La Patrona We had an hour to kill before our apartment was available and this was one of the only Russafa wine bars open in the later afternoon. It was warm in the sun so we grabbed a table outside...
Blog posts from Spain
Europe Spring 2024: Valencian paella
We visited 3 paella-specific restaurants while in Valencia. It's traditionally a leisurely lunch meal with family and friends on weekends but we did have it for dinner once. Important to note that...
Europe Spring 2024: Valencia restaurants
As one can imagine, we visited a lot of restaurants in the month+ we stayed in Valencia, even if we did eat at home most nights. There were many options right outside our door in Rusafa, and we did...
Europe Spring 2024: Russafa neighborhood memories
We have a lot of good memories from our month in the Russafa neighborhood. Just about anything we could possibly need could be found within a few blocks, including two large grocery stores and...
Europe Spring 2024: Valencia gardens
Valencia has as a lot of different gardens, some simply between streets, others as large formal gardens. Jardín del Turia The famous former Turia riverbed is now a large, winding park for the city....
Europe Spring 2024: La Semana Santa Marinera de València
One of the memorable moments from our 2022 visit to Valencia was stumbling across the Our Lady Of The Forsaken Festival while trying to go for a drink (never made it to that bar...). Our 2024 stay...
Europe Spring 2024: Valencia apartment
Finding an apartment for a month in Valencia wasn't difficult, but narrowing the choices down definitely took us some time. We started with neighborhoods of interest - on our 2022 trip we had stayed...
Europe Spring 2024: introduction + flights
We have long wanted to try an extended stay in Europe, but previously stuck to 1-2 week long trips due to our dogs. Finding ourselves dog-free for the first time in 15 years we decided to finally...
European Spring 2024: Madrid Open tennis
Our one full day in Madrid was all about tennis! The morning security line was long, but moved relatively quickly. Staff was very strict on no water bottles and we saw a growing pile of fancy...
European Spring 2024: Madrid, pt 2
Our train ride back to Madrid from Valencia was uneventful, but the Chamartin station was quite busy on Sunday, so topping up our Madrid metro card with a 10-ride pass took longer than expected...
Europe Spring 2024: Palma sights
We spent all three days of our trip to Mallorca in Palma, and with the exception of the airport bus, we explored on foot. Right across the street from our hotel was a lovely view of the the Torrent...
Europe Spring 2024: Palma food and drink
Some of the more popular places in town are difficult to visit on the weekend without reservations, so Leandra booked us both lunch and dinner on Friday and Saturday ahead of our trip. El Camino for...
Europe Spring 2024: Catedral de Mallorca
The Catedral de Mallorca is an imposing Gothic structure on the outside, and inside is even more impressive. Said to have 61 stained glass windows, the central rose window is a highlight and...
Europe Spring 2024: a weekend in Palma, Mallorca
While there are a lot of areas to explore in Valencia we couldn't pass up the opportunity for a weekend getaway. Initially we considered options that were a reasonable train ride away, but...
September 2023 Wine and Rugby: evening in Madrid
We dropped off the car at the airport and took an Uber into the city. After relaxing in the room for a bit, I stopped into ALE-HOP to look for comfy socks and found a pair of fluffy rainbow slippers...
September 2023 Wine and Rugby: wine tasting in Rueda
Bodegas Muelas Walking the walls of the Cuellar castle put us behind schedule so we had to hustle several blocks from the (free) parking lot in Todesillas to make our reserved tour of the bodega....
September 2023 Wine and Rugby: Castilla y León sights
Cuéllar On the way to our first wine tasting in Todesillas, we stopped in the town of Cuéllar and paid 1,50€ each to walk along the castle walls. The access point was through a turnstile gate near...
September 2023 Wine and Rugby: daytrip to Peñafiel
The drive from Valladolid to Peñafiel was fairly easy, with most of the route through rural countryside (and a decent number of trucks). We stopped briefly at the necropolis ruins outside of town,...
Our Itinerary
2024 Trips
San Diego, CA (Jan)
Sarasota, FL (Feb)
Madrid, Spain (Mar)
Valencia, Spain (Mar+Apr)
Palma, Mallorca (Apr)
Croatia (May)
Long Island, NY (July)
Faroe Islands (Aug)
London, UK (Sept)
Puglia, Italy (Sept)
Matera, Italy (Oct)
Rome, Italy (Oct)
Mosel Valley, Germany (Oct)
Frankfurt, Germany (Oct)
London, UK (Dec)
Manchester, UK (Dec)
2023 Trips
San Diego (Jan)
Orlando (Feb)
Richmond, VA (Apr)
Northern Italy (Apr)
NC Mountains (May)
Long Island (Jul)
Wisconsin (Aug)
Chicago (Aug)
Oak Island, NC (Sept)
Brooklyn, NY (Sept)
Bordeaux + Rugby World Cup (Sep)
Castilla y León (Sep)
Seychelles (Nov)
Willamette Valley (Dec)
2022 Trips
Florida (Feb)
NC Mountains (Apr)
Washington DC (Apr)
Valencia, Spain (May)
Hilton Head, SC (May)
Pacific NW (Jun)
Long Island (Jul)
Florida (Sept)
Chicago (Sept)
Poland (Sept)
NC Mountains (Nov)
Euro Xmas Markets (Dec)