Spain Day 3 - Tapas and the Desperate Search for Tempranillo

We got up bright and early and hit the "gymnasio". It was fun deciphering the settings on a treadmill in Spanish and unfortunately the gymnasio was a pretty bare bones operation (save the jacuzzi).

Everyone was a bit anxious to hit the road to Ribera del Duero so RRR and I skipped breakfast in hopes of picking up something along the way. After miles of driving with nothing but brown plateaus of land for scenery we stopped at the first gas station and picked up some juice, water, chocolate mini-croissants (which I enjoyed and will continue to pick up as the trip progresses), pretzels and bbq corn. Yes, bbq corn for breakfast!

We kept driving and driving and driving and couldn't find an open bodega to save our lives. How frustrating! We eventually stopped for a late lunch at Bodegas Arzuaga - a winery, hotel and a restaurant. We enjoyed two bottles of wine from the vineyard. Sharpie, RRR and I ordered what we hoped was the local specialty of stewed white beans and ham; but alas, it was more like a black eyed peas with pancetta; tasty but not what we had anticipated.

I followed that with an omlette with shrimp, RRR had Castilian soup, Sharpie a salad with salmon and endive, Mr. RRR a very rare but tasty sirloin (he's a well-done guy so this was quite humorous) and Mitch had the best dish with an oxtail stew complete with golden yellow crispy fries. The oxtail was so flavorful and had probably been braised for hours until it was fork tender. We also found the potatoes to be so much more flavorful with a bit more texture. Delicious!

We piled back in the car and after more driving and futile attempts to find a bodega offering tastings we ventured into the quaint town of Penefiel. We also drove up to the Museo Provincial del Vino; a former castle in Castile which now serves as a museum. We snapped a few pics; had some espresso from the vending machine and basically waved the white flag on tasting and headed back to Segovia.

We cleaned up and headed out to have some tapas although with five people tapas feels more like appetizers than true tapas. Our first stop was La Taurina on the Plaza Mayor. We ordered some Spanish meats, Manchego, shrimp and garlic, wild mushrooms in oil (a bit too oily for me) and octopus with paprika.

The octopus was absolutely delightful! Thinly sliced and perfectly cooked; tender without being too chewy and laid over a bed of soft potatoes with a nice spicy kick from the paprika. The shrimp and garlic was later determined to be the best of the trip with a bit of a coating on the shrimp and plenty of garlic to make you want to sop up all of the oil with some bread.

We continued on to Plaza San Martin, where things were dying down a bit but we sat down in an outdoor cafe and ordered a second bottle of wine, a 2003 Tinot Pesquera from Ribera del Duero along with bacalao in pastry, stuffed peppers in tomato sauce and stuffed zucchini in a queso sauce.

The bacalao and peppers were in pretty much in the same tomato sauce but it was pretty decent.

And just when I thought I couldn't possibly eat any more we stopped at one more place, La Concepcion for a third bottle of wine and two desserts; one peach with peach custard and cardamon sorbet and the other two thin slices of dried apple with a tapioca-like custard sandwiched in between and an scoop of rich vanilla ice cream with a hint of cinnamon to round out the plate.

I must admit I am not a huge fan of Spanish desserts and this one in particular was pretty run-of-the-mill but I was enjoying the ambiance so much I decided to give it a pass.

Eventually we called it a night and prepared for tomorrow's big travel day to Sevilla!

Spain Day 2 - Segovia here we come!

We arrived in Madrid early Tuesday; retrieved our luggage from a different carousel than we were originally directed to and then met up with Mitch and Sharpie.

Pleasantries were exchanged, caffeine consumed and we picked up our very banged up van and got on the road to Segovia. I was a bit delirious but volunteered for the 'hot seat' (aka co-pilot/map navigator/dj role in the front seat) simply to get it over with!

Segovia is a wonderful combination of Seina meets Bologna with narrow, winding, hilly one way streets that are a bit difficult to navigate in a small European car never mind in a van! Kudos to Mitch for driving! We checked into our hotel, dropped off the car, our bags and a sleepy Mr. RRR and headed to town.

First stop was Jose Maria, a restaurant famous for its Castilian fare and cochinillo, better known as roast suckling pig!

And almost as impressive as the 21 day old pig served tableside was how Jose Maria himself wheeled the pig into the dining room and then proceeded to quarter the pork using the side of a plate in lieu of a knife.

A woman seated next to us had motioned for us to snap a photo as Jose entered the dining room, however, I was a bit taken by surprise by the petite chef's butchering methods. So much so that I jumped and missed the photo by a good second and a half!

Being a lover of all things swine, I did not expect the flavor explosion that happened when I had the cochinillo. The skin was crisp without being crunchy and was quite tasty.

The thin layer of glistening fat was a subtle addition to the overall excellence of the dish and the stringy tender pork was hands down

the best pork I've ever had! And the best part (besides the porcelain skills of Jose) was the extra bit of au jus gently spooned over the pork by our server. HEAVEN!

Other delightful dishes to note were RRR's monkfish with asparagus, Sharpie's gazpacho (one of many gazpacho's to come), Mitch's Iberian ham with crusty tomato enhanced bread and Sharpie's melon soup with ham. Yes, she (unintentionally) ordered soup followed by soup.

NOTE: She will have more success with the menu translations as the trip progresses...

After lunch and a bit more wandering , we ventured to the Catedral de Segovia, one of the last Gothic cathedrals built in Spain. We lit a candle for our parents and marveled at the beauty of the church.

We walked for a bit more and decided not to hit the Segovia must see tourist attraction, the Alcazar - I knew I was going to be too exhausted to appreciate it!

Instead, we headed back to the hotel and enjoyed some of the best sangria of the trip on the patio of our hotel. I started to enjoy the lounge chair a bit more and eventually headed to bed a bit earlier than the group.

Of course I was wide awake at 4am and ready to tackle day 3!

Spain Day 1 - Travel, Chili's and JFK

I arrived at the airport without incident with the exception of the irritating women from Staten Island who screamed at me for 'cutting' the security line (I did not cut by the way I just arrived there a second before them) and then proceeded to have no clue how to navigate the whole shoes, liquids, coats off process thereby causing Granny to get pulled aside by the TSA and hand searched. Classic!

Met up with RRR and Mr. RRR on the other side and we grabbed a bite to eat at Chili's where we imbibed in a few cocktails, some Tex-Mex eggrolls (quite tasty by the way) and chicken and steak quesadillas. too tired for pics...

That being said, we skipped Delta's dinner along with the cinematic gem "Georgia Rule" and tried to get as much sleep as possible. Thanks to a Tylenol PM and an exhausting week in Vegas this wasn't much of a problem and I was fast asleep before the plane's doors were closed.

Next stop... Madrid!