Spain2013 (3a) - Santillana

Santillana (with its full name as Santillana del Mar) is known as 'the town of three lies' - it is neither a holy place (santa), nor is it flat (llana), nor does it lie by the sea (mar). The little pebbled-street village is pretty much pedestrian only, certain cars at certain time are allowed to drive in. We stayed right in the middle of the village, a hotel named as Altamira, what a coincidence!
People are nice and friendly: the taxi drivers, attending hotel host, the souvenir shop owner, and the once handsome artist.

Beautiful blue sky after the rain:

Somebody just spent her pocket money:

In any direction, it will only take you less than 5 minutes to walk out of the village.

The old stone house used to belong to some rich family was turned into a hotel:

View from our room:

A little cozy corner:

Lily refused to take photos with Milu and me:

Feeling good being begged:

end.,

Spain2013 (2) -Tapas in Madrid

This is the place that Nanny and Grampy like to meet their friends. This time, they took us to here. People are studying the menu:

What are they checking?

Here comes the food, potato with red sauce (might be served every single place in Madrid):

Baby eel on toast:

Sauteed eggplant with goat cheese on a bed of salad (The restaurant might be shopping in Costco for their salad):

Meatball with gravy:

Fried artichoke with ham: this one is absolutely wonderful, the artichoke was crispy outside and juicy, yes juicy inside, with bits of salty crispy ham, gooood.

Pan fried morcilla with coarse sea salt:

Finished dessert, two very happy customer:

 

You've got to stop here and take a photo when you come to Madrid:

end.

Spain2013 (1b) - Food in Cuenca

First of all, we all agreed that the best bread we had in this trip was from the Parador in Cuenca. It is just a simple whole wheat bread with a almost nutty flavor, not the kind overpowered with sugar and milk. Cuenca also has a unique kind of sweets - a sticky sweet paste with almonds.  The paste is flavored with orange peel and sandwitched between edible papers. It is very strong stuff but it really goes well with the strong Spanish cofe solo. Unfortunately, we didn't have any photo of them.
The meal in the Parador was just great:
It started with all the good people:

 

 

Fish on squid ink noddle with saffron sauce.

Fish two ways:

 

Pork chops (I didn't try it but regretted a few days later. Pork tastes gooood in Spain) :

And ? (I can still remember that the sauce is chorizo flavored):

 

Can't finished a meal without a dessert: the sauce on the log has a preserved plum flavor, very interesting, in a good way.

 

The next morning, Champagne buffet: a lot of signature Spanish dishes in very very small portion.

The left top melon was just delicious. The Santa Clause melon that you can find in the States comes very close to it. Baba didn't have any of the melon because he forgot he was in Spain.

Various cold cut meats, cheeses and quince: (I just can't get enough of the Spanish ham.)

 

Ignored the donuts. The white triangles are the special local sweets.

 

Just a reminder that how tasty simply fried eggs can be.

 end.

 

Spain2013 (1a) - Cuenca

Cuenca, which was taken out of our last trip plan to Spain, became the first stop of our Spain2013 journey. After two hour train ride from Madrid and 20 minute cab ride (none-stop cursing and honking of the cab driver), we checked in our Parador,  - definitely a room with a view.  It started to rain heavily after we walked into the Parador. Luckily, the rain didn't last.

Across the narrow bridge, we entered the Cuenca old town.

 

 





 

We are in the old town now, with our Parador behind us:

 

Cuenca has a quite decent-sized Plaza Mayor, just in front of its Cathedral:

 

All the way up to the top of the town, Lily was set free:

 

Overlook of our Parador:

Milu and Nanny:

The second day morning, every one was happy after a Champagne breakfast buffet:

 

The hanging house:

 

Last look of the old town:

 

The souvenir shop owner by Plaza Mayor and his hand made clay magnets: