What follows is my attempt to chronicle and recreate a few of experiences in Spain and France this summer for those interested. Focus primarily will rest on history and religion, and in particular the history that lives in the churches and castles that line the pilgrim roads to Santiago Compostella in Spain.

The Muslim conquest of the Holy Land in the Seventh and Eighth centuries caused the traditional pilgrimage to Jerusalem to become increasingly dangerous. As the Middle Ages unfolded, the journey across the Pyrenees and into Spain to the traditional burial place of St. James became the dominant pilgrimage route. The results were dramatic. The first great wave of Christian churches in the Middle Ages sprung up along the pilgrim roads - the age of Romanesque was born. Architecture, spirituality, culture and politics would all be dramatically affected by the great mass of Medieval Christians on the road to Compostella.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Food

First ice cream - she was hooked .


We tried bull, mushroom, and cheese sausages
A little feast by the Dordogne river
Does it get any better than cafe au lait and croissants on a parisian morning?
Wine training in Sancerre, a hilltop, wine producer town in Burgundy

A cave in La Charite Sur Loire
Pizza on the Loire

Night market in La Charite
Meyronne's (by the Dordogne) town party.
"Pintxos" (small pieces of bread with different toppings) in Getaria, a town in the Basque Country

Morning coffe on the Basque coast

Dinner in Cartagena with our friends
Cold beer in Cordoba's 105 degree heat

Sangria in Sevilla
Sharing a beer with the locals in Cordoba, everybody drinks them in the middle of a pedestrian street.
Tinto de Verano - translated - Red Wine of the Summer, is an awesome spanish drink that is like a light sangria. Oli fell in love with them. Here with one in Toledo, in a bar that was decorated as an Irish pub and had an "Ipswich" sign


The discovery of Tinto de Verano in Toledo. The restaurant had AC which enhanced the experience.
As you can see in Spain bars are a family affair. This is one in Madrid.

A hard cider that they drink in Northern Spain.

The cider serving restaurant in Madrid
A Murcian feast with Oli's friends
Also in Murcia, having "montaditos" (small sandwiches). The restaurant offers more than 100 types of them
A jar of tinto de verano in La Alhambra
Market in Granada

Gelati, baby. Why not?!
Future foie gras growing by the Dordogne
Clean plates and guilty faced Oli (El Escorial, Spain)

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