A large tomato at the Duchamp WInery

The seasons have turned to fall.  For us, it was time for our sometimes-annual trip to Northern California’s wine country ostensibly to pick up our allotment of Russian River Valley Pinot Noir.  What started as a trip that paid for itself by saving the wine shipping costs has now turned into a short trip to the lifestyles of the somewhat rich and marginally famous.  It has been a nice break from the stresses of work.

This year we packed our bags, loaded up the old dog Nick into the car for what would be his last trip and headed north.  We left earlier in the day this year, but the Bay Bridge was closed and the jam of Friday traffic squeezing towards the Golden Gate Bridge moved at a crawl.  Eventually the speed increased and we made it to Williams Selyem with just enough time to pick up our box of wine.  It was a short drive from the Russian River Valley winery to our room at Duchamp Hotel in Healdsburg.

The pool at the Duchamp Hotel in Healdsburg

Nick was happy that we reached our destination.  A trip this length was pretty much at his limit.  When he was young, the Nick Dog was terrified of riding in the “truck.”  As an older dog, he enjoyed the experience.  For him, it’s like a walk without the walking.  That’s a good thing when your body hurts.  There’s no chance to check pee-mail messages along the way, but the other new smells are still there.

A scaled-up version of the bottle drying rack that Marcel Duchamp bought and then passed as his art work

The Duchamp Hotel is a small hotel with six rooms each in separate buildings.  We often stay in the nearby Hotel Healdsburg.  This time, the Hotel Healdsburg was booked so we opted for the stylish Duchamp.  Without a fully occupied front desk, the Duchamp was like a cross between a guesthouse and a hotel.  The stay was quiet and peaceful.  Nick was particularly happy that he was welcome at the hotel.

http://www.duchamphotel.com/

After settling into the room, we strolled the half block to Cyrus.  We had dinner reservations for later in the evening, but we had heard that Cyrus’s specialty cocktails were worth sampling and indeed they were.  There’s much more about our dinner and cocktails at Cyrus in the link.

http://anotherheader.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/cyrus-restaurant/

On Saturday, after a casual start to the day, we headed out for a road bike ride. We headed south and then through the golden-yellow tinged vineyards and the musty post harvest smells of the wine country to Chalk Hill Road.  Climbing past Chalk Hill, we turned left on 128 and spun through vine-carpeted plains of Alexander Valley.  Another left on Alexander Valley Road and a short cut on Lytton Station Road took us to the rolling Lytton Springs Road.  A left on to the gentle climb of Dry Creek Road took us underneath Highway 101 and back to Healdsburg.  With a right turn on Grove Street and a left on North Street, we were back at the Duchamp.  We figure the ride covered about 35 miles and was finished in about three and a half hours.  With the autumn light and the changing colors of the manicured vineyards, road bike rides this time of year in wine country are always inspiring.

Art at the Duchamp WInery

Our ride would have been faster but we made a couple of stops.  Typically we’re not much for combining long rides and wine tasting, but we noticed that the Chalk Hill Winery is now open for tasting without a prior appointment.  We’d passed by the winery many times in the past and were intrigued.  This time, they were open for visits, so we climbed up the winery’s road into the sprawling wine estate.  The vineyards and buildings of the Chalk Hill Winery occupy the closed end of a small valley in a true “Life Styles of the Rich and Famous” fashion.  Amongst it all, the wine was good, and this was a worthwhile stop even in the midst of a long-ish bike ride.  Later, a stop for a good sandwich at the Jimtown Store saved us from another dose of power food.

We arrived back at the room in time for a walk for Nick.  Nick usually wants long walks when he visits new places.  This time he was sadly content with just short trips.

"Eye Changed My Mind"

Healdsburg on Halloween evening was full of costumed trick-or-treaters raiding the shops that had stayed open on the Plaza for the occasion.  The small town feel of Healdsburg remains amongst the upscale wineries, luxury hotels, and fine restaurants.

The next day we visited the Duchamp winery for a private tasting that was arranged as part of our room booking.  Duchamp is named for and inspired by the eclectic French artist of the early 20^th Century, Marcel Duchamp.  The winery and its high-density vineyard occupy the area around an old slaughterhouse.  Pat and Peter Lenz, the owners, left a successful winery and restaurant on Long Island in the 80’s and moved to the warm weather of California.  After a stop in Calistoga, the couple moved to Healdsburg and started the low-key Duchamp Winery and Hotel.

Becky loves tomatoes

In the repurposed slaughterhouse, we tasted Duchamps’ concentrated Syrahs as were learned about the wines and winery from Peter.  The concrete walls of the slaughterhouse were also housing the “The Seduction of Duchamp” art exhibit.  Art works were scattered in the corners amongst the stripped down cranes and winches of the old slaughterhouse.  Pat is the artist of the house and is responsible for the large sculptures that are scattered around the winery and the hotel.

A couple more winery visits on and we were on our way back home.  Traffic this time was much better and we were home early.  Nick was happy to be back.  We could see that he liked coming along and not being left behind, but still the trip was a challenge.  He was staying very close to us now.  He did not feel well.  Just as the leaves on the vines were dying, so was Nick.

Cocktails at Cyrus, “Grapes of Wrath” and “Ichabod’s Revenge”

Our nearly yearly trip north to wine country gives us a chance to visit one of our favorite restaurants in Northern California, Cyrus.  This fall we dined at the two Michelin starred Cyrus Restaurant in Healdsburg for a third time.  We enjoyed our meal at Cyrus on our first visit.  Our second visit really cemented our enthusiasm for the restaurant.  We were eagerly looking forward to our return.

Our reservation was at 9:00 pm.  We arrived in Healdsburg around 5, checked in to the Duchamp Hotel, and headed to Cyrus for early cocktails.  Usually we don’t have cocktails before dinner.  Alcohol before dinner dulls the palate.  But, in this case, our dinner was much later and we had heard a lot about the cocktails at Cyrus.  We had to try the drinks.

Cocktails at Cyrus are not your standard well drinks.  The cocktail program at Cyrus was shaped by Scott Beattie who has since left.  Famous for sourcing ingredients from across neighbor’s fences, Beattie’s cocktails are a combination of the expression of the flavors of the fresh products and the imaginative mixing of a variety of the best ingredients.  The result is unique drinks that are ripe with flavor.

The cocktail menu at Cyrus

Before the weekend was over, we would try all five of the specialty cocktails on the “Fall” menu.  Our first two drinks, the Halloween themed “Ichabod’s Revenge” and “Grapes of Wrath,” along with the “Gravenstein Appellation,” which we sampled later, were our favorites.  Ichabod’s Revenge captures the flavors of the season in a cocktail but somehow makes it all seem new and fresh.  If this were the inspiration to reinvent the pumpkin pie, the result might just be the best pumpkin pie ever.

The Grapes of Wrath is all about the grapes.  The combination of the ripe and unripe grapes from the fresh pressed cabernet grapes and red verjus recalls the smell of walking through the vineyards and wineries at harvest time.  Imagine tasting the juice of wine grapes, pressed and left on the stems and skins for a day, filtered, and mixed with a modest amount of vodka and you’d get a rough idea of what the drink tastes like.

Roasted Lobster with Daikon and Blood Oranges, Tamarind-Ponzu

It’s all about the distinctive flavor of Gravenstein apples in the “Gravenstein Appellation.”  If you weren’t a fan of the Healdsburg area’s local apples, you will be after you try this drink.  This drink leaves you looking for orchards and contemplating theft of the apples from the farmer’s trees as you drive down the road.

With all the cocktails, we had the crisp and tasty deep-fried lobster off of the bar menu.  I can’t imagine a menu item with “deep-fried” and “lobster” in the description that would be wrong.  If you visit Healdsburg, be sure to check out the cocktail bar at Cyrus.

After a break in the room and a walk for Nick, it was time for dinner.  At Cyrus, Becky chose the “Vegetarian Tasting Menu” with the option of aromatic white truffles shaved on to the top of the Pumpkin Tagliarini.  I chose the “Tasting Menu.”  With both menus, we had the pre-arranged wine pairing.  Chef Douglas Keane’s food, particularly for the early courses, combines Western-Continental with Japanese flavors and ingredients.  The fusion tends mostly toward the Western end of the taste continuum with rays of acidity and flavors of the distinctive Japanese ingredients coming through.  As you proceed through the Tasting Menu, the dishes become progressively become more traditionally Western-Continental.

The dinner menu

As we typically do, Becky and I shared most of the dishes on our two menus.  It seems to us that vegetarian tasting menus, when they are offered, are often more creative than the traditional menus.  This was the case at Cyrus.  Perhaps not having to offer protein-based dishes frees up the chefs to be more creative and to move away from the traditional styles.  Who knows?  For us, we like the combination of the two menus.  It gives us more to taste and experience.

We rolled out of the restaurant well after midnight.  For us, the meal wasn’t quite to the level of our last visit a year prior.  Maybe the flavors weren’t as sharp coming out of the kitchen.  Or it could be that our palates weren’t as perceptive this time.  Or it could be that meal was very similar in form to our last visit and the surprise factor was missing.  We can’t say.  In the end, the meal was excellent and Cyrus is worth the visit.

Autumn Bean Ragout, Vin Santo Glaze

Though I often disagree with the Michelin rankings, I have to agree that Cyrus’s two star rating is about right.  Though we like Cyrus better than some of the three Michelin-starred restaurants we have visited but there are also some two-starred restaurants we prefer.  I’d give it 2.376 Michelin stars, more or less.  For us, Cyrus would not worth be traveling half way across the globe to visit, but a two-hour drive from the Bay Area is more than justified.  Cyrus is one of the best restaurants in Northern California.

http://www.cyrusrestaurant.com/

Pumpkin Tagliarini with Truffled Pecorino and Steamed Bantam Yolk with shaved white truffle

Meyer Lemon Bar and “Cappuccino” being finished at the table

Nearly thirteen years ago Becky and I stopped by the Peninsula Humane Society to look at the dogs.  Becky’s old dog Sam had just passed and though we told ourselves that we weren’t ready for a new dog; we were just looking.  None of the dogs seemed right.  They barked and were easily distracted.  In the back there was one big black dog in a cage that watched us walk in.  When we came close, he moved close to fence so we could scratch behind his ears.  We were looking for a female dog, around 60 lb, and short haired.  The dog, given the name “Mikey” by the PHS staff, didn’t fit those requirements.  But, as it worked out, he chose us and we chose him.  Not that we didn’t have our doubts.  The PHS required an interview with the dog before we could take him home.  During the interview, Mikey crawled along the floor across the floor to get to us.  We learned that he had been picked up on the streets of East Palo Alto.  His confidence had been shattered.  We put a hold on Mikey for 24 hrs.  Later we decided to take the chance and committed to adopting him.  It turned out that Mikey had Kennel Cough so we had to wait for it to clear before we could pick him up.

It was Christmas Eve when we were able to pick Mikey up.  On the way out of the PHS, goats in a cage nearby randomly swirled in Mikey’s direction and he cowered and submissively urinated.  He was so timid and frightened and we ended up having to carry him to the truck.  Maybe a 60 lb dog would have been a good idea after all!

Nick at the camp

When we got home, Mikey went into the door to the garage and into the house immediately.  He was not going to leave.  He knew this was his home.

We changed Mikey’s name to “Nick” as in St. Nick.  He was our dog.  Eventually, Nick gained his confidence.  He clearly had been neglected and even the concept of a toy was foreign to him.  It didn’t take him long to learn and he proved to be a loyal, loving dog.  Still, he wasn’t going to leave the house if he wasn’t on a leash.  He wanted to be at the house.  He wanted to be with us.  He didn’t want to be back on the streets.

Nick's triumphant return from British Columbia

The years passed by.  When he was younger, Nick used to run the trails with us, sometimes following us as we rode our bikes, but more often than not leading the way.  After his knees failed and he had surgery, his trail days were over.

Nick was his our constant companion on our road trips.  At first he was reluctant to ride in the truck.  Eventually, he didn’t want to be left behind and he learned to enjoy the journey.  Nick marked his territory across a wide swath of the Western United States.

We got the bad news about Nick in May.  After a bout of blood in his urine we learned that he had tumors in his kidney and lungs.  The vet gave him 3 months to a year to live.  With a long trip scheduled for BC, we weren’t sure whether he would be able to make it.  About two weeks before the trip, things turned bad.  On a Thursday in June, we scheduled a mobile vet to come to house and put him down on Saturday.  It was crushing to think of losing him.  But, in the next day he snapped back and we called off the Grim Reaper at the last moment.  Soon Nick was filling good enough to go on our long trip to British Columbia this summer.  He had a great time hunting for bears, thankfully unsuccessfully, in BC.  Maybe hunting bears was on Nick’s “Bucket List.”

Nick on his last day

In the recent weeks, Nick’s health has been declining.  In the last couple of days he started vomiting, stopped eating, and asking for his walks.  Today, we again called the mobile vet, a.k.a., the Grim Reaper.  This time he didn’t bounce back.  Nick was put to sleep around 5 this afternoon.

Nick had a few doggy buds and numerous human friends.  He was the type of dog that people who never had dogs were drawn to.  He will be missed.  We miss him intensely.  Goodbye old friend.

Isn't that Nick on the label? Our impulse purchase after we lost Nick.

Preparing pimentos de Padron at home

There was just no denying it.  We came back from Spain with a serious hankering for pimentos de Padron.  Somewhere, with our nine plates of these little green peppers in Spain, we’d become addicted.  No late night shakes and cold sweats, mind you.  Instead, relentless cravings and prototypical pepper seeking behavior were the main pimentos de Padron withdrawal symptoms.

Back in the States, we looked for a local chapter of Pimentos de Padron Anonymous.  We couldn’t find one.  Our cravings continued unabated and our pepper seeking behavior led us on a search for a replacement in California.

First I tried preparing other types of peppers that I found in the Farmer’s Markets in the same manner used for pimentos de Padron in Spain.  My experiments were unsuccessful.  I could cook the peppers the same way, but the results did not match the Padron peppers we had in Spain.  More often than not, the peppers I cooked were thermonuclear spicy-hot with the salt and the oil only accentuating the peppers natural, lingering heat.  It was clear.  I needed real Padron peppers.  Just as we figured that we’d have to hop on a plane and head back to Spain for more peppers, pimentos de Padron starting to appear in small quantities in the Bay Area’s Farmer’s Markets.  We bought all we could find.

Here's what the peppers look like when they are finished

Preparing the peppers is easy.  Add olive oil to a hot sauté pan followed by the cleaned and dried Padron peppers.  Toss and turn on high heat until the skins are blistered-bubbly and the flesh is softened.  Off the heat, sprinkle the hot, oil coated peppers with flaky salt.  Serve as an appetizer with a glass of chilled Txakoli or a cold beer if the Basque white wine isn’t available in your fridge.

The flavor of Padron peppers is reminiscent of green bells, but the skins are thinner and flavor is less sweet and more complex.  With pimentos de Padron, the slightly bitter, appealing aftertaste lingers on the tongue.  The flaky salt keeps drawing you back to the plate for more.  While most of the peppers are mildly spicy with just a hint of heat, occasionally you catch a pepper with serious, jalapeño level spiciness.  Supposedly, larger peppers and those grown later in the season are more likely to be hot.  We haven’t done a statistical survey, but this may well be correct.  For sure, starting with a small bite on the tip of the pepper and proceeding onward when the coast is clear is the safest approach for avoiding an out of body hot pepper experience.

Padron peppers as served in San Sebastian

Are the California-grown peppers as good as the ones in Spain?  Flavor-wise, the Padron peppers we get in the Bay Area are very similar to those in Spain.  There is one difference, though.  In Spain, the size of the peppers we were served or saw in the markets was uniform.  In California, there is a lot more variation in the length and, perhaps as a result, the heat of the peppers.  California growers haven’t quite perfected the process.  I’m sure the farmers will harvest a more consistent product in California soon enough.

We are happy to have pimentos de Padron in California.  There is one problem, though.  The growing season is ending soon.  Now what are we going to do to feed our addiction?

Pimentos de Padron in La Boqueria in Barcelona

Our pepper eating exploits, along with other details, are included here:

http://anotherheader.wordpress.com/category/travel/spain/

More on Padron peppers:

http://www.happyquailfarms.com/padrones.html

The waterside terminal tower of Transbordador Aeri del Port or Barcelona’s Harbor Cable Car

We try to maximize Becky’s travel days by scheduling our return departures for Sundays.  For this trip the best we could do with our complex frequent flyer ticket arrangements was a late Saturday departure and an overnight layover in Frankfurt.  When planning the trip, the Frankfurt layover seemed less than ideal.  In actuality it ended up working out well and broke up the trip back.

Becky makes new friends on La Rambla

Our flight was scheduled to depart Barcelona at 6:55 pm.  Barcelona’s airport has easy access and, with an intra-EU flight, we had a good chunk of a day to spend in Barcelona.  When we woke a nebulous desire to “Go somewhere different” was the extent of our day’s plan.  Outside our hotel room, we could see Transbordador Aeri del Port or Barcelona’s Harbor Cable Car.  The cable car runs from the harbor’s water edge across a large swath of Barcelona to a station near the top of Montjuic.  On a whim, we headed to the 1930’s era cable car.

It seemed simple enough to walk from our hotel in Raval to the harbor-side cable car entrance.  The harbor terminus tower looked close by.  But once we started to walk we quickly found that the tower wasn’t really very close after all.  The cable car’s steel lattice tower is very large, making the distance look deceivingly short.

Smile!

Four kilometers from our hotel, we were at the base of the terminal tower and in the queue for tickets.  The cable car’s ticket line didn’t move.  After several minutes of standing patiently, the staff posted a sign in the window of the ticket office. Transbordador Aeri del Port was now closed due to high winds.  If we actually had plans, it would have been safe to say that all of our plans for this day had gone awry.

We had become fixated on getting to Montjuic.  Taking an alternate route with the Metro and funicular finally put us on the hill.  Unfortnately, by the time we arrived, we had just enough time for a beer and a snack before we had to head back.  About the only things that we can say about Montjuic is that there is, in fact, a view of Barcelona from the hill and funiculars are cool.  Beyond the view and the funicular, we didn’t see much else.  We didn’t have time.  Maybe we will see more of Montjuic on a future visit.

A replica of the submarine Ictineo II

After collecting our luggage at the hotel and a short taxi ride to the airport we were on our way to Germany.  Even with our extended layover in Frankfurt, Lufthansa unexpectedly allowed us to check our luggage through to San Francisco.  Though this was convenient, it meant that further olive oil and wine purchases in the duty free shops at the Barcelona airport were out and our toiletry bags would be spending the night in Lufthansa’s hands.

Pinch and inch

In Frankfurt we stayed at the Steigenberger Airport Hotel.  This was our second stay at this convenient airport hotel, both times without our toiletry bags.  Our first visit to Steigenberger was at United Airlines expense after a flight on our return from Sicily was canceled.  Returning from Spain on this trip, our room was upgraded to a suite.  Perhaps our upgrade was related to Becky’s gauche requests at the front desk on our stopover from Sicily.  Who knows?  In any event, our night in Frankfurt was comfortable and I did learn something important in Germany.  If I backwash into my beer, Becky won’t steal it.  This could prove to be very important in the future.

The story of our last stay at the Steigenberger is here:

http://anotherheader.wordpress.com/2008/12/04/the-return-trip/

Another inch is pinched

We had one more hurdle left for our return trip—the dreaded German airport security.  For the first time in years I managed to miss Al Hans and his deeply personal body searches.  Though thankfully I missed Al’s forceful hand, my camera got me diverted through to a secondary search area.  Apparently the word was out that I might have snagged some illicit pictures of our meal at Arzak.

In case you missed it, the Arzak story is here:

http://anotherheader.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/arzak/

Becky’s visit with the German airport security was not as straightforward.  Security ultimately discovered that Becky had a metal plate installed in her foot after a snowboarding fall.  This, of course, led to Becky’s long story about how she rode Slickrock Trail in Moab on her mountain bike with her foot in a protective hard boot soon after her surgery.  The longwinded tale surely made the German airport security people rue the day that they decided to learn to speak English.  Perhaps as retaliation for the endless account of her Moab ride, the agents searched Becky’s carry on bag.  They had to figure that the bag would more entertaining than her biking story.

Raval's big cat

When my camera was cleared of having any explosives or offending Arzak pictures, I checked back to see what was keeping Becky in security.  When I approached the bag search area, I saw the German Airport Security officials laughing and giggling.  As they rummaged through Becky’s bag, I could have sworn I heard some thing that sounded like “Zwanzig bis drei par schue.”

Now I know that “Zwanzig bis drei” is 23.  It sounded to me like they found that Becky had 23 pairs of shoes in her small bag.  I’ve grown to expect a lot of unusual talents from Becky but even I was surprised that she could get so many shoes into her carry on bag.

On Barcelona's streets

When the agents finally stopped laughing, Becky was free to go.  As is common in Frankfurt, we had to take a bus across the tarmac to our waiting plane.  This time airliner wasn’t exactly close to the terminal.  I’m not saying it was a super long trip, but the passengers on the shuttle bus did kept looking to see if a drink and snack cart was coming down the isle.

The rest of our travels were uneventful.  When we arrived back home we found that Nick was pissed off that we had been gone for so long.  For us, this was a very good thing.  It meant that the old dog was still feeling pretty good.

Pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AnotherHeader/BCNDeparture#

Back home with our take from the trip

The spectrum of macarons at Bubo

Barcelona had become a familiar and comfortable base.  The city offers much more to see and do but our visit was rapidly coming to an end.  On our last full day, it was time to see the places in Barcelona that we didn’t want to miss.  We can never predict when we will be back.

Our standard route from our hotel to La Rambla took us by La Boquería.  Stopping for food at one of the stalls in the market was an easy option.  As a bonus, we could quell our pimentos de Padron cravings.  This would be our ninth serving of these small green peppers on this trip.  Some say that pimentos de Padron are addictive.  We don’t believe it.  We can stop eating them anytime.  Well, at least after we have another plate or two.

Park Guell's benches with trencadís-style mosaics

Hospital de la Santa Creu I Sant Pau, Palau de Musica Catalana, and Gaudi’s Park Guell were our day’s destinations.  Together, Hospital de Sant Pau and Palau de Musica Catalana are listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site for the Modernisme design.  Park Guell is designated as an UNESCO World Heritage site as part of Gaudi’s works.

After a Metro ride, we were at Hospital de Sant Pau.  Designed by architect Lluis Domenech I Montaner, San Pau was built between 1901 and 1930 and to this day continues to be used as a hospital.  A tour allowed us to see the curved lines and distinctive, Modernisme decorative elements in the interior of the entrance building along with the central courtyard.

Inside Estacio Terme o de Franca

Our next stop was the Palau de Musica Catalana.  On a guided tour, we learned of the building’s history and viewed its beautiful lobbies and entry halls.  The tour guide saved the best for last.  Inside the main concert hall, spectacular stained glass skylights and windows light the open space.  Along with the heavy sculptural decorations, the stained glass creates a jewel box-like interior space.  Alas, picture taking was not allowed inside Palau de Musica (check Wikipedia for pictures: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palau_de_la_M%C3%BAsica_Catalana).  If you visit Barcelona, don’t miss seeing the interior of Palau de Musica.  Some guidebooks suggest catching a daytime concert in the hall.  In retrospect, this would have been a great way to see the space.  These concerts often sell out well in advance.  Plan ahead and you can catch a concert in this spectacular venue.  We wish we had.

Benches at Park Guell, Barcelona

From Palau de Musica Catalana we headed to Gaudi’s Park Guell.  To save time and arrive while the park was actually open, we took a taxi.  Designed as part of a planned but never built upscale housing development, Park Guell extends Gaudi’s Moderisme design elements to landscape design.  Elements of Gaudi’s structures within the park evoke trees and waves.  At the same time, the trencadís-style mosaics that coat the parks serpentine benches, sculptures, and buildings have no direct natural reference.  An afternoon can easily be spent just investigating the details of the extensive mosaics.  Though Park Guell is a tourist attraction for many, most of the park users were locals who jogged or strolled through the open spaces or spent the warm afternoon lounging on Gaudi’s mosaic coated benches.  Somehow it seems that this would please Gaudi.

The ceiling of Santa María del Mar in Barcelona

With our day’s primary sightseeing goals completed, we headed to the area around Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar to find a wine bar, La Vinya del Senyor.  The bar was crowded, but we were fortunate to be able to squeeze into a small table.  The wines offered were well chosen.  Of all of our attempts to taste wine during our trip, this was the most successful.  We came away a couple of good, distinctive bottles to bring back with us.  As a bonus, nearby a boutique pastry shop, Bubo (http://www.bubo.ws/), offered macarons in a kaleidoscope of colors and flavors.  Becky added a shocking number of these to our vacation loot.

Trencadís-style mosaics at Park Guell

Spain is famous for its olive oil.  We were looking to find some good bottles to bring home.  Serendipitously, our day’s route took us past two specialty shops, Olisolvia.com and Oroliquido, where we could both taste and buy oil.  We ended up with four bottles.  We should have bought more.  The oil is better and cheaper than what we get at home.

http://www.olisoliva.com/

http://www.oroliquido.es/

I don’t know why, but it seems something bad happens on our last day of our overseas trips.  I kept expecting some sort of mini disaster to befall us, but this time everything went smoothly.  The worst thing that happened was Becky only ordering dinner for just one rather than two while I held a table at Mooz, an excellent small chain of vegetarian restaurants.  This was hardly a crisis.  I feared that our uneventful day would bode poorly for our return trip.

Padron peppers at La Boquería

Pictures from Barcelona:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AnotherHeader/BarcelonaLD#

Pictures from Gaudi’s Park Guell:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AnotherHeader/BarcelonaSParkGuell#

Food pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AnotherHeader/BarcelonaLDFood#

Inside Hospital de Sant Pau

Lest it has been forgotten, the theme of our trip to Spain was food and wine.  On Thursday we headed an hour outside of Barcelona to Girona to visit one of our favorite restaurants in the world, El Celler de Can Roca.  This would be our second visit to this two star Michelin Restaurant that currently is ranked number five in the world on the San Pelligrino list of the best restaurants in the world.

We took a taxi to the train station for our trip north to Girona.  As the cab wove its way through Barcelona’s traffic, the driver tried to convince us to let him take us to Girona.  Yes, the taxi ride would cost around $150 but, according to driver, the train was “a hassle,” “unreliable,” and it would take us “four hours.”  We took the train.  A little more than an hour later we were in Girona.

Black sesame cracker from El Celler de Can Roca

When we arrived in Girona, we explored a little before heading to the restaurant.  Since our last visit, El Celler de Can Roca relocated to an open, modern building.  We entered and were quickly seated.

Without much debate, we both ordered the “Menu Degustacio” with the wine pairing.  The food at El Celler de Can Roca is prepared using some of the same molecular gastronomy techniques used at Mugaritz and El Bulli.  While the preparation and presentation is modern, the ingredients tend to be traditional and familiar.  Unlike Mugaritz, there’s not much need to search on the Internet after your meal to determine what exactly you just ate.  The result is a meal that is comforting and satisfying, but not particularly challenging or exotic.

"Anchovy Bone" from El Celler de Can Roca

As much as I like the savory dishes at El Celler de Can Roca, Pastry Chef Jordi Roca’s desserts are the stand out.  On first visit to El Celler, Ganesan ordered two desserts and would not share them with his wife, Catherine, or anyone else at the table.  This was not typical of Ganesan, but it was a sure sign that the desserts were good.  With our Menu Degustacio, our own domestic crisis was adverted as we each received two desserts.  Becky chose “A fragrance adapted: Miracle by Lancome” and the simply titled “Milk dessert.”  In the “Miracle by Lancome,” Jordi Roca mirrors the nose of Lancome’s cologne in a fruit based dessert.  A piece of filter paper infused with Miracle by Lancome lets the diners decide how successful the aromas of the dessert and perfume matched.  The “Milk dessert” is minimally described on the menu.  This dish, a combination of ice cream, custard, and caramel, is seemingly straightforward.  The result, however, transcends the apparent simplicity with rich milk flavors permeating the dish.  Maybe you could describe this as the best ice cream dish, ever.  It is hard to say.  This is rightfully one of the most popular desserts at El Celler de Can Roca.

"Carrots with truffle"

My first dessert was called Orange Chromatism.  This dessert combines strawberry sorbet, an orange puree, and a boiled carrot to produce an intensely orange-hued dish.  The combination functioned as a palate cleanser.  Next up was “A trip to Havana.”  I had this dessert on my first visit to El Celler and I was definitely looking forward to having it again on this visit.  The dish has two parts.  First, a lime soup and a mint granita mimic a mojito.  Along with the “mojito” there is a chocolate-coated rum cake formed into the shape of a cigar, complete with spice ash.  Cigar smoke is incorporated into the cigar-shaped cake giving the dish distinctive tar and tobacco accents.  The first time I tasted this dessert, the tobacco flavor was unexpected and surprising.  This time I knew what to expect and enjoyed the complex combination of flavors.  “A trip to Havana” ranks with the best desserts, ever.  Without a doubt, it is one of the most creative.

A trip to Havana

After the end of our meal, we asked to see the kitchen.  Inside the modern kitchen, the Brothers Roca were all receiving the diners on kitchen tours.  El Celler de Can Roca is a family operation.  Joan Roca is the head chef; Jordi handles the exquisite desserts; Josep handles the front of the house, including the extensive wine collection.  We thanked Joan for the fine meal and talked to Jordi about the rotary evaporator in the kitchen.  A rotary evaporator or “roto-vap” to chemists is a device that gently concentrates solutions in rotating round-bottomed flask under reduced pressure and mild heating.  This piece of lab equipment is becoming commonplace in kitchens that practice molecular gastronomy techniques.  Jordi was unduly impressed when mentioned we were chemists and was happy to show us some of his toys.

Jordi Roca

Our tour ended after our waiter took us back to see the wine collection complete with a computerized tracking system.  We were tempted to stay, drink all the wine, and eat dinner, but we thought better of it and finally left the restaurant.  El Celler de Can Roca remains as one of our favorite restaurants, anywhere.  It is shocking that Michelin considers this restaurant, number five on the San Pelligrino list of best restaurants in the world, as worthy of only two stars.  If the restaurant were located a few miles north in France, it would easily have been given three stars.

From the restaurant we wanted our taxi driver to take us to Girona’s old town.  Not knowing how to describe this location in Spanish, we requested that we be dropped at Girona’s large cathedral.  As we got close to the cathedral the roads got tight and narrow.  This was as good a place as any, so we told the driver to stop, and we got out and started our walking tour.

Girona sits along the confluence of two rivers near the foothills of the Pyrenees.  With the mountains and hills nearby, the town has served as the training base for numerous professional cyclists including Lance Armstrong.

Inside Els Banys Arabs de Girona

We disembarked the train at the Passeig de Gràcia station.  Up on the streets, we were back on the Ruta del Modernisme seeing the buildings that we had seen on the prior day spot lit under the lights at night.  It had been a long day, but there was time for tapas and cervezas before we headed back to the room.  We did not find pimentos de Padron on offer this evening.  Back at the room, we wondered whether missing our nightly dose of green peppers would result in physical withdrawal symptoms.  The cravings had already started.

El Celler de Can Roca pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AnotherHeader/ElCellerDeCanRoca#

Girona and Barcelona pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AnotherHeader/GironaAndBarcelona#

Inside the nave of Sagrada Familia

Our day started slowly.  Late in the morning, the metallic, mechanical sound of our room’s Nespresso coffee machine ejecting spent cartridges filled the room.  We were tired and Becky was brewing an excessively large number of shots of coffee.  A shower soon followed ourcaffeine binge.  It seemed simple enough, but learning to operate the controls of the ultra-modern shower without flooding the lower eight floors of the hotel occupied a surprisingly long period of time, even in our fully caffeinated state.

From our room we headed out to see Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia.  First we stopped by Café Vienna on Las Ramblas to eat a sandwich that New York Time’s food writer Mark Bittman says is “…the best sandwich I have ever had.”  The sandwich features thinly sliced Jamon de Iberico de Bellota on a length-wise sliced, crusty baguette, the inside of which was smeared with a tomato.  The sandwich was good.  How could it not be with the buttery nuttiness of Jamon de Iberico de Bellota?  But was this the best sandwich ever?  Perhaps it was for Mark Bittman but it wasn’t for us.  Maybe we just resented anything, even the good tomato-smeared bread, that diluted the intense, savory flavors of the Jamon de Iberico de Bellota.

Construction continues on Sagrada Familia

After a convoluted but well marked subway to street to subway connection, we were at Sagrada Familia.  My last visit to Gaudi’s cathedral was about four years ago.  In the intervening years, the progress towards the completion of the building has been surprisingly noticeable.  Sagrada Famlia now looks much more like a cathedral than a construction site and portions of the interior are scheduled to open for worship services in 2010.  Construction started in 1882 and the cathedral is on track to be finished in 2026.  It may seem slow, but the building time is comparable to the amount of time it took to complete the Washington National Cathedral, which was completed in 1990 after 87 years of construction.

Inside, Sagrada Familia the nave has been covered.  The canopy-like ceiling is supported by columns that branch and spread near the top.  What results is an open and airy space that feels surreal and modern while at the same time having an organic, almost living look.  We spent about an hour touring the towers and both Gaudi’s Nativity and Josep Maria Subirachs’ Passion façades before we continued on.  Sagrada Familia is a fascinating building.  It will be interesting to see when it is finished.

Vents on the roof of Gaudi's Casa Milà (la Pedrera)

It was her first visit to Sagrada Familia and Becky liked the cathedral also.  In her words, “The iconic ionic capitols are ironic.”

When my head stopped spinning, all I could say was “Uh.”  I feared even asking her to repeat what she had just said.  I didn’t even try to repeat the line myself lest I leave my tongue in an irreversible knot.

From Sagrada Familia we continued along Barcelona’s Ruta del Modernisme, which leads the tourists past some of Barcelona’s most famous Modernisme buildings.  Modernisme is Catalan for modernism and references the art movement that occurred in Catalonia roughly from 1888 to 1911.  The most famous practitioner of the Modernisme architectural style is Antonio Gaudí.  Along the route there are numerous interesting buildings, often with distinctive convoluted, surreal exteriors.

A ceiling light inside Casa Batlló

For a pricey entrance fee, we were able to tour two of Gaudi’s buildings along Ruta del Modernisme– Casa Milà (la Pedrera) and Casa Batlló.  UNESCO lists these buildings, along with other works of Antonio Gaudi including Sagrada Familia, as a World Heritage Site.  La Pedrera was built as an apartment building.  Casa Batlló, known locally as Casa dels ossos or House of Bones, is a typical house owned in the late 19^th century by a wealthy businessman, Josep Batlló i Casanovas.  Batlló enlisted Gaudi for an extensive remodel.  The interiors of these Modernisme buildings mirror their exteriors with convoluted lines, curved-smooth woodwork, and colorful tiles.  Even now the interior spaces of these buildings look to be comfortable and livable.  There’s one problem, though.  Buying furniture would be real a challenge.  The rooms have no straight lines.

The stairwell inside Casa Batlló

At the end of our tour, we wandered back towards our room.  Along the way we happened by a vibrator store, Sensualove, and went in.  As Becky was contemplating whether an expensive vibrating rubber duck would be a good addition to our extensive collection of non-vibrating rubber ducks, I tried to decide whether I should ask the other patrons if I could be of assistance.  In the end, I figured that the attractive female customers who were at the store shopping for personal amusement devices would not value my earnest offer of assistance.  It seemed to me that even asking if they needed help was poor idea on multiple fronts.

With some remaining personal dignity but without a vibrating duck, we left the vibrator store.  The good news was time was that it was time for tapas and cervezas on the way back to the room.  And yes, we did have another plate of pimentos de Padron.  Our day would not be complete without Padron’s little green peppers.

Roof details on Casa Batlló

Food pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AnotherHeader/BarcelonaDayOneFood#

Street pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AnotherHeader/BarcelonaDayOneStreet#

Details inside Sagrada Familia

The ghost town of Shaniko, alongside US-97 in Oregon

During an impromptu visit last winter, Quiver and I walked through Seattle’s I-5 Colonnade Mountain Biking Skills Park.  The I-5 Colonnade recaptures the space underneath the I-5 viaduct in downtown Seattle for a collection of skinnies, drops, jumps, ladders, and rock drops of all sizes and shapes.  Basically everything is here that you might find on a trail in BC except for the mileage and the vegetation.  We had no bikes at the time, but we wanted to give it a try.

On this trip our route south from Bellingham took us through Seattle on the segment of I-5 that crosses over the Bike Park.  We had to give the Colonnade a shot.

Knobs riding under the freeway at the I-5 Colonnade in Seattle

That is if we could find parking for the trailers in downtown Seattle.  Knobs exited and managed to find a spot without much effort.  I exited, went the other direction, and took the trailer down the narrowest, steepest, cobbled streets in Seattle and drove about 8 miles in a grid pattern before I found a place I could park.  I knew that Seattle had some super steep and narrow streets, but who would have guessed that Seattle has cobblestones?  I eventually found a forty-foot long parking spot.  The signs limited me to two hours and the spot was on a steep section of road.  But at least it I could leave the trailer there.

After parking and getting Nick set in the tilted trailer, I quickly got dressed, peeled my bike off the roof, and headed over to the Bike Park to meet Knobs.  We played around the Colonnade a bit, riding skinnies, trying some of the drops and ladders.  Knobs heart wasn’t into this one.  He started channeling Ross and finding the experience to be too unnatural for his liking.  I found more to interest me at the Bike Park, though a quick stop on the way south was not a good way to visit this one.  This is a place for long sessions, working up to the big features, or for more frequent shorter visits.  It is also a place to go to before BC, not afterwards.

Stop action videos of Knobs riding the Bike Park:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AnotherHeader/Movies#5378149604167116930

http://picasaweb.google.com/AnotherHeader/Movies#5378149585113624178

The Skills Park is in a confined area

There is one thing about the Colonnade that does not mimic the North Shore–the soil conditions.  The dirt, where you ride on it, is powdery dry.  The area under the freeway gets no rain.  It is dry year around.  There are hoses to water down the desiccated dirt, but they seem to be losing ground.

When we finished our short session, Knobs and I said a quick goodbye.  I don’t think either one of us had yet adjusted to leaving the pattern of life and riding we had in BC.

Knobs rides the Cyclone

I returned to the Airstream and found that Nick had slid to the back end of the trailer and was stuck there.  He couldn’t get enough traction to move uphill to the front of the trailer where his pad was.  Nick wasn’t happy with his predicament.  But, like the dog always does, he would promptly forgot about the parking arrangements in exchange for a walk around the neighborhood.

Knobs headed directly south.  I headed over to see my sister and mother in Central Washington and then picked up Quiver in Bend.  From Bend, we took some extra time on scenic US-97 and arrived back home two days later.  This nearly seven-week long trip had some great memories and some unbelievably good riding, but the best part came at the very end when Nick walked down the ramp out of the truck.  He made it back home.  But for Nick there was disappointment.  He thought we were heading back to Whistler.  There are bears in Whistler.

Windmills along US-97, just north of the Columbia River Gorge

Pictures from the Colonnade:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AnotherHeader/I5ColonnadeForPicasa#

The best part of the trip: Nick returns home but is dissapointed that we are not in Whistler

Pictures from the trip back:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AnotherHeader/US97ForPicasa#

Account of our winter visit with more about the I-5 Colonnade:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AnotherHeader/I5Colonnade02#

The long ladder on the top of Evolution

Our last day in Bellingham started with a visit to the farmer’s market in the Fairhaven District.  This extremely popular mid-week market featuring vendors offering perfectly arranged fruits and vegetables under the pergolas on the manicured village green.  Bellingham is a college town.  With a vibrant music and a cool art scene, lots of interesting food options, and two great organic food stores, Bellingham is a great place to visit.  The farmer’s markets are just another reason to like Bellingham.

Bellingham’s mountain bikers would quickly add their trails to the list of what makes Bellingham a cool town.  They are rightfully proud of their purpose-built trail system.

Knob's climbs Ridge Trail

Our day’s ride began like the previous day, parking on Birch Street and taking the sequence of trails, Miranda—Ridge–Family Fun Center–Lower Intestine–Upper Intestine—Cleavage–Road 2510–Road 2500–Pick Up Sticks–Kung Fu Theater–Road 2000 (right)–Road 3000 (left)–Road 4000.  This time on Road 4000 we passed the entrance of Mullet and continued to climb to Road 4100 until we reached Wonderland.  Wonderland works for both climbs and descents.  For us, we used the trail to climb up the hill through the open logging clear-cut, crisscrossing Road 4100.

At the top of the hill, we received trail advice from a couple of teenagers on their front brake-less jump bikes.  On their advice, we took Tower Trail and followed them down Evolution.

We were looking for a trail that was a step up in difficulty and Evolution certainly qualified.  It is not the type of trail that we would go down without front brakes.  Unfortunately, we seemed to have left our skills and our courage in BC.  Evolution features a number of optional-line, 6 to 10 foot high drops that we weren’t going to do, no matter what.  But there were also some reasonable build-ups on the upper portion of the trail that we couldn’t get ourselves to ride.  One of the structures was a very long ladder built on top of a big downed tree.  It was high enough off the ground, 3 to 5 feet for most of the way, to give pause, but we’d have ridden this structure without pause in the midst of our BC riding.  I guess we will have to give this one a shot the next time we visit Bellingham.  Nevertheless, Evolution is a fun, fast trail, no matter the skill level of the driver.

Knobs on SST

Evolution features tons of jumps for those seeking airtime.  Most, but not all, of the jumps have roll-able backsides.  And, as is the standard in Bellingham, all significant obstacles have easy go-a-rounds so almost anyone can ride and enjoy any trail.

From the end of Evolution, Road 3200 (right) to Road 4000 took us to a fast repeat run down Mullet.  At the exit of Mullet, Road 2000 (right) to Road 2520 took us to SST.  Even though all three trails, Evolution, Mullet, and SST are advanced rated black diamond trails, only Evolution inspires some trepidation.  SST is long, fast, and flowing with gently banked turns and small jumps taking the trail down the hill.  There are bigger air options along the way, but these are infrequent.  Exiting SST, we took Powerline to Bonanza Connector.  Bonanza Connector functions as a link to the neighborhood roads but has a series of surprisingly entertaining steep, loamy turn drops.  It was a good way to end our three and a half hour ride.

Wonderland, near the top of the climb

In the truck we headed back towards the RV Park.  We like both the trails and town of Bellingham, but there is one thing that seriously concerns me.  Alongside I-5 heading north, a sign to the nearby Nooksack Indian Reservation sent shivers down my spine.  I’m not exactly sure what a “Nooksack” is, but it sounds like something I cased several times on steep, behind the saddle descents in BC.  This is not a memory that I was happy to recall.

Tomorrow we would start our way back to the Bay Area, leaving time for a quick stop at Seattle’s I-5 Colonnade.  We enjoyed our rides on Galbraith Mountain but I think our Bellingham visit might have fit better at the beginning of the trip.  The Galbraith Mountain trails would be a good warm-up for the challenge of North Shore riding.  The trails in BC are a hard act to follow.

Pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AnotherHeader/GalbraithTake2#

Bellingham’s Farmer’s Markets:

http://www.bellinghamfarmers.org/Visit-Both-Markets/6.aspx