On Ham.. from Home

We are home now and are getting used to living in the same house, establishing a routine, and NOT being on the Mediterranean. The husband and wife part is fun to learn... how to NOT wake up to some idyllic movie scene just off your balcony is a more difficult lesson. Even so, we are getting settled and used to life back home.

So now, I desperately need to catch up on postings and fill in the gaps in the blog that I now realize were HUGE. Time was flying over there!!

We quickly learned just how big of a deal the ham is in Spain. The picture above was taken at the Museo de Jamon in Madrid (not a real museum, but it could be for all the different types of ham that were represented there). They filled every nook and cranny in that place and all over the walls with ham! You could buy it there like a typical deli, or you could try it at the little tapas bar that ran down the center. In case you still aren't convinced of the omnipresence of ham in Spain, take a look at the flavor of these chips we first saw in the Parque de Retiro. Ham flavored Ruffles! The bag was complete with a picture of the legs you see everywhere from which they cut the ham slices directly. When we later visited a grocery store, we saw the wooden leg mounts with bolts where you could secure a leg and cut ham in the comfort of your own home. I would say it's not for the squeamish, but if you taste the ham, you suddenly stop caring about all the pig parts hanging from the ceiling. We ate it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and sometimes in between.

Later in the trip, concerned about our cholesterol and the complications of having a heart attack overseas, we opted for seafood soup and aubergines (eggplant). I was on a perpetual hunt for bananas (which, by the way, taste different there, leading me to wonder what is going on with our food) to try to clear the salt out of our systems.

I'll end here because I sound old.
More coming!

Falling in love in/with Nerja...

Look, LOOK at these pictures of where we are now and tell me you wouldn´t want to stay forever, too!I am behind on pictures, but I had to start with the ones from Nerja instead of catching up. Ramón and I both like this little city the best out of everywhere we have been. It is absolutely breathtaking. We were a little worn out from our adventures in Marbella and Morocco, so since arriving yesterday here, we have been relaxing.

Our first stop after checking into to the wonderful little hotel was.... Ayo!! We ate paella until we

couldn´t anymore, stumbled onto the beach, and rested until we felt like

climbing the hill back into town. Even looking at

the pictures today I am still laughing.

We´ll keep working on adding pictures, but we need to get out of this internet cafe for now before they stop asking nicely.

Love to everyone back home!!

Pictures are back!

I have been meaning to remark about the impressive status of Ramon´s beard, but it helps to have pictures to back it up.

When we started:

Annnnnd today(!):

He said he was ¨never¨going to shave it, but I think it is gone tomorrow. It will be nice to kiss my husband without getting tickled!

A Whole Other Continent!

Still in a picture posting drought, but I´ll fix it when we get home if nothing else... BUT...

Yesterday we went to Morocco! And we came back! Alive! Aggravated, but alive!
If I had to describe Tangiers, I would say that it is corrupt from top to bottom. I have never seen anything like it. At any step short of taking a breath, there is someone there to scam you. Someone is probably working on a way to charge you for breathing too, so stay tuned for that. It was interesting, though. We saw a snake charmer, went to a place that sells spices and one that sells rugs, plus all of the little stalls in the medina (the old part of the city). We went to what was billed as a ¨typical¨ Moroccan restaurant and had a FANTASTIC meal while musicians played. The lunch and our camel ride were probably the best parts of the day... that, and leaving. I kept singing ¨Happiness is Lubbock Texas in my rear view mirror¨and trying to replace Lubbock with variations of Morocco, Tangiers, Crazy Mexicano guy, etc while the ferry pulled out.

I´ll have to spend more time describing Tangiers later, because there is a lot LOT more to tell, but for now.. we are off to drive along the Mediterranean again. Tonight and tomorrow we will finally visit Ayo, the paella man!! We both can´t wait for this one.

Lounging on the Mediterranean

Again, sorry for the lack of pictures. I just wanted to check in and let everyone know that our train trip was fantastic! We have great pictures from yesterday. The drive to Marbella was interesting and was a learning experience, but it got a tad harrowing once we actually reached the city. Nonetheless, we found the hotel, found a place to park the car (a few hours later) and were able to get settled in well. The place where we are staying in Marbella is like a little apartment. It has a tiny little kitchen and a living room. It is very quaint and comfortable.

We spent today sleeping and hanging out at the beach. It is just unfathomable - even as I am standing there- that we could possibly be on the Mediterranean! Crazy! It is as beautiful as I pictured and all the stereotypes are here :)

We had some trouble finding access to a computer (the hotel has free wi-fi, but we dont have a laptop), but we stumbled across a place where we can pay by the hour. Right now we are getting directions so that we don´t have to drive blind into a new city like we did yesterday to/in Marbella. After that we will get cleaned up and join everyone for a late dinner. There are a lot of tourists here and a lot of languages spoken. The town is exactly what I would picture... winding roads just wide enough for Ramon and I to walk side by side, hills and more hills, bouganvilla everywhere, sleepy dogs, and cafes everywhere. It is wonderful.

We´ll try to add pictures tomorrow (really!). They are really something!

Headed for the Coast!

Suuuuper behind on posts! Yesterday was a very full day with our paella class (SO GOOD), finding Ramon de Santillán street, shopping, and navigating the tapas scene, so I have a lot of good pictures. But for now, we are off to the train station to head for the Mediterranean! We plan to take it easy once we reach Marbella, so hopefully we can scare up a computer there and catch up a little.
Love to everyone!
A and R

Doin´ fine.

Just letting everyone know that we are still alive. I missed yesterday´s entry out of pure exhaustion, but I will catch up tonight. We are off to our paella class now. Apparently no one else booked it, so it will be a private lesson for us!

Accidental Late Morning and the Dinner of Three Words

Last night, right before turning in, we found out that our room is equipped with some serious garage-style metal shades that come down automatically between the two (thick!) sets of windows. This came in very handy since we were still getting over our jet lag and since today was a national holiday. People were singing and dancing in the streets all night. Those shades were the perfect touch.

The next thing we knew, the hotel staff was knocking on the door to clean the room. I immediately wondered what in the world crazy country would clean your hotel room at 7AM! Well, after we turned the guy away and opened the shades... yep... 10:30. I guess we needed the sleep, but we lost a lot of our morning.

We had a great breakfast in the hotel and headed south to see if El Rastro, the flea market, might be running due to the holiday. We found that it was and had a happy stroll all over the area, almost to the river, but were forced to move on when the locals started shutting everything down for the afternoon siesta. We used the time to check out some nice landmarks. The church in the picture at the top was built in 1643. Ramon reverently laid on the dedication and slid down it.

We met Joanna Wivell with Insider´s Madrid outside Botín, the oldest restaraunt in the world. She was a wonderful guide and told us things about the place that we could never have known had we simply made a reservation. The basement of the building dated to the 1500s. Strangely, they let us walk right in the oven room with all of the preroasted suckling pigs (they take 2.5 hours!) and make ourselves at home. We had the place to ourselves before it opened at 8PM. The location is so full of history it would take me forever to go through it all here. The one story that stood out to me was how, during the Spanish Civil War, Botín almost was no more. A faction of the left stormed into the restaurant and held the owner with a gun to his head. To them, any store or shop owner must support their enemy, the monarchy, and so they set about to execute the man. His quick thinking wife said, ¨What good is this man to you dead when alive he can feed you?¨ She saved her husband´s life since so many were without food during this time. So, Botín was also saved.

After our tour and history lesson, we were seated at a preferred table in the dining room. It was also Ernest Hemingway´s preferred seat. We had ham, manchego cheese, fried eggplant, a type of thick gazpacho, marinated mushrooms, ham croquettes, scrambled eggs with a local sausage, bread, wine.. and THEN the main course... the roast suckling pig. This was supposed to be a lunch offering!

At this point, my conversation devolved into three words: Oh. My. Goodness.

Yáll... Oh my goodness.

This pork was the best thing I have possibly ever had in my life. We tried to get a video of me cutting the skin so you could hear how loud it was. It was SO crisp! They cook it simply, with a few herbs sprinkled on the whole pig, a cup or so of wine, and throw it in the 300 year old clay ovens. It is just beyond words how good it comes out, though. Ask Ramon. He only heard those 3 after they set down the pig.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Our paella making class is set for Thursday, so tomorrow we will explore more, heading north.

Hope everyone is well back home! We don´t miss it yet :)

Quick Wedding Note...

Nothing to do with the trip, but I figured a lot of yáll would get a kick out of this.

After the wedding, Ramon and I were talking about how everything went and at some point looked at the clock. We were just remarking how it is too bad that the hotel would let their clock be wrong since some guests might depend on it, when we noticed that the TV clock had the same time. And so did his phone. Sooo... it turns out that Ramon´s new watch - the watch he and I had been using during the wedding to figure out when things should happen - was an hour ahead.

So we bailed out of our wedding an hour early and never had a clue. OOPS! :)

Ethploring Ethpaña

Now that we have made our way all over the city and interacted with more people, we are getting used to the Thpanish lisp (or what sounds like one). Ramon is holding his own with ¨Gra-SEE-as,¨ but I am trying to ¨gra-THEE-as¨everyone to death. I have noticed that a lot of people look Ramon up and down like they are trying to figure out where he is from. It is really amusing me.

Funny story along those lines...

We decided to eat dinner in the Plaza Mayor where they have held numerous military displays celebrating victories or displaying strength and where some executions related to the Spanish inquisition were carried out. Don´t worry, it is super romantic now with the open air cafes and good people watching, so it is right in stride with our honeymooning. Anyway, after we had been seated for a while, I heard two men sit down behind us begin to speak English. After a few words (the dead giveaway was when he said ¨MY-nez¨), I had to ask where they were from. Yep, Ville Platte, Louisiana. I told one of them that I couldn´t just sit here in Madrid listening to a coonass accent and not say something to them. They were part of a tour group that is on a similar route to our own. We might cross paths again!

About that ¨MY-nez¨ (cajun for mayonnaise), he was commenting on these! Hot dogs, mayonnaise, and hot sauce on a baguette. Even though our first taste of real Spanish food (the room service from earlier didn´t count) was some boiled weenies, we figure that they are still glamourous since they were eaten in Spain.

We covered a LOT of ground today while just strolling around. We stumbled onto a lot of places I had read about and some I hadn´t. One building was built in 1626. I know there are a lot of older places, but it still strikes me as amazing to see standing walls older than our country. We went into the San Miguel market and saw them cutting ham straight off the cured legs, and also took some great pictures at the Museo de Jamon where the ham literally lines the walls.

This trip is shaping up to be just perfect. We will have plenty to experience, but also lots of time to relax. I can´t think of a better experience for our first few days as husband and wife. We are having a blast!

On the plate for tomorrow is a visit to the oldest restaurant in the world and a trip to the hat store.

Adio-th until Tuethday!

It Begins!!

I didn´t really do much prep work for this trip´s blog as far as notifying yáll that it would exist, giving you the site, etc etc, so you might have to forgive me as I work the kinks out... but here we go!

Speaking of kinks, Ramon´s long legs made it through the flight. We were both asleep within about 30 seconds of taking off from Houston, but somehow didn´t sleep as well on the longer leg of the flight. So once we landed and made our way through the airport (with all the bags accounted for!), we took the metro to the hotel, ordered room service sandwiches and passed out. We are just now up and more functional. The hotel in Madrid has computers we can use, so keeping in touch here shouldn´t be a problem. We will post more later and will include pictures. For now, we just wanted to let everyone know we are safe and HAPPY! We are going to go explore a little now :)

Love,
Los Santillanes en España!