The Holls Come to Visit

My sister Karyn, her husband Jim, and our nephews Jeremy and Ethan visited us for a few days in San Sebastian after we returned from Paris (and before we headed off to Barcelona and Madrid -- what a crazy month June has been). Their visit was part of a three-week visit to Europe that brought them to Amsterdam, a couple of smaller Dutch and Belgian cities, Bourdeaux and Paris, as well as San Sebastian.

Of course, the main things we do with friends and family who visit us is show off the beauty of the city and eat. Thus, the day they arrived, we took a walk around the city, including along the Paseo Nuevo:

We did a pintxos crawl in the Parte Vieja, with stops at some of our favorite bars including Mendauer, Gandarias and La Cuchara de San Telmo. For dessert, we went to La Vina for their famous cheesecake and a bit of Pedro Ximenez sherry. The food/wine was a great success:

The next day, we met in the morning and spent a few hours on La Concha beach along with every other person in San Sebastian. It was hot (in the 90's) and we all spent time cooling off in the bay before deciding to head back for showers and a lunch of jamon, cheese and fruit at our place. Again, the food was a great success, with Karyn deciding that although she does not like ham, she does like jamon.

After lunch we played cards, with Ethan destroying us all at Chinchon before Karyn and I ourlasted the field at poker. While we were playing, Shana noticed that the temperature had risen to 107 degrees, with a "feels like" of 112 (!). This was the hottest temperature we could remember in our five years in San Sebastian and, it turns out, it was actually the highest recorded temperature in the city ever!!! Amazingly, with our persianas down and some fans on, our apartment remained relatively comfortable. Then, as happens in San Sebastian, we had a galerna, which dropped the temperature into the 70's by the time we went to dinner.

On the Holl family's final day in San Sebastian, we planned a fish/steak lunch at an asador in Orio where we had eaten in February during our brief "spa-cation". In order to build up an appetite, Shana, Karyn, Jeremy, Ethan and myself set our for Zarautz and hiked the four or so miles back to Orio. Jim decided to go for a run, which means he covered much more ground than we did. The beach in Zarautz was very busy, but also absolutely beautiful:

Arriving in Orio, after a hike through the hills, including some Txaikoli vineyards, we met Jim at the train station. Lunch was fantastic as we introduced the Holl family to many Basque favorites, which everyone seemed to enjoy very much. Afterwards, of course, there was no room for dinner, although Jeremy and Ethan did grab some ice-cream bars from our freezer. Ah, the teenage appetite.

In any event, it was great to see everyone and introduce them to our favorite city. But, after saying goodbye at the Topo station, we had to prepare for our next trip as we were on an early-morning train the next day to Barcelona. More on that to come soon.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana

Paris with Friends (Part 3)

On our final day in Paris, we actually got out of the city and did a tour of the Versailles Palace and its gardens. Our regular readers may remember that our last visit to Versailles was March 2018 and we were incredibly cold touring the gardens. This time, the opposite was the case, it was a very warm day, but we mostly managed to stay cool in the shade.

The tour was a bike tour of the gardens, which is a really great way to see them since they are huge (about 2,000 acres or over 3 square miles). We started by meeting our group in Paris and taking the train to Versailles, followed by a self-guided tour of the Chateau. Although we are mostly over the giant European castles with their endless rooms, we have to admit that the hall of mirrors is impressive:

In addition,this porcelain column, known as the Austerlitz column, was commissioned by Napolean to commemorate his military victories, and provided a bit of a change from the constant paintings of mythology and royalty:

After our visit to the Chateau, we went to a local market to buy food (and, of course, wine) for the picnic we would have in the gardens. After getting our bikes we headed out through the city (a bit intense) and then the gardens (much more relaxed) until we found a shady spot for lunch. After eating and a bit of history of the Chateau and the series of kings who built it, we continued on to a couple of areas we had not seen before since they were too far from the Chateau to walk. We saw the Grand Trianon, a smaller palace built by Louis XIV so he could escape the hustle and bustle of his main palace; and the Petit Trianon, another smaller castle developed by Louis XV for the use of his mistress, but later given by Louis XVI to his queen, Marie Antoinette, for her exclusive use.

Even more interesting were the series of buildings known as the Queen's Hamlet. Built for Marie Antoinette, they represented a simpler, more rustic way of life, and include a farm and other buildings built in a style used in the Normandie area of France. This area seemed almost like a Disneyland for the royal set, and was very quaint:

After finishing the tour, we took the relatively short, but now very warm train ride from Versailles back to Paris. Once everone had a chance to shower, we went to dinner at L'As du Fallafel, which was fantastic as always. Then, walking through the city, Debbie caputred this great panoramic photo of the Hotel d'Ville -- Paris's City Hall:

Finally, we did something very touristy, but very Paris, a one-hour tour of the city by boat. We have always seen these boats going up and down the Seine through the city, but had never taken one. It turned out to be fun as we saw many of the sights of Paris from a different viewpoint, including the Eiffel Tower:

What was really amazing was that on the Wednesday night that we did the boat tour, thousands of Parisiens were hanging out with friends on the edge of the river, eating and drinking or just sitting and talking. A really interesting cultural phenomenon.

In any event, we once again had a great time in Paris. A place that we still feel we can return to again and again. Who is up to meeting us next?? 

Au revoir,

Jeff and Shana

Paris with Friends (Part 2)

Meeting up with Debbie and Devin was the original purpose of our trip. Our regular readers may remember that Debbie and her daughter, Zoe, previously visited us in San Sebastian. This time, Debbie was traveling to Paris and London to make up for the Covid-caused cancellation of Devin's Bat Mitzvah. Devin, who picked her aunt to travel with, was new to international travel and she did great.

After finding their way on public transportation into the city, we met Debbie and Devin and set off on a walking tour of central Paris. As this was Debbie's first visit to Paris as well, we were excited to show off my second-favorite city in the world. We made sure to introduce them to the patented Paris public water fountains:

Notice how Shana got the still-under-construction Notre Dame Cathedral in the background of the photo -- impressive.

After an early night for our jet-lagged friends, we set off for a full day of fun. First stop, ironically, was back to Montmarte. And, of course, the first thing we needed to do there was get some fantastic pastry and coffee for breakfast -- easy to do in any part of Paris:

We visited Sacre Coeur, which is a beautiful modern church (built late 19th - early 20th century), and offers great views of Paris:

Montmarte means "mountain of the martyrs," and is so-named for Saint Denis, the first Bishop of Paris, among others. Denis was martyred in the 3rd century by decapitation and (according to legend) carried his head while still preaching up to this area where he ultimately died. He is depicted in statutes and art holding his severed head. For some reason, Shana liked this concept so much, she wanted a picture:

Despite the grizzly basis for its name, the steep, winding lanes of Montmarte are beautiful, and it remains a center of art in Paris, which it has been for more than 100 years (many famous artists including many of the Impressionists worked here as street artists before becoming famous):

After Montmarte, we took a quick walk through Pere Lachaise, the famous cemetary in Paris where many famous people are buried. The main purpose of our visit was to show Debbie Jim Morrison's grave, which must be one of the most visited there. But, Pere Lachaise was just a stopover on our way to the L'Atelier des Lumieres, a place we have visited several times before. This time, the show focused on Cezanne (which I enjoyed a lot) and Kandinsky (less so), the first of which was set to very nice French music.

That is Debbie and Devin on the left enjoying the show.

More of Paris to come.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana

Paris with Friends (Part 1)

We returned to Paris once again to meet up with friends visiting from the US. Of course, we are always happy to visit Paris, although this was the closest to real "high season" that we have ever been in the city. (Our July 2020 visit during covid hardly counts as "high" season.) It was quite busy with tourists, but overall not too bad. Although we may have heard more English than French this trip.

The night we arrived, we had a delicious dinner at a little bistro that we had tried to visit, but missed, on a previous trip. Le Bistro de Madelaine was fantastic, and the locals next to us seemed to appreciate our weak attempts at speaking French.

The next morning, we went to an exhibit at the Picasso Museum; yes, another one. It appears that Picasso's art is a never-ending fountain, and we never get tired of seeing new things. This exhibit was dedicated to his first daughter, Maya (born when Picasso was already 53) who recently donated nine pieces to the museum that she had kept (it turns out that France allows donations in lieu of paying estate taxes, which has allowed the Picasso Museum in Paris to create an amazing collection over the years). The exhibit really focused on Picasso's paintings of children (particularly Maya) and showed a different side of the artist.

That same afternoon, we met up with our friend Lorna who we had not seen in many years. 

We spent some time walking through the Montmarte district, an area of Paris we had visited, but never really explored. While walking through a park in the area, we came upon a very serious game of Petanque (the French version of bocce):

If you look carefully at the picture, you can see that the kneeling players are using a tape measure to determine which ball is closer to the target (we told you it was serious!).

We also got this really cool view of Sacre Coeur from the streets of Montmarte:

After our walk, we met up with Lorna's daughter Allie, and enjoyed a fantastic meal at Signature Montmarte, which we had finally managed to visit (after several failures) on our last trip to Paris. Once again, the Korean-French fusion food was fantastic, and the owner was super nice. We highly recommend Signature to anyone who is going to be in Paris, even though it is a bit out of the way.

Our dinner was made even more enjoyable by our dining companion at the next table:

Yes, that is a purebred Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Scarlett is only seven months old, but she was very well-behaved and super cute. Our readers will not be surprised to learn that we ended up talking to Scarlett's humans about Bonnie and Clyde and showing pictures of them.

After dinner, we went with Lorna and Allie to do something truly touristy: see the Eiffle Tower lit up at night. This occurs every hour for about five minutes. Unfortunately, this being summer in Paris, it does not happen until after dark (i.e. starting at 11 pm). So, we had some time to hang out (note that this photo was taken after 10pm):

Finally, after almost an hour wait, we were "rewarded" with what we came to see:

Not exaxtly the Disneyland fireworks show, but it was a lovely night and we had fun talking to Lorna and Allie while we waited. Our late night didn't matter too much because we were able to sleep in the next day before meeting up with our dear friend Debbie and her niece Devin who we were with for the rest of our trip.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana

Seattle and the Oregon Coast

 

The remainder of our “Seattle” trip featured more family time. Jeff’s parents flew up to meet us and visit with nephew/cousin Neil and his wife Tracy, who hosted us for a fabulous dinner at their home in West Seattle. Neil is the oldest of the five Mintz grandchildren, Jeff is second. We forgive him for being a crazy Yankee fan and very much admire his amazing selfie skills:

That’s their quirky pup Miles. We’re hoping Neil and Tracy (very loyal readers!) will visit sometime soon.

We ventured to the Oregon Coast with Don and Barbara, spending three nights in Depoe Bay. (Thanks to Adam & Erin for assisting with the lodging!) While we didn’t have the best weather on the coast, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery, cute towns, and beaches a lot.

While visiting Yaquina Head Lighthouse, Cobble Beach, and Colony Rock – a beautiful wildlife refuge area – we saw lots of seals. We even saw several pups nursing from their mothers while lying on the rocks. Perhaps you see a pair in the photo.

The first time we visited the area was in 2008 with Adam’s family for my 39^th birthday. The Interpretation Center still offers the same daily update:

We enjoyed a few quiet moments at Fogarty Beach:

On the way back to Seattle we stopped in Portland to visit a Mintz family friend. We spent some time at the Oregon Garden, a lovely botanical garden:

We headed back to Seattle for our last couple of days. We saw Top Gun: Maverick – having seen the original in the theatre 36 years ago, it was fun to see the sequel that way too. Shira hosted a fun gathering that allowed us more family time and the chance to see David:

It was a terrific trip. The three weeks flew by and before we knew it, we were on a plane back to Spain. We’ve had ten days to reacclimate to Central European Time before we spend time with visitors in Paris, here, Barcelona, and Madrid. That's lots of future blog material.

Hasta pronto,

Shana & Jeff

More Seattle Adventures

We didn’t sit still for long during our Seattle visit – there were too many people to see, including friends and family who traveled to meet us there.

We spent a weekend in the city exploring with Lauren & Jeff, whose daughter Eliana now lives in Seattle and works at UW. We had one good day of weather seeing the downtown sights and then spent a very rainy day walking around the UW campus with Ellie as our guide. That day, the W stood for “wet.”   

                                            

Even better than taking a photo with the UW mascot statue, is meeting him! Now I’ve met both Dubs I and Dubs II. Shira knows Dubs II’s humans, who are long-time friends and live around the corner, so she arranged a meet-up for us. We met Dubs I at a UW/UCLA woman's basketball game in January 2017.

We then went to visit Adam and Erin in Ellensburg (Central Washington). It’s a beautiful drive through the Snoqualmie Pass. During our drive back, it snowed! Seattle had its wettest May since Harry Truman was president. We felt right at home.

Adam and Erin were great hosts and showed us the area, including a scenic drive to Yakima for wine tasting. On the way, we took a break at the Umtanum Creek Recreation Site for a brief hike:

We stopped for some tasty tamales at Los Hernandez – this small tamale stand has a James Beard "America’s Classics" Award! (No photo since we were too busy enjoying the tamales, especially the asparagus and pepper jack -- their speciality.) Two Mountain Winery was a terrific spot on a beautiful sunny day:

                                                

From Ellensburg we went to Whidbey Island for a special weekend of wine, friends, and family. It was a perfect retreat and we got lucky with the weather.

As you can see, we covered a lot of ground. More to come.

Hasta luego,

Shana & Jeff