Tips for trains...

Love of trains

• Know number of the train your taking, not just where you are going and the time the train is leaving.  The train number can be very important in the larger train stations.  
• Lots of Euro Trains now have paperless tickets but be aware your phone will need to be able to display the ticket and/or bar code regardless of whether you have a network connection or an adequate charge.  
• There is little need for a Eurail pass unless you want complete freedom of times and trains and/or you plan on taking lots of trains all over Europe. It's expensive and can only be bought before you enter EU.  
• When you have to switch trains from a train that isn't terminating at that stop, be sure to be ready to get off quickly when the train stops.  I let the commuters get off ahead of me and then drag my suitcase out.
• I've gotten a bunch of great train ticket prices by buying at the last minute, including things like 4€ for 1st class upgrade.  
• In the larger stations, keep checking the board, the track may change at the last minute.
• If you drag around a big suitcase (like me), there is almost always a lift somewhere on the platform.  The staff on the trains don't help with suitcases, you have to be able to do it on your own or hope a fellow traveler pitches in. Getting on the train can be the more challenging bit.   
• In some places, especially when it's very crowded, they make you wait to board until about 15 min before departure even though the train is there and not occupied.  
• On trains later at night, especially in France, no one pays attention to the seat numbers.  It seemed as if a lot of people were sitting in 1st class unless they were checked and required to move.  
• There are no size or weight restrictions but you have to deal with your own suitcase.  Mine is a big duffel that is handy because it fits in spots where the traditional large suitcase won't fit. There is usually some space at the end of the coach.  Some trains have huge racks over the seats and on others, they were quite small.  I get there early to try to get a good spot for my suitcase.  
• And my biggest and favorite tip for Train Travel is SEAT 61.  Check out the link The Man in Seat 61  I've used this site for over 10 years and it's great! The style of the site is a bit dated now but the information is SPOT ON!  It can help you figure out a trip you didn't even think you would take but then realize it's a cool train journey to get there.  The site covers trains all over the world and gives you suggestions on where to purchase different types of tickets.  

HAPPY TRAILS!!! 

Lyon and the northern Rhone Valley

19aug17 

I've now been in Europe for a month.  I've been in PT, SP, FR, and now the NL.  I only showed my passport when arriving in Lisbon and at a few hotels.  

I think I've been on about 25 trains so far.  On Monday, I was in the Barcelona train station for a couple hours.  Complete chaos due to Renfe strike which started on Monday.  Fast forward to craziness of yesterday.  Hoping all those affected by the incidents in northern Spain get all the help they need.  May those who lost their lives rest in peace.  

I never set out with plans to go to Lyon, France, but I didn’t want to go through Paris due to crazy Aug travel conditions.  Going through Lyon would allow me to see another part of France I’ve never been to and seemed like a good option. 

Lyon is the second biggest city in France.  The city was actually pretty quiet while I was there as many French peeps take a long holiday in August.  I saw MANY shops and restaurants that were closed from 30JUL-22AUG, that seemed to be the standard although I saw a few longer and shorter.  A lovely city to walk and bike along the Rhône and Saône rivers.  On the way to Lyon I realized, the Cote du Rhone happens to be my favourite French wine and I would be right in the middle of it.  Perfect, find a tour like I did in Rioja, only now in the Rhone.  Ended up with TastyLyon and Baptiste, our lovely MBA intern and guide.  Did you know you can get a MBA in French wine and spirit marketing?  That sounds like fun.  I believe he said he was studying at a University in Dijon. 

My tour was just 2 couples and me.  They were American as well, from Seattle and NYC.  We went to 2 wineries, one in the southern part of the northern Rhone and the other in the far north part.  We also went to the museum of chocolate Valrhona.  Valrhona is a French premium chocolate manufacturer based in the small town of Tain-l'Hermitage in Hermitage, a wine-growing district near Lyon.  I saw a documentary about it once.  The owner was known for supplying bakers all over France and then began marketing his chocolate to mainstream consumers.  

Embarrassed to admit, I couldn't understand what our guide was saying when he said "terroir", had to look it up later that day.  Also thought he was talking about wine "gurus" until I finally figured out he was saying "growers".  My French is non-existent except for Google Translate. 

French wine, so many rules, so little time to remember all of them.  

What is Terroir?

The symbiosis of grapes, soil, climate, vineyard placement, and human touch, all rolled into one.  The type of grape has very little to do with the way the wine tastes in the end although most of the regions have very strict rules about the grapes.  

Inside the Cave de Tain in Tain-l'Hermitage

private cellar

bridge over the Rhone in Tain-l'Hermitage

water lily in the reflection pool at Jardin d' Eden in Tain-l'Hermitage

view near the ruins

nice front door art 

Corps de Loup vineyard in norther Rhone, Roman walls have no mortar and were originally built 2K years ago

Almost ready for harvest 

Roman walls without mortar that help to hold the vines on the hill, walls must be repaired in the same way, i.e. no mortar

The Corps de Loup varieties 

Our visit to the Côte Rôtie district in northern Rhone filled out the afternoon.  This small family winery has vines on southeast facing slopes (a rare and important part of the terroir in the northern Rhone) and supported by rock walls built by the Romans.  The house had parts built in the 1750s.  

The grape harvest is a huge time of work in French wine country.  Some grape harvesters come back year after year and follow the harvest from the south to the north.  

Check out this cool tool that shows where each wine "region" is in France.  

Corps de Loup

As our guide said, "don't ever ask a French person if they like a certain wine grape because in French wine, that has very little meaning".  

La Rioja, Northern Spain

La Rioja Province, wine country

Lovely train ride from León to Logroño (figured out how to add special characters, not easy but it works).  

I was a bit nervous about switching trains in Miranda de Ebro (as I knew it would be a short stop and I have a big bag).  In my effort to be quick and efficient at getting off the train, I pulled a spot in my thoracic spine.  Trauma from a car accident years ago left me vulnerable to injury in this area.  I was so happy to know I had a full week in an apartment which gave me the luxury of time to get things back in order.  Many thanks to my teacher, Jenny Otto of Body Balance Yoga, for teaching me so many tricks.  Add to that full Rx strength Ibuprofen 600 mg from the local pharmacy for less than 6 cents a pill and I'll be ready for next big train trip on Monday.

Walking, walking, and more walking.  While I was very active before I left, most of my time was spent on my bike, SUP, a yoga mat, or pilates reformer.  Since I arrived in Europe, I walk for several hours each day.  

Highlight of my trip in this area was my full day with Rioja Tasting Travel and our fabulous guide José.  We set off at 9:30 and spent the 1st hour driving up into the hills and mountains.  

Check it out on Google maps La Rioja , the La Rioja region is a small province but is home to 601 wineries or bodegas, as they called here, translates to cellar.  

I learned lots about the region and about the wine during the tour.  Just 5 of us, 2 couples and me.  Rioja region wines all have a colored label identifying their classification.  Green for young, red for Crianza, dark red for Reserva, and blue for Gran Reserva.  I've always enjoyed riojas and had seen the colored labels before but never knew what it meant.  Our guide told us that it is a big misconception that Gran Reserva wines are the best. The young wines tend to showcase the latest innovations by the winery.  The colored label may be on the back of the bottle or the neck.  Rioja labels   More good info about the wine region Rioja info

We tasted about 16 wines.  Most were young and delicious.  We also had the good fortune of tasting a couple whites and claretes, much less common but gaining popularity so the wineries will be making and distributing more of them. 

a chozo, a traditional beehive-shaped stone hut used during harvesting

one of the many medieval towns with a castle 

River Ebro winding its way through the valley

foreground are the chimneys in the cellar to allow the CO2 to escape

vines, vines, and more vines

We visited 5 cellars and had a fabulous lunch of wood fire grilled lamb chops and sausage at the lovely Bodega Lecea.  Some of the cellars here date back to the 16th century.  
Bodega Lecea

inside the Bodega Lecea and looking up at one of the chimneys 

one of the very old cellars, lovely smell down here 

a goat skin used to carry wine 

clarete at Lecea, one of my favs

clarete vs rose...more info

On to the largest and oldest bodega in the region: 

Marqués de Riscal

dramatic roof of the hotel on site

one of the many barrel rooms 

enjoying the barrel room, in this case barrels of young wine (green)

The owners private collection of 140,000 bottles 

So pleased I took the opportunity to come to this part of Spain.  What a lovely time of pintxos (tapas in this region), wine, walking, and learning about Rioja. 

Big train ride tomorrow, will be on the high speed TGV.  

MUSAC

Four days in León, España.  Lots of active links in this post for more info.  

This lovely town in the Castile and Leon province is in the northwest of Spain.  It has quite a long history going back to ancient time.  I thoroughly enjoyed the Museum of Leon and found it completely empty on the day I was there.  It covers all of the time periods that have been important in this area of Spain including the Celtic influence during the 4th century.  I never did go into the Leon Cathedral as it was just too crowded for me.  Built in the 14th century and known for it's gothic architecture.  

  

Leon is famous for being along the Camino de Santiago, the famous pilgrimage to the Santiago de Compostela.  I did see quite a few pilgrims about, some looking a bit weary, no doubt from walking for many miles.  The scallop shell sign is in the sidewalks and on the walls in Leon showing the way of the pilgrimage.  

Loads of delicious tapas as well.  Went to the famous Bar Jamon Jamon twice where with each drink (again of any type, not just wine), you get a lovely slice of local jamon, cheese, and local bread.  Delish! 

Interesting how many of the locals drink beer here, many more than I saw drinking wine. Also saw quite few folks having limonade (lemon soda) mixed with their beer.  That didn't look good to me at all but I suppose it cuts down on the alcohol consumption.  

Another gorgeous building is the gorgeous Casa Botines designed by the architect Antonio Gaudi.  It was designed as a private home and was later a bank.




My favorite spot was the Museum of Modern Art, MUSAC

The building looks like a Pantone color deck.  In some spots, the glass isn't colored but the other colored glass reflects on it.  Loved it!  

check out those greens! 

The inside was just as entertaining.  Clothes made from vegetable cultivation...

Colors of the earth around Leon.  Very cool installation with hundreds of color variations on the wall display.  

I now moved onto Logroño  via a fairly long and pleasant train ride hugging the mountains along the way.  The pics from train wouldn't do it any justice but the scenery was beautiful. Lots of grape vines and olives.  

Viva España

How is that Microsoft/Google and all those other giants controlling my Surface Book can manage to change my default page to Portuguese or Spanish in an instant, but I can't add a simple tilde to the "n" when naming my post.  Whatever...

I entered Spain on August 1st via the lovely port town of Vigo.  

My first taste of Spain in many years, and tasting it I certainly am.  Portugal was really wonderful and cheap but Spain seems to be on a whole other level.  In my experience, it would be like comparing Croatia and Italy, i.e., Portugal and Spain.  Both lovely, but very different in culture and depth of foodie experience.  Of course, Northern Spain has become the hotbed of the foodie world with some of the most famous chefs and restaurants being from the Basque region.  Vigo is in Galicia which, among other things, has its own language.  Spanish is still a large part of it but many words are different. Still haven't figured out the word for crab, which I saw lots of people eating but couldn't figure out the word she was using for crab.  Plus they had 3 or 4 different types of crabs. Fascinating.  They use aseos (toilet) to refer to bathroom, not baño.  Of course, many cultures think it's funny we call it a bathroom when we are going to the toilet, not going to take a bath.  

A few pics from my walk up to the remains of Vigo Castle:  

It's all about the food in northern Spain.  My first day in Vigo I went to a famous seafood restaurant on the Rúa da Pescadería, Casa Vella.  

My gorgeous and delicious razor clams:  

My first tapas, Lume de Carozo, salmon with tomato, bread, and burrata...all smothered in olive oil and garlic:

Another tapas of pork rib with potato.  Sounds simple but it was not, there was the most interesting spice in the ribs which were fall off the bone tender and the potatoes were perfectly cooked with just the right amount of salt and olive oil flavor.  

In No Spain, the tapas are often free with a drink, any type of drink, soda, beer, wine, or whatever.  

Tapas there were so good, I decided to check out the menu:

Settled on these perfectly prepared chicken tacos with some fiery sauce on the side.    

My first night in Vigo I wandered into the Othilio Bar, which I later discovered is one of the well known "foodie" bars in Vigo.  I had something called 63deg egg, pork jowls, and foam. My picture did not do it justice so suffice to say, this was over the top delicious.  I had been craving some eggs anyway.  The egg was of a soft boiled consistency and floating in the "foam", which was a bit cheesy but light as a feather.  Some tasty bits of pork (like bacon) were dispersed throughout the foam.  On top, there were some thin, curly potato twists.  My oh my...welcome to northern Spain.  

Off to Leon next...