My first trip back to Spain to see Laurie since 2018 (technically, Portugal that trip). I stayed in La Losa for a while, then Laurie and I headed up to Logrono in La Rioja and Hondarribia in Basque Country.
Thursday, August 10
Since my flight left at 6pm and I had to be at Dulles around 3pm, Barb and I decided to have lunch with Mary Salhus in Reston. John and Mary have downsized to a “patio home” in Ashburn to go with a place in Aurora, Colorado. Mary took a break from moving chores to come visit us at Jackson’s Mighty Fine Food & Lucky Lounge. We had a decent lunch – a veggie burger wrap for me that ended up being a salad with big lettuce leaves, fish fingers with fries for Barb – and a nice visit with Mary.
Barb got me to the airport very early but that made it easy to find a seat at the gate. And there was time for me to fill out a survey for the FAA or some other official sounding bureau. Hope my data helps.
The plane boarded and departed on time. My Economy Plus seat was in the middle aisle with an empty seat next to me. I was able to spread out though not actually put my feet up. Service was decent: wine before and with dinner which was chicken with sugar snap peas over vaguely Asian noodles. I watched “The Phantom of the Open” and “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”, two movies from my long term list. Both were cute, 3 star efforts. But that meant I didn’t really sleep. I tried but at best only dozed. Breakfast was a sort of sausage McMuffin that was not bad but not good. We arrived about 30 minutes early in Madrid, about 7:30am.
Friday, August 11
Our plane landed at Terminal 1 in Madrid. It took about 15 minutes to deboard the plane and make the long walk to immigration. There was a long, 30-minute line to get through immigration, but once through that I exited quickly. The train from the airport to Charmartin Station left from Terminal 4 which involved a bus ride; it took about 30 minutes from exiting the airport to figuring out the bus to getting to the train station; it took another 5 minutes with the ticket clerk to clarify that I needed a ticket to get to Chamartin, not a ticket all the way to Segovia. Why the Segovia ticket can’t include the Chamartin ticket or why there is not better signage for how to get to Charmartin are still questions.
The C-1 train departed regularly from the Terminal 4 station and went directly to Chamartin, about a 20 minute ride. So in all, it took about an hour for me to get from the airport to Chamartin, on top of the time it took to deplane and get through immigration. That was plenty of time for my 10:15 train, but I was glad we arrived in Madrid early rather than late, and I was a little worried about the return trip.
Chamartin Station was crowded with people staring at the Departure boards. I surmised that my train to Segovia was really the one to Valladolid. Once I got that sorted, it took me another 15 minutes to realize that I had to go from one waiting area through baggage check into the real waiting area which was even more crowded. In all, I waited somewhat nervously for about 30 minutes at the station until my train’s track was posted. I was able to find my assigned car and seat without much trouble. The train itself was nice, quite modern, but I couldn’t figure out how many stops there would be until Segovia. It turned out that Segovia was the only intermediate stop, about 25 minutes along the high speed line topping out at 250 km/hr (150 mph). A surprisingly large portion of the trip was in two long tunnels through the mountain ranges.
Meeting Laurie and Maggie at the station was easy. We went to a repair shop to pick up Laurie’s car which has an issue with the airbag warning light. The concern is that it won’t pass inspection when the time comes, but it shouldn’t impact our trip. Laurie and I then headed to Carrefour, the grocery mega store, for some provisions. We had a fine time rummaging through breads, snacks, fruits, veggies, cheese and other goodies.
We made it back to Laurie’s house, got a little settled in and I took a shower. After a while, around 2pm, we went over to Maggie’s where Juan was preparing a lasagna lunch for the family, with partial help from Sam and Nico. Maggie showed up a bit later in time for the actual lunch around 3pm. She then launched into a couple of spontaneous cooking projects, first making several loaves of zucchini bread out of one massive zucchini from their garden. Then she tackled two bowls full of green plums from a tree whose branch had fallen the day before. She made chutney which she put in jars to “give to other people who won’t eat it” and then a plum sauce. It was very impressive to watch her in casual command of the kitchen, carrying on multiple conversations and improvising her way through recipes at the same time.
There was an afternoon screening of “In the Heights” on their very impressive home theater. I snoozed and was afraid I snored through most of it but everyone else seemed quite enthralled with the film, including Rex, the dog. It was a good siesta time activity that got us to 7pm or so when things cooled off.
We all took the dogs for a walk in the countryside just minutes from Maggie’s house, which involved letting the dogs zoom around barking at other dogs along the way. The boys also did their own zooming but less barking. For the adults, it was a nice leisurely stroll for nearly an hour as the sun went into golden hour.
We got back to the house just after sunset, around 9pm, and Maggie started improvising a dinner. We ended up with a nice frozen ravioli with fresh garlic fried mushrooms (with apologies for having pasta twice in the same day), a chopped salad, and hummus with carrots and bread to dip. It was plenty, healthy and very tasty. I helped a little by chopping various things.
We left Maggie’s around 11pm and I didn’t last much longer at Laurie’s. I was in bed a little after midnight and slept surprisingly soundly.
Saturday, August 12
I woke at 5:30am and was awake for about an hour while it was still very dark and quiet. I didn’t realize that sunrise was not until 7:30am. I was able to lie down again and fell soundly asleep until 11am, far later than I expected.
We decided that a priority for the day was to let Laurie go to the emergency room in Segovia to check out a nasty looking spider bite on her leg. She got it on Thursday before I came and she’d been feeling bad and the wound seemed to be spreading. While she was at the emergency room, Maggie, the boys and I wandered Segovia. We killed some time in the Plaza Mayor. Maggie and I had a chance to chat when the boys let her, which wasn’t often. Nico had a well-staged melt down about getting a specific Rubik’s cube he saw in a window and eventually won a protracted negotiation with Maggie. After an hour or so we met with Laurie at the Aqueduct restaurant, Tuma, the Mediterranean place that Laurie and I have enjoyed before. We ate under the reasonably cool umbrellas on the plaza. I had a refreshing gazpacho and a lamb shawarma. Laurie had a prescription of antibiotics we all hoped would take care of the infection she’d developed.
Maggie and the boys split off around 4:30pm to get ready for an overnight camping trip to watch the Perseid meteor shower with some friends. Laurie and I headed up the road about an hour to Sepulveda, a town where she’d not been before. The drive was smooth and the town was quite impressively sited over a gorge. We pulled into an overlook for a great view of the town, somewhat reminiscent of a small scale Toledo.
We found a place to park and wandered through the narrow streets, winding our way up to the Iglesia de El Salvador church that dominates the town’s highest point. The views were actually better from the overlook outside of town but the air was cool with an evening breeze. We walked down to the Plaza Mayor for a beer and a little shopping for sweets for the boys.
We decided to head out of town for a view of the river gorge. We drove into the Duraton River Gorge National Park, and drove and drove over deteriorating roads. After some 20 km, or was it just 12, we came to the car park from which one sets out on a 15-minute hike to the former monastery overlooking the river. We didn’t have time for that so we drove back over slightly better roads to get to our 9pm dinner reservation at Fuenteplateada.
Laurie had been to this restaurant for her birthday, set in a lovely cool garden. It was upscale food and very good. We shared a grilled artichoke appetizer followed by salmon pesto pasta for Laurie and two dishes for me: grilled baby pork chops along with a small paella with mushrooms and pork. All of it was delicious. We had a long discussion over getting a bottle of wine as opposed to individual glasses. We ended up with a glass each, mine a chilled Rioja red.
We drove back home, arriving around midnight, in time to walk the dogs, both Luna and Rex, who’d been cooped up all day. We wanted to see the Persieid meteor shower so we walked a small way into the countryside again but I was not as committed as Laurie. I also didn’t want Rex waking up the neighborhood by barking at other dogs so I didn’t go for as long or as far as Laurie wanted. She was upset to not see any meteors. I wasn’t heartbroken. As it was, it was about 2am by the time I went to bed, Laurie a bit later.
Sunday, August 13
I woke up at 9am, a more reasonable hour than 11. We took it easy in the morning. Laurie puttered in her garden, of which she is justifiably proud. I read a bit and journaled while we waited to communicate with Maggie once she got back in cell service range which happened sometime after 11am. We decided to come over to Maggie’s for lunch and hang out for the afternoon before Laurie and I headed for Avila, one of the nearby towns I’ve wanted to see.
I came upon the metaphor that I live my life at the pace of a simple singer songwriter with a set of well honed, lived in songs. Maggie lives as ringleader of a free-form jazz-hip hop-jam band collective, constantly improvising, flowing from one moment to the next. And loving it. Laurie is somewhere between me and Maggie, sounding discordant notes to whatever Juan is playing, evidently. Barb is closer to 60’s bubblegum pop. Each tune – all tunes – are valid. They just don’t necessarily go all that well together.
It turned out Laurie’s Philadelphia friends, the Guerins, would arrive Monday but their son Joey was already here. We coordinated with Maggie that Laurie and I would pick up hamburger meat at the store and then pick up Joey in the neighboring town. We got burgers just as the store was closing at 2pm, then got Joey and made it to Maggie’s sometime close to 3; Maggie made lunch appear as if by magic. Joey was a delightful, energetic puppy dog of a man who filled us in on the backstory of the Guerin family in Spain and the connections leading to this reunion of more than 90 people (15 of them from the States). It was more than a little overwhelming.
Around 4:30 some other friends stopped by to join the fun. Carolina, a buddy of Nico and Sam’s, and her Dad just arrived from Asturias. It was nice having everyone at Maggie’s but before long I needed to sit outside in the shade to get some fresh air.
Laurie and I bailed out around 5:30 in time for Laurie to take a little nap before we headed to Avila, about a 45-minute drive. I had wanted to see Avila since first visiting Segovia. They are sort of sister cities on the tourist trail, often paired in day trips and both featuring impressive architectural sights. We had originally planned a full day trip with the Guerins but that didn’t pan out, so Laurie and I fit a quick visit in this late afternoon.
We found parking right under the main square and started wandering around, even though Laurie wasn’t feeling well because of her antibiotics. Laurie bumped into a Segovia friend hawking her leather wares at the craft fare in the Plaza Mayor. I was more interested in the city walls of Avila which were certainly impressive.
We climbed and walked a short section of the walls, taking in the views.
We walked a bit of the old town inside and outside the walls before finding a place for Laurie to sit while I explored a bit further.
We went back to the plaza mayor to choose a seat for a drink – a wine for me, a soft drink for Laurie. With the drinks came tapas, two bocadillos which was what I was going to order anyway. So effectively I got my dinner for free. Good deal! Laurie still wasn’t feeling great so we elected to head home, stopping briefly at the Four Posts just outside of town for a look at the lighted walls of Avila in the early evening. Avila certainly looked lovely at night. I’d like to give it another chance sometime…when it’s cooler.
There was certainly a lot more to see in Avila but it could wait for some other opportunity. I can understand why Avila and Segovia are often paired on day tours out of Madrid – they are very similar cities with unique architectural features and charm. Segovia seems a little smaller, more manageable and slightly less touristy, but it’s a close call between the two.
We got home by 11pm. I wound down with a glass of wine while Laurie watered her garden and took Luna for a walk. We were in bed shortly after midnight, an early evening in these parts.
Monday, August 14
I woke at 9:30, breakfasted on bread, cheese and chorizo, then waited for the day to unfold. Laurie went about her own business in the garden, walked the dog, breakfast (yogurt and fruit), computer time and a shower while we waited to connect with Maggie.
I think there are two main reasons Spain famously operates on such a late daily schedule. One is that Spain is clearly in the wrong time zone, a legacy evidently of Franco who wanted to be on the same schedule as Germany (per Maggie, corroborated by the Washington Post). In summer here in Segovia, sunrise is around 7:30am and sunset around 9:15pm so the day is already skewed later. The other reason is that it’s so darn hot during the middle of the day but much more pleasant in the mornings and evenings. This is magnified by the lack of air conditioning and the structure of Spanish houses which open to take in the cool night air and then close down to try to maintain it through the day (and vice versa in the winter). Giving in to this natural cycle, it’s easy to sleep late, have lunch around 2pm then siesta/downtime through the worst heat of the day before coming alive again when it cools around 6-7pm, then an evening meal around 10pm. Mine is not a unique revelation – many others have noted this cultural anomaly and its causes – but it’s a reminder that at this point Spain chooses to live in this time warp and has built a culture around it. There’s something to be said for it but it also helps feed the general sense of inefficiency and loose relationship with time (and sleep deprivation for those that want to interact with the rest of the world). I type this as it approaches noon and we still have no idea what we’ll be doing this day.
We got word from Maggie around 1pm that it would be helpful if Laurie took the boys for the afternoon so she could concentrate on packing and getting ready for their trip. So, Laurie thought about what to feed the boys and decided chicken, which necessitated a short trip to the store to get a couple of chicken breasts. We got back and started working on what to my mind was an overly elaborate lunch of creamed braised chicken, rice, fried zucchini chips, and, at my suggestion, green beans. The beans and zucchini were direct from Laurie’s garden. I helped as much as I could prepping things but it was mostly Laurie’s one-armed show. The chicken was a multi-stage, messy effort that was followed by an even messier and more time consuming frying of the zucchini chips, carefully watching each individual chip (of 100 or more, it seemed) to ensure it didn’t burn.
Sometime around 2pm, the boys showed up and it was another 30 minutes at least before we were ready to eat. The lunch was good and the boys actually ate most of their servings but we were all done in about 20 minutes. And there was a huge mess in the kitchen. But no matter. We settled into a game of Catan that Sam won, he would like you to know. That took us past 5pm, so mission accomplished in occupying the boys for the afternoon. They hung around while Laurie and I (mostly Laurie) cleaned up the kitchen.
Sometime after 6pm we headed to Maggie’s then set out for the next town, Las Navillas, to see the Guerins, longtime Philadelphia friends of Laurie and Maggie. We met them at their family’s bar for an initial round of drinks. After an hour or so of chatting and trying to ignore Sam and Nico who had nothing better to do than to try to gain our (especially Maggie’s) attention, the idea of getting some food arose. I figured we’d be eating at the bar but no, someone made the mistake of mentioning there was leftover macaroni and cheese at their rental house so we walked over and barged in on other members of their family lounging on the back porch. The Guerin clan graciously welcomed us and prepared plates of pork and Mac and cheese for the boys, along with ham and cheese sandwich tapas for the rest of us. We spent another 90 minutes reminiscing with them while the boys pummeled one another after their meal. One bloody nose later (Nico’s) it was slowly time for us to leave.
Standing: Joey Guerin, Laurie, Maggie, Terry Guerin
We got back to Maggie’s around 10pm, said our farewells, then Laurie and I returned to her house. She watered her garden then we took Luna for a walk. We happened to catch one of the strings of Elon Musk’s Starlink launches which was very impressive and ominous at the same time.
It was close to 11pm when we had leftover chicken and rice for dinner along with a salad of fresh garden veggies. I tried to stay up long enough to see Trump indicted in Georgia but ended up going to bed around 1:30am. Maybe I’d get to wake up to some good news.
Tuesday, August 15
Trump was indeed indicted in Georgia, along with 18 of his cronies. It was big headlines but also a bit anticlimactic. There’s still a long road ahead for all these cases and so far nothing seems to dissuade Trump’s core base. I think, hope and pray that the Republicans are walking themselves into a dead end (cue the marching band in Animal House) but it’s a near thing with lots of plot twists to come in this sordid reality show Trump is making us all live.
I woke up early around 6am to take in the news which was still just breaking (so good thing I didn’t wait up). I was able to fall asleep again until 9:30.
I had my little breakfast while Laurie puttered in the garden and walked Luna. At 11am, or a little after, we went over to her friend John’s for elevenses. He is a gregarious British expat who has lived in La Losa for 20+ years. Plus, he’s a terrific gardener. He was very friendly to me and Laurie as we spent an hour chatting. After learning I was retired, he said he was recently retired as well (from what, I don’t know because I’m a putz and didn’t ask). He remarked, “I’m not yet used to getting paid to do nothing…or really to be paid to do what I like.” I think he stumbled upon an outstanding attitude – retirement is being paid to do what one wants. That twist in attitude could help a lot of people adjust, I think…maybe including Barb.
Laurie, Luna and I headed out to the Argentine restaurant in Valsain (TripAdvisor) and had a delightful lunch. This was the fourth time I’d eaten there, twice in 2016 and once in 2017 when the restaurant had been named “Tio Pepe.” It is now called El Argentino de Valsain which is doubtless a more distinctive and searchable name. As we arrived, this time with a reservation that Laurie made that morning, the Argentine owner and host seated us and asked Laurie in Spanish why her arm was in a cast. She answered that she broke it dancing. Laurie overheard him shortly later say to people at another table, “She broke her arm dancing! That’s not the answer I was expecting from a 90 year old lady!”
We were seated first at a table for two in a high traffic area on the restaurant’s shaded outdoor patio. The traffic was a problem for Luna and a worry for Laurie trying to manage her. When another table for two opened up in a less trafficked area, the owner suggested we move and all of us were happier, especially Luna.
The restaurant’s menu was available online through a QR code and we hadn’t gotten very far with that (in Spanish) when the owner came by to take our order. I had decided that I wanted a steak and chose the Vacio because I was persuaded by the “very traditional Argentine cut”. I didn’t have time to peruse through (or Google translate) the 30 types of empanadillas, or little empanadas, on offer (though, truth in advertising, there were only 26 on the menu). Laurie chose for me and I ended up with a couple of the spicy empanadillas, one meat with chimichurri and the other meat with chipotle, while Laurie had a spinach and a cheese one.
For an entree, Laurie got ravioli while my Vacio turned out to be rather like a NY strip with fries. It was more delicious once I got some chimichurri and a glass of wine. Laurie still wasn’t feeling great due to her antibiotics and I ended up eating half of her ravioli, not that I complained. As soon as our entrees arrived, the flies descended which is a recurring problem at this outdoor location. I commandeered one of the battery operated rotating fly distractors that was sitting idle on a nearby table. It worked reasonably well but the flies were mighty persistent. I happily plowed through my steak and a good deal of Laurie’s ravioli. We were too full for dessert though they have a wide selection of crepes, tarts and ice creams.
The Argentine host/owner was as hospitable as ever, more so once the crowd thinned and he could relax. It was good to see him and his place thriving post-Covid. As we were leaving, the owner took the time to speak to us, first to Laurie in Spanish. I mentioned in English that this was one of my favorite restaurants in the world. The owner seemed touched and stumbled out the advice, “Say it in Google” which I think may become a mantra. I now feel compelled to post a nice review, though we forgot to take pictures. And I didn’t know the guy’s name. Yet.
We tried going up to the forest at Boca del Asno but signs indicated the parking lot was full so we diverted to a secondary area on the same river. It was also busy on this holiday, the Feast of the Assumption, but we were able to find a parking place. We found a shady spot and Laurie promptly fell asleep while Luna kept guard. I read for a while then took Luna for a walk. This area was not as nice as Boca del Asno but it was still peaceful and not too hot in the shade. After an hour or so we woke Laurie up and headed home.
To the best of my ability, which is not saying much, I helped Laurie tie up some of her garden vegetables. It’s a lovely garden but I am still intimidated to try to grow anything myself. It seems like an unending pain in the neck. Yes, it’s nice to get fresh vegetables, which became our evening salad meal that night…but what a bother.
We took Luna for a longish walk at sunset and enjoyed the display that nature presented. That was great, but it meant it was 10pm by the time we got back to the apartment, and 10:30 before we had our light dinner of salad, bread and cheese.
I found a replay of the women’s World Cup semifinal where Spain beat Sweden. I stayed up past 1am for the dramatic ending. Laurie watched for a few minutes before bailing for bed. Tomorrow it’s off to Logrono. We’ll see how that works out. I hope Laurie feels better for the vacation part of this trip. I’m pretty sure she would prefer to stay home in bed. Her leg is getting better but the antibiotics affect her stomach and give her a very specific headache behind her right ear, plus tonight she complained of chills and possibly a fever. Fingers crossed.
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