Food and Drink

Trip To Galicia

Mo & Ali Segovia

Ant & Sal in Segovia

Our first stop was Segovia, north of Madrid – a beautiful city with a stunning cathedral and Roman aquaduct.

Segovia Cathedral

The walled city is perched on a rock rising out of the surrounding Castillian plains, and is a maze of narrow streets dotted with Roman monuments and noble mansions.

Mo & Ant Segovia

We stayed one night in a converted monastery within walking distance of the old town.

Wow Beef Rib En Route

Then on to A Pobra de Trives, near Ourense in rural Galicia, after an interesting drive north west through spectacular scenery. No postcards here (well no shops, actually), so just a couple of snapshots of the hotel, which was a luxuriously converted old manor house on a farm, set in beautiful lush pastures, woodland and lakes.

Converted Old Manor

Manor Views

Very green with lots of livestock, the cows and goats with bells so the herdsman can find them to bring them home. So peaceful, and no English spoken – popular area for walking holidays, but few foreign tourists come here so we were something of a curiosity!

Manor Gardens!

Space ship!

Our next stop was Vigo

Escudos Hotel

A busy commercial port on the south coast of Galicia (not far from the border with Portugal).
The city itself was busy and a bit touristy as many cruise liners stop here. But our hotel was a delightful, peaceful haven overlooking the estuary, another lovely old building with gardens down to the beach and all mod cons – we got a free upgrade to a huge suite overlooking the estuary.

Escudos View

Escudos Gardens

There are lots of traditional fishing villages in the many inlets, and summer resorts popular with Spanish holidaymakers. And fantastic seafood restaurants – every conceivable type of shellfish is caught or farmed off this coast.

Seafood Lunch

From Vigo, we visited Santiago de Compostella.
The buildings, especially the cathedral, were spectacularly ornate though rather gloomy.

Not difficult to imagine the throngs of pilgrims there in the Middle Ages, and what an awesome sight it must have been for them. We didn´t get to pay our respects at St James´s reliquary as the queue was several hours long.

Then on to La Coruña for 2 nights – this is where the Armada set sail from and the site of many historic sea battles and sieges. Another busy port on a rocky islet linked to mainland by a narrow strip of sand. Two sleepless nights in a beachfront hotel in sweltering heat – the only bad hotel choice I had made when I booked them all on the internet. The “English weather” we had been promised did not materialise, it was sunny every day and only a few drops of rain during the whole trip. More spectacular coastline, maritime museum and aquarium. The Costa del Muerte (coast of death) is here, very rugged coastline where many ships foundered on the rocks, and Cape Finisterre (heard of in the shipping forecast, always wondered where it was!). Finis Terra in Spanish, means “the end of the world”, which of course it was until Christopher Columbus came back. We celerbrated Mo’s birthday in the famous El Coral seafood restaurant.

Mo’s Birthday Bash at El Coral

From La Coruña we drove into the Picos de Europa, a spectacular mountain range in the province of Asturias, only 18 miles from the sea. A wonderful drive through deep gorges cut by gushing mountain rivers. It was a Sunday, and the area was busy with Spanish holidaymakers and day-trippers, every little town had canoes, bikes or horses for hire and there were hundreds of families enjoying a day out on the river and picnicking under the trees. We stayed overnight in Covadonga, a small village in the mountains with another spectacular church, huge monastery and convent.

Church close up

Another pilgrimage site, to a shrine carved out in the rocks to the Virgin of the Battlefield.

Covadonga Shrine

Covadonga Cave

Woodlands

Church in Covadonga

The legendary battle of Covadonga (not heard of it? Shame on you ….. neither had we!) took place here in 722, when Don Pelayo defeated the Moors and heralded the start of the Spanish Reconquest.

Mo & Ant Covadonga

Next stop was near to El Burgo in Castilla-Leon. Lots of old fortified towns and villages and lofty castles en-route, this being the oldest kingdom in Spain.

Rope Bridge En Route to Meseta

Then on through the “Meseta” – the vast central plains with acres and acres of arable farms, but strangely empty of people. We stayed in a delightful former convent in a quaint walled town where the locals looked at us as if we´d just landed from another planet!

On through more meseta to another walled town at Mora de Rubielos, near to Teruel. A beautiful small town with mediaeval origins, immaculately cared for. Exploring the maze of narrow streets revealed beautiful historic town houses with balconies hung with bright geraniums.

Sally and I walked the stations of the cross to the shrine at the top of the fortified hill with a lovely view of the town below.

Mora de Rubielos Shrine

One of the locals chatted animatedly with Maurice, in sign language, about how cold it is there in the winter, like England! They do get lots of snow in winter and there are ski resorts in the mountains nearby.

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Mora de Rubielos

Local stonework

And then home to Moraira, after 10 days “on the road”, 7 different hotels, and having traveled about 3,000 km. Another huge area of Spain explored, and a breathtaking diversity of scenery, history and traditions experienced, but there is so much more to see ………..

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Cookery Courses, Platinum Restaurant, Denia

Platinum Restaurant Denia

This very delightful restaurant will be running cookery courses in January. These will be held on Tuesday and Thursday lunchtimes and will be for one day each week and will run for six weeks. The cost will be €210. The groups will be small and the course will include 6 first course lunches with wine, 6 cookery sessions and one safety, knife skills. All materials will be supplied. A deposit of €50 will be required when booking.
For more information telephone Karin or Stuart on 96 6433472. The restaurant is located just past the Marina Alta Hospital, on the right.

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Alleluja Bar Jalon

Alleluja bar Jalon

Alleluja bar products

Alleluja bar courtyard

This bar is full of atmosphere and is run by “Holy Joe”, a very interesting and flamboyant guy.
The bar is situated opposite the main car park in Jalon.

At mid-day they serve salads and entremeses, wines, beers and other drinks and if you are lucky you may be there when there is music by Spanish guitarists and singers.

The bar also sells fruit in season, nuts, dried fruits, wines, local pottery and other products.

The prices are very reasonable.

In summer there is a pleasant vine covered terrace at the back where it is most enjoyable to sit and have a drink and/or lunch.

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Co-operativa Virgen Pobre de Jalon

Jalon Valley Wine

Jalon valley bodega

For anyone interested in wines the Co-operativa in Jalon is well worth a visit.
It was built 60 years ago; since then has been refurbished and in 2007 obtained silver and bronze medals. Two wines were recently recognised as on a national level with the city of Cordoba. It is very famous for moscatel.

The wine growers from Jalon, Llíber and Alcalali take their grapes to be processed here and they use as much as 2,200,000 kilos of grapes.

If you visit the Co-operative you can taste many of the wines

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