French Doors

My last trip out of my country was months ago, but some things stick with you. My favorite thing to do when I am traveling is to drive around and see towns. The next favorite thing is to walk around ancient towns and villages, and on a trip that doesn't feature a car rental, that is what I do, between museums and eating local cuisine. The architecture of place holds endless fascination for me for reasons that I cannot explain.

When I comb through my travel photos, the thing that I have the most pictures of is buildings, but the feature of buildings that I most love, especially in medieval towns, is the door.

In ancient times, the door was the most vulnerable experior feature (provided the windows face into an inner sanctum) and so they are both functional and artistic, and for me, memorable.

Saint-Félix-de-Reillac-et-Mortemart, Perigord, France

I have highlighted some of the better known villages in the Perigord Noir, but truly, there are dozens of them that are really gorgeous to drive through and go by. If I were on a longer trip, I would settle down in a public square, get a coffee, a croissant if the town had such a place, and read while taking in the sights and scenes. This is a region where you can loiter, where there is beauty everywhere you turn, especially if you love rivers, mountains, and forests.

This town is actually an amagamation of two towns, so there are two cemetaries, two churches and about 200 people. Overcrowding is not an immediate concern. There may be some concern about the lack of people, as when I peruse the real estate on offer in the region and see that there are quite a few places for sale. If I lived closer and spoke more French I could see this as second home kind of territory--or work remotely, better yet.

I have said this before as I write about this recent trip, but put this on your radar as a wonderful region to visit, with lots of nice places that are not on the well beaten path.

Köln Rautenstrauch Joest Museum, Germany

First and foremost, if you are ever in Cologne, it is imperative that you buy a museum pass, because not only will it save you money when you go to the highlights.  We bought is for 15 euros each (and if we had two children they would also have been able to come in to) and we got it at the Ludwig Museum, which would have been 12 euros each to get into.  There are two other high profile museums on the pass, but you also might end up at a place like this, because in essence it is a free admission.
The 3,400 objects from the anthropological estate of the geographer and ethnologist Dr. Wilhelm Joest (1852-1897) formed the foundation of the collections of the RJM. His sister Adele was married to Eugen Rautenstrauch. In 1899 the couple donated the estate of Wilhelm Joest to the City of Cologne.  This is really not only a look at how to appreciate different cultures and a lens with which to do so, but also a glimpse into the vast travel experience that an independently wealthy gentleman in the 19th century could amass.

The Romantic Rhine

We were going to Bonn for a meeting that my husband was attending, and were momentarily taken aback when it is constantly referred to as the unromantic Rhine.  The good news is that we soon discovered that the romantic Rhine is only about an hour away, easily accessible by train or car.

Between Rüdesheim and Koblenz, the Rhine cuts deeply through the Rhenish slate mountains, meandering between hillside castles and steep fields of wine-producing grapes. This is Germany’s landscape at its most dramatic – forested hillsides alternate with craggy cliffs and near-vertical terraced vineyards.

Idyllic villages appear around each bend, their half-timbered houses and Gothic church steeples seemingly plucked from the world of fairy tales.

Medieval castles perch high above the river. Most were built by local robber barons – knights, princes and even bishops – who extorted tolls from merchant ships by blocking their passage with iron chains. Time and French troops under Louis XIV laid waste to many of the castles, but several were restored in the 19th century, when Prussian kings, German poets and British painters discovered the area’s beauty. In 2002, UNESCO designated these 65 kilometres of riverscape, known as the Oberes Mittelrheintal, as a World Heritage Site.  Visit some decaying castles and picturesque towns, and sit and watch this working river with remarkably active boat traffic.

Mai Beck, Cologne, Germany

 This was a great restaurant, our favorite out of a number of really good restaurants on our recent trip to the Rhine region of Germany.  It was our favorite of the one Michelin star restaurants that we ate in, which is definitely saying something, as we had some spectacular meals.
There are two great things about this place, beyond how terrific the food is.  One is that you can order as little or as much as you want, which allows for some who are more self regulating than we are to have a petite meal (if I lived in Cologne, I would eat here all the time, one dish at a time).  The other is that they are not trying for another star--that is our favorite restaurant style.

Pictured are two of the six dishes we had.  The cold smoked salmon in the dish above was melt in your mouth smoke, just delicious, and the cucumbers three different ways, the sunflower butter, and the avocado were all perfect compliments, each bite was perfection, bright and delicious.  The pasta dishes (one of which is on the left) are something the restaurant is famous for, and we were not disappointed in this fresh pea tortellini with a light goat cheese.  All in all, I would go back, and probably eat here twice if I could.

Da Vinci, Koblenz, Germany

 We have not had what you might all spectacular food on previous trips to Germany, but all of that changed with this trip.  We ate at four one star Michelin restaurants, which is our sweet spot for meticulously prepared food, lots of bites of flavor that we would largely never recreate at home, and skipping alot of the foam and and the chemistry lab components of two and three Michelin star places.  My only desire in this whole thing would be to know whether the restaurant is content to be a one star or are they gunning for two, and in this restaurant's case they are looking upwards.
The meal from start to finish was absolutely spectacular.  It may be a function of our age, our jet lag or something deeper, but we have a strong new preference to eat such a  meal at lunch time.  That way it can serve as your only meal for the day, and you don't go to bed so full of wine and food that you can't sleep.

The meal was perfect.  The sommelier was young but very knowledgeable, and the pairings were a bargain.  The food was repleat with seafood, and each of the many courses was well prepared, had many component parts and a lot of attention to detail.  We shared the restaurant with a Danish couple who were on a wine tasting and buying trip through the Rhine region, and it was an extremely pleasant atmosphere, not to mention a memorable dining experience.
Highly recommended.  Koblenz if a UNESCO World Heritage site as well, so well worth seeing, and strolling along the Rhine either before or after the meal.

Pastéis de Nata, Porto, Portugal

This picture is from a bakery that we visited on our last morning in Porto.  It was fascinating to watch a whole crew of bakers churn out literally hundreds of these custard tarts, which are the national pastry of Portugal.  They sell for about a Euro each, as does the coffee, so a mid-morning snack is quite affordable.
The original pastry comes from Belém.   As the story goes, in 1837 a confeitaria there began making the original Pastéis de Belém, following an ancient recipe from the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. That secret recipe is a common theme around the making of these tarts, as is the fact that they are impossible to create in a home oven, due to the cooking temperature of 800 degrees.  However, if you are to try this at home, some tips to making spectacular authentic Portuguese custard tarts at home are few and simple. When making the pastry, make sure the butter is evenly layered, all excess flour is removed, and the dough is rolled very thin and folded neatly. This is puff pastry-esque dough.  As for the custard, you’ll need a thermometer to accurately gauge the custard. Once out of the oven, these pastries are best eaten warm the day they’re made.

Doc Restaurant, Armamar, Portugal

 We stayed at a wonderful quinta in the Duoro Valley on our recent trip to Portugal, and the most extraordinary meal that we had was at this restaurant, run by chef Rui Paula.
The setting is gorgeous.  We sat outside on a terrace that is right over the river.  The weather was perfect, and the awning over the table was magnificently made.  What impressed me about that was the level of detail the place went to in order to produce memorable food.
The cuisine is local to Portugal and much of it comes from the Duoro Valley itself.  The wines that paired with each of the courses were all local, including one that was just across the river from where we were seated.  If the grapes hadn't already been harvested we could have seen them from our seats.

The entire meal, from the amuse bouche to the desserts, were spectacularly flavorful, beautifully plated, and flavor sensations.  The price tag reflects all of that, but for us, that was all that we did the day we went there for a late lunch.  It took hours to finish the meal, and then we sat on the terrace just enjoying the weather and the aftermath of the food, eaten in good company, and to be remembered long after we get home.

Walking in the Cotswolds

 My husband and I took literally hundreds of photos during our walking vacation in the Cotswolds that all looked pretty much exactly the same.  Similar rolling hills that are thirty shades of green (thankfully we were never out and out rained on, because you don't get these colors without a lot of water involved).  Gorgeous flowers, lots of sheep, a sprinkling of cows, and medieval villages made out of the same  beautiful stone.  Some had thatched roofing, some had slate.  That was the only discernible difference.  And yet we continued to take pictures because it was so soothing and lovely to be there.

So what was so attractive you might ask?  We come from farm country, after all.  We do not have to traverse an ocean to see ewes corralling their errant offspring, we can do that right here at home.  I loved walking on public trails through people's property day after day, seeing hardly anyone when we were not in a town.  You could easily forget that hardly an inch of land is truly wild on this island, that it is all accessible and the 50,000 miles of public trails are walked each and every year by other souls.  It is a way to see and be in a place that is very peaceful and low key.  Not to mention that the food was fantastic!

Nopi, London

 This was our favorite restaurant of our recent trip to England. Which was filled with great restaurants, so that is saying something.  The best part of the experience is that for the most part, you can envision making most of it in your own kitchen.  Pictured at right is a dish that is warm early vegetables that are tossed in a light dressing, something so simple yet so astoundingly delicious.  The vegetables themselves are flavorful and fresh, so you have to have a good source of food in order to pull this off, but after all, I do live in an agriculturally bountiful area.  Then comes making the lemony dressing that balances richness and brightness in equal quantities.  I literally ordered the Nopi cookbook while I was midmeal, hoping that I could recreate some of it on my side of the Atlantic.

I loved this display of food, and before we even saw this, we had eaten two of the four dishes.  That was by chance, but if I had known, I would have tried to pick at least one, because the waiter brings it directly to your table within a minute or two of ordering it.  An appetizer that you really do not have to wait for, and which has been made in large quantity (I love that, because the flavors have meshed).  The other thing that I enjoyed was the plant based emphasis that the whole menu had.  you can definitely get meat here, but if you want to avoid it or minimize it, no problem, about half the menu, maybe more, is open to you.  I would seek this restaurant out, and I would go more than once if I was in London for more than a couple of days.  That good!

Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, London, England

This is a two Michelin star restaurant that if they ask me, I will recommend the stars be kept.  The restaurant is in a hotel which gives it certain advantages.  Like when we arrived out of the pouring rain our wet gear was lifted off of us, and returned hours later completely dry.  They have facilities in a hotel that a restaurant just doesn't have.
The food here is exceptional.  We chose the luncheon menu, which had few choices but all of them good, and at a considerably lower price.  We were amongst the few around us who were going for "the deal", but were very happy with it.  The theater of the restaurant is around the food being prepared from age old recipes.  Some several hundred years old.  One has to assume that the presentation has been updated, and the recipe re-interpreted, but it was fun to eat things that could have been eaten (by the well to do) in the same location years before.  This is a really great dining experience, and lunch is a very good deal.

Roscioli Restaurant, Rome, Italy

 This restaurant was right down the block from our rented apartment, and we knew about it in two ways.  The woman who we rented the apartment from recommended it as a place that was nearby and good, and because Mario Battali has said a thing or two about it.  That said, they have a cookbook that more or less a recreation of their menu--so if you have something here that you want to recreate, you can get the cookbook and give it a try.  The down side of going to restaurant where Mario Battali has alerted people to is that it is packed.  Always.  A reservation is a must, and the service is definitely slow as a result of the crowd.

The charcuterie and cheese at this place is the whole reason to go here.  They do a good job with pasta,a nd they have some interesting other things on the Secgundi menu,  you really shouldn't pick this place if you are not going to try this.  It is spectacular, in that each component part shines in and of itself and by the time you finish the plate, you are wondering two things.  One is where did that enormous pile of food go, and two, should we get another one.  That was our only real mistake, not getting more, and the blame for that lays solely with me, and I would not make the same mistake again.
While the salume and cheese plate was the clear winner for the meal, the famous Roman artichokes were at least on the map for honorable mention.  So was the burrata with cherry tomatoes.

Why Russia?

I did an exercise in thinking about my personal priorities and then using those things that are important to me to future plan.  The area that I have the most yearning in is in the arena of travel.  That wasn’t exactly news to me, but what was a revelation is that there are a number of places that I have not been that I definitely want to visit that are places that I want to go to before I get much older.  I am not one of those people who think that I will age slowly.  I don’t think that 70 is the new 50.  I am pretty clear that when I am 70 I will feel 70.  So I do not want to wait to pursue my dreams until I retire.

One of the places on my “must see” list was Russia.  It has not been a good year for Russia in its international relationship with the western countries.  Their support of the invasion of Ukraine has landed them in some sanctions, and that combined with the world-wide drop in gas and oil prices has caused a devaluation of the ruble and a concomitant drop in tourism.  The good news is that makes travel to Russia quite affordable, and a good value trip.   So off I went, living in the moment  and I am so glad that I did.

Pompeii, Italy

I have wanted to go to Pompeii for ages, and now that my youngest is immersed in ancient Roman and Greek civilizations, I felt like I had a really good excuse to go.

Mount Vesuvius is pictured here and it is the only active volcano on mainland Europe. It is best known because of the eruption in A.D. 79 that destroyed the city of Pompeii, but  Mount Vesuvius is considered to be one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world due to the large population of the city of Naples and the surrounding towns on the slopes nearby.  With almost no warning, the citizens of Pompeii were covered in rock and debris from the volcano (see that big dip in the mountain?  That used to be filled in solid)--Naples and the area surrounding Vesuvius face the same risks if it erupted as those in the ancient world--hopefully theri evacaution would be swifter.
The volcano is classed as a complex stratovolcano because its eruptions typically involve explosive eruptions as well as pyroclastic flows. Vesuvius and other Italian volcanoes, such as Campi Flegrei and Stromboli, are part of the Campanian volcanic arc. The Campanian arc sits on a tectonic boundary where the African plate is being subducted beneath the Eurasian plate.

What Vesuvius left us to find is spectacular, and unique, not because Pompeii was so special a place.  It was not--it was one of dozens of cities its size in the Roman empire at that time.  What is unique is that it was buried for centuries, and so all of it's treasures were safely below ground and away from the medieval plunderers who ransacked the rest of Europe--so we have a chance to really see the splendor that people lived in  (so long as they were not slaves) all those many years ago.  Pictures do not do it justice--go and see it for yourself.  It is worth a special trip.

Barri Gotic, Barcelona

The Gothic Quarter is the heart of old Barcelona, a medieval city built upon Roman foundations Most of the buildings are from the 14th and 15th century, when Barcelona was at the height of its commercial prosperity and before it had been absorbed into Castile.  This historic hodge podge of narrow and, in many cases, pedestrian-only streets and squares is full of character and charm and home to hundreds of shops, bars and restaurants, as well as good old fashion people watching.  The folks who loiter in the Barri Gotic are far more interesting to watch than those up in L'Exaimple, let me tell you.  One afternoon I sat in a small square of a church and before 15 minutes had passed a group of 9 people with medeival instruments set up music stands and started to play and sing.  Such a treat!

The gothic quarter is located between Barcelona’s famous boulevard Las Ramblas and Via Laietana, with Plaza Catalunya at the top and the port at the bottom.Portal de L'Angel, a modern pedestrians shopping street which starts in Plaza Catalunya, leads to the traffic-free square dominated by the Cathedral and to the Roman walls that once enclosed the city. From here all of the major attractions are easily accessible, including the Roman remains beneath the City History Museum.On the south side of the Gothic Quarter is the Plaza Real, a palm-lined square just off Las Ramblas whose bars and restaurants around each side are a relaxing place to stop and watch life during the day and at night when the square becomes a hive of activity.  The well known modernist cuisine restaurants are in L'Exaimple, but I recommend staying in the Barri Gotic and walking to dinner.

Fundacio Miro, Barcelona

My recent trip to Barcelona was a very short one, and I had two goals; eat modernist cuisine the Catalan way and to walk everywhere so that it would balance out the food part as well as reaquaint me with the city.  On a rainy afternoon my spouse and I opted to walk up to the Fundacio Miro, and oh my goodness, we were so happy that we did.  The grounds and the museum are gorgeous, with plenty of outdoor sculpture to see and beaucolic places to sit and read or contemplate (if you were there on a nicer day than I was).

Indoors there is a comprehensive collection of Joan Miro's work as well as the works of contemporary artists.  The idea for the foundation came from Miro himself, and while he certainly did an excellent job of chowcasing his own work, there is a nice selection of other artists.  More importantly, it is inspirational to be within the walls of the collection, which I think was one of the things that Miro was hoping to accomplish, to inspire people to create as well as appreciate art.  Don't miss this when you are next in Barcelona.

Block of Discord, Barcelona

There are two distinctive and very different parts of Barcelona that draw visitors that are interested in architecture's attention.  One is the very oldest part of Barcelona, which dates back a thousand years.  The second one is the modernist neighborhoods in L'Exaimple that date back 100 years.  This block, so called the Block of Discord, is one of the most photographed in all of Barcelona.  It has houses that represent the 'Modernisme' period (which is Catalan for 'modernism').  It is the historiographic denomination given to what is primarily related to an architectural style, but which also involved other arts (painting and sculpture), and especially the design and decorative arts, which received special attention.  Although it was part of a general trend that emerged in Europe around the late 19th century and continuing into the 20th century, in Catalonia the style acquired its own distinct and unique personality. Its distinct name comes from its special relationship primarily with Catalonia and Barcelona, which were intensifying their local characteristics for socio-ideological reasons after the revival of Catalan culture and in the context of a spectacular urban and industrial development.  That political relationship is lost for the most part on the modern tourist, except for one thing.  You have never seen anything like it.  The style is very distinctive, and so that fact that it had sociopolitical roots has left it's mark on Barcelona.  The whole neighborhood is full of great buildings and the added bonus is that you get a good walk out of the tourist experience.

Sensi Tapas, Barcelona

When we were recently in Barcelona we stayed in the Bari Gotic--it is not the neighborhood with all the upscale famous restaurants, but it is the neighborhood that is the most fun to walk around in. When you decide to sty there, you opt out of having a cab be able to find your hotel--at least not easily.  So every other night we were there we opted to leave to get dinner, but one night we decided to stay nearby, and it was a bit of a challenge.

This place was packed when we went in at 10pm, so we elected to try a couple of other places--one of which decided that we were too far over the median age to serve food to us, and the other was done serving for the night, so we went back to this place, and just as we walked in, there were two places that opened up at the bar, and the head waiter, presumably assuming that we had been waiting since we first approached him, happily seated us.  It was a cozy place to sit, with a great view of the rest of the restaurant, a nice view of the kitchen, and so it worked out just right.  The menu is varied, and everything we had was very good.  I particularly liked the chorizo braised in beer--if I had been at all hungry when we finished our first round of orders, I would have had another of these.  The patatas bravas were excellent, although not unique--it is always a disappointment when these are not good, so it was a relief to have them be delicious.  The duck confit timbale was delicious, as was the braised pork tapa.  There was an Asian tapas menu that we completely stayed away from, but if I went back, I would give that a try, because everything we had was nicely done.

Park Guell, Barcelona

You have to love this place--Gaudi had the idea to create what would have essentially been a gated and planned community in the hill overlooking Barcelona--he thought that the wealthy would want to move out of the city and that a planned village, with an open market and the longest bench ever circling it (which is not only gorgeous, but has excellent lumbar support) and gardens would be a sure fire winner.  In his time it was not, but it certainly became something decades later. 

So all we have left is a handful of buildings to visit.  I would definitely recommend visiting Park Guell, but not at the time that we did--it was far too crowded to really enjoy what I think was designed to be a peaceful place.  We walked here after lunch one day (so we got there about 5:00pm, after a quite lengthy lunch that required a rigorous walk to overcome--we chose to take a taxi up and walk back, but it was well over an hour back to the Barri Gotic from here), and it was uncomfortably crowded.  But the whimsy of Gaudi, his idea of art and function, modern building options combined with beauty comes through even if you have to stumble over people to see it. 

Gresca, Barcelona

When I discovered that most of the top tier fancy Barcelona restaurants are closed Sundays and Mondays, I got some really good tips on where to go from Chowhound, and after much research into what was what, chose Gresca for lunch on Monday.  The chef,  Rafael Peña, who is touted as a gifted disciple of Ferran Adrià, was the clincher.  It was a really nice follow up to a fabulous tapas lunch on Sunday, and a good introduction to the modernist cuisine that one can get in Barcelona.

I was not quite into the mode of "we are here for fantastic food" at that point in the trip, my husband was.  Our only problem was that the whole reason we were in Barcelona in the first place was for a meeting, and in order to get to that meeting, we had to be able to finish lunch in two hours.  Fearless as he is, he asked the waitress if there were any way that we could order the nine course lunch and be guarenteed of finishing it in the alotted time.  She gave us a slightly pained look, went to confer with the chef, and then came back and said yes, it was barely possible.  I would have been content with the plat du jour at 17€, but freely admitted afterwards that the meal we had was a better deal at 39€.  There were 12 plates in all, and they were happy to substitute for me.  The plates were small enough that we were not stuffed by meal's end, and were largely fish-based, which I loved, and fantastic.  The two desserts were the biggest surprise of all--the fist was whimsical--a thin chocolate shell with finely shredded coconut in the shape of a cocnut, filled with pineapple sorbet that was remarkably good, and then a chocolate mousse that had bits of all sorts of things--cookie crumbs, peppery flours, candied nuts--so each bite of it had a unique and different flavor from the previous bite or the bite to follow.  This is a great meal at a very reasonable price.