Spain

This summer, my wife and I decided to spend our summer vacation in Spain, well, at least part of our summer.

We didn't plan it, but we ended up visiting the 4 most populated cities in Spain; Madrid, Malaga, Valencia, and Barcelona.  What I mean to say, is that we didn't pick these cities because they were the most populated.  We flew into Madrid, so it was a no brainer to stay and visit a few days.  We wanted to see Seville, Granada, and perhaps Gibraltar, so we picked Malaga as a base camp  for those places.  Ironically we didn't go to any of those other places because we kept plenty busy in Malaga, and Seville and Granada just got too damn hot!  We chose Valencia because we thought public transport would get us there - we ended up taking a plane.  Barcelona was on our must visit list.

We stayed a couple of nights in Madrid overlooking the plaza mayor.

They were having a big event celebrating the UEFA Champions League Final.  A lot of English folk were in Madrid, even more than usual, due to the two teams being from Liverpool and Tottenham (London).

I really enjoyed the Jamon, and there was a lot of it.

We tried a "Spanish" omelette, and it was quite tasty.  The omelette was like a frittata with potato and onion. We had this in the morning in a local market - its like a big warehouse with lots of little shops facing internal walkways.  Sitting nearby was a fellow having a beer, and another with hard coffee.  Never too early in Madrid I suppose.

Of course I ran in Madrid.

The other three cities were on the southern coast.  In Malaga we had Paella.

We visited the Alcazaba and Castillo Gibralfaro, where we found a little museum and these miniatures!

Every Spanish city has churches.

We enjoyed some fried seafood.

 The Spanish are very into having tuna on their ensalada.

And I ran...

We went to a couple of cave complexes in Malaga, and took a hike in the nearby hills.  We got to visit a pueblo blanco.

We then went to Valencia.  We had to take an early taxi to the airport to catch a plane that flew us from Malaga to Lisbon, to Valencia.  They made me check my bag on the second plane.  In Valencia we rented bikes and saw this impressive edifice (Opera House).

Valencia diverted its river after a 1957 flood, and transformed the old riverbed into this awesome park where we road our bikes and I ran.

We only stayed two nights in Valencia, and I think in hindsight I would have subtracted a couple of nights from Malaga to add to this wonderful city.  In addition to some more Paella, and the best Italian dinner in Spain, we had a snack of "Fartons" and "Tiger Nuts" drink.

Our final destination of note was Barcelona. Here I ran, ate, and saw some cool scenery.

These last 3 items we saw while on our E-bike tour.  

We spent our last night back in Madrid, puttering about a hotel near to the airport.  

Other than this last night we rented places through Airbnb.  My favorites were the first place over the Plaza Mayor, and a top floor flat in Barcelona with  a wonderful, very large roof-top terrace.  In Malaga we had a private roof-top terrace, but its view was no good, and access was via a stair-well.  The wifi didn't extend that far.  Not so Barcelona, the terrace was basically a porch out the glass doors of the living space.  We had easy access, an expansive view of the city including La Sagrada Familia, and wifi!

We didn't rent a car.  In addition to the aforementioned plane trip through Lisbon, we took trains: Madrid to Malaga, Valencia to Barcelona, and Barcelona back to Madrid.  We used the bus, a couple of taxis, bikes, and our own two legs to get around.  We may return to Spain in the near future and spend a couple of months enjoying the Spanish lifestyle to it fullest.

A little bit

I'm in Malaga, Spain.  It's  the last month of May, and I  feel like I  haven't completed much.

I finished rebasing  the Romans and Carthaginians. I started a game of "To The Strongest."

I assembled and painted some Soviet T34s.

 I'm also basing up some Russian  infantry.

I invited some friends  over for a game of Rommel. Ten player games just take too long.

I really need to get something  done.

Of Pizza and Dumplings

Pizza

I've been making a lot of pizza.  I mentioned the spelt flour that I've added, but here is another new grain.

Kamut flour turned out not to be that great for creating a crust as it made the dough too fragile, at least in the proportions that I have tried so far.  However, it is a great flour to put on the pizza board in order to slide the pie into the oven.  It will take awhile to get through 4 pounds of the stuff!  Stretching the dough out.

Veggie pizza!

A variety of cheeses.

The before and after shots.

Finely ground black & white pepper with an equally ground up tiny dried jalapeno pepper is the key to an excellent sauce.  The jalapeno peppers are the same ones I use for my Kim-chi.

Dumplings

I was feeling nostalgic for chicken and dumplings.  In my youth, the dumplings were made with quick breads, but I was thinking, "why can't I make them with my wild dough?"  So I gave it a go using my usual pizza dough recipe of 210 grams of flour (Kamut, Spelt, and Organic white in equal proportions), 150 grams of filtered water, 40 grams of fresh starter, and 8 grams of salt.  After developing the dough overnight, I portioned it out into dumpling sized chunks, and let them rise.

 After rising for about 3 hours.

Plop them into some cooking chicken soup.

And served...

The dumplings where open airy, just the way I wanted them, but the flavor match up was off.  It did not go well with this watery soup.  So the next day I used the remainder of the soup and turned it into a creamy sauce using a roux and some whole milk.  The resulting sauce was poured over the dumplings.

This was excellent!  It was delicious. I wish I had saved more dumplings for this treatment.  It was also an excellent example of how to transform a mediocre meal into an exquisite dining experience.  The next time I will shape and separate the dumplings a little better, cook them separately in some water, and make a chicken gravy for them. Bon appetite!