When I was in high school, I studied Spanish and learned very little. I had 3 different teachers, 2 knew the language well, and none were prepared to manage a public school classroom in the ’90s. I left high school able to say “hola,” and conjugate -ar verbs, and that was about it. I later learned Spanish during my time in Ecuador by working with a tutor and simply living with the language. However, going back to high school, there was one constantly reoccurring example, and it was about orderings churros and chocolate. Example after example was about someone eating churros.
This was certainly never a dish to be ordered in Ecuador, nor did I see it in other parts of Latin America. I’ve had churros in Mexico, but it was never a breakfast dish. Spain is the motherland for all of those mediocre Spanish textbooks designed for mono-lingual U.S. English speakers, so I knew that I could finally eat a dish I learned about 25 years ago.
Fried dough and chocolate akin to warm ganache for breakfast? Yes, and it was delicious. We had a plate of churros, cups of thick hot chocolate, and coffees at Cafetería La Esquina. I do not love sweet things for breakfast, but this decadent meal was much more enjoyable than I ever imagined. The churros were extremely light, and the chocolate was very rich. It’s probably atypical to order a coffee with it, but I really did need something bitter to cut through the sweetness of the chocolate. We only ordered churros and chocolate once on the entire trip, and it was a smashing success.
I finally got to say, Hola mi nombre es Josh. Quiero 1 orden de churros y chocolate. Por favor. ¿Cómo te llamas? ¿Quieres ir a la biblioteca después de que comamos los churros? OK, I didn’t introduce myself to the waiter or invite her to the library afterward, but goddamnit, I had the vocabulary to do it. Well done, Paulding High School.
We left town via a road that passes near the bottom of the Puente Nuevo. From that perspective, I wanted to see how big the bridge was and started to drive through the Parque Natural Sierra de Grazalema. This was a beautiful mountain area on our way to the town of Arcos de la Frontera. There are many hiking trails and observation areas. The vistas are quite lovely, and this area is relatively quiet, so it’s a great spot to take a breath and center yourself in the present. The highest point we drove to was Puerto de Las Palomas. It offers a beautiful 360-degree view of the landscape with the occasional hawk or eagle flying across the sky.
Our destination for the afternoon was a small town called Arcos de la Fronterra. It has a lot of very small winding cobblestone streets and a medieval castle. It was very sleepy in November but still had a few tourists snapping photos. It was here that I happened upon a convent that sells sweets. You are not allowed to see the face of the nuns. Instead, you ring a bell and speak through a covered lazy susan type device. The sweets were put in the device, spun around for me to access, and put my euros in their place. It was a unique little experience. I ordered a box of almond cookies that I shared with my family in Ohio.
We had a simple lunch at a streetside table at Taberna El Regreso. The street was tiny, and when cars drove by us, their review mirrors were no more than 10” away! They offered a plate of the day, which included a starter, a main, and a dessert. I went for my second salmorejo. After lunch, we drove to Seville to drop off our car and move into our Airbnb.
Seville
In Seville, we stayed in the El Arenal neighborhood, which was a great location. Historic, charming, and easy for tourists. After a brief rest, we started to explore the city. Near our house was a Christmas market focused on families that display a nativity scene. There were so many figurines to buy. I bought a miniature leg of ham that I’ll hang on our Christmas tree.
One of the main streets in Seville is Constitution Avenue. In a given city, it would be considered the main boulevard for cars to get through town. In Seville, no vehicles were allowed on it. It was a shared space for pedestrians, a slowing-moving electric tram, and cyclists. It was so lovely to be able to walk and enjoy the city this way. Oy, the U.S. really has much to learn from other countries. Our walk took us to Hercules Park and the Setas, giant wooden mushroom sculptures covering some underground shops. It was a nice walk through the city.
We stopped at a wine shop named Lama La Uva. I told myself before this trip that I was going to try to learn about sherry. I failed at that goal as I should have arranged for a sherry tasting, but I asked the waiter for a recommendation, and she brought me an Amontillado. When I smelled it, I thought it would be rather sweet, and it ended up being bone dry, which I loved. Sherry turns a bit of my wine knowledge on its head because the nose does not seem to match the taste I expected. More to learn for future trips.
We had a tapas for dinner at a hip place called Salsamento. They specialized in canned seafood, and we did have a delicious anchovy toast. I do not love anchovies, but I used to hate them. However, they are slowly growing on me, and what should not be a shocker, quality really matters. Fancy canned fish tastes a lot better than cheap canned fish. We ate our meal and agreed we could eat one more thing. We asked the waiter for his favorite, and he recommended the CURRYWÜRST! Can you imagine? Nothing says Spain, like a german sausage flavored with Indian spices. Feeling obligated, we ordered it, and it was great.
Next: Spain Day 5 – Seville
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