A Hike Around Logrono...

It was a nice Friday afternoon in Logrono, and so I packed my backpack with water and some snacks and I went down by the Ebro River and hiked up a rocky hill that took me over the highest point of the city. I had lived in Logrono for nearly a year and I had never done this. A friend of mine recommended it to me, actually, and so the very next day I went.

Here's the Stone Bridge that crosses the Ebro River. You can see three churches in the background, all located in the Old Part of the city.

The walk up the hill took me through several vineyards, and just yesterday was the first day of the autumn grape harvest for many farmers. The grapes I came across were definitely ready to be picked; they were deep purple and in big thick clusters, hanging from the scraggly grape vines, covered with green and red and violet leaves.

Here is one of the vineyards with Logrono in the background. Logrono is basically in a large valley, and you can see the hills all around it in the distance.

Nobody was looking, so I snatched some grapes to keep me going on the hike. They were all of the 'tempranillo' varietal, which is probably the most common of grapes from La Rioja and Logrono. They're small, red, and they have several small seeds in each one; so, while they taste good, you have to eliminate the seeds as you go. I prefer drinking wine, as do most Spanierds.

The little unripened green grapes. I don't think these will be ready this year.



Here we have the RiojaForum on the left of the picture (a big concert hall), the Plaza de Toros in the center (the Bullfighting Ring), and the rest of the city behind.

The Ebro River twists a few times and flows beneath four or five bridges within the Logrono city limits. Grassy green parks skirt the river and provide it and the people coverage from most of the regular city life.

Here's one of the peaks I climbed with some other hikers (who probably drove up; ha!).





Two days later I took another trek outside the city to visit the largest park in the area, called la Grajera. La Grajera is also on the route of the famous Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James), the Christian pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. I didn't see any pilgrims walking the path with their giant packs, hiking sticks, and funny accents (many of them are from Germany, Belgium, Norway, France............ so on.) It's a little late in the season to be doing the 'Camino'.

Here is the symbol of the 'Camino', the shell, which I think was used as a rudimentary tool way back in the days of the first pilgrims. Anyways, it's a beautiful walk. Lots of nice Spanish countryside.

There is a big manmade lake at la Grajera. There are many trails around it, and it's a santuary for many breeds of animals and birds.



I hung out at the park for a few hours and then took the bus back into town, walking one way was enough, as it's like an hour's back to the city center where I live. I found a nice tree away from all the other 'campers' and people celebrating their Sunday having barbecues and picnics, and I had myself a nice relaxing read and write session, listening to the birds and the trees and watching couples and families walk past on the dirt trails. Gotta take advantage of the weather, y'know! We'll see if I can get out a few more days this year... it's starting the rainy winter season soon.

Better than all that snow though.

Gijon and Oviedo, Asturias

Hola. Welcome to Gijon, northern coastal city of the Spanish autonomous community Asturias. It's about a six-hour train ride from Logrono, and worth the trip for the long, beautiful uncrowded beaches. The weather was fairly calm when we were there, although it rained a little bit one afternoon and was cloudy for a two days out of our three-day stay.

We camped out on the beach, walked around the long boardwalks bordering the sea, and wandered around the old parts of the city searching for good cheap restaurants, nice things to take pictures of, and basically to get a feel for the place. It was a little past the major tourist season, and so the hot summer weather didn't pack the city with too many surfers, sunbathers, or spectators; it was a good time to visit, really.

The sea is the Bay of Biscay, although in Spanish it is called the Cantabrian Sea.


Here's an old church that was located near the beach. There was a mix of old and new buildings in Gijon, which is a historic port city and also popular tourist destination, which allows a lot of commericial investment there as well.

Gijon is the largest city in Asturias, though Oviedo is its capital. We went on train thirty minutes south of Gijon to visit Oviedo for the afternoon. It was a lovely city with many large streets, a tall gothic style cathedral, lots of shops and parks, and also some interesting architecture. *Sidenote: Woody Allen came to Oviedo for some reason or another, liked it, wrote about it or spoke about it, and the people of Oviedo made of statue of him. Oh! He included Oviedo in his newest movie about Spain: Vicki Christina Barcelona.

A statue in Oviedo with the cathedral some blocks in the distance.

Here is some of the old style architecture that I saw in Oviedo and that I've seen in other areas of Spain as well. I especially liked the color combinations of these apartments.

Back to Gijon now, here I am standing on the boardwalk looking over the sea and the coast.

Asturias is known for its sidra (hard apple cider) among other things. You can see the traditional way to pour the sidra here in this photo. Our waiter is demonstrating us how it's done. He reaches as far as he can with the bottle and with the glass and pours a five or so ounces into a glass without spilling any. It's fun to do.

Gijon is on the sea, and the sea provides food. I ate the food. This was my favorite at a seafood restaurant we went to. It's a shrimp cocktail--the best I've ever had--made with crab and fish and rice and some good sauce.



Fishing is important there, and we could see many big fishing boats and cruising along the vast harbors of the coastline. There were also a lot of sailboats and other recreational boats at the ports. We didn't see many of the rec boats out on the water, so maybe it was a little late in the year.

Here's a fun little photo opp we took advantage of at the docks: the front tip of a ship welded onto the side of the pier.

San Mateo 2008! Get some!

We are back in Logrono this school year. The patron saint of the city is Saint Matthew, or San Mateo. The fiesta of San Mateo goes on for a whole week, in which students don't have class and there are a few days off of work for everyone else. It's true; we the youth have no idea how good we have it.

The picture above is a fountain turned red for the fiestas. The water runs red with the blood of the Logroneses from years ago, who worked hard to create the vineyards and wineries that today we all enjoy so much.


Yes, the wine is good. We went to some tastings and bought some local specialties and reasonable prices. This dish is called 'picadillo', which is basically like spiced pork. It's delicious, and they provided us with a mini wine bottle commemorating the festival and containing a young wine from one of the oldest and most prestigious wineries.


Here's me with another pincho (little Spanish snack/bar food!). I gotta be honest, I don't remember what it is. I should've written it down I guess.


Street performers. They crowd to the fiestas, or anywhere where there are a lot of people. This guy was dressed up as a toy soldier from Toy Story.


There was a wine taster in one of the squares near our apartment. Pay five Euros and you get to wear a glass around your neck while they fill it for you and send you off to bump into other people, who also have wine glasses hanging from their necks.


Here's a view from one of our balconies. We have several in our main living room, and more windows in the bedrooms, kitchen, and bathroom. It's a fairly big place: three bed, one full bath, small kitchen, storage closet, living room with dining table, couch, coffee table, TV, a couple cabinets, some shelves, etc.

Anyways, our situation is on standby. Two of the bedrooms are stilled filled with junk from the previous occupant. He's coming to get it all soon, and then our landlady is going to furnish them. She'll put another bed and dresser in one of the bedrooms and a desk and book shelf in the other. As for now, my dresser is the cabinet in the living room, and my hamper is on top of dude's junk in the other bedroom.


This is a busy street during the fiestas. There are more people in Logrono during the 'sanmateos' than any other time of the year. It's a mess if you wanna go to your favorite places, and many locals--after experiencing the fiesta many times before, no doubt--take the opportunity to go on vacation.


Abby and I lived on this street last year. There are a lot of bars and clubs, and they were all open and all hours of ridiculousness during the fiesta. Par-Tay!


The bullfight ring in Logrono, complete with ultra modern retractable roof! How traditional is this anyway? So there were actually bullfights: those with the bull death and the gorging of matadors and the like; and we didn't go. Instead we went to something called 'vaquillas', which are like bullfights without swords. Entertainers basically just go out with a bull (smaller than the big ones they 'fight' and with taped up horns) and they run around with it, put rings on its horns as it tries to kill them, and by some act of fearlessness some of them actually leap over the large charging animals. Good stuff.


Some of the ceremonies during the fiestas include wine stomping! It's the beginning of harvest time in La Rioja (during autumn), and the stomping creates the season's first (symbolic) mosto! Mosto is grape juice; it's the liquid that comes from the grapes, and when it's fermented you get wine. Increible!

There were also concerts everynight in some of the bigger plazas in the city, and there was also a fireworks contest with different countries and Spanish cities competing. I don't know who won. Several of them were very good.

Well, more coming later, amigos. Hasta luego!

Summer Lovin

Happens so fast: lame Grease reference, but so true. I was in Spain for eight months; I came back home to Fargo for a little more than two; I'm going back to Spain for eight more. The summer goes fast.

These past two months I have been quite busy. I worked for a landscaping company and was stationed on a farm out in the beautiful North Dakota prairies. I did a lot of physical work outdoors, which I liked. I went to the Twin Cities a few times; I saw a few Twins' games; I went to the MN State Fair; I hung out with friends I haven't seen in a while. I had the chances to visit a few lake cabins in picturesque northern Minnesota. I visited with my relatives and reassured them that I'd be home for Christmas this year.


A drive-in theater in Warren, Minnesota. Yes, they still exist!


In Grafton with Abby.


Good ol' North Dakota corn.


Tall Grass Trail, the farm I worked at.

More pictures from the farm in Wild Rice, ND, a few miles south of Fargo.


From the Minnesota State Fair. The Labor Day weekend crowds.

Brother-in-law Roger, youngest sister Rachel, scowling sister Becca, and me.

Happy trails to another summer passed. Back to Spain. Logrono here we come. Spanish students, I hope you're ready.

Geneva, Switzerland

The last place we visited on our June trip through Europe was Geneva (Geneve), Switzerland. Geneva is located in the west of Switzerland and it borders France. The city is also connected to one of the largest fresh water lakes in Europe, Lake Geneva. It was a big change going from central Switzerland to eastern Switzerland because they spoke German in the central part and French in the east.

Geneva is perhaps best known for being the home of one of the headquarters of the United Nations. The Palace of Nations was originally built after WWI, and it was the home of the now debunk League of Nations. In the 1950s, the United Nations moved into the building, and we were told that they used all the of the information that the former League of Nations had there. Today, though there are many meetings in Geneva, most of the UN's most important councils meet at the headquarters in New York City.

In the photo above you can see the stone monument that was given to the UN by the Soviet Union after WWII was finished. The Palace is filled with works of art given to the UN as gifts from member countries all over the world.

Here is one of the the many council rooms. We were only allowed to spend limited time in this room because security discovered a rogue bag in one of the rear seats. We had to leave so they could contain the area. I don't think it was anything dangerous.

Unfortunately there were other cool council rooms that we weren't allowed to enter because they were being used for meetings at the time. It's cool though; nations uniting is a good thing.

This giant chair was an art piece sitting in a big square right next to the Palace of Nations. I thought maybe a car ran into one of its legs. It now stands a humongous hazard to giants everywhere looking for one of the world's only chairs big enough to fit them. Switzerland with its high standard of living should know better.

Here I am standing in front of the Palace of Nations entrance. There is a nice walkway underneath the many flags of all 192 member states.


This guy was definitely checking out this strange statue in downtown Geneva. I guess it's pretty hard not to stare.

The most famous site in Geneva is its Jet d'Eau fountain in Lake Geneva. The EuroCup championships still going on (and Switzerland was a host country, along with Austria), it seemed appropriate that a giant soccer ball hung suspended above the ever flowing shoot of water.

Ab and I went onto the pier to get some cools views of the shipyard and the lighthouse and lots of people swimming and sunbathing. The last day of our 15-day trek through southern Europe, it was also probably the hottest day of the trip, easily topping 90 F.

There were lots of big ships coming in and out of the Geneva port all the time. The pier is a great place to relax and watch the action. We only spent a little over a day in Geneva, but I thought it was a really nice place, albeit expensive. We didn't buy any Swiss watches or knives, though we could have. We ate a little bit of Swiss chocolate, which was of course wonderful. Frankly, we were at the end of our trip and at the end of our funds. It was a good thing we slowed down when we did, because I just barely made it!


We flew back from Geneva to Madrid and went over the Alps on our way out. They look big from 10,000 feet too.