Sitges Weekend with Terri and Sue

Friday, February 19, Sue Thomas and Terri Turek came to Sitges to visit. Sue arrived first, without her suitcase, after hours and hours of delay. Not sure of the time her body and head were experiencing Spain, we fed her a light meal, and walked her to her hotel to get some much needed rest. Terri arrived in the evening from Holland thankful to be in a much warmer climate that offered the promise of sun. We toasted her arrival with our favorite cava and made our plans to go into Barcelona on Saturday morning.
Sue, refreshed after many hours of sleep, knocked at our apartment at about 11:00 and we headed off to a day in Barcelona. First stop was to see Park Guell. Neither Sue or Terri had ever been there and it was a brilliantly sunny day. The park was filled with tourists, artists and musicians. Great atmosphere.

Trying to figure out the new camera! And sitting on the serpentine bench. This is my favorite park in the whole world! Built between 1908 and 1912 it feels as modern as if it was just completed yesterday. That Gaudi really had an amazing mind to come up with this design.

After the water is collected from the top of the pavilion where the bench is, it filters down the support columns and is collected to run out of the mouth of this lizard. This is probably one of the most photographed places in Barcelona. And you can purchase this lizard in any size in every gift and souvenir shop in Barcelona.

After Park Guell we were ready for lunch. One of our favorite places to eat is at Ichiban (Japanese/Argentinian restaurant) which certainly has something for everyone. Sushi, grilled seafood, grilled meats, grilled vegetables, salads, ice cream sundaes.....how could you not find something to like?

More walking around Barcelona, near the seaport, up the Ramblas, down the shopping streets, poking around the open air markets and art fairs. By the time we got back to the apartment we had put on 14 km. Not bad for our first day of sightseeing together.

After walking Sue back to her hotel, Terri and I stayed up until 4 am catching up on the past 17 months. Good thing the only activity we had planned for Sunday was lunch at El Velero. And that will be a blog all of its own!

Children's Carnaval Parade

The Children's Parade was a riot of colors, sounds, sequins, feathers, face paint, wigs, ruffles, and more.......one look at these faces tells it all. Who wouldn't want to be a kid again?

Our Favorite Restaurant on the Planet

The finest restaurant in the bustling resort town of Sitges is El Velero (the wooden ship). We eat there at least once a week. We never miss their weekly menu which matches 5 courses with 5 wines - the Marriage of Wines. I first noticed Velero in 2005 when walking along the seafront. I noticed a stack of Wine Spectator magazines and the Marriage of Wines menu through the window. It was love at first sight(bite)!


The food and wine were incredible.



Chef and owner Florencio Martinez is a master of both traditional and nouvelle interpretations of Catalan cuisine. He is a great guy - none of that Gordon Ramsey, hell's kitchen insanity.


Florencio cooks using only the finest of
ingredients: seafood from just down the coast in Vilanova, angus beef from Scotland, and herbs he harvests himself from the local mountainside.







His son, David, is a master sommelier, winner of Spain's 2008 Sommelier of the Year competition, and a budding winemaker. He has introduced us to dozens of wines from Spain's diverse regions. We love the local cava and still wine of Penedes. Of particular interest are the wines from the six wineries in the Garraf National Park just outside of town.



Now that I have your attention let's see some food.

Catalan Xato salad, with special------------------- House cured salmon.
dressing, salt cod and anchovie.

Broiled eggplant with Spanish ham, cheese and caviar.

Strawberry Mousse stuffed in a pastry tube.



Wines will have to wait for another time.

Carnaval Sitges - First Night

Carnaval, we call it Mardi Gras, got underway last night with a mini-parade to introduce those chosen to reign over this year's event.







The King atop his elephant.













The Queen and her court, protected by huge, green archers.








The real parade, held Sunday and Tuesday nights, features 50+ floats and goes on for hours. Sunday draws a more family oriented crowd and Tuesday brings thousands of local young people.


Check out this video of the loosely organized presentation of the Queen.

Food, glorious food....

.....and we are hungry again! Good thing, because Thursday is paella day at L'Andana. The temperature outdoors is in the 40's with sun and wind. The paella is just the comfort food we need. Tonight is the beginning spectacle of Carnival week here in Sitges. Yesterday we had lunch outdoors (for the first time this trip) and watched as the stage was being prepared for the opening music event. Today after lunch I walked over to the library and noticed that the old market was filled with young people getting their make-up and costumes ready for the opening. This is the event where the king is introduced....which is probably why the stage is set at San Sebastian beach. Last year the beachfront was totally torn up, but this year the beach is a beautiful new walking zone.

The music tent is at the far end of the beach and tonight this area will be filled with thousands of revelers plus two.

This week we have experienced a mix of weather and activities. First and foremost has been trying to find an apartment for the 37 days we will have after we return from the Canary Islands. Originally we had planned on staying in a small apartment in Barceloneta, however after getting a chance to see it we realized that there was no way we could live there. The upstairs bedroom was a space I could barely stand up in, let alone Jim. Also the floor ended about 5 feet from the wall, just above the bathroom. So all the steam from the shower would have filled the bedroom and the complete lack of privacy was too much to think about. We don't mind rustic, quaint or bare bones...we do draw the line at crude! So while we kept camping on the beach as an option for worst case scenario, we now have a real plan (and an apartment) for the last 37 nights. Jim's perseverance has paid off...we're going to be coming back to the beautiful resort town of Sitges. Some of you have seen it in person and others have seen our screen saver. Either way, many of you know how much we love Sitges and know just how much we consider it our home.

We had a 1/2 birthday party for the newest member of the Martinez family. Maria Martinez Junyet was born last August and this winter we have had the privilege and joy of meeting her. She sings and smiles and has everyone who meets her enthralled. This beautiful little girl is surely going to grow up and break more than a few hearts.

In the first photo mini Maria is with her father David and her grandmother Lola. Here she is with her grandmother Lola.

I'm learning as I go along on this blogging stuff. Placing the photos is giving me the most difficulty. Oh well, hope you enjoyed this post.

We're Back In Action!

Wow, two weeks in and we are operating at full speed. While we were recovering from whatever bug bit us, we watched several episodes of "House". We're now eating, sleeping regular hours and thinking clearly.....okay maybe not the thinking part. What would be the fun in that? But, the jet-lag has cleared and we're ready for some adventures. Jim's luggage is back with us....delivered the day after we arrived. We've eaten several times at El Velero (Jim will write about those) and L'Andana...two of our favorite places in Sitges. Yesterday we had a farewell lunch at L'Andana with Jerry and Joyce Glynn before they head back to the states today. Jer took Jim on a walk around town to point out some of his (Jer's) favorite shops. They got a chance to share and compare some of their 'best kept secret' sites.

On Wednesday we went into Barcelona for the first time this trip. It felt great to be back. The sun was shining and the air was crisp. We met with the agent at the rental agency and had a chance to see the apartment in Barceloneta we were considering for our March/April rental. Interesting, but not quite what we were hoping for....so the search continues. We scheduled an appointment for 7:00 pm to come back and see other available apartments.

We always like to see how much as changed and stayed the same (and check our internal compasses to see how much we remember). So after visiting the rental agency we headed toward the La Rambla. The artists and actors are still in place. The flower stalls and seed sellers looked like they were doing a lot of business. The Boqueria was pretty much the same bustling open air market it has always been. This poor guy looked like he was having a really bad day!

We walked around the Gothic quarter, checked out the status on the renovations of the old market in Born (no change, still boarded up) and walked to the Palau de la Musica to have lunch at Ichiban (Japanese/Argentinian restaurant). This is the only place I know of where one can choose their own fresh seafood (mussels, octopus, squid, salmon, clams, shrimp, etc.) to grill, have sushi, try many of the typical Catalan foods, order grilled meat (pork, chicken, beef, ribs, sausage), choose noodles, fried rice and/or spring rolls and create their own ice cream sundae for dessert. Needing to walk off that lunch, we headed toward El Corte Ingles (big department store) to look for the sales. Not seeing anything we couldn't live without, we continued our window shopping and wandered toward the information center. Maps, library locations, event calendars, and schedules.......good thing we brought the backpack along. The Irish pubs are also a good place to pick up information in English....as well as a place to sit and rest for a while.



Our legs were getting pretty weary and we still had some time to kill before our appointment so we ducked into the library in Barceloneta. Those library cards we have are priceless! Jim was able to use the internet and I looked at some of the titles of the books they had on the English shelf. It was warm inside and the chairs were comfortable. What a great place!! Roberto didn't have anything for us to look at, but he assured us he would keep searching. It was just a short walk to the Estacio de Franca to pick up a train to Sitges and we were on our way back home. The pedometer I wore registered just under 18,000 steps or 14 + kilometers. No wonder our feet hurt!!!

One Week In

We've survived our first week!!! Or, should I say that amazingly, we've survived our first week. From the moment we boarded the plane, our adventure began. We must have taxied up and down every runway at O'Hare for 2 hours before the plane was directed back to the gate. The reason given was that the baggage was unbalanced, and it certainly felt like the plane was unloaded and reloaded before we were allowed to drive around on all the runways again. Soon we were up in the air and on our way to missing our connecting flight at Heathrow. Fortunately there was another flight scheduled 2 hours later and Jim remembered that if the delay was due to mechanical error the airline had to feed us. So we picked up our new boarding passes for the later flight, the voucher for food and headed toward a restaurant for a lovely English breakfast, complete with fried tomatoes and beans!!!

After breakfast we headed to our next gate where we waited to be told we could board the plane. We waited, we waited, we waited....well you get the picture. We landed in Barcelona at the BRAND NEW terminal 1. It's a beautiful, light filled space. There are 16 brand new luggage carousels and none of them held Jim's suitcase. So we waited an hour for the next flight from London to arrive in hopes that Jim's suitcase would be on that flight. Still no bag so we headed to Sitges. David had the key for our apartment and Lola walked with us to introduce us to our landlady...also Lola (I'll call her Otra Lola).

Our apartment is beautiful!!!! We are halfway between the Basque tapas bar and the sea on a narrow pedestrian street in the old section. By narrow I mean that if the lady across the balcony from ours asked for the sugar I could pass it to her! Right now the street is being recobbled so we hear a lot of tap tap tapping. We have an oven, AND A DISHWASHER. Feeling fairly domestic, on Monday I decided to do some laundry and the accumulated dishes. Well, maybe I need a lesson or two on operating these conveniences. I thought I had set the washing machine for the 1 hour cycle, however 3 hours later our clothes were still swishing back and forth. And the dishwasher was burbing out mountains of suds that required some really fast mopping! I used a pot to scoop out a lot of the suds and then ran the dishwasher through 3 more cycles to get rid of the rest. So I'm thinking that the soap under the sink wasn't the one for the dishwasher.

While I was busy with my domestic adventures Jim was writhing in pain in the bedroom. He woke up Monday sicker than I have ever seen him. And I felt great.
Tuesday I went out to pick up some food and soda. Jim was still too sick to leave the apartment. Wednesday afternoon Jim felt well enough to take a short walk along the sea and do some shopping for more supplies. I still felt fine until Wednesday night when I got sick and it was my turn to writhe in pain. By Friday we were both feeling well enough to be up and able to attempt a meal out. I don't think we've ever had a week where we've spent so little on food or eaten so few meals. It was a great way to jump start our 2010 diet, but I don't think it's something I would recommend.

Since this is the first time I've tried a blog, I think I'm going to try posting this to see if it works. More later....I promise