Basque Country / Travel Stories

More ham: Rural and French Basque country

Basque Country and culture extends across the Bay of Biscay into Southern France , so we took a day to explore this connection along with a couple of small fishing villages on the Spanish side. We started in Pasai Donibane, or Pasajes de San Juan, a small fishing village near San Sebastián, where we stopped to walk around and have lunch. Apparently water sports, particularly those involving boats, are quite popular in Basque Country. We even had a view of the water at lunch. We then headed across the French border into Biarritz, a glamorous beach resort town. Très chic!

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Basque Country / Tourism

Learning the art of pintxos in San Sebastián

Back from visiting family in the U.S. and with a month until Dreamer started teaching again, we rented a car and headed to Basque Country in northern Spain. A quick stop for lunch was in order at a hotel/restaurant in Burgos specializing in this sort of thing. The menú del dia is a phenomenon here: started by Franco as a way to ensure workers could get a good lunch at a reasonable price, the tradition has hung on post-dictatorship in such strong fashion that nearly every place that’s open for lunch here offers it, even though technically they don’t have to

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Travel Stories

Party in the U.S.A.

We hopped off a plane at MIA, with a dream and our cardigans Welcome to the land of fame excess Whoa, are we [still] gonna fit in? Jumped in the Escalade, here we are for yet another time Look to our right and see the Hollywood (Florida) sign This is all so crazy, everybody seems so famous Our tummys turnin’ (from all the sugary drinks on our connection) and we’re feeling super homesick Too much pressure and we’re nervous That’s when the Dad-man turned on the radio And a Miley song was on… A Miley song was on. So we

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Madrid / Tourism

Segovia: Princess castle, aqueduct, and baby pig

Madrid is well-positioned for interesting day trips: just hop on a train and an hour or so later you can immerse yourself in history. In early August, we headed to Segovia, north of the capital in the province of Castile and León, where some of the history dates back to Roman times. The city is famous for its well-preserved aqueduct, which dominates the center. The aqueduct is a part of normal everyday life for Segovianos, with some roads even passing through it. The city’s mascot – meant to echo this famous aqueduct – was just a bit creepy, though… Speaking of

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Holidays / Tourism

Partying until dawn in Aranjuez

One of the best parts of living in Spain is getting to know Spanish people, and last July – shortly after our move – our Madrid family invited us to the wedding of Doer’s host sister, Ruth, and her marido-to-be, Julian (Juli). Host sister, you say? Well, Doer first met Ruth and her family in the year 2000 on his first trip to Spain, a high school Spanish class trip where they hosted this young American boy. And they have stayed in touch ever since. So we hopped on a train to the Aranjuez, a city in the southern part of

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Madrid

Moving to Madrid

Although we loved living in the Valencian Community, we decided to try living in a major international capital for our second year in Spain. The difficult part was waiting to find out where Dreamer would be working within the Community of Madrid – we didn’t want to rent a place until we knew. We still didn’t have any idea where she would be placed when the time came to take her mom to the Madrid airport in mid June. It was an opportunity to scout the city, as well as a preview of Madrid’s steamy summer. A couple of frosty

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