I don´t think I´ve mentioned anywhere some of the instrumental motivations for my trip aside from the basic, 'take a vacation'. Originally I read a book by an author named Mark Kurlanski. The first book was titled The Basque History of the World or something similar. Next I read his book titled ¨Cod¨, now I´m reading the book called ¨Salt¨. All three books, in some way or another, relate the ability of cultures from this region of the world to navigate the world seas by preserving their codfish with salt and being able travel farther and stay longer. There are a million ways to prepare cod. Newfoundland was visited well ahead of Columbus visiting the New World when Portuguese and Basque fishermen traveled to areas like St John´s Island in NF. Through the use of salt as a preservative, Cod became a trading currency used to create wealth, barter, buy or trade for other goods much like the dollar, the Euro, or gold.
A second influence is wine. As a wine maker, I have an interest in learning about wine. It is important for me to learn what other people do with with, how they make it and why, and how it becomes integrated into a culture. Specifically on this trip I was looking for Port, from Portugal. It was originally created in Portugal as a fortified wine. The additional alcohol improved shelf life of the wine to the point that I´ve seen port with an age of 30-40 years. Much better and much more expensive. Another wine of interest to me is the Vinho Verde, a white wine with lower alcohol content and some carbonation. In the end I'm still a fan of red wines but do appreciate the opportunity to have experience this well known Portuguese wine.
The Trip
September 10, 2011
I spent the weekend in Amalia working on the earthship. I have now named the Earthship "El Pesebre". This weekend I was able to get the 4th step to the loft poured and added block to the SW corner of the interior wall. Before leaving on Sunday, with lots of help, we were able to get two windows bolted into the south facing wall which are now serving as solar collectors. By noon I put the tools away and packed up the weekend bag and headed south. Sunday night was laundry night, and a beginning of the packing for 16-days. One more day of work before heading to Europe. At this point, people contacts, places to visit, and points of interest have been logged and we'll see how many I can get done and more importantly what other things I find that will entertain my mind, eyes, and soul. Que Vivan Los Gitanos!
September 13, 2011
Today was takeoff/departure day from work and from Albuquerque. I have spent a large part of the day in Dallas at the airport waiting for my flight to Madrid. This airport like many places around the world now offers cyber access to keep in touch with the world when you leave home. "The Internet, don't leave home without it." I'll fly overnight to Madrid, then make a connection on to Porto with a noon arrival in this Portuguese city, the second largest in the country.
 |
| Metro Station outside of the Oporto Airport |
September 16, 2011
Today I took a cab ride to Viseu from Tondela with a lady who was going to the hospital. I had missed my bus by 5-minutes so the cabbie Alexandre put us together. From there a bus to Porto, quick tour of the city then a train ride along the Douru River up to Regua. Next, another bus over to Lemago. Tomorrow back to Viseu. I had though to go on to Guarda, a Portuguese border town. Because of time constraints I was not able to make it here and will have to consider it for another time.
 |
| View of the Douro River from Regua, Portugal |
 |
| Train Station in Regua, full of Azulejos and Frescos |
 |
| A painting on the side of a building showing river passage of wine. |
September 17, 2011
Returned to Lobão de Beira then headed into Tondela catching a ride with Micaela. Spent the day in town and again ended it at the ºtrade showº and tasted more of the local food.
 |
| Festival in Tondela, Portugal |
September 18 (Sunday)
Took an early bus to Coimbra to meet Dani and other couchsurfing friends.
It was a great day in the Botanical garden in Coimbra with a foursome of Couch Surfers and friends. In the morning I´m going back to Tondela then heading to Spain. However, I´ve not yet determined if I´m going through Porto and up to Ligo or through Guarda to Salamanca then up to Leon. We did a great ´Ropes´course that took 2-1/2 hours. Sweat, fear, heights, speed, the unknown, physical exhaustion. Awesome!!! Highly Recommended.
Meals at a Tasca of sorts. Vinho Verde, Rice with lobster and shrimp, postre. Quite a treat followed by walking it off during a tour of the city's downtown area and through the river park. Wonderful time. Hope to begin to post pictures soon.
Monday September 19, 2011
I don't know where most of my notes for Portugal have gone to... darn.
Wednesday September 21, 2011
I´ve made it into Spain in a midnight dash. I boarded the train in Santa Comba Dão, Portugal with a ticket bound for Salamanca, Spain. Along the way an elderly gentleman on the train headed for France suggested over a beer in the train restaurant, that I just go all the way to San Sebastian and avoid all the hassles of trains and buses and connections related to a mid-night arrival in Salamanca. I have done that, traveling from 7:30 PM until 6:30 AM but arrived, tired, exhausted really but I´m here. Now I can explore the northern border.
I checked into a pension by 7:00AM and took a nap until about 10:00AM then headed out to see this new place. Already I´ve toured the city on an open top bus and gotten some orientation to the place. I started with a pork sandwich and café con leche then the tour. Now I´m going to find some lunch then going to look at some flying buttresses on the cathedral. San Sebastian is a sea side city with beautiful architecture, great beaches and a very active downtown social environment for enjoying the setting in this part of Europe.
 |
| Wing of a cathedral with flying buttresses |
The film festival is going on here this week making lodging a bit more expensive than I had expected. I hope to meet Miren later and park my bag at her home while I travel on to other areas in the northwest corner of Spain. A few weeks ago there was a beached whale on the beaches of Zarautz where Miren lives and a couple of weeks ago there was an large surf board competition in the area. San Sebastian is a very cosmopolitan place, much too much a city for me so soon I will head for Bilbao and more rural areas in the country and along the coast..
 |
| Zarautz beach |
September 22, 2011
Notes on the run: I´ve made it to Bilbao meeting people on the train and everywhere. So far, the ATM machines have not failed and I have a sufficient supply of cash as Euros. Critical to my return since I can´t shave my legs and hitchhike all the way back to Madrid.
 |
| Stained Glass at Bilbao train station |
After talking to Miren last night on the phone, I´ve traveled on the bus this morning to Bilbao. Here I´ve ridden the subway with the help of another passenger then visited the Bilbao Guggenheim by Tram, then I´ve walked around the Casco Viejo section of town. Now I´m going back to the Pension Mendez (€37), a very comfortable place, and rest for a couple of hours before going to meet the CouchSurfing group for some music and food tonight near where I am staying. In the morning I head back to San Sebastian. Two remaining destinations in the week I have left are Biarritz France and Los Picos de Europa. Hopefully also, on the way back to Madrid, I can still make it through to Leon (I didn't). It is supposed to have great things to see culturally and architecturally.
 |
| Bilbao Guggenheim Museum |
The drive to Bilbao from San Sebastian on the bus this morning was interesting with fog, light rain, a few sheep in the mountains, a few vineyards. All the roads I´ve seen here are quite modern and in good condition. Before leaving San Sebastian I was able to leave my big bag with the owner of the Pension San Martin where I stayed last night. (€48).
Well, enough for now. As Adam says, don´t forget the R&R. Once on board, that is a good chance to rest.
September 23, 2011
Arriving back in San Sebastian I picked up my bag stored at the pension and headed to the Rotunda at the bus station and waited for Miren. At the appointed time she arrived in her car and we headed out of San Sebastian toward her hometown of Zarautz.
The activities since arriving in Spain and Zarautz have all been non-stop and all quite interesting. Once settled in we went out for a walk through the mountains to along an old Roman road along valleys and hilltops to a couple of neighboring villages. Several kilometers later we decided to stop for a glass of a local white wine which to me has a name that to me sounds like ¨chacolí¨ but I believe is spelled in Basque as ¨Txacoli¨. Anyway, a nice scenic and refreshing break on a warm and humid day.
We continued on from there quite another distance to the seaside village of Getaria. All along the way there were wonderful vistas of the whole area. Because of the low altitude the walk was not exhausting or taxing for the lungs. Physically it was quite a workout. In Getaria, a bottle of water, a brief rest after a walk around the village with another local red wine. The village is a seaport fishing village with, as everywhere else here, some very old architecture. From there it was again a walk back to Zarautz along the coastal walkway, fairly long as nightfall approached.
 |
| Zarautz to Getaria walkway |
Arriving back in town we met up with some friends and spent a few hours visiting, socializing, eating pinchos(tapas) and by now a glass of wine called Crianza. The night life here is fairly typical of what I´ve seen in Spain. Keep in mind that this region is clearly Basque Country. A place proud of their culture and heritage, language and history. A very concerted effort has been made to preserve the language as a core element of preserving the future of the Basque community. For lack of a better way to express it, a heroic effort on the part of the greater community for self-identity and to pass along something to future generations.
 |
| Miren's Friends |
The night in town went on through about midnight and by then it had been quite a lot of hours for me and a long travel from Bilbao, all in one day.
Saturday started out with a walk around town. We had planned to take a longer walk through the mountains but because impending rain and by now muddy trails we didn´t. The first short walk was a visit the market area selling seafood, meat, fruits, and vegetables. After that we headed out for another great day. It started out with a visit to a rural area that was in a valley with a stream. Historically, and for hundreds the water here has been harnessed to power dozens of molinos. The one we visited, where Miren was recognized as a teacher through her annual tours with students, was well maintained as a cultural heritage artifact. It had multiple dams and used the water to turn the mills. One mill was for grinding grain. It was also used as a ´steel mill´ where the partially processed ore was melted down in an open oven. A blacksmith would then form the nearly molten steel into usable tools, implements, and weapons. Not quite the Swords to Plow Shares concept but basically creating what the community needed. It is really impressive what can be done with water as a natural source of power, harnessing all that power and energy of gravity to turn turbines, hammer mills, forge bellows, and mill stones. This part of the trip included the obligatory, ...if you want to get there to see it -- you have to walk.
 |
| A tourist at one of the Dams holding water to run the mill. |
 |
| Mill Grinding wheels |
 |
| First Dam and flood gate on the top level of Mill |
I´ll have to remember to talk later about a great lunch meal. Essential items were: Sheep cheese and membrillo (quince), the red wine with a C, lengua in batter, menudo in tomato sauce, bread, water and topped off with café con leche.
The next leg of the journey was a drive through villages, cities, and rural areas to get to the southwest part of France. First we stopped in Hendaye Spain and toured the Casco Viejo area then with the airport as a landmark, we crossed the border Spain/France border and went into the town of Biarritz, France.
Biarritz is a much more commercial/tourist town with its own style of architecture. These are both seaside towns and here there were several hundreds (thousands) of people visiting, maybe their last visit before the weather starts to cool more with the approach of fall. There were lots of people swimming in the bay, sunning on the beach and dining along the sidewalk cafés.
A very interesting change in character just by crossing an imaginary line called a border. Houses here are less multistory apartments but now leaning to single family housing with patios, small yards, and much more elbow room between individual living spaces. As with most tourist areas, there are people here from many European and other countries. Buildings are often hosting flowers in their balconies, shutters and balcony rails are often wood though also wrought iron. For the wood ones, each house has its own distinct and personalized color of painted wood trim so that along almost any street you´ll see one family home with plum colors on doors, window frames, eaves, and rails, and the neighboring ones may be green, red, and so on. As a side-note, the cost of land here is extremely high and of course home ownership, especially of a single-family dwelling, is cost prohibitive.
 |
| Casco Viejo de Hendaye |
 |
| Biarritz France coast |
 |
| Miren at lighthouse on Biarritz coast |
In the end, a very long day full in the SW tip of France, overflowing with sights, sounds, experiences, vistas, and walking, walking, walking. Getting home, tired and worn out in the best of ways, I´ve made my bus ride reservation for the 5-hour ride from San Sebastian to Madrid for Wednesday morning.
That Miren has been able to host me, be my tour guide, and tolerate my inability to clearly communicate in Español is an understated reflection of her patience, capacity, generosity, and certainly personality and intelligence. By profession, she is a secondary school teacher with a focus on Technology. My sense is that it includes computer technology as well as physics, and mechanical engineering. i.e. how things work and why.
September 25, 2011
This morning I´m up by 5:00 checking email, drinking coffee, trying to catch up on my blog. My camera is loaded with pictures and I´ve now switched over to a new storage chip and recharged all my batteries. This morning I´m up early and heading by Euskotren to Bilbao to see about renting a car to see Los Picos de Europa. I´ll be out for a couple of days and return here on Tuesday evening. Destination is to Potes through Santander. Hiking boots on, an expectation for a beautiful sunny couple of days ahead, and I´m off to see the next promised land in this beautiful part of the world.
Continued... Made it to Potes after a bit of this and that. For Americans, public transportation is a foreigh concept. We are too used to jumping on our horse, so to speak, and ride the open range on our own schedule.
I took the EusoTren from Zarautz heading West to Bilbao and made it midway through the 4th or 5th stop and it had a mechanical failure or at least couldn´t continue. Very professionally, the staff met us at the gate at an intermediate stop on the trip with a chartered bus to complete the route. With that, I got to Bilbao and got to the car rental place, EuroAuto. After all the paperwork, it turns out that they don´t accept Discover Card. Well, they took a debit card even though they clearly state that they don´t so it worked out. It took me a while to navigate out of the city onto the Autopista but finally made it to Santander and turned south. The good and the bad of turning south is that it was too soon. However, even though it was a longer route, I saw some interesting scenery. Surprisingly to me, a large section of that countryside is a lot like the mountains of northern NM, meadows, rivers, trees, mountains, hills, cows, horses, and lots of rural open space. The key differences between NM and here are the building construction materials (stone walls and red roof tiles) and a bit more moisture so that there is quite a bit of grass and not much bare ground.
So, after a fairly long drive over a mountain pass... and the driving is mostly using roundabouts as intersections instead of traffic lights... I arrived in Potes, had lunch, and have rented a room in a hotel rather than in a Pension as I had been doing up to this point. It is fairly hot here today for being the end of September. I´ll try to take a tour tomorrow around the area and higher into the mountains otherwise I´ll drive up myself for some distance to a couple of recommended areas. The lady at the hotel was quite surprised that I hadn't stopped to ogle at the scenic overlooks along the drive up from the south. For me, it looks very much like home except that there are lots of houses along the sides of the steep mountain sides.
Well, it is time to go try some Orujo and walk around the village some before going in to read and rest before it is time for supper which seems to start after about 8:00 or so. In all, another day on the road but driving this time, which feels like I´m back home. It is quite scenic and it does feel odd driving at 120KPH. BTW, on the way through the mountains, a black car raced me for a while then zipped past me and quickly disappeared. Some 30-minutes later a couple of motorcycles were directing traffic on a very sharp turn. Given the way the guardrail was sheared off about the size of a car, it could have been the same driver that drove off the mountain. A short while later I met the police car and an ambulance going back up the mountain from the other side. A bit drier here than along the coast but still you can feel the moisture and the high heat, about 5-8* warmer than along the coast. Still the sky is blue and it is heading to be a nice evening.
 |
| Village of Potes |
 |
| Potes, Roman Arch, Crianza, Orujo |
September 26, 2011
Monday was a day of visual wonder. Visually, the rest of the world is a faded image of plain and simply ordinary. Los Picos de Europa is absolutely amazing, You know that it is not often that I speak in superlatives and for this, it is quite a serious statement. I was awed by the color, texture, views, and everything that is Los Picos de Europa. The grandeur of La Sierra Pelada at home pales in scope, scale and magnitude to the experience here.
The day started with a walk about Potes then joining an 8-hour mountain tour on a Land Rover in which we touch multiple remote mountain villages, ganadores, trails, and roads. Lunch was another feast after some walking excursions and an earned appetite. A goat cheese similar in strength to Roquerfort cheese spread on homemade bread. The soup was Favados (havas) with a few pieces of Morcillo (blood) sausage then some mildly spicy chorizo in a light broth. Then oven roasted goat with bones and a touch of tutano, some pieces of a red pepper like Ancho with some fried potatoes along side. Of course a glass of Creanza all followed by a Café con Leche. I'm not sure what you know or think about genetic memory but I felt like I had come home.
Of course the comfort of a Land Rover is unequaled and the roads with sheer cliffs on one side and so tall on the other that even a mountain goat could too easily have sprouted wings. You´ve heard the song... ¨Heaven is just a jump away´. Here, no heaven or anything else for that matter but thin air, rock, grass. Pictures can not possibly do it justice.
But, I have gotten carried away. First the people. The hotel I stayed in was managed by a Colombian lady. From this hotel is where the tours start. The owner of the business is a Spaniard, reddish hair, drives like a wild man, and speaks with an exuberant confidence that he may have created the world. The only others on the tour were a wonderful and quite good companions, a middle aged couple from Barcelona but both originally from the south of Spain, in the Andalucía area near Cordoba. Wonderful company, conversation, and travel companions.
I´ll try to get back to this topic later when I add some images, pictures of food and drink.
 |
| Mountain trail through Los Picos |
 |
| Stone bridge on an old farmstead |
 |
| Shadow of a tourist in Los Picos de Europa |
 |
| Andalucian Couple on tour |
 |
| Summer dwelling for farmers grazing their livestock (restored) |
 |
| Amazing scenery of Los Picos all around |
Last night, after another quick tour of Potes and the Museum of Los Picos I headed on the rental car, a Citroen, back into Bilbao. The museum was constructed on and around hundreds of Gabians. An interesting building concept. The return drive was interesting but after such a wonderful day of so much beautiful and overwhelming sights, everything else appears dim in contrast.
The most difficult part of the journey has been transportation. First waiting for trains, buses, cabs and the worst, by far, had been driving the rental car out of Bilbao and even worse than that was trying to drive back in and finding the entrance to the car rental station in the train station across from the Casco Viejo. It took about an hour once I got back into town but with the help of some very friendly people of which there are no limit on this vacation, I made it. U-turns when I got into one-way streets, going around a round-about twice because I missed the exit or couldn´t read the signs, or running red lights just because I wanted to. Mira, te vas por esta calle, en esa esquina te vas para la derecha, no te puedes perder y creo que no tardas mucho a llegar.
Rest assured that I have killed many fewer people with my driving on this vacation than on any single day of the Moorish invasion, the Spanish Inquisition, or the Christian Crusades. Clearly my contribution to the preservation of humanity.
But now, I´ve been on email and on the blog for almost an hour and it is time to head to Atxuri Tranvilla so I can find the EuskoTren to head back to Zarutz for a final night before heading off to Madrid.
I´ll likely spend the day in the most beautiful city in the world, Getaria. By the way, my friend Diego just sent a note wonder where I had disappeared to.
 |
| Coastal road from Getaria to Zarautz |
 |
| Getaria beach y El Raton |
 |
| Tourist monument - an overlook to the sea |
 |
| Lunch time with Tapas (ham and bacalau) with vino |
Todos se apenan por un gitano sin direccion. Estoy bien, bendito entro mi gente.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
This morning I left Zarautz on the EuskoTren to San Sebastian in route to Madrid. Originally I had a reservation to continue on from San Sebastian to Madrid for 11:30 to arrive at 5:30 in Madrid but because I was early enough, leaving the house at 7:40 in the morning after Miren had left to work in Pamplona,
I caught the 8:08 and was in San Sebastian by 9:00 and updated my e-ticket to a 9:30 departure arriving in Madrid by 3:10. A long day-trip through the rural heart of Spain. It was an easy trip from the Madrid bus station to the metro and only a couple of changes got me to the Puerta del Sol, in downtown Madrid near la Plaza Mayor. The last time I was here was in 1977 when I lived in Turkey. Already I've toured the area in an open-top tour bus seeing all the tourist attractions and then walking for a couple of hours as it is already 7:00.
The drive down was much more rural and agricultural (hay, small grains, and sunflowers). The city of Madrid is like any downtown in the world. A major cosmopolitan area with everything for sale. Much like a Moroccan bazaar than a place of culture. Weather here is beautiful with blue skies, not too hot and less humid than the coast. By the morning I´ll be heading to the airport for the long flight home. Where the heck did I park the car and where are my keys?
Departure day
Starting from the Pension in the Plaza Mayor area at Puerta del Sol, I caught a series of Metro connections and made it to the Madrid Airport. I'm winding down, a bit sad to leave. It has been great -- wonderful.
Ron the gypsy is now thinking where to next??? I don't know but this one will be tough to beat.
I´m tired and ready to be home but I've had a wonderful time, met many great people, online, on the street, or via CouchSurfing. My hosts / friends have been wonderful and amazing. Thanks to them all for sharing a part of their life, family, friends, and their hearts. Supper last night in Zarautz was clearly one of the best. Miren's company and conversation, rice, mushrooms, salad, and fish. Mineral water with gas, Vino del Año (quite good, likely the best of the two weeks).
Both Portugal and Spain were wonderful, each in their on way. The thing I recognize from my trip experiences has been that I need to engage. I'd like to have a project, and through that, reach out, touch the countryside and its people. Walk away with a feeling of having accomplished something and contributed to someone else.
Aside from the trip home, the difficult will be rereading my own blog, plugging in pictures and expanding on the stories and experiences. So much to remember.
