Monday, 31 March 2008 -- We bid the Iberian Peninsula farewell

All told, we had a fabulous time together. The most telling is the fact that we are all still friends!

Adios!

Sunday, 30 March 2008 -- Dinner at Arzak’s Restaurant

It took longer to rid ourselves of the memory of the chanquetes than we realized. Some of us are still suffering. Today was a day of mass, a long, leisurely lunch and packing. Since the weather was warm and bright, we headed back to one of our favorite spots, El Molinillo, so we could enjoy safe food and a few cervezas while the kids played about in Plaza Mayor. The highlight of the children’s day was scrambling into the candy shop to buy sweets on their own. The afternoon was spent cleaning up and packing while the kids set up their restaurant (Arzak’s) and practiced their dance numbers. The kids served us a wonderful meal and treated us to a fabulous show afterwards. Our evening at Arzak’s is, by far, our best dining experience of the trip! Tomorrow we leave this 400 year old abode for our circa 21st century quarters.

Saturday, 29 March 2008 -- Giving Sevilla another go, "Wow! Pasta!" & "What did we just eat?"

Recall that our first trip to Sevilla on Holy Thursday left us sopping wet and having missed all the sites due to abbreviated hours. So, we gave it another go on this gorgeous, sunny day. This go 'round, we enjoyed touring the Sevilla Cathedral, which dates from the 1100's, houses beautiful artwork, ornate adornments, an interesting oval room and the tomb of Christopher Columbus. We climbed La Giralda bell tower which, to Annie’s relief, employs ramps, not a skinny set of spiral stairs to reach the top. The views were spectacular, especially on such a clear, warm day. Working up quite a hunger after climbing 90 meters, we lunched at DuPlex. Communicating Karen’s need for a well-done hamburguesa had to be done with gestures and sizzle sounds and we scored big points with the kids when pasta with bolognese sauce arrived. (They actually shrieked with pleasure at the sight of noodles and sauce.) We passed by the Sevilla bullring on our return to the parking garage and, as there was a fight scheduled for the evening, vendors were set up on the sidewalks selling seat cushions and drinks and souvenirs while TV cameras poised themselves on long extensions above the ring. It very much resembled the excitement outside Camden Yards on a game night. We dodged bullfight traffic, made it out of the city and back to Osuna in time to take in a local football match. CJ played some football with a few local boys on the back pitch and the girls, after losing interest in the match, proceeded to play High School Musical, with Abby staring as Gabriella. When the match ended the kids ran around on the football pitch....until the sprinklers came on. Actually, they didn’t seem to mind the water and continued to run around as well as through it. For dinner, we headed out to another quaint little place that the Tafler’s recommended, hoping for a TV so we could catch some football with our meal. We decided to do a tapas style dinner and ordered a few familiar, and some not so familiar items from the menu. The kids chowed on, go figure, bread and scrambled eggs and the adults happily plunged into salads and fried onion rings. But wait! Why do these onion rings have perfectly placed flecks of pepper? Annie seems to know the answer...that’s not pepper. They’re eyes! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Chanquetes! The one food that we had successfully avoided for 12 days had finally found us. We did not make the discovery until well after we had all had a few nibbles. After that, we had to order more wine to dull the pain and calm our churning stomachs. To add to the fun, the football match had ended and we were now graced to be viewing a live bullfight. Disgusted and now feeling rather morose and depressed and full of pity for this pathetic, bloodied, dying bull, we wandered home, but only after settling our shockingly high dinner bill. All told, I suppose this was not one of our better dining experiences.

Here’s a few fun facts about chanquetes (from www.almunecar.com/Visitor_Guide/Food_and_Drink/Local_Dishes.html)

Chanquetes (Whitebait)-- These tiny fish are illegal to sell, either in the markets or in the restaurants, although some establishments still insist on offering them to their 'preferred' customers. The reason for their ban is that the traditional chanquete, a fully grown but tiny fish, is often caught along with other immature species, wiping out breeding stocks before they can grow. The result is that a plate of chanquetes is usually a mixture of ungrown anchovies, sardines and other fish, quite tasteless compared to the original and often preserved with dangerous chemicals or urine. (We reckon that's a good enough reason for avoiding them without going any further). To make matters more confusing, frozen Japanese chanquetes are legally imported and can be sold in restaurants which makes a mockery of current legislation. Our advice: there are much tastier, more wholesome and safer foods on offer, so why not stick to them?

Driving in Spain