up! 

The Priorat region, not far from Barcelona, is to me, Spain's most underrated top wine region.  And the prices here in Barcelona are incredibly inexpensive.  Even at restaurants.

We lingered over dinner, replaying Maddy's fabulous visit, and getting ready for our next set of visitors, Don and Jennifer Minnis, who were coming in the next day.

The next morning we did not leave the apartment till about 10:30, and headed up to one of the closing events of the La Merce festival -- the Parade of Gigantes (Giants).  After Daniel Jones got the win as the new starting QB, I jokingly wondered if this meant the Parade of Giants was a thank you to Eli Manning and his career.  

Say what you want about Eli, two things are true.  First, he won two Super Bowls for us Giants fans.  Second, he is done.  It is sad to see him benched, but it is time. (Editor's Note: Glen, many, many years ago you choose to go into politics rather than sports writing.  Enough of the sports!  Blogger (meekly): Okay, back to travel!)

Held in Placa de Sant Jaume, the place was jammed.  This really is an event for kids.  And tourists like us.  But there were a lot of parents with kids there, and it was super fun and weird at the same time.  Weird because, well, imagine a whole square filled with people gawking at these Giants, who reminded me in a way of the characters in the Nationals' President's Race.  Except these were even bigger and more awkward.

After looking at them for a while, Carol and I got out of the crush of people and continued on our way.  Ranking the three festival events we went to (not counting passing many of the stages with live music) it was pretty clear cut.  Top of the list was the Carrefoc (fire walk), with the Human Towers second, and the Giants third. 

I think the Giants need to get used to third place this year.  Oh, and Eli, us Giants will always appreciate you for those two thrilling runs to successful Super Bowls. (Editor's Note: Glen, stay on point!)



Oh, I've got pictures of more Giants than this,
but you get the point from these three.


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