Milano/Malaga Part Two

Milano/Malaga Part Twobyxbee@mail.sdsu.edu

About a year ago we ended a cruise in Malaga and spent two days there.  We loved it so much that we decided to rent an apartment there for a week to really explore and enjoy this marvelous city.  We flew from Milano to Madrid, waited a bit and then on to Malaga, so it was a long travel day since we didn’t arrive in Malaga until after 7 pm.  Cindy had done a lot of research and found us a very inexpensive apartment right in the old town.  Our hostess was there to let us in, gave us a quick tour and the keys, and she was gone by 8 pm.

The apartment was fine for our one-week stay, although the kitchen was almost useless for cooking. It didn’t have an oven but did have an old microwave, which neither of us really knows how to use. I could stand in the middle of the very small kitchen and touch both walls.  Luckily we weren’t there to cook gourmet meals and the bed was comfortable and the apartment had lots of light and two little Juliette balconies.  We unpacked, killed a few ants, then killed a few more ants and then headed out to explore.  It being Spain, we were rather early for dinner at 9 pm.

We wandered about getting familiar with Malaga again and had a few tapas and glasses of wine at two different little hole-in-the-wall bars.  Mucho fun. Slept well until 3:30 am when the young men in the next apartment came home to continue partying.  Finally back to sleep at 5 or so and awake due to an alarm that had been set for 7:55 on the bedside clock in the apartment. I was in favor of throwing it across the room but Cindy elected to press some buttons and it stopped beeping.  We then set off for a morning run for Cindy, walk for me, arranging to meet at 9 am under the clock of the hotel we stayed in last year. Malaga has a magnificent harbor filled with grand yachts on one side and working ferries and freighters on the other.  There were a couple of cruise ships in port and it was a delight to just wander for an hour around the active and attractive harbor.

Coffee was in the Mercado, a huge covered market that was filled with fresh meat, fish, vegetables, pickled things, nuts and dried fruits and loud merchants beckoning shoppers to their stalls.  Our first Spanish cortados, short, strong espresso with warm milk, hit the spot and set the tone for the rest of the day.  We wandered about the market for a little while longer buying some fresh figs, tomatoes, garlic and nuts before heading back to the apartment.  It was now about 10 am and things were just starting to open up in the old town, which is a large pedestrian-only area.  In order to get the goods to the shops, they have to be transported from large trucks that park in an open plaza near the apartment. To accomplish this, hordes of men with various carts, hand trucks, and dollies must navigate the cobblestone street directly under our windows.  Not one of these devices seemed to have rubber wheels since the noise was absolutely deafening. This went on every day from 9:30 to 2 at which time there was a break for lunch until five when it started up again until about 8:30 pm.  Hadn’t expected that!

In going over Cindy’s notes I see a very definite pattern to our six days.  Up, exercise, meet for coffee, clean up, walk for a few hours, tapas, walk, nap, walk, tapas, walk, nightcap somewhere, walk, bed.  We found swell places to eat and drink and truly enjoyed the difference between Italian and Spanish cuisine.  There was one rather curious event that happened to me sometime between tapa hops one night. We were going to end the evening at a place we had sampled earlier that had really creative food and seemed to be run by a women’s coop.  We were sipping Cava and looking at the menu when Cindy began to stare at my head.  She reached over with a paper napkin and touched a spot that looked funny to her and sure enough I was bleeding. We don’t know if a meteorite came streaking out of the skies and hit me, or if someone had thrown something off a balcony but it was definitely bleeding, and it required a trip to the bathroom and lots of cold water to stop it.  Needless to say, I then needed to replenish the valuable bodily fluids I had just lost!

I must admit that neither of us can really adjust to the Spanish clock for dining.  We just don’t have it in us anymore to dine at 10:30, so we accepted the fact that most of the good folks of Malaga regarded us the way we regard the early birds of Florida.  It really didn’t matter much since we only had one real dinner in Malaga, a return to Meson Mariano.  If you are going to have only one meal in Malaga and you want the real Cocina Malagueña this is the spot.  It is fantastic and it is still a place for the locals, as opposed to the larger restaurants that cater to tourists. Mariano is always there and always a character, making sure that everyone is happy and everything is fresh and to his standards.  We were sitting at the very small bar enjoying glasses of wine while talking with the bartender/waiter. Mariano came over to say something to the barman and noticed that I was fishing out some cork from my now half empty glass of wine. He practically jumped over to me, whisked my glass away, got a clean glass and poured a very healthy ration of wine, all with apologies as if he had placed the cork in the glass himself.  A very nice touch and truly appreciated.

Proving the fact that locals frequent the restaurant was the appearance of our landlady with 3 of her friends.  We greeted with kisses and then I sent a bottle of sparkling Cava to their table.  They were most impressed and got two more glasses so that they could share it with us, and of course came over to our table for toasts. Always nice to feel like a local!

Dinner was spectacular, as we knew it would be. The tapas they had been giving us at the bar were more than enough to get our appetites working and since we knew the portions to come, we didn’t start with any appetizers even though we were sorely tempted.  We both had baby goat, the specialty of the house.  Cindy opted for the delicate little chops, while I went for the roasted shoulder. They were both tender, smothered in garlic with a bit of lemon and olive oil and served with mounds of garlic-roasted potatoes. We were in heaven!  We split an order of Leche Frita and Mariano came by with rather large glasses of a Spanish brandy named 1866, which was truly marvelous.  Luckily it was a lovely evening and still early, 10pm, so we took the long way home to work off the meal.

We were up the next morning at 7am, which seemed to come much earlier than expected, and off to the airport for our long trip home via Paris.  All and all it was a great trip that got off to a rocky start but finished with a culinary crescendo in Malaga.  Best to all, Cindy and Wm.

Milano/Malaga Part One

Milano/Malaga Part One

It has been several weeks since our return from Milan and Malaga and it dawned on me that I’ve not written a word about the trip. Part of that was due to the fact that we decided to try and carry only an iPad and although it has a Bluetooth keyboard, I just couldn’t get into typing on a tablet. Good lesson since we are off soon for three weeks in Asia and I know now that I’ll be carrying my Apple Air.

Our flight from Dulles to Paris on Air France was in Premium Economy, which cost more but isn’t worth it.  Another lesson learned.  On other Premium Economy services with other airlines the service is much more like business.  On AF they give you basic economy food and drink but you get it first.

AF went on strike the day we departed and I had spent four hours working with them to get us from Paris to Milan since they had cancelled our non-stop.  Once in Paris we went to the connecting desk and they did absolutely nothing for us. Didn’t even offer us a bottle of water. We had to wait at the airport for six hours and then fly to AMSTERDAM, which for those of you that are geographically challenged, is in the opposite direction!  Once in AMS we had to wait another three hours before getting a flight to Milan, arriving there at ten PM, a mere nine hours late.  And those expensive Premium Economy seats we purchased don’t exist on the flights we were on, so they gave us window and middle seats in the back of the very full bus.

We finally got to our hotel at eleven PM and of course the bar and restaurant were closed, but we were in Italy.  They knew about our delays and the manager opened the bar and prepared us a plate of cheese and meats and wonderful bread and above all, an ice cold bottle of crisp white wine.  We were saved.

For the next week or so we just enjoyed Italy.  There were street fairs, markets, restaurants, shopping and playing with our friends Bob and Mary that made the four days in Milan flash by.  Our next four days were spent in Crema, chosen by me for the fact that in the entire city there is but ONE MUSEUM!  Crema turned out to be a delight in every way.  We would walk for hours, sometimes along the river, sometimes around the old walled town and sometimes in one of the many parks. We quickly became regulars at the closest bar to our hotel and enjoyed the magnificent open air market and relaxed vibe of the town.

The ONE MUSEUM almost undid all the fun we were having.  It is a combination history museum and art museum and in order to see anything you have to see everything.  Now that part I would have been okay with since as a youth I once managed to see the Louvre in twenty minutes. However, the 95-year-old guide pounced upon us owing to the fact that I’m sure we were the first two customers in many days.  He then proceeded to walk us though every room and comment on every artifact, in what I assume was perfect Italian, but since I only understood one in every seven words, what do I know? If it hadn’t been for the lunch break that he couldn’t wait to take, we might have been there for four hours, but we escaped in two. At one point he began to read Dante’s Inferno to us, page by page, since Dante had lived there at some point.  I got major points from Cindy!

More later, Cindy and William

Quiet Summer in Charles Town

It has been a quiet summer here at Casa Embee. For the first time in many years we did not make any travel plans for the entire season.  Cindy’s daily efforts in her large garden have recently been paying off with lots of herbs and tomatoes - and soon, sweet potatoes.  We have the healthiest basil in the state and every morning I can hear the plants chanting, Pesto, Pesto, Pesto!  We’ll be having a nice pesto processing party this weekend.  Cindy’s flowers are really starting to come into their own and we have fresh flowers for the house every day, not to mention being able to sit on the deck with a cocktail while watching the birds and bees and butterflies playing among the colorful blossoms. (We also have a million Japanese beetles but we’ll not discuss them.)

We have had a few fun weekends with Colin and Meagan who returned from three years in New Zealand in late May and who are gradually getting settled in to their new lives in the USA.  Colin is well into his MBA at William and Mary and Meagan is involved in continuing Department of State training and looking forward to a few years here in America.  We also had a lovely weekend when daughter Megan visited us with her husband David and son Blake (they live in North Port, FL).

I’ve had the time to get back into the sky as a private pilot, having spent the past few weeks studying, taking exams and successfully passing my bi-annual check ride.  I must say it feels really good to be flying again and yesterday I took up a Cessna just to tour the area around our house.  I was a bit amazed at how much more expensive it has become to fly.  Three years ago you could rent a Cessna for $89 an hour and today it is $129.  At those prices I think I’ll limit myself to one hour or so per month.

We did have one trip this summer, which wasn’t planned but was necessary.  Cindy’s mom sold her lake home in Alexandria, MN and we flew up there to help with all the paperwork associated with the closing and helping to move all of her stuff out.  Most of it went to Habitat for Humanity, who I must say seem to be the most organized outfit I’ve ever worked with.  We spent five days making sure everything was done right and trying to take as much work off of Cindy’s sister’s plate.  Camilla really did a heck of a job getting everything ready for the big final push.

I continue to enjoy cooking, especially now that there are so many options for getting lots of fresh vegetables and fruits.  We have implemented Cindy’s new “rainbow” rule for our meals:  Every meal must have five different fruits or vegetables, each of them a different color.  We can of course go over the five-color rule but never below.  I must say, it has made our meals much more colorful as well as a bit healthier.  I have an online photo album with pictures of all the meals.  (Did I mention we have stayed home all summer?!)

Cindy has decided not to teach online during the Fall Semester, which is all I needed to start planning travel.  We shall effectively be gone from September 7^th to January 23, with only a few brief visits to Charles Town.  We’ll be in Italy and Spain in September, then three weeks in Asia in October and November.  Back here for Thanksgiving with Cindy’s mom and sister and then off to France. We have rented an apartment in Nice for six weeks and will celebrate my birthday, Christmas and New Years in the south of France. This is something we have always talked about and we are finally going to give it a try.

(We won’t be able to use our time-share in La Jolla from 5-12 December so if any of you are interested in it, give us a shout.)

With best wishes,  Cindy and William

Memphis, Part Two

Memphis, Part Two

One of the reasons that Cindy chose to spend her birthday in Memphis was geographic.  She had not been to Arkansas or Mississippi and wanted to check them off of her US States-Visited list.  To this end, we rented a car for a day so that we could do some touring along the Mississippi.  We headed over the river and into Arkansas and ended up in Marion, a small town that we felt was a good place to turn around.  I stopped the car in the enormous parking lot of a fundamentalist church and Cindy got out, did a little Arkansas Two Step, and that was it for Arkansas.  Fifteen minutes later we were heading back over the river into Tennessee … ”We're goin' to Graceland.” 

Now I had no intention of actually going to visit Graceland, but I sure did want to see what all the fuss was about - and sugar, I can tell you there was a big fuss going on there.  We cruised slowly, the only way to cruise given the traffic, past several of the airplanes that Elvis owned, and traffic stopped us right in front of the ticket office where there were lines with hundreds and hundreds of the Elvis faithful waiting to hand over their money in exchange for the chance to be closer to their idol.  Everything surrounding Graceland is pure American crap, from the cheap fast food to the endless strip malls, all there to capture the residue of money left over from the tourists.  We finally found a place to turn around and headed back to Route 55, past the actual house and famous gate of Graceland. We had seen enough and soon we were speeding our way south, tumbling towards Mississippi.

It took about ninety minutes to reach Oxford and I must say, the trip was far more enjoyable than I had anticipated.  The countryside of northern Mississippi is quite lovely, with rolling hills, lots of rivers and lakes, and clean as a whistle.  Oxford, home to the University of Mississippi aka Ole Miss, is a lovely old college town with grand homes, big lawns, historic buildings and a famous Square (that’s what they call it, The Square) surrounded by shops, bars and restaurants.  We parked and walked around for a while before settling into a quaint little bar for a glass of wine.  Then we walked some more and found a really good little rib joint where we split one rib lunch which consisted of five ribs, two little plastic cups, one with beans and one with slaw, and a piece of pan grilled white bread all served on a paper plate with plastic ware.  Accompanying this was the biggest glass of water I had ever seen.  It was all really delicious so we pushed our luck and had a wedge of Key Lime Pie, which was delightful.  There was lots of local color, which was nice since it was the only color other than white that we saw in the entire two-hour visit to Oxford.  We exited Oxford via the campus of Ole Miss, which is truly gorgeous, and Cindy found a cool shortcut back to Memphis which was ever so much more beautiful than the highway.

As we were approaching Memphis we decided to stop at the Memphis Botanic Garden so that we could visit the Asian and Japanese Gardens.  We lingered there for a few hours and truly enjoyed the peace and quiet of the sprawling grounds, all of which were well tended and well marked.  The extensive hosta gardens were especially nice (and in the shade), and we were pleased to note that the exhibits about dinosaurs and fossils had historically accurate dates! I consider the garden to be a museum so that was three in two days, if you are counting.  We got back to the Avis lot at about six and left the car in the lot and started walking back to the hotel but we got sucked into The Brass Door yet again, and had a great conversation with Scott the chef and two glasses of well deserved Sauvignon Blanc.  It was recommended that we dine that night at Pearl’s Oyster House since we had asked where the best oysters were served.  Goodness, we were well advised!  We got there and were directed to a little elevated table for two near the bar and proceeded to have a dozen Eastern Oysters on the half shell with fresh lemons and cocktail sauce, followed by six grilled oysters that had a bit of a kick to them and ending with six Oysters Rockefeller which were heavenly and made for a great pairing with our Italian wine.  It was truly a full and fun day.

On the seventh day we rested - and by rested, I mean we only did one museum - but it was a beauty.  Every Memphian you talk to will tell you that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame should have been in Memphis, but the fix was in and Cleveland landed the gig.  So, not to be outdone, Memphis put together the Rock and Soul Hall of Fame, which is a marvel of interactive history.  After a brief video, which is very well done, you are free to wander around with a set of headphones and a controller that allows you to enter the number of the exhibit you want to listen to.  At almost every exhibit there is a jukebox of the era, which allows you to listen to all of the songs of the day. You could spend hours and hours just rocking ‘round the clock.  We had a ball and were dancing our way out of the museum when we realized we hadn’t had lunch and it was getting late.  We went back to The Brass Door where we shared a sandwich and had a lovely time with the staff before continuing our walk around Memphis.

Monday was a working morning - we each had Skype or phone connection we had to take care of - but as soon as it was all over, we headed out for a long, long walk along the river. It was beastly hot and humid but there was a bit of a breeze and we enjoyed the solitude. At about two, we needed a refreshment break and headed back to The Pearl Oyster House, where much to our surprise they had a special lunch deal of a dozen oysters for ten bucks.  What a treat.  That night we had a drink at the top of the Madison Hotel, which afforded spectacular views from their deck bar. At the recommendation of the folks at The Brass Door we went to a little Italian place that offered half-priced bottles of wine and pizza on Mondays, which drew in the multitudes.  We were seated next to a table of seven women, all of them looking like models, who were celebrating one of their birthdays. They attracted the young and not-so-young men at the bar like bees to honey and the interactions were just wonderful to observe. It was obvious that they were rather used to the attention and they handled it with aplomb.  They were having a wonderful time and their laughter was infectious.  As we left we wished the birthday girl our best wishes and I mentioned that the next day was Cindy’s birthday and they all immediately began to serenade Cindy.  A grand ending to a grand day.

Cindy’s birthday broke clear and dry and after our run/walk we repaired to a little espresso bar we had found a few days earlier.  We then got ready for our 10:30 departure for the Peabody Hotel where we were going to watch the famous March of the Ducks.  We found a prize spot on the Mezzanine of the hotel’s lobby right above the fountain where the ducks would eventually spend the rest of the day.  There was a long and well-done introduction/history of this event by the Duck Master of the hotel and soon all eyes were riveted on the elevator that the ducks used in order to travel down from their pens on the roof.  Right on cue, at the stroke of eleven, the doors opened and the four ducks quickly waddled their way across the Red Carpet, into lobby and up to the fountain.  It was delightful.  If you go to Memphis and you want to eat duck, it is available almost everywhere except at the Peabody.

Cindy had an appointment to get her hair braided and we decided to meet at The Brass Door when she was done.  It was a good braid, but didn’t last for more than two days, but for her birthday it was spectacular. We made arrangements to meet David and Lauren (the couple we got to know who work at The Brass Door) at McEwen’s for drinks before our dinner - and at about eight Cindy and I settled in for a lovely b-day dinner, which lasted a couple of hours.

Our last day in Memphis was an early and busy one. Up at seven, in the cab at eight thirty and wheels up at ten thirty for Atlanta with a tight connection to Dulles. On our flights we reflected with great fondness about our experience in Memphis and the Mid-South (as they like to say – we’re not quite sure of the boundaries of the “mid” south).  The Memphians are genuinely proud of their city and it shows in every aspect of every interaction.  We decided that they are truly justified in their pride.

Best wishes, Cindy and Wm