Boog's Blog

Spanish breakfast before cooking class.

Cooking class on other side of bridge. Paella and burnt basque cheesecake with three grades of wine and a slurp of horrible cider. Class started 11 in the morning.

Excellent and very experienced chef led the class. All well explained. The class from start to finish, including eating was four hours.

Basically close to a NYC cheesecake- no crust.

“We” made two paellas from scratch. Stock for seafood version and stock for meat version. Then the roasting of parts and very slow cooking of rice. Final product: too salty for me and similarly for Sharon. Seafood paella was better than the meat.

Aprons still on.

Walked to old town in 32-33 degree heat. Had to stop to get water. Immediate dehydration.

Great bar there for pinxos but far too hot to eat, especially after the three wine and coffee cooking class ( we drank little-local wines too sweet and cider too sour).

Back at hotel instead of going for ice cream- shower needed!

Post nap, off to find Bar Artajo.

Bar was fairly quiet when we arrived and extremely busy when we left.

One of our favs. Not a regional speciality, more Barcelona but we found an excellent version.

Our favorite peppers de Padron are not Basque enough, apparently. The local peppers show up here as peppers de Guernika. Often they are served in the same way as Pedron but in the restaurant they happen to put them on the sandwich.

Capped the evening off with ice cream while a massive thunderstorm provided a lightening show. Went well with the mint chip.

Breakfast at at local gastropub

Guggenheim Museum

Cafe Iruña

Cortes Ingles

Nice nap

A very Spanish breakfast

Not one of our favorites by a long long shot. A very large exhibit with an enormous number of wire turnings very few of interest to us, but it was the major exhibits.

This may be the largest retrospective of his. I’m not a big fan, but I really like this particular piece. I suspect he would’ve colored it different today

This was an exceptionally interesting exhibit of double-sided, carpets, mostly high, hung on the walls, but some in the middle of the room. Incredibly detailed bead work metal work fabric on, and on the summary above, gives some hint of it. 

Seen at one of the many shops in this bustling town 

We’ve seen this exhibit a few times and a few different museums never from this view.

This café is so old and so important to the local culture. It is on every tourist map. We ran into it on previous visits and had to come back. my impression has not changed. Is that it caters to the locals and is moderately rude and inconsiderate when trying to order from them on a system that requires local knowledge. I found a menu online but not in the place for example

——-interlude——

Breaking news, breaking news, breaking news: many know of my interest in phages.

Scientists have used artificial intelligence to design new viruses that don’t occur in nature and can infect bacteria, according to a study published yesterday. The breakthrough could accelerate efforts to fight antibiotic-resistant infections by creating customized viruses.

The researchers trained AI models on the genetic blueprints of roughly 2 million bacteriophage—viruses that infect bacteria, not humans—before building thousands of new viral designs. Lab testing showed 16 AI-made viruses killed E. coli, including strains resistant to naturally occurring phages. The work could help advance phage therapy, an experimental alternative to antibiotics, as drug-resistant infections are expected to kill roughly 40 million people worldwide by 2050. Researchers caution that increasingly powerful AI tools raise biosafety and biosecurity questions. 

Bacteriophages are the most abundant biological entities on Earth, including in the human body. More than 10 nonillion bacteriophages exist at any given time. 

———blog recommences——-

The third stationary store of the day. Much admired, little acquired. this pic from Cortes

Insert pic here of fruit consumed but not pictured. Local Mercado, blueberries, peach, plutot.

Smoking: almost everywhere.

Taken from the high bridge

Start of a long Planned adventure and bucket list item

Asked for coffee and this is what we got

They met us at the plane at the foot of the steps, took us by car to and through immigration. No line. No fingerprints just looked up Passport no Security just let us walk through fed us good stuff and then walked us over to Avis to make sure we were able to rent our car properly. Fabulous service.

Madrid to Bilbao Road Trip:

A scenic, manageable road trip from Madrid-Barajas Airport (MAD) to Bilbao via Soria, avoiding stressful mountain switchbacks by utilizing modern highways (A-2, A-15, N-111, and AP-68).

Well… Not really, quite a few switchbacks, but manageable

Route Schedule & Driving Breakdown

• Leg 1: MAD Airport ➔ Medinaceli (1h 30m | A-2 Highway) • Annotation: Easy, flat cruise out of the airport through the open plains of Castile.

Up at almost 4000 feet. Old medieval wall town. Road here did not have a single pothole the entire way.

• Leg 2: Medinaceli ➔ Soria (50m | A-15 Highway) • Annotation: Fast, straight stretch on a newly expanded modern highway.

The café that was recommended had no food and run out. Walk up the street and found a place at least had some sweets and a Cortado. Way across the street from the big hospital

• Leg 3: Soria ➔ Bilbao (1h 40m | N-111 & AP-68 Highway) • Annotation: Beautiful drive cutting through the pine forests of the Sierra de Cameros and the green Basque mountains before descending smoothly into Bilbao.

Key Stops & Pit Stops

• Medinaceli (Leg 1 Stop — ~45 mins): • What to see: Ancient stone village perched on a hill. Walk to the 2,000-year-old Roman Arch for panoramic valley views. Great for a quick stretch and coffee in the quiet plaza.
• Soria (Leg 2 Stop — 1.5 to 2 hours): • What to see: The unique open-air medieval cloister at San Juan de Duero and the beautiful river walk to the Ermita de San Saturio (baroque chapel built into a cave face). • Food: Stop in the Plaza Mayor for Torreznos de Soria (famous local thick-cut crispy pork belly). • Tip: Park near the river by the San Juan de Duero cloister to avoid tight medieval city streets.

We clearly found the wrong place when we try to avoid the downtown medieval area with car I found the place recommended but poor choice. picture with the Cortado was OK.

Skiped the following stop as it was getting late but did go through the tunnel the long tunnel the impressive tunnel planning started in 1948 and finished in 2008 

• Venta de Piqueras (Leg 3 Pit Stop — KM 273 on N-111): • Annotation: The perfect halfway pit stop between Soria and the highway to Bilbao. A historic stone coaching inn right in the forest with clean restrooms, a great tree-shaded outdoor terrace, and excellent pincho de tortilla (potato omelet) or croquetas.

Puerto de Piqueras. Tiene una longitud de 2444 metros y evita doce kilómetros de curvas. Basically this tunnel saves 12 km of climbing around it

Impossible to take pictures while we’re driving at 80 miles an hour. Once again the road from Madrid all the way to Bilbao over 400 km to -250 miles maybe one pothole and maybe one or two minutes lost to Construction

The artist hotel – Bilbao. Right across the street from the museum.

With an over generous American style tip, it was less than a typical breakfast at groundswell in Tiverton, Rhode Island, and far less than the creamery in Palo Alto.

Heading off to Spain, leaving in the afternoon. A reflection from Adam Smith on necessities.

What triggered this? Well we both purchased linen shirts for the heat of Spain.

Adam Smith muses:

By necessaries I understand, not only the commodities which are indispensibly necessary for the support of life, but whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people, even of the lowest order, to be without.

A linen shirt, for example, is, strictly speaking, not a necessary of life. The Greeks and Romans lived, I suppose, very comfortably, though they had no linen.

But in the present times, through the greater part of Europe, a creditable day-labourer would be ashamed to appear in public without a linen shirt, the want of which would be supposed to denote that disgraceful degree of poverty, which, it is presumed, nobody can well fall into without extreme bad conduct.

Custom, in the same manner, has rendered leather shoes a necessary of life in England. The poorest creditable person, of either sex, would be ashamed to appear in public without them. In Scotland, custom has rendered them a necessary of life to the lowest order of men; but not to the same order of women, who may, without any discredit, walk about barefooted.

In France, they are necessaries neither to men nor to women; the lowest rank of both sexes appearing there publicly, without any discredit, sometimes in wooden shoes, and sometimes barefooted. Under necessaries, therefore, I comprehend, not only those things which nature, but those things which the established rules of decency have rendered necessary to the lowest rank of people.

Nothing to see or read here.

Final post of this trip. Not much to bother reading, mostly a short journal for us.

Monday weather, sunnier and warmer – not what the weather app said.

Morning time walk. Outdoor tracking of walking on watch leads to extreme distance and speed: it picks up the boat’s travel.

Afternoon plan: I would go for a walk outside and Sharon would go to Pilates. It was a paid Pilates class and she thought she would try it. Did that it was yoga. No one knows why it was marketed and sold as Pilates, but was a yoga class. So is the way of Cunard. 

QB got a sherry. There were four types. We failed even at the landmark hotel to get sherry.

Tuesday

Managed to get out of the room by 11:30.

QB went to Pilotes. Rated it 2/10.

So far we have managed not to talk to anyone not a single other person on the boat as yet other than the wait staff.

Wednesday

Did future cruise booking.

Thursday

Final day, packing day

Rain in the forecast. Sure looks that way from the balcony.

Unfortunately we will go under the bridge at 02:30. Captain wants to avoid an ebb tide.

Saturday

Slept in- first late sleeping in quite a while. Did room service breakfast, had to 😍

Lunch included a DIY cortado.

At noon the captain carried on over the PA system for ~seven minutes: position, geography, distance, etc.

Afternoon talk: A Brush with the Law. A talk on art heists. We were not the only ones to attend.

Sunday

Quiet day. No activities.

Never had it before.

Notice above the Royal Ballet tee. Smart attire required.

France??? Yes. Le Havre, no idea why.

Bus to Southampton then easy boarding. Nice room.

Kathy, of Camel Travel left us chocolate dipped strawberries. Yum & thanks.

Friday

Docked in port of Le Havre, bus to Honfleur.

Tasse de l’eau. Nope. they reverted to English and would not understand our French. Sharon thinks they understand it, but they don’t want to speak with us.

It was lovely having a French breakfast in a small port town, outstanding baguette and croissant, and even the coffee was good, Italian coffee.

Very very very charming town

Eglise St. Catherine. Unique in design, wooden posts 17th century. Ceiling resembles ribs of a ship.

Today is May day, a national holiday. Town very busy with tourists.

Interesting building for a toilette.

After having tea and scones, we took a walk around deck seven. It started to rain. Yay didn’t last long.

Discussions with wait- staff:

In touch with your family on this long trip? The internet. Do they charge you? Yes but we get a discount.



Resting day. Laundry. Dinner with Bob

Wednesday, final full day

Breakfast at Dorset cafe

Whipped cream with bacon bits. Bob, not us

Walk to the British Museum for the Samurai exhibit

samurai exhibit

Where the exhibition souvenir tea shirt for Sharon was sold out.

Excellent exhibition.

Next to the Assyrians

Final dinner

On the morrow: bus to south hampton

Where: a fever arose and subsided; a ballet was attended and missed; a dinner was perfect except when it wasn’t; where rain has still not appeared as yet.

No rain this trip except one shower in the hills the first day. Rain gear unused.

Breakfast with Bob and dinner too

We skipped the tea because we ate a pretty big breakfast at hotel, usual good buffet. That plus the drugs may not have sat down well with Sharon so we have canceled dinner reservations at the Fishworks.

Monday

Mayerling ballet today

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayerling_(ballet)

Ballet was written for the Royal ballet and is a regular. Woman next to Bob has seen it multiple times.

First breakfast;

Sharon has a fever and no energy- she had to miss this performance that she’s been looking forward to. Sorry all around. 

Dinner at the ballet

It was so salty that neither of Bob or I could eat it and had them take it off the bill. Everything else was excellent 

Fabulous ballet, great pas de deux(s), and incredibly lithe dancing

I had a nice walk over. I had to stop a bit too often at traffic lights. It seems people in London walk more slowly than new yorkers

Publishing this Wed morning before Sharon is up- no fever testing as yet. This has not been a good london trip for her -hospital just before and stomach, energy and fever afterwards. The boat crossing should be restful.

Where health and zoology are discussed and possibly exhibited.

The first day starts off with sad news about Bobbikins: he has awakened very sick. We presume it’s the cold we have shared with him; doesn’t seem right since he shared really good cooking with us. All we gave him in return was a crappy cold and maybe some See’s chocolates

So we go to Gail‘s for breakfast and it’s 10 in the morning and they’re out of oatmeal. No problem, we schlep to another Gail’s. They have oatmeal but they’re out of drinkable black tea. They’re waiting for delivery from their supplier.

In the elevator, a person noticed my hat from Valencia and said boo because it’s not Manchester United. Sharon said she has hat for Manchester. He said black or red, black we said; seems it should be red because only red is Manchester United. Apparently we got the wrong hat as we got Manchester City.

A great plate for a Doom Bar on draft.

———Next day——

Visit to the Grant Museum of zoology. A teaching museum still active.

We have passed this museum more than once. Sharon finally said we should go. Well advised



Guess the origin of the big egg 

Wellcome Center (drug company)has interesting exhibits. This time there was one on aging and no real surprises.

Need to blow it up a bit to see.

With JD, Pete and Peter