curi·ous {Old French curios} Drawn to investigate, prick up the ears, ponder for the sake of pondering. Enticed by mysteriously labeled bottles.
vo·luptu·ary {Late Latin volupturius} A lass devoted to the pursuit of pleasure. An unabashed epicurean, hedonist, libertine, sensualist, lotus-eater.
Our hosts in Andalusia were an old friend of Alfonso and his wife, who is native to Cadiz, of the town Sanlucar de Barrameda. Upon our arrival we were thus treated to a party of adults and kids, a reunion of sorts for the high school girlfriends of our host and their menfolk and children.
Much [...]
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As the kids at home may recall, the premise of this trip was to cover 6000 km within Spain and Portugal in sixteen days. This meant an extreme amount of driving, even for the cruise-happy Euro explorers we’ve become. Here are some photographs of the Cadiz Province, and the town [...]
A friend who knows us well advised that we skip all on our itinerary and simply head to Andalucía and check out, among other things, the White Villages. The region is fat with olive, orange and cork groves, the landscape scrubby, the architecture and food a lovely blend of Spanish and Moroccan. In hindsight I [...]
Parque Natural de Alcornocales (Cork Oak Trees). Notice the numbers on the trees, which are stripped at the base. A five-man gang traveling the forest in a nine-year cycle carefully harvests the cork. Once loaded, a tap on the back sends their burros unaccompanied to the factory.
We had been traveling in Portugal in what turned [...]
Some traveling experiences are simply perfect. This day was one of them, flowing from one lovely bit to the next, the sum even greater than the parts. Lacking the innocence of greenhorn travelers we thanked our lucky stars. We had hardly a notion how much we’d come to appreciate this day. (cue foreboding music here)
no, [...]
Valle de Cabuerniga, Cantabria. A long, stately bull parade blocks the road.
Let’s begin by laying out the premise: for our honeymoon trip Alfonso and I set out to explore Spain and Portugal by car, covering 6000 km–aka 3,725 miles door to door–in 16 days, over Christmas and just beyond New Year’s Day. Good god [...]