Laguardia, Pais Vasco

I went to nearby Laguardia with Maria Jesus (one of the English teachers from my high school). Her boyfriend Jose Pedro is from there, and he gave me a wonderful tour of the little town. Laguardia is located in the autonomous community of Pais Vasco (Basque Country) in the southern province of Alava, which borders La Rioja, and is only about 18 kilometers or so from Logrono.

Laguardia is special because it's surrounded by medieval walls, inside which are narrow twisting streets packed with restaurants, bars, ancient buildings, churches, and nice plazas.
There are five ancient entrances to the old center of the city, one of which is pictured above.

Here's an example of some of the architecture featured on the side of the Church of San Juan (I believe).

Laguardia is an elevated town, and beneath it are hundreds of ancient medieval tunnels and hideouts that were made during times of war. Today most of these caverns have been converted into wineries or storage areas for wine. We visited a big winery in the center of town called El Fabulista. We climbed down into the caverns to taste the wines (a really nice experience).

Another church in Laguardia perhaps houses its most famous monument, a portico or arcade leading into the Santa Maria de los Reyes church/monastery. Constructed in the 14th century and then painted in the 17th, this portico is unique because it has retained its color, and it's in really good shape. This is because there was a fachade built around it that protected it and sealed it from the effects of the weather over the centuries.


Here is the altar inside the monastery. The shell design at the top is also quite unique, as I don't think I've seen it anywhere else.


Here I am standing with Jose Pedro, who's from Laguardia.

And here I am with my Maria Jesus. They were both incredibly nice to take me around and show me Laguardia. I would have never learned so much without them. We also had lunch together and they introduced me to several of the bars and restaurants. Thanks very much!


There are nice views from Laguardia of the surrounding countryside. Production of wine is very important to this region, and you can see many vineyards and wineries. The province of Alava, though in Pais Vasco, is close enough to La Rioja (and it's wine is close enough) that the wine produced there is tagged with the official La Rioja mark. The region is actually known as La Rioja Alavesa.
The mountains around Laguardia are beautiful. Most of the buildings in the valley between Laguardia and the mountains are wineries. One of them in the middle is a modern structure which attempts to mimic the shape of the mountains in the background. It might be hard to see the resemblance from here...

Lugo, Galicia

I stopped by another city in Galicia on my way home. Lugo is famous for the Roman walls that entirely surround its center. More places (Logrono included) tear down the old city walls (or at least most of them) in order to make way for newer buildings and roads; so it's a pleasure to see some cities that still have these barriers intact.
Here's one of the principal entrances into the old part of the city.

Once again we can see the image of Santiago (St. James the Apostle) guarding another entrance to the city.

The city has grown considerably outside the wall, and only the oldest part of town lies inside.

Lugo's cathedral forms a part of the city's fortress as well, as was quite common in many ancient Roman cities.


The tapas were very very good in Lugo. Once again, tapas are Spanish bar food that people generally get free with the purchase of a drink. The tradition is to go from bar to bar trying different things. I have hear an olive anchovie combination. Galicia is famous for its seafood and fish (being so close to the sea/ocean and all).

Oysters filled with veggies... mmm.


Another Galician speciality: empanada (a la gallega). These pie-like creations are often filled with fish or seafood, meat, and sauces made up of tomato, garlic and onion. The empanada's origin has been traced to the Iberian peninsula, and more specifically around Galicia and the north of Portugal. It's very well known throughout Spain and Portugal, and it's even very popular in South America, where colonists brought it centuries ago.

Santiago de Compostela

I took the bus from Porto, Portugal, to Santiago to Compostela, the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia in northwest Spain (directly above Portugal).

The landscape of Galicia is nothing like the rest of Spain. It rains a lot, and it's very green with rolling hills and beautiful coastlines.

Galicia is almost a mix between Portugal and Spain. The landscape is more similar to northern Portugal and the people are similar also. Spanish people in this region speak both Spanish and another language called 'Gallego', or Galician. Gallego is like a mix between Portuguese and Spanish. It's very similar to Spanish and even shares a great deal of vocabulary, but it sounds more like Portuguese.
To go to Santiago I had to go through the largest city in Galicia, which is Vigo. Vigo is a large port city with a large river entering the ocean.


Here I am in Santiago de Compostela. This is the famous Cathedral of Santiago (remember that in Spanish Santiago is St. James the Apostle) where it's said that Santiago is buried. This shrine to St. James the Great has been luring millions of tourists a year for centuries (since medieval times, in fact). It is the final destination of the prestigious Christian pilgrimmage 'Way of St. James', or Camino de Santiago. People from all over the world walk, bike, or drive the trails of this pilgrimmage from its origins in Europe or different points in Spain and follow it until they arrive in Santiago.

Here is Santiago (St. James) slaying the Moors, who controled Spain from the 8th century to nearly the 13th, when the Spanish Catholic Kings expelled them from the country. During a battle between the Christians and Moors in the north of Spain, legends say that the image of St. James the Apostle could suddenly be seen in the midst of the battle on horseback fighting against the North Africans. Hence they've gone crazy for it ever since.

Santiago de Compostela has a wonderfully preserved old part of town. I really liked the whitewashed buildings and box windows.

Here is the altar of grand reverance to Santiago inside the cathedral. There's a lot of gold.




I'd really like to walk the Camino de Santiago this summer if I can. Many people do the pilgrimmage in stages, since it's really quite long. From the border of France and Spain, the pilgrimmage is 760 kilometers. To walk this amount, at an average of 30 kilometers a day, it would take you about 26 days to reach Santiago.

You would go through famous northern Spanish cities like Pamplona, Logrono!!!, Burgos, and Leon on your way. So, it's a month long vacation, and if I end up doing it (because I would want to do the entire way through Spain walking, which would take me a month) I will definitely write a lot more about it.

Porto, Portugal

Porto (Oporto in English) is the second largest city in Portugal. It's located in the north, and it's a very important port city. Porto is named for the famous port wine that is produced there. The city itself is not that big, though the metro area is nearly two million people. That being said, Porto is very important both culturally and economically, and there are many churches and beautiful old buildings in the center of the city to remind us of this.

Here's the Igreja do Carmo (Portuguese is cool)... (that means church, by the way) with its large azulejo adorned walls. Azulejo is the name given the style of using these blue and white porceline tiles. They're quite beautiful, and very shiny on sunny days. Porto was full of them, especially the churches.

Another street leading up one of Porto's many hills, also featuring several nice buildings with azulejos. They are really a unique feature, and most of them that I saw were wonderfully preserved.

Here I am standing in front of the main square in the city, Avenida dos Aliados (aliados are allies). I think it's referring to the relationship between Portugal and England, which historically has been quite close since the defeat of Napolean.

My experience in Porto wouldn't have been the same had it not been for Fernando and Maria, two lovely Portuguese people I met there. I stayed with Fernando at his apartment for the three nights I was there. I didn't know him before.

I contacted him (or better said he contacted me) through an internet travelers network called Couchsurfing. Basically it's a type of network that puts you in contact with other people so that you can stay at their places for free. Many places have sofas you can sleep on, but others have beds too. I stayed on Fernando's pull-out couch for three nights, and he took me around the city in his car to show me around. He gave me a map and we went out for meals together and he introduced me to some really cool people.

In the picture we're having dinner with his friend and fellow 'couchsurfer' Maria. She had just gotten back from a trip to see her family in central Portugal and she brought back some traditional food from their farm. I can't tell you exactly what everything was called, but it was all wonderful. Portuguese cuisine is quite different from Spanish, and it's very very good.

We had a dish of rice and meat, some special sweet bread, fresh goat's cheese, fresh salads and oil, a delicious cake with fig and tomato salsas, and also some wines and teas. It was quite amazing.

When I wasn't hanging out with Fernando and Maria, I was out touring the city. Here's a view of the center of town from one of the hilltops. The tower, called Igreja e Torre dos Clerigos (or Church and Tower of the Clerics), is the tallest in Porto.

In the oldest district or neighborhood of the city, called Ribeira, is the cathedral, or Se. Inside the cathedral is an incredible cloister complete with azulejos on all the walls.

There are several large bridges crossing the river Douro that lies next to Porto's historic center. Pictured is one of the funiculars that brings you up the steep hill and all that's left of an old castle wall.

On the other side of the river is Vila Nova de Gaia, another town that is basically part of Porto. It's very important because that is where all of the famous port wine cellars and caverns are located. The wine is actually shipped in via the river on little boats. The vineyards are all farther inland where the temperature is better to grow the grapes. It's too hot to store and ferment the wine though, and it would be far to expensive to construct proper wineries there, and so the wine is brought to Vila Nova de Gaia where there are many caverns and the climate is temperate, being right next to the ocean.

Fernando took me to a tour of one of the wineries, called Taylor's. Many of the wineries have English surnames because they were the ones who invested so much in the businesses. Port wine is very different from the wine I'm used to, since during the fermentation process they add brandy. Port wine is a dessert wine, and it's sweet sweet joy in a glass. There are many different types of port wine, including tawnies, rubies, reserves, and several other red and white wines.

The old Ribeira part of town is the densest part to my right toward the center of the city. It's buildings are protected by UNESCO, so it's a World Heritage Site. I guess that means that you can't change anything there without special permission, and that doing so would also be very very expensive. Therefore not too many people live there or have businesses there I've been told.

On the left you can see the little boats that are used to haul the port wine from the Douro Valley region east of Porto closer to the Spanish border. Interestingly enough, the Douro River runs through Spain as well, and there's a valley that provides a very comfortable location to grow exquisite Spanish wines.

The bridge of Luis I, from the top of which I took the last pictures.

We went out with friends one of the nights to watch a local football (soccer) match on television and we had a typical Portuguese treat for dinner. It's called the francesinha, which is Portuguese for 'Frenchy'. It's a style of sandwich, accompanied by french fries, that's got a couple different types of meat (sausage, steak, ham...) and then it's covered in cheese and a spicy sauce. Altogether filling and fabulous with a good beer or two.

Later I went out with a few of the friends we met at the dinner. It was a 'couchsurfers' dinner, which meant that those involved with the internet group went and invited any guest that they had at the time. Fernando invited me, and other Portuguese people invited their guests as well. The guy to my left is Dutch living and working in Porto, the blonde girl was from Boston and really got a kick out of the Kevin Garnett Celtics shirt I was wearing, the guy behind is Portuguese, from Germany maybe?, another Portuguese girl, and two Chinese girls were our group.

We were at a fun little jazz bar-cafe listening to live music and drinking port wine. Not bad at 2 Euros a glass (Portugal is among the cheaper countries to visit in Europe; so my Euros went a lot further there than they usually do in Spain).

The next afternoon I took a walk over to one of Porto's modern architectural marvels, the Casa da Musica, or literally House of Music. It's funky shape on the outside is reflected by many different colored geometric rooms inside. It's also a world class concert hall. A famous Dutch architect by the name of Rem Koolhaas designed it; and it was more or less finished in 2005. Koolhaas has done many famous projects throughout the world, including the Seattle Central Library.

A cool little stairway inside the Casa da Musica.

Special care was taken to ensure that the sound that emminated from the orquestras and bands playing the main concert hall was perfectly, or near perfectly, audible to every member of the seated audience. It's said to be one of the best constructed concert halls on the planet, actually, which every person in the audience, from the front row to the back, hearing the exact same sound (at least to the human ear it seems so).

The photo shows a view of the main concert hall through special waved glass, capable of reflecting sound waves and keeping out noise from outside. The glass is transparent, of course, and there are giant windows of this variety behind the stage and also behind the audience that kind be covered or left open depending on the time and arrangement of the concert. Pretty cool.

I was greeted when I arrived in Fernando's apartment by a his chess set, adorned with both the Portuguese and United States flags. He does this for everyone who comes to stay with him. On the third night he added the flag of Thailand because a Thai girl studying in Holland came to stay with us.

Fernando, in fact, is what I would call a couchsurfer all-star. He's retired, and he's basically hosting people in his apartment and showing them around the city fulltime. In about a year-and-a-half since he's joined the internet program, he's hosted over 160 people from over 60 countries all over the world. It's extremely ambitious, but I also learned that he's been working with people all his life, and so this is something he's very good at.

Though this is something obviously wouldn't suit just anyone, having to put up with tourists in your house all the time, but I find it fascinating that he's learning all about the world and people from different places without leaving his own city.

On the last night, Fernando, Maria, the Thai girl Ayedriana, and I went to a restaurant near the ocean harbour for some fresh caught fish. These are grilled sardines, and they were particularly splendid.

Potatoes, salad, and onions accompanied this cuttlefish, garlic roasted to perfection.

The evening concluded with some card games back at Fernando's place. We played a variety of gin (no, it wasn't rummy).

I'll tell you something that I've learned about traveling: the best memories you'll have of any place you ever visit will be the people, not the monuments. As a tourist, I'd say the best thing you could do would be to meet some local people. This is maybe easier said that done, but I think that internet programs like Couchsurfing make traveling cheaper, more affordable, and even more enjoyable.

Sintra and Cascais

Sintra is a fairytale village near the western coast of Portugal, not far from Lisbon. It used to be the home of Portuguese royalty, and a lot of money came there from Portugal's glory days of exploration and colonization. There's an ancient Moorish castle that sits on top of a mini mountain and also a famous palace. The town itself has been remarkably restored and many of its wonderful palaces and homes are more colorful now than ever before.

Here's a view of the Moorish castle hovering over Sintra.

Walking up the mountain to the castle, it was surprising to see how green and tropical-like the forest was. They weren't sure exactly how old the original castle was, because before the Moors were expelled from that area of Portugal they abandoned the castle because it had lost strategic importance. Thus the Portuguese took it over once again and rebuilt it.


Here's me with Sintra below. The biggest central building is the Palace of Sintra.

And here is the more impressive Pena National Palace, an increible structure of many colorful towers.

One of the guardians of the palace.

It was windy, and I had yet to get a haircut.

Several Portuguese royal families lived part time in the Pena National Palace. It was the project of one of them, in the mid-19th century. Some 400 years earlier, actually, the original site belonged to that of an ancient monastery and chapel (over which the newer palace was constructed).

After I visited Sintra, I took a bus to the nearby coastal town of Cascais, one of the most westernmost cities in all of Europe. I went outside of town to get a better view of the Atlantic Ocean so that I could watch the sunset, but unfortunately it was a cloudy day. It still made for some nice lighting, however, and the surrounding nature was quite beautiful.

A little lighthouse on the edge of town.

The port of Cascais, with many colorful little fishing boats.

There were several nice beaches in Cascais also, which practically touched the ocean (the Tegus River flows into the ocean just past the city).

Return to Lisboa...

I went to Lisbon last year but was only there for about two days, and so for my Easter vacation this year I decided to go back to Portugal. I went back to Lisbon specifically so that I could explore some of the cities nearby the capital city that I had heard were really beautiful.

This is a picture of downtown Lisbon. These trams are all over and are really helpful when you want to climb the cities many hills.

Here's a view of Lisbon's hilltop castle, Castelo di San Jorge.

So many of the houses and buildings in Lisbon have this colorful tiled style. It looks especially nice when there's bright sunny weather.

I ran into one problem while I was walking around the most famous old neighborhood of Lisbon, the Alfama. I was mostly taking pictures of buildings and streets and whatnot, but I snapped a couple pictures of some of the Portuguese people talking on the street. I wasn't discrete enough, and one of the men saw me and took offense. He wanted me to show him the photograph I had taken. Of course I didn't show him, me being alone and all. His friends told me to beat it; I dunno whether they were mad too or whether they just wanted to give me some advice. Anyways, I was careful not to blatently take people pictures after that.

A picture of the place from which I took the other picture of the castle... this picture is taken from that castle.

These people didn't see me; so it was alright that I took their picture. Behind them is one of the long bridges that cross the Tejo River.

Here's a typical pastry from Portugal (and specifically from a town near Lisbon). It's a pastry of "Belem", and I went to the town of the same name to taste this cream filled delicacy.

Among the most famous art forms in Portugal is the tiled design of the 'azulejos'. These blue and white ceramic murals are planted throughout the country in churches, museums, and other places where it's obvious that the people had/have money.

A view overtop the center of Lisbon from another gardened hill.


It was a typical spring in Lisbon: sunny some hours, rainy the next few, sunny again, cloudy...

Valencia - Las Fallas!

Valencia--eastern Spain, on the coast of the Mediterranean, capital city of the autonomous community of the same name, home of one of the craziest fiestas on the Spanish calendar: Las Fallas--traditional celebration where colorful, artistic, monumentally sized sculptures of wood and Styrofoam are put on display throughout the city and then burned sacrificially on the last day of the festival.

The sculptures are called 'fallas', as the language spoken in that part of Spain is not the same as everywhere else. A little more than half of the people speak Valencian, which is like a mix between Castilian Spanish and French, which is also quite alike Catalan, which is widely spoken in Catalunya, the autonomous community of Barcelona.I'm on top of Valencia's cathedral here in the in principle tower called 'La Micolet', checking out the sunset lit rooftops of the city below.


There was a river in Valencia which was causing flooding problems, and so they dried it up, and they created within the riverbed a line of parks, sportsfields, paths, and a zone of museums known as the City of Arts and Sciences. These museums, a few of which are still under construction, are modern marvels of architecture, the visionary work of one of Valencia's own, Santiago Calatrava.


Las Fallas is also well known for its typical dress, dance, and music. Even the young 'falleras' get involved.

The 'fallas' grandes are usually thematic, and they use a lot of satirical symbolism to poke fun at local and world politics, culture, and whatever else they can carve up. Besides that, they're also beautiful works of art. Could they be 'Art' even?

Here's our President Obama! Fresh off his prize fight against ex-President George W., Barack stands victorious in front of a crowd of a few of his biggest fans, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, and Kim Jong-il.

Another shot of the City of Arts of Sciences, a collection of museums which include an Imax cinema, an interactive science center, an opera house, a bridge, a beautiful gardened pathway, pools (not for swimming), and the largest ocean aquarium complex in Europe (for fish to swim in). You can spend more than a day there, tranquilamente.

Here's the Imax cinema. I saw a film about the Alps which was pretty dang cool.

And the science building.

Here's a typical snack from Valencia. The drink is called 'horchata', and it's available all over Spain, though it comes from Valencia. It's a vegetable drink that is made from tigernuts, or chufas, and water and sugar. It's very sweet, served cold, and tastes great with the sugary bread rolls typical of Valencia called 'Fartons'. I went to the nearby town of Alboraya just to try this lethal combination, because it's said that the best horchata comes from there.

I stayed at a backpackers hostel in the center of the city and met a lot of people from all over the world. These young travellers became my buddies during my six-day stay in Valencia, and they proved to be really cool people. I had a blast with them cruising about the city, watching the fireworks, cooking at the hostel, throwing tons of firecrackers (another great tradition of the fiesta), and telling each other about our respective areas of the world.

Let's see if I can do them justice: from left to right, they are Doug from New Zealand, Dave from England, Paul from Queensland, Australia, Nick from Sydney, Australia, Adam from Ontario, Canada, and Jackie also from Australia. What a mix of the English language. We also met a bunch of Americans, Italians, Spaniards, and other people at our hostel.

A picture of one of my favorite fallas; almost a shame it had to burn like the rest, but that's the way the 'Crema' crumbles. The 'Crema' is the buring of the fallas the final night of the fiesta.

One of the famous fireworks displays is called 'la Mascleta', and its performed in the main square of the city on three or four consecutive days during the fiesta. The midday spectacular is the loudest thing I've ever heard in my life. They are noise fireworks, and they release I-don't-know-how-many tons of them into the air creating an echo-like effect in the plaza that gives you the impression that you're inside the engine of a highpowered jet.

Notice the view of the fireworks...

... and after...

The City Hall's falla is probably the largest one every year, located in the center of the main square where they hold the 'Mascleta'.

A parade of 'falleras', the Valencian ladies who dress up in traditional gowns and walk towards the Plaza de la Virgen where many of them offer flowers to a giant representation of the Virgen Mary. This Maria gigante is not burned.

Another view of one of the beautiful types of dresses adorned by the falleras.

A group of Spaniards from Seville were celebrating their fifth consecutive year at Las Fallas by cooking a 'paella' for everyone at the hostel. I couldn't believe how generous so many of the people I met there were; and to think we were all perfect strangers.

Here's L'Oceanogràfic, or the complex of fancy aquariums for animals and fish from all four oceans of the world, as well as most of the world's largest seas.

Of course they have dolphins, complete with a show that leaves you wondering what-can't-these-guys-do?

Finally there's the 'Crema' that I mentioned earlier when all of the fallas in the city, and in the surrounding cities, are burned, many of them simultaneously, turning Valencia into a tumultuous inferno of sprawling citizens and tourists, scrambling for views of nearly a full year's work of sculptures ablaze, firefighters and police securing the areas and plazas around the seventy-some-odd fallas in the metro area by placing barracades and "controlling" the flames by hosing buildings and the fallas themselves if necessary. Cool, huh?

Intrigued? Check out more about Las Fallas at Wikipedia.

In continuation with my attendance at the major Spanish fiestas, I hope to make it to the San Fermines this summer. !!!