Carving Pumpkins

We carved pumpkins to celebrate Halloween! My friend Amy was here so we all headed to the grocery store to look for pumpkins. There isn't a huge selection when it comes to pumpkins around these parts but we were lucky enough that the local "Fred Meyer" had some. They were small but carve-able so we picked out 3, bought some candy, roasted some chestnuts, and brought out the knives! We had a nice little carving party and made 3 great pumpkins.

Let the carving begin!

Pablo's pumpkin

Kelly's Pumpkin

Amy's Pumpkin

All three

Scary!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN from Spain!

Hiking in Los Cotos

This week we had another chance to go on a hike in the Sierra. Pablo was lucky enough to have a short week of work so we picked a route and headed up to the mountains. This time we went with two of Pablo's partners Jose and Rufo. This hike was a nice hour walk up to this small lagoon with great views of the forest and interesting rock-mountains. It was another lovely, sunny day and it wasn't cold at all so we had a great hike up, a picnic lunch at the top then headed back down. 

Start of the trail with the group

Picture with the fountain

The views

The wildlife

Boys on the bridge

That is where we are headed

The small lagoon even though its called Laguna Grande

Picnic at the top

Heading back down

After such a great hike, enjoying the sunny day and fresh mountain air, we were hit with reality of living in the city as we were driving home.........

The 4 towers of Madrid covered in a huge, black cloud of pollution!

Madrid

I put on my tour guide once again and showed Amy the sites of Madrid. Amy is a fan of Anthony Bourdain just like me and she really wanted to go to a bar that he just went to recently on his Madrid show. They are famous for their tortilla and I hadn't been there before so we made it our first stop of the day. I showed Amy how to ride public transportation- bus and subway- and we made it downtown and found the very cute bar. We had coffee and a tapa of tortilla and it was very good. The bar was super cute and very old. Nice find!

Outside view of the bar

the famous tortilla in the dark bar

Next, we walked up to the Gran Via and headed toward Retiro Park. We snapped some photos along the Gran Via, in front of the City Hall and the Puerta de Alcala.

Madrid City Hall

Gran Via

We walked through the park and enjoyed the nice sunny day stopping at the big lake and the Crystal Palace before stopping to have a glass of wine. As we left we stopped in a Rose Garden and saw one of the few statues of the Devil that there are in the world!

Self portrait in front of the lake

Stopping to smell the roses

Wine in the park

We rounded out the day by stopping in Atocha and then having a menu del dia for lunch. After lunch I had to head back home for classes and Amy stayed downtown to check out the Reina Sofia art museum.

The second tour day in Madrid we started out in the Puerta del Sol and walked down to check out the Royal Palace and Cathedral.

Royal Palace

Then we walked back toward the center and stopped for lunch in the San Miguel Market. It is new market that has really great food stalls and bars. It is very expensive but it is a fun experience. We dinned on croquets and cheese and Amy tried oysters and caviar along with champagne and white wine.

Wine and Champagne in San Miguel Market

Croquetas- really good, really expensive

Amy trying the oysters

Our cheese plate

Next, we carried our cheese plate with us (it was so much and expensive we couldn't have it go to waste) and checked out the Plaza Mayor and neighboring streets. The funny thing about the cheese is people in Spain don't have the custom of taking their food to go with them so walking around the streets with a plate of cheese is a little strange!

Taking the cheese with us

Plaza Mayor

Toledo

Sunday we drove to Toledo to have lunch and spend the afternoon walking around the cobblestone streets enjoying the sites and tiny alley ways. We enjoyed a nice lunch sampling traditional food of the region, Castille- La Mancha, with the highlights being deer and quail. 

Salad Sampler

Manchego cheese

Lunch- sample of food from the region

After lunch we did the walking tour of the town and watched Amy enjoy her first time in Europe- enjoying how old everything really is and that in-fact it isn't Disneyland, but real and people do actually live here!

Our traditional shadow pose

Big door at the church

Muslim influence in Toledo

Amy in the real Europe

City views

Cathedral

Amy's Visit

My friend Amy is in Spain visiting! We met in college and she was my little sis in the sorority. She currently lives in New York, which seems so close compared to Seattle! It was a nice, direct, 7 hour flight for her to get here. I was very happy when she asked if she could come visit me for a week because I always love to have friends here, it makes it feel like I'm not really living in a foreign country on the other side of the world!
She arrived last Saturday and is here until Sunday. We have been trying to make the most of her time by playing tourist. The day she arrived she came with me to Pablo's game and then we went to see a few sights around Madrid. We had the mission of keeping her awake since she was struggling with some jet-lag and we did a pretty good job. We found the key- cafe con leche. She loves the coffee and it pepped her right up. We checked out the Bull Ring since it is a very pretty building even though none of us like bull fighting (but its spanish right?!)

Ole!

The Tour Guides

Next we headed for a caña and tapas near the bull ring that claims it has the best patatas bravas. Not sure if they are the best but they are good. Here Amy got her much needed coffee and even had a caña to go with it. That's our girl!

Coffee, Beer & Bravas

Amy said all she wanted was to go to a neighborhood for more drinks, tapas and dinner and we are like, yes, ok! We like you! We headed to our new found neighborhood Chamberi and went back to the places we went to on the tapa tour. We hit up three bars and then found a restaurant for dinner. It was a typical Andalucian resturant so it was filled with bulls and more bulls. Amy is willing to try everything, which we love so we ordered some fun food for her to try, fried fish and bull's tail!

Jamon! Jamon!

Trying the bull's tail

Tiny fried fish