
<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-31-ballybunion-cashen-course-sunset/6100078412_310164f66c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Ballybunion, Cashen Course Sunset">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-31-ballybunion-cashen-course-sunset/6100078412_ea85198d50_t.jpg" alt="Ballybunion, Cashen Course Sunset"/>
</a>

This past June, I [traveled to Ireland](/category/ireland/) to play golf with some friends. I briefly mentioned, in a [post about playing Ballybunion Old](/2011/06/21/ballybunion-old/), that my good friends, Jacob and Jeff, took a walk one evening (while I was in bed shivering with a fever) on the [Cashen Course](http://www.ballybuniongolfclub.ie/cashencourse.html) at Ballybunion. I said that I'd post the photos Jacob took, but I never got around to it. Yesterday was Jacob's birthday, so I thought today would be a good day to post [these gorgeous photos](http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikrasmussen/sets/72157627561990624/) he took. For photogenic terrain, you really can't beat [golden hour](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_hour_(photography)) on an Irish links course.  All of the following photos, except for the one he's in, of course, were taken by Jacob Pittman.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-31-ballybunion-cashen-course-sunset/6100071782_6fe4f7d09f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Ballybunion, Cashen Course Sunset">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-31-ballybunion-cashen-course-sunset/6100071782_20d7b775b0.jpg" alt="Ballybunion, Cashen Course Sunset"/>
</a>

This one really should be in a frame on the wall. Wow!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-31-ballybunion-cashen-course-sunset/6099527741_e8dc2d8977_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Ballybunion, Cashen Course Sunset">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-31-ballybunion-cashen-course-sunset/6099527741_ac30816271.jpg" alt="Ballybunion, Cashen Course Sunset"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-31-ballybunion-cashen-course-sunset/6100078412_310164f66c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Ballybunion, Cashen Course Sunset">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-31-ballybunion-cashen-course-sunset/6100078412_ea85198d50.jpg" alt="Ballybunion, Cashen Course Sunset"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-31-ballybunion-cashen-course-sunset/6099534217_0d297b936e_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Ballybunion, Cashen Course Sunset">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-31-ballybunion-cashen-course-sunset/6099534217_2c5e1b7520.jpg" alt="Ballybunion, Cashen Course Sunset"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-31-ballybunion-cashen-course-sunset/6100081784_fc209a2b3c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Ballybunion, Cashen Course Sunset">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-31-ballybunion-cashen-course-sunset/6100081784_af79aed8b2.jpg" alt="Ballybunion, Cashen Course Sunset"/>
</a>

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-31-ballybunion-cashen-course-sunset/6100064552_747e0ebaa8_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Frolicking Jacob">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-31-ballybunion-cashen-course-sunset/6100064552_7464dba675.jpg" alt="Frolicking Jacob"/>
</a>

Jacob, our phearless phrolicking photographer.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-31-ballybunion-cashen-course-sunset/6099539245_44112b0b0a_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Ballybunion, Cashen Course Sunset">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-31-ballybunion-cashen-course-sunset/6099539245_3ac7f1ce82.jpg" alt="Ballybunion, Cashen Course Sunset"/>
</a>

Happy birthday, Jacob.


Ballybunion Cashen Course Sunset


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-31-worst-cleaning-lady-ever/6101288310_25037a0466_o_d.png" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Child Labor">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-31-worst-cleaning-lady-ever/6101288310_2432b5f548_t.jpg" alt="Child Labor"/>
</a>

I've had it with our cleaning lady. She does a lot of moving around the house, opening and closing doors, so it seems like she's working, sometimes visiting the trash can to supposedly dispose of dust she's collected, but then the floor is never actually any cleaner than when she started. I've been suspecting that she was inept for some time now, but I finally was able to record a video of her "at work", and I must say that my suspicions were totally confirmed. I'm afraid we're going to have to let her go.  

<iframe width="505" height="314" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lVoIhd6TI3s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

There are excellent moral arguments supporting child labor laws, but there's also a good utilitarian argument: kids are terrible employees.


Worst. Cleaning Lady. Ever.


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-30-transatlantic-telecommuter/2491870582_bd659f30b7_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Desk Traffic">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-30-transatlantic-telecommuter/2491870582_735c1b6428_t.jpg" alt="Desk Traffic"/>
</a>

Over the past fortnight, several of internet friends have asked me that important question that any adult relationship eventually reaches: "What is it that you do, exactly?" One of them asked if I was a professional blogger, which is flattering, and, now that I think about it, I can see why one might think I should be getting paid for all this gorgeous content. But no, I have a day job.

Initially I was going to write a narrative of my job history for the last decade, but I realized that would be more than anyone really wanted to read, so I'll just talk about my present job. The company I work for sells medical supplies and mobility equipment. Our biggest sale items are: [lift chairs](http://www.usmedicalsupplies.com/Lift-Chairs.htm), those recliners that can lift you up to a standing position; [stair lifts](http://www.ameriglide.com/Electric-Powered-Stair-Lift.htm), those chairs on a track that go up and down staircases; and [mobility scooters](http://www.usmedicalsupplies.com/Mobility-Scooters.htm).

I'm a transatlantic telecommuter. I work in my pajamas from my office at home.

What I do, specifically, is write the computer code behind the website that displays the products, allows you to add them to your shopping cart, enter your shipping and billing information, and place orders. Plus all the other bells and whistles that make a successful modern day e-commerce site, like product reviews, recommended products, and [little questionnaires](http://www.usmedicalsupplies.com/lift-chair-wizard/) to help customers find the right product. But the part of an e-commerce website that a consumer sees is just the tip of the iceberg. Behind the curtain, there are dozens of administration pages where other company employees can edit the products, make sweeping price changes across a set of products, and maintain product options as they are added or discontinued. Then there's the whole branch of code specifically for what is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which involves getting as much useful information about your products into Google and Bing and Yahoo as you can, through uploading of product feeds and tweaking of special keywords on each page. Since the major search engines are constantly updating their algorithms, keeping your sites ranking highly (i.e. appearing on the first page of search results) is a never-ending battle.

Telecommuting is an interesting way of life, and it's certainly not for everyone. You really can't beat the 30 second commute from bed to office, but you have to be the kind of person that doesn't need human face-to-face interaction all the time. I spend most of my workday in constant communication, via instant messaging and VOIP calls, so it really feels like I'm just in the next cubicle. We collaborate splendidly with screen sharing applications. If someone has a problem they want me to look at, I can just pull up their screen and see what they are doing, and even take control to show them what they're doing wrong, and vice versa. I do miss out on some inside jokes and office gossip told at the water cooler, but I don't mind missing the other office chatter about sports or last night's television lineup.

One interesting consequence of working on the other side of the ocean is that I am six timezones ahead of my coworkers. In the past, I have worked standard european office hours, and only coincided with the other office people for a few hours each day, enough to exchange ideas and discuss projects.

Since becoming a father, I have chosen to shift my working hours to match up exactly with the eastern US workday, working more or less from 2:30 PM to 11 PM, but sometimes [other odd hours](/2006/12/05/genius-insomnia/). The truth is that I have a lot of flexibility in my schedule. I have tremendous respect for my employer's understanding that what's important is that stuff gets done, not what hours of the day it gets done in. There are some times and some tasks where you can finish the task sooner, and with fewer errors, if you take a twenty minute nap first. I strongly believe that my employer benefits from me having this freedom. Just last night I was up until 2 AM working on a project I really wanted to get finished while I was channeling [the flow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)).

My current work schedule allows me to spend all morning with my daughter (who is two at the time of this writing) before taking her to daycare for only a few hours before her mother can pick her up in the afternoon. It's working out really well. I hope things won't change too much when she starts school.


Transatlantic Telecommuter


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-27-batalla-de-flores-2011/6082655335_cc8dd38a39_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Batalla de Flores">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-27-batalla-de-flores-2011/6082655335_c0dd2fc509_t.jpg" alt="Batalla de Flores"/>
</a>

On the last Friday of August every year, the nearby tourist town of Laredo hosts their annual _Batalla de Flores_ (Flower Battle). It consists of a parade of floats, decorated entirely with real flowers. The floats range from fairly simple – but more complex than I could construct – numbers with a cartoon character or two, to huge elaborate contraptions with various animals or other themes. Each float is decorated with some sort of _Homo sapiens_ specimens deemed to be cute, usually small children or young maidens in elaborate costumes. The floats are judged on a variety of categories:

- Presentation: relative to the size of the float, the combination of diverse pieces and parts, and complexity of the float
- Art: the general beauty, composition, design, originality and "wow factor"
- Flowers: how well the flowers are nailed to the float, and the general quality of the floral craftsmanship
- Quantity of flowers: the percentage of the float covered in flowers

There is also a separate prize for the best dressed human ornaments. During the video you're about to see, the announcer mentions that this year, there were floats that had more than 100,000 flowers on them. Wow! Having lived in the area longer than anywhere besides our parents' houses, my wife and I are pretty much like locals, and we know the tricks involved with each festivity. Like how there are absolutely zero parking spaces available in Laredo around the start of the _Batalla de Flores_. Literally zero. Since we were invited to a dinner with friends after the parade, we needed to have a car to drive home. So, like [last year](/2010/08/30/batalla-de-flores-2010/), we parked our car in Laredo _the day before_! Nora and I took the car to Laredo on Thursday, with Nora screaming the whole way since she can't stand to be in the car for more than, well, zero seconds. Even on Thursday, after the four minute drive to Laredo, it took me twenty minutes of driving around before I got lucky and found someone leaving a space. We then took a bus back to Colindres, and when it came time to go to the parade, we walked the 40 minutes it takes to get there.

Our dinner companions are even more local, and they knew that if they came right after the parade was over, that all the streets the parade used would be cleaned and reopened for parking. But they don't have two-year-olds that love flowers and music...

The forecast had predicted rain, but we got lucky...sort of. Towards the end of the parade, it got really windy, and soon after it stopped, it got very cold. I had on a denim jacket and long trousers and I was quite cold. "They really should have this festival in the summer," I quipped. After the parade, we struggled to push our stroller through the throngs of people and eventually decided to sit down for a beer. Just then, a local marching band took shelter from the wind near where we were seated, and we were treated to live marching and pop-to-band-converted music for about an hour.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-27-batalla-de-flores-2011/6087278250_fd40795fce_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Batalla de Flores Nip Slip">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-27-batalla-de-flores-2011/6087278250_54a7803857.jpg" alt="Batalla de Flores Nip Slip"/>
</a>

This is a frame from the video. Can you imagine a float like this in a parade in the United States of America? A bare breast, _and pubic hair_! Cover your child's eyes! The horror!!! I distinctly remember not only watching [The Wardrobe Malfuction](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_XXXVIII_halftime_show_controversy) live at 4 AM from my home in England, but later listening to a radio report in which an American said that it was "the most disgusting thing \[he'd\] ever seen on television." What a sad, sad state of human affairs. Rant over.

The video below shows almost all of the floats. We got there a little late, so they were on their final of two (three?) laps around the circuit. There was a lot of stoppages and boring waiting periods that you have been spared through the magic of video editing, so be grateful for the succinctness of the video. At the end, you can see Nora dancing to the music at the café, and the other people in a general state of joy. The Spanish do love to have their festivals, as does Nora. The following day, when listening to another marching band when it was time to go home, Nora said, "I don't want to go home; I want to stay here with the music all night!"

<iframe width="505" height="314" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/x2vpgckwwR4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Batalla de Flores 2011 - Laredo, Spain


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6077607629_13fc299c67_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Colindres Flag">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6077607629_0ec2992cd4_t.jpg" alt="Colindres Flag"/>
</a>

About a year ago, I became a fan of a [Facebook page about Colindres](https://www.facebook.com/pages/Colindres-Cantabria-/105844440442), the town where I live. With the exception of one brief spat in which I suggested that perhaps the town hall shouldn't be sponsoring a bunch of crackpot UFOlogists to come to town and vend their wares, where a few people got offended by my suggestion that extraterrestrials have probably not travelled light years to come visit the Earth and not leave any evidence that psychology cannot explain, the experience has been very interesting. No new meatspace friendships have come out of it, but I can stay up to date with festival schedules and things.

One of the things I enjoy most about following this particular Facebook page are the photos that are posted fairly regularly, taken by a gentleman named Raíºl Gonzalez. He has an eye for capturing his town's beauty. Earlier this week, I was looking up some census data for Colindres on Wikipedia and discovered this gorgeous photograph of the two bridges with a rainbow, taken by none other than Raíºl. [![Colindres](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/Vista_de_Colindres.PNG)](http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Vista_de_Colindres.PNG)

My first thought after admiring the beauty of the shot was to see if I could figure out the exact spot from which it was taken, and replicate the panorama, albeit sans-rainbow. Notice all the boats in the river.

So I grabbed my camera and went for a walk across the iron bridge to Treto, the neighboring town. What follows are the photos I took along the way.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078131070_688a1ef0c3_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Colindres Marisma">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078131070_414381b261.jpg" alt="Colindres Marisma"/>
</a>

I love the flood basin with its wealth of avian fauna.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078133346_9256fdc5e9_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Colindres Gull">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078133346_de35c3d7f8.jpg" alt="Colindres Gull"/>
</a>

There's one now!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078135494_ef359f88fe_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Fishing Village Summer">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078135494_8ed7dbeb7b.jpg" alt="Fishing Village Summer"/>
</a>

How children spend the long school-less summer days in a fishing village.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078138770_34fdbfe693_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Colindres Harbor Panorama">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078138770_419257798b.jpg" alt="Colindres Harbor Panorama"/>
</a>

The first panorama – [view larger](http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikrasmussen/6078138770/lightbox/) – showing the fishing boats in the harbor.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6077603125_98ae3d5c4a_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Colindres Panorama looking to Santoña">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6077603125_ae519df5c6.jpg" alt="Colindres Panorama looking to Santoña"/>
</a>

Turned 180Â° from the previous photo, looking towards the town of Santoña, at the foot of Mount Buciero.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078150780_c5270b4479_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Fishing Boats">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078150780_6e39a20e7a.jpg" alt="Fishing Boats"/>
</a>

Another shot of fishing boats.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6077613191_824773cc0c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Colindres Pier">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6077613191_c040f634dc.jpg" alt="Colindres Pier"/>
</a>

The dyke that keeps the water from the river Asón – flowing away from the camera out to sea – away from the harbor. The marina is only about a year old. Looking back at Raíºl's photo above and comparing it to my replica below shows just how good a job the marina has done of cleaning the moored boats out of the river.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6077637257_8346608d13_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Colindres Panorama">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6077637257_0b966898db.jpg" alt="Colindres Panorama"/>
</a>

This is my version of Raíºl's two-bridge panorama. [View larger](http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikrasmussen/6077637257/lightbox/). The bridge on the left is the [spinning iron bridge](/2009/02/23/once-colindres-lottery-ticket/) built by Eiffel, the tower guy, and connects Colindres to Treto. It used to be the best place to cross the River Asón in this region until they built the bigger bridge for the motorway on the right.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078155002_9d3cf992d5_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Gypsy Camp">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078155002_7afb5f2b7f.jpg" alt="Gypsy Camp"/>
</a>

It's hard to see in the previous panorama, so I've zoomed in. This is our local gypsy camp. They live in vans under the bridge. As is common with gypsies, they have hacked into the power grid, but I don't know if they have any running water. They're weird, rejecting regular societal norms, but they don't cause too many problems.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6077620153_3148c865a9_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Guitar and Cactuses">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6077620153_68035ce122.jpg" alt="Guitar and Cactuses"/>
</a>

Normally I'm pretty good about not taking photos through people's windows, but I loved the juxtaposition of the cacti and the guitar in this attic.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078162102_0b5280d67d_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Colindres Iron Bridge">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078162102_348da18f12.jpg" alt="Colindres Iron Bridge"/>
</a>

Heading back over the iron bridge.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078164496_b369e67db5_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Sunken Rotting Boat">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078164496_33f3ca638b.jpg" alt="Sunken Rotting Boat"/>
</a>

An old rotting boat. Colindres has several of these.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078167052_7725f920e3_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Boat and Houses in Treto">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078167052_e4daccd89c.jpg" alt="Boat and Houses in Treto"/>
</a>

I took the previous panorama from between those two street lamps over there on the other side of the river in that relatively new Treto neighborhood.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078178936_420e965aaf_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Colindres Panorama looking to Treto">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-25-colindres-panoramas/6078178936_119f73df3c.jpg" alt="Colindres Panorama looking to Treto"/>
</a>

And here is the panorama looking back across the river from Colindres towards Treto. [View larger](http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikrasmussen/6078178936/lightbox/).

Here is a little video slideshow that I made. I find that large panoramas are often viewed better with some Ken Burns panning than with downloading a large image file and scrolling.

<iframe width="505" height="314" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/u1DmOxiSRBY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Colindres Panoramas


![Real Madrid - F.C. Barcelona Animated Cube](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-24-f-c-barcelona-vs-real-madrid/6076814279_cff1f7c5fa_o.gif)If you live in Spain, there is one question upon which you absolutely _must_ have an opinion: Are you a Barcelona or Real Madrid fan? You can be a fan of your local team – _Go Racing Santander!_ – but you still have to pick a side between the two rival fíºtbol supergiants.

Most Spaniards have some emotional connection to one of the two cities, or sometimes team loyalty is passed down from generation to generation, but for a foreigner like me, I've got nothing to go on, so I've had to think about which side to choose. By just about every measure, I come firmly down on the side of...

### The Sponsors

F.C. Barcelona has never had a corporate logo on their jerseys. In 2006, they made an agreement with [UNICEF](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicef), but rather than the sponsor pay the club to wear their name, the club donates €1.5 million per year to UNICEF.

Real Madrid's primary sponsor is [bwin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bwin.Party_Digital_Entertainment), the world's largest publicly traded gambling company who is responsible for those horrible pop-under internet ads for PartyPoker.com.

F.C. Barcelona 1 - 0 Real Madrid

### The Stars

![Cristiano Ronaldo](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-24-f-c-barcelona-vs-real-madrid/6077588906_7e59417be9_m.jpg)F.C. Barcelona and Real Madrid have the two best soccer players in the world, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, respectively. Ronaldo is pretty; he comes out onto the field with styling gel in his hair. He reminds me of all those good looking jocks that got all the girls and were so mean to me in high school. From interviews and reading general news sources, it seems like his ego matches his physique. He's a sex symbol and he knows it. I just plain don't like him.

![Lionel Messi](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-24-f-c-barcelona-vs-real-madrid/6077588804_24ea86855f_m.jpg)Lionel Messi, on the other hand, can best be described as well to the ugly side of ordinary. He's handsome like a cubist painting, his hairstyle matches his last name, and his attention to style and looks is even lower than mine.

While I don't know that much about Messi's personality, I have seen a few interviews, and he just generally seems like a much better person that CR7. Oh yeah, Ronaldo has a moniker, his two initials and his jersey number. Did I mention that Ronaldo was named after Ronald Reagan?

F.C. Barcelona 2 - 0 Real Madrid

### The Long Hairs

I have the same feelings about the two long haired stars of both teams. [Carles Puyol](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carles_Puyol), for Barcelona, is one ugly long-haired freak, whereas Madrid's [Sergio Ramos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergio_Ramos) has a much more symmetrical face. There's just something about Ramos' gestures and attitude that I find unsettling. And don't get me started on that stupid headband he wears! Why anyone would choose to play any sports with long hair not completely immobilized in a pony tail is beyond me. The truth is that I'm not all that fond of Puyol, either, after he insisted on carrying his regional Catalonian flag around the field after [winning the World Cup for Spain](/2010/07/12/spain-wins-the-world-cup/) instead of the Spanish flag, so I won't award any points for this particular topic.

### The Fonts

![Real Madrid's Jersey Font](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-24-f-c-barcelona-vs-real-madrid/6077798570_33e19248a1.jpg "Real Madrid's Jersey Font")

![F.C. Barcelona's Jersey Font](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-24-f-c-barcelona-vs-real-madrid/6077798514_7d7ce7bdde.jpg "F.C. Barcelona's Jersey Font")

![Garay's Real Madrid Jersey](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-24-f-c-barcelona-vs-real-madrid/6077259763_418bc2d713_m.jpg "Garay's Real Madrid Jersey")Every time I see Real Madrid play, the overly rounded nature of the font on their backs annoys me. It's not completely illegible, but nor is it very easy to read. Both commit the same crime with the upper-case N being just a tall lowercase n, but I think you'll agree that the font on the bottom is much cleaner and attractive.

The fact that the Real Madrid letters R and A are so nearly identical wouldn't be too much of a problem, except that they have a player named Ezequiel Garay, who looks like he has "GAAAY" written on his back...which isn't bad for suggesting homosexuality so much as for juxtaposition of identical-looking letters.

F.C. Barcelona 3 - 0 Real Madrid

### Conclusion

I could go on about what a jerk Real Madrid's coach, José Mourinho, seems to be, like how [he put his thumb in someone's eye last week](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olelvRKSpG8), but I won't. The truth is that it's impossible to talk to a Spaniard about this topic without them being strongly biased one way or the other. All the features of [ingroup/outgroup human tribal psychology](http://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/08/21/the-illusion-of-asymmetric-insight/) are present in this debate.

Fans of Barcelona claim that the refs _never_ call fouls on Real Madrid, and tout confirmation-bias-laden conspiracy theories about how, "Isn't it curious that the television broadcast never shows slow motion replays when a Real Madrid player gets away with a foul?" The Real Madrid fans are equally livid about the preferential treatment they think Barcelona receives.

I must, however, concede one good point to a Real Madrid supporter friend of mine who I once heard say, "Whenever Messi does a fancy maneuver with the ball, everyone says, 'Wow, what an amazing player!', but when Ronaldo does one, everyone says, 'What a bloody showoff!'" I can see how that would be annoying, but it's all part of the image he's created for himself. The animosity between the fans is sharp! There are several people with whom I refuse to watch soccer matches anymore because they get so vitriolic.

¡Barí§a!

So, to conclude, I root for F.C. Barcelona whenever they are playing against Real Madrid. Believe me, I am acutely aware of just how superficial my reasons are. They are meant to be. It's just a bunch of millionaires kicking a ball around in the grass.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-24-f-c-barcelona-vs-real-madrid/2411789670_943703de22_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Real Madrid vs. Barcelona Foosball">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-24-f-c-barcelona-vs-real-madrid/2411789670_955e0fa558.jpg" alt="Real Madrid vs. Barcelona Foosball"/>
</a>


F.C. Barcelona vs. Real Madrid


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-24-la-mas-why/5640085987_b1e6466d57_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Spanish Question">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-24-la-mas-why/5640085987_bb571b3115_t.jpg" alt="Spanish Question"/>
</a>

Earlier today I came up with a Spanglish joke: "_Mi hija es la más why del mundo_." Like most one-liners, it's a play on words. It is pronounced exactly the same as the syntactically correct Spanish sentence, "_Mi hija es la más **guay** del mundo_" The word "guay", which is pronounced exactly like the English word "why", and I think is only slang in Castilian Spanish, is a general positive adjective mainly used by youth that could translate to the English words cool, great, awesome or terrific. So the meaning of the proper sentence "My daughter is the awesomest in the world." Of course the joke was to substitute her new favorite English word, making her "the most 'why' daughter in the world". 

### Why, oh why?

We knew it was coming, and it's here: The Why Phase. Her new favorite thing to do is to walk up to you and say, "What are you doing?", and almost before you can answer, she's asking, "Why?" I can normally last for about two Why iterations before I end it with "Because it is," and stop responding to further inquiry. At this point, I think that only about 20% of her motivation in these interrogations is curiosity and a thirst for knowledge about the world around her; the other 80% is just a desire to have a conversation, and she's learned that asking someone about themselves and then asking follow up questions is a great way to get people to talk. It's more of a thirst for language than anything else.

Did you know that if you go to any Wikipedia article and click on the very first link in the article, and then click on the very first link in the next article, continuing on and on like this avoiding loops, you will eventually end up at [Philosophy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy)? This works for any starting article. Try it.

The same is true of answering repeated Why questions. You can retard the spiral, but sooner or later, you'll find yourself crossing the epistemological event horizon.

Never has this been so well demonstrated as in Louis C.K.'s stand-up routine about having children. I watched this before my daughter was born and it only gets more and more true with each day of parenthood. Like everything Louis C.K. does, it's both extremely hilarious and extremely vulgar. NSFW language. Viewer discretion is advised. The best bit, about non-parents criticizing parents, starts at 6:18. The Why bit starts at 7:19. It's very _guay_.

<iframe width="505" height="410" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4u2ZsoYWwJA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


La Más Why


<img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-22-encounters-with-the-guardia-civil/6070636393_7a614ddcef_t.jpg" alt="Guardia Civil" class="post-thumb"/>I had my third ever run-in with the traffic division of the [_Guardia Civil_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardia_Civil), Spain's national police force, this past week. I was on my way out of Higuera de la Serena, the small town in Extremadura, southern Spain, where we spend a week each August drinking beer and complaining about the heat. Luckily, it was early in the day, before the day's imbibing had begun. Before I explain what happened, let me briefly summarize my first _Guardia Civil_ encounter, because the lessons it taught me came in handy this week. 

### Close Encounter of the First Kind

It was before we moved to Spain. My future wife and I were living in England and had flown to Spain for August vacation. The first time I went to Extremadura with her family was in 2003, and I think this encounter with the law probably happened the second year, in 2004. We had flown to Madrid and rented a car. To save money, I agreed to be the sole driver. My future in-laws' car didn't have air conditioning, so we took most of our excursions in our rental car. We were on our way to my future father-in-law's hometown of Zahí­nos, which took us through the lovely town of Zafra.

In the middle of downtown Zafra, there was a cop directing traffic. He had one arm straight up in the air and was waving his other arm under the other one. I saw his waving arm and thought he was waving me to continue, so I continued, as my future wife and father-in-law erupted in "What are you doing!?" dismay. But by then, it was too late. The cop was whistling and gesturing angrily for me to pull over. I understood this gesture, at least.

As the policeman was approaching, my father-in-law had a brilliant idea: he told everyone in the car to be quiet and "let Erik do all the talking". My Spanish at this point was very, very limited. When the cop asked for my _carné_ (license), I wondered what piece of meat he wanted me to show him. From a general knowledge of how these things go, I figured I should show him my license. "_Americano_," I said. The cop took one look at my North Carolina driver license and decided dealing with a foreigner with a foreign language and documentation while he was supposed to be directing traffic in a busy intersection was too much of a hassle for such a light infraction and he waved me on and said something about "_más cuidado_".

The lesson here is, when dealing with an overworked, underpaid cop, the bumbling foreigner tourist act can save you a lot of trouble. I plan to use it as the first line of defense should I ever find myself under mild legal scrutiny.

### Close Encounter of the Second Kind

The second time I had to deal with the Guardia Civil, they actually [gave me a ticket for not having proof of car insurance in the car](/2006/10/09/spanish-traffic-ticket/), a stupid law that has since been repealed.

On a side note, did you know that, in England, you don't even need to have your driver license with you. If a cop asks for it, and you don't have it, you just have to send proof that you have one to a certain address within a certain period of time. How reasonable is that?

### Close Encounter of the Third Kind

Last Thursday, August 18, 2011, I was driving my wife and daughter to a nearby town to take my daughter to the emergency room. Well, not really to the ER, but we did go in the ER entrance before getting directed to the main reception area and sent to the pediatrician. She had a bug bite on her foot which was swelling considerably. The doctor gave us a topical antihistamine and the swelling went down in a day or two.

As we were headed to the nearby town, a traffic cop was waiting at the edge of town and flagged me down. I rolled down the window, and, without thinking, some Spanish escaped my lips. But I was feeling pretty innocent, so I just wanted to be helpful and be on my way. He asked for my license, and I opened my wallet to search for my Spanish driver license, but I couldn't find it. I dug around for a bit, but could only find my American driver license, so I gave him that and explained that I was an American. He examined it and addressed me by my first name, asking for the car's registration. I found it in the glove box and gave it to him. "The car is in your wife's name?" he inquired. I answered in the affirmative. He gave me back my documentation and sent us on our way.

When I was driving away, I had two thoughts.

First of all, why the heck were my tax euros paying two officers (his partner had been leaning against their car) to stand out in the heat in Middle-of-Nowhere, Spain (14.5 inhabitants/km2, 37.7 inhabitants/mile2), to check drivers' documentation? Their primary objective must have been to check for seatbelt use and people driving without a license, but I can't imagine that would be very fruitful. Oh, and also, _I was taking my child on an emergency visit to the doctor!!_

My second thought was to congratulate my own cleverness in outwitting myself. I remembered that I had intentionally hidden my Spanish drivers license deep in a part of my wallet that I normally never put things _specifically for this situation_ to make sure my future self didn't chicken out, get too obedient, and proffer my Spanish license first. Sure enough, the nerves of dealing with an authority figure was enough to preoccupy me enough to the point where I was unable to find my Spanish license (and I _was_ trying to find it). Not that it would've been a disaster, but giving him a document that he knew how to read would not have helped my cause in any way, and it might have led him to discover the traffic law I was actually breaking: driving with non-prescription sunglasses.

I often find that my future self is a bit of a clueless idiot that needs all the help he can get.


Encounters with the Guardia Civil


[![Americano en Colindres, Diario Montañes (thumbnail)](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-21-americano-en-colindres-el-diario-montanes/6066312015_c9c885ac91_t.jpg "Americano en Colindres, Diario Montañes (thumbnail)")](http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikrasmussen/6066312015 "View 'Americano en Colindres, Diario Montañes (thumbnail)' on Flickr.com")Yesterday, as I was packing to return from my weeklong vacation in Extremadura, I received an image on my mobile phone from my friend Andrés, back in Colindres. "You're famous!" he said, and included a photo of [an article](http://www.eldiariomontanes.es/v/20110820/sociedad/otras-noticias/americano-colindres-20110820.html) in the regional newspaper for Cantabria, [El Diario Montañes](http://www.eldiariomontanes.es/). I was so surprised! When I got back to Colindres the following day, I went around to various bars to see if they still had yesterday's newspaper. I was surprised by how few of them had already thrown it away. I did find it telling, however, that the bars that still had the paper were establishments that I already considered less cleanly than the rest. I had to get two of them because the first one I got didn't have the page with the article in it.  I will represent the article in its entirety here, and then give a translation below. The original is available online [here](http://www.eldiariomontanes.es/v/20110820/sociedad/otras-noticias/americano-colindres-20110820.html). The hyperlinks to the relevant posts were added by me. They couldn't even hyperlink to me in their online article. I would not have expected many people to read the paper and go to their computer to visit my url, but I did receive a mild traffic spike on Saturday...one of the reasons to have a short url!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-21-americano-en-colindres-el-diario-montanes/6066109785_d2586a12a2_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Americano en Colindres, Diario Montañes">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-21-americano-en-colindres-el-diario-montanes/6066109785_94ce587c85_b.jpg" alt="Americano en Colindres, Diario Montañes"/>
</a>

> ## Americano en Colindres
> 
> **Erik Rasmussen cuelga en la red su particular punto de vista sobre la realidad española**
> 
> Erik Rasmussen es la otra cara de la moneda. Si a veces a los españoles nos cuesta imaginarnos cómo es un paí­s desconocido, no digamos cómo será para los foráneos imaginar el nuestro.
> 
> Erik Rasmussen es un estadounidense que lleva seis años viviendo en España, en Colindres (Cantabria), pero escribe en inglés. Nada más llegar, y ante la temible pérdida de contacto con su familia, abrió un blog: American in Spain ([erikras.com](/)), cuya principal fuente de lectores son ellos, los Rasmussen que ha dejado atrás.
> 
> El blog de Erik no es de los más transitados de la red, ni de los que más seguidores tienen en Twitter, pero sí­ es abundante en contenido. Es, de alguna forma, una correspondencia transatlántica í­ntima, pero a la vista de todos, y subraya, además, todas esas pequeñas perlas de nuestra tierra que no hacen más que escapársenos a simple vista.
> 
> Por ejemplo: Erik opina que [los españoles no sabemos utilizar las rotondas](/2011/08/05/roundabouts/), y lo explica en una extensí­sima entrada, fotos incluidas, en las que detalla para sus congéneres la Â«peculiarÂ» manera de circular por estos lugares. O la querencia que tenemos por [esos gatos dorados de saludo sempiterno que venden los chinos](/2011/08/12/maneki-neko/). O la relación de su hija -está casado con una española- con su próxima hermana. O el [poco espacio que una aerolí­nea deja entre asiento y asiento](/2011/07/25/spanair-a320-legroom-is-a-disgrace/). Todo desarrolladí­simo: incluso detalla para lectores poco enterados la polémica que salpicó al jugador del F.C. Barcelona Sergio Busquets en mayo de este año, cuando una cámara le captó lanzándole [la palabra Â«monoÂ» o Â«morroÂ»](/2011/05/13/mono-vs-morro/) al madridista Marcelo. Erik Rasmussen es una especie de corresponsal extranjero, de veraneo permanente ([un fan](/2011/08/11/tapas-in-san-sebastian/) de [las tapas](/2011/08/02/tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/)), transatlántico y con un particular gracejo. Desde Colindres, con color.

Now in English:

> ## American in Colindres
> 
> **Erik Rasmussen publishes, on his personal web page, his own point of view on Spanish reality**
> 
> Erik Rasmussen is the other side of the coin. If sometimes it's hard for us Spaniards to imagine how it would be in an unknown country, how it must be for foreigners to imagine our country.
> 
> Erik Rasmussen is an American who has been living in Spain for six years, in Colindres (Cantabria), but he writes in English. As soon as he arrived, to counter the frightful loss of contact with his family, he opened a blog: American in Spain ([erikras.com](/)), whose primary readers are the Rasmussens he left behind.
> 
> Erik's blog is not one of the most visited on the internet, nor the one with the most Twitter followers, but it has abundant content. It is, in some form, an intimate transatlantic correspondence, but available for everyone to see, and it furthermore underlines all those little pearls of our land that easily escape our notice.
> 
> For example: Erik thinks that [we Spaniards don't know how to use roundabouts](/2011/08/05/roundabouts/), and he explains it in a very extensive entry, with photos, in which he details, for his counterparts, the "peculiar" way people circulate in these places. Or our haunting of [those golden eternally waving cats that are sold in the Chinese shops](/2011/08/12/maneki-neko/). Or the relationship between his daughter - he's married to a Spaniard - with her next sister. Or the [lack of space an airline leaves between seats](/2011/07/25/spanair-a320-legroom-is-a-disgrace/). Everything is extremely well developed: including the detail for uninformed readers about the scandal that dirtied F.C. Barcelona player Sergio Busquets in May of this year, when a camera caught him shooting [the word "mono" or "morro"](/2011/05/13/mono-vs-morro/) at the Madrid player Marcelo.
> 
> Erik Rasmussen is a species of expat correspondent, on permanent summer vacation ([a fan](/2011/08/11/tapas-in-san-sebastian/) of [tapas](/2011/08/02/tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/)), transatlantic and with his own wit. From Colindres, with color.

To Alejandro Carantoña, let me know if you ever want an interview or a foreigner perspective on something. You can contact me by commenting on this blog.

UPDATE: This article was [in _El Diario Vasco_](http://www.diariovasco.com/v/20110820/al-dia-sociedad/americano-colindres-20110820.html) (The Basque Daily) too!


Americano en Colindres, El Diario Montañes


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035751550_ddc1421051_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Bárceno Mayor">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035751550_e9c27eb8b8_t.jpg" alt="Bárceno Mayor"/>
</a>

When discussing what sort of mischief and/or tourism we could get up to last Sunday, my wife mentioned that a friend had recommended visiting "the oldest town in Cantabria". With only this tidbit to go on, I turned to Google and discovered a [Cantabrian tourism site](http://www.cantabriaturistica.es/quevercantabria_barcena_mayor-16.html) with the sentence, "It is said that \[Bárceno Mayor\] is the oldest town in Cantabria, and possibly even all of Spain." Yet nowhere on the great big internet could I find out how old the town was thought to be. It was also unclear how one would even determine how old a small town is when it's nestled in the mountains near [a cave with 15,000 year old Paleolithic cave paintings](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_Altamira).  Investigating further, I looked up Bárceno Mayor in Google Maps and noticed that Street View was an option. This is what I saw:

<iframe width="505" height="314" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&amp;sll=43.143683,-4.19342&amp;sspn=0.008314,0.009581&amp;geocode=CZCHX7MTdhopFQNSkgIddAPA_ylziXA9WxxJDTGc2aSwtQ4_Qg&amp;fll=43.144335,-4.193687&amp;fspn=0.266031,0.306587&amp;layer=c&amp;cbll=43.144713,-4.19373&amp;panoid=97MC5CpFNbWZCSgoX0KHXw&amp;cbp=13,279.98,,0,10.48&amp;t=h&amp;source=embed&amp;ll=43.122349,-4.193859&amp;spn=0.078685,0.173378&amp;z=12&amp;output=svembed"></iframe>

Oh yeah! This looks like the kind of place I'd like to spend my Sunday! We put on a little sunscreen, grabbed a bottle of water and hopped in the car for a ninety-minute drive west to The Oldest Town In Cantabria.

On the way there, we passed all these gorgeous quaint little villages, some clearly having festivals, with people sitting out on the terraces of bars and restaurants soaking in the August sun. It was really hard not to stop and just enjoy one of those towns, but we persevered through the windy mountain roads up to Bárcena Mayor. Just when my GPS navigation unit told me we were 200 meters away from our destination, we saw a sign into the Bárcena Mayor parking lot. No village was in sight. We parked among the 60 other cars and walked up a little path. What was the first sight we saw?

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035157731_5e4c93b5a4_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Bárceno Mayor">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035157731_f29faab411.jpg" alt="Bárceno Mayor"/>
</a>

Hey! That looks familiar!

By this time it was 2:00 PM, i.e. approaching Spanish lunch time, and we thought was should find an eating establishment. Google only listed one place, and there were a couple dozen tourists around to compete with, so I suggested urgency.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035717520_ce25301cea_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Bárceno Mayor">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035717520_4742c6a451.jpg" alt="Bárceno Mayor"/>
</a>

Ooh! I see a _restaurante_! Plus, they're advertising "typical cuisine"!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035731520_623067bb14_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Bárceno Mayor">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035731520_834c2796da.jpg" alt="Bárceno Mayor"/>
</a>

We ate at _La Franca_.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035172559_ed40d21001_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Beans and Wild Boar">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035172559_86429e6c52.jpg" alt="Beans and Wild Boar"/>
</a>

For the first course, I had beans with wild boar. It was _delicious_! Spaniards eat quite a bit of wild boar. I've never seen it on offer anywhere in the United States.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035174261_7b933bc2ed_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Venison Fillet">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035174261_bd8147fb65.jpg" alt="Venison Fillet"/>
</a>

Continuing the "not everyday meat" trend, I had a fillet of venison for my second course. Doe, a deer, a tasty, tasty deer.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035171183_02a77c1ea3_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Bárceno Mayor">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035171183_ccfc85dbc0.jpg" alt="Bárceno Mayor"/>
</a>

Bellies full of meat and red wine, we wandered around town in a contented stupor. All the buildings were very old. I pointed out the wires running along the wooden beams of the restaurant, commenting, "Hey, check it out. This building was built before they had electricity!" My wife shrugged and reminded me that her parents grew up in a house without electricity _or running water_. Oh yeah. I often forget how far Spain has come in just fifty years.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035738068_19cd30a09d_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Bárceno Mayor">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035738068_291aa28181.jpg" alt="Bárceno Mayor"/>
</a>

The cobblestone streets and combination of wood and stone house construction made it feel like we'd been transported back in time several centuries...until we turned the corner and saw a Prius.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035751550_ddc1421051_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Bárceno Mayor">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035751550_e9c27eb8b8_z.jpg" alt="Bárceno Mayor"/>
</a>

That every house was decorated with blooming flowers definitely added to the general pleasantness of the town.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035208635_0256966235_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Bárceno Mayor">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035208635_5353bd06ea.jpg" alt="Bárceno Mayor"/>
</a>

Another restaurant we might have preferred for the view if we hadn't just chosen the first one we saw.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035784904_7cfdc8c3bd_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Old Wall">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035784904_1cd6299b1b.jpg" alt="Old Wall"/>
</a>

We crossed a bridge and discovered a hiking trail. If we'd had better shoes on, we might've walked a few kilometers of it, but we hadn't come prepared for that. Sounds like a good excuse to go back!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035800714_4aa7d832b5_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Creek Long Exposure">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035800714_1515cbafb3_z.jpg" alt="Creek Long Exposure"/>
</a>

Looking down from the bridge. I've been wanting to do one of these long exposure water flow shots for some time. I was surprised that just a half second is long enough to get the nice blurring effect.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035270229_9f2c46ae81_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Bárceno Mayor Church Tower Steps">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035270229_7eff200c3b.jpg" alt="Bárceno Mayor Church Tower Steps"/>
</a>

Looking up the staircase inside the church bell tower.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035265393_00e40f47a6_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Bárceno Mayor">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-barcena-mayor-the-oldest-town-in-cantabria/6035265393_c030736e57.jpg" alt="Bárceno Mayor"/>
</a>

It became clear that the town's only industry was tourism. Why anyone would want to buy a wooden pitchfork is beyond me. We did end up buying some [Cabrales cheese](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabrales_cheese). The guy at the _orujo_ (liqueur) stand was so generous with his little tasting cups and we ended up buying some yogurt liqueur. It's really quite tasty. We even ran into some Americans at that shop and helped translate a few things for them.

There were just the right number of tourists around: enough to give you the feeling that the town was alive, but not so many where you couldn't avoid hearing their conversations. I can't imagine what the town must be like in the middle of winter. Perhaps we'll have to book a room at one of their quaint little _posadas_ and see.

To answer the question I raised at the beginning, according to [the information plaque](http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikrasmussen/6035154065/), Bárcena Mayor dates back to the ninth century (CE), and was the site of various monasteries over the centuries. Of course claiming that your little 1200-year-old mountain valley town is the oldest in a region that was part of the Roman Empire is pure nonsense, but you've got to admit, it makes for some really excellent tourism marketing! If you're in Cantabria looking for a well-preserved historic village to visit, I highly recommend Bárcena Mayor.


Bárcena Mayor - The Oldest Town in Cantabria


[![Maneki Neko (thumbnail)](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-maneki-neko/6036420804_137c3a1f09_o.gif "Maneki Neko (thumbnail)")](http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikrasmussen/6036420804 "View 'Maneki Neko (thumbnail)' on Flickr.com")In general, I am very much against knickknacks, a.k.a. crap you have to clean the dust off every once in a while. So perhaps you can imagine my dismay when my daughter and mother-in-law bring home one of those horribly gaudy asian waving cat things. Apparently it had caught my daughter's toddler eye (and why wouldn't it?) in the [local _chinos_ shop](/2010/10/21/chinese-capitalism-in-spain/), and her grandmother had bought it for her. "Mimi mimi mimi", they said to each other mimicking the not-entirely-unlike-the-Nazi-salute gesture. I facepalmed and sighed.  At least one or two of these Mimis – as they are now called in my house – has shattered into ceramic feline oblivion on our floor after being dropped by my daughter. I must admit that it's not all bad. She has learned a little bit about loss, and also about what batteries are for. And I learned a bit about how these cheap, cheap devices are constructed (the counter weight inside is scrap metal!). It's amazing how little energy need be given to a pendulum to keep it going forever.

Curious as to what the heck this thing was invading my domestic domain, I did a little research. The stories are actually pretty interesting, albeit laden with _post hoc ergo propter hoc_ fallacious reasoning that our species is so prone to. First of all the cat is called Maneki Neko, and my favorite of the stories goes [like this](http://www.namaii.com/manekineko/legend-of-maneki-neko.html):

> A long time ago, during the Edo period (17th Century) of Japan, there was a poverty stricken priest, who was the keeper of a run down Temple in the Western part of Tokyo. The kind priest shared what little food he had with his pet cat and companion Tama, whom he cared for despite his poverty. Life was very difficult for the priest. The cold winds whistled through the Temple and chilled his old bones, rain poured in through the dilapidated roof, and he ached with hunger and exhaustion, yet he always remained dedicated to his duties, and grateful for what little he had.
> 
> On one particularly dreary day, the cold was cutting through his damp clothing like a million tiny knives. He went to make himself some tea, in hopes to warm himself, when he was crushed to see that he had no tea to make. His good nature turned to utter despair and sadness, and he slumped down in a corner and began to weep.
> 
> Concerned, his beloved companion Tama went toward the man to see if he could possibly comfort him. The priest exclaimed in frustration "Oh Tama! I am so very poor, and yet still I keep you! Could you not one day, do something for this Temple? Do something for me?". His head fell into his hands and he wept quietly until he went to sleep.
> 
> Tama was puzzled, and decided to go to the outside of the temple for a while. He sat in front of the door and began cleaning himself, as cats do, licking his paws and rubbing them on his face.
> 
> Just then a very wealthy and powerful man was passing by the Temple as the gentle rain grew stronger and a violent thunder and lighting storm erupted. Large droplets of icy rain poured down and pelted him as he took refuge by a large tree. "This place will provide adequate shelter until the storm subsides" he thought. At that moment, he noticed a cat in the doorway of the old temple, cleaning his face with his paw, gesturing as though he were extending an invitation. This gesture puzzled him so, that he just had to have a closer look at this cat, who seemed to be beckoning him forth.
> 
> Cold and wet the man quickly approached the cat and entered the building. Moments later, the tree he had been using as shelter was struck by lightning and caught fire. The tree broke with a loud crash and flaming pieces of it\\'s shattered trunk fell precisely where the wealthy man had been standing.
> 
> The man was extremely grateful to the cat, for having saved his life. He was immediately compelled to find the owner of the cat and reward him. He entered the Temple, looking to find Tamaâ€˜s owner, and found he old priest, living in such deplorable conditions. He soon befriended the priest and showered him with gifts. The wealthy man used his influence to bring many wealthy people to the Temple, and it soon became very prosperous.
> 
> The cat had not only saved a life, but also relieved the priest of the burden of his poverty. When he died, the cat was honored by being buried in a special cemetery, and a statue was made in his likeness, reflecting the beckoning, raised paw that had brought so much good fortune and prosperity to his owner. As word of the events spread, people began placing figures of cats with raised paws in their homes, shops and temples, believing it would bring the same kind of prosperity into their own lives, that Tama had brought to the Priest.

Cool story, huh? Not entirely unlike our western oral stories than end in, "And that's why we believe X!"

The other interesting thing about the Maneki Neko is that the gesture is a cultural difference between the East and the West. In the East, an arm movement like that of the cat, with palm down, is actually a beckoning "come hither" gesture, whereas in the West, that's a "go thither" gesture. As a result, some Maneki Nekos manufactured for the West actually flip the paw around...which seems like a bad idea, as that makes it resemble another insulting western gesture, but the Chinese manufacturers probably don't know that.

In the end, the damn thing is somewhat growing on me...at least to the point where I don't actively want to throw it into the dumpster. We have it sitting on our bookcase next to my golf trophies. The other day it caught my eye, reflecting off of my [pewter golf trophy mug](/2011/06/21/ballybunion-old/), and it dawned on me that it would make a great [cinemagraph](/2011/05/11/first-cinemagraph-attempt/) subject, especially with the reflection.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-maneki-neko/6036420724_f1bd9d7727_o_d.gif" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Maneki Neko">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-12-maneki-neko/6036420724_f1bd9d7727_o.gif" alt="Maneki Neko"/>
</a>

May this animated gif bring you prosperity...or at least relief in the knowledge that your house is free of perpetual golden cat gestures.


Maneki Neko


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021551102_159724ef30_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Tapas in San Sebastian">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021551102_eee21db401_t.jpg" alt="Tapas in San Sebastian"/>
</a>

If the dozen or so hours of "travel in Spain" television shows I've watched are any indication, one of the tapas capitals of Spain is San Sebastián. There's one particular district where every bar you glance into has fifteen or twenty different tapas to choose from, all laid out on the bar. The quality is really high, just like the prices. Just the previous week, I had been at a [tapas festival in Santander](/2011/08/02/tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/), and I'd noted that 2.50€ for a tapa and drink was a little expensive. Well, in San Sebastián, all three tapas we tried were at least 4€ each (with drink). Pricy!  Feast your eyes on these lovely tapas.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021544478_3f47d9b28b_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Tapas in San Sebastian">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021544478_dd9b7b5fe3.jpg" alt="Tapas in San Sebastian"/>
</a>

This is what a typical tapas bar looks like. It's not a good food for [mysophobes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysophobia).

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021546134_ab1655c700_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Tapas in San Sebastian">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021546134_9f003c21b9.jpg" alt="Tapas in San Sebastian"/>
</a>

Hake pudding.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021547730_7556ae9200_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Tapas in San Sebastian">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021547730_85f96cde10.jpg" alt="Tapas in San Sebastian"/>
</a>

The old standby: Spanish ham in a small baguette. This is the most common food you'll find on bars all across Spain.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021551102_159724ef30_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Tapas in San Sebastian">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021551102_eee21db401_z.jpg" alt="Tapas in San Sebastian"/>
</a>

Stuffed peppers (probably stuffed with fish), breaded and fried. Those are bacon-wrapped sausages in the background.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6020998169_a3c8992cb0_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Tapas in San Sebastian">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6020998169_9f62187d19.jpg" alt="Tapas in San Sebastian"/>
</a>

I'm a sucker for goat cheese, especially when it's sandwiched between some Spanish ham and peppers.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6020999903_a85f413eae_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Tapas in San Sebastian">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6020999903_9cffff7d97.jpg" alt="Tapas in San Sebastian"/>
</a>

Mushroom omelet on bread.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021001311_733fd76eea_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Tapas in San Sebastian">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021001311_436878b1fa.jpg" alt="Tapas in San Sebastian"/>
</a>

Mmmmm... Hot peppers.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021002671_5b440991eb_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="San Sebastian Bar">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021002671_ba8ff04411.jpg" alt="San Sebastian Bar"/>
</a>

I wish I had a wall in my house like that.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021558312_3c944f95f8_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Tapas in San Sebastian">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021558312_422750ed58.jpg" alt="Tapas in San Sebastian"/>
</a>

Potato rounds, fresh foie gras, and sauteed mushrooms. Most places don't have labels, but the ones that do are very nice, especially since you don't have to go around examining each one.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021015631_a69f0c379c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Tapas in San Sebastian">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021015631_00dd38d51b.jpg" alt="Tapas in San Sebastian"/>
</a>

We really liked this place dubbed The Shish Kebab Cathedral.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021005253_7444778d5f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Tapas in San Sebastian">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021005253_c610d1d369_z.jpg" alt="Tapas in San Sebastian"/>
</a>

Here, all the tapas were raw, and you had to wait for them to be grilled. It made them all the better. I had this one: shrimp, banana, ham, sun-dried tomato with a parsley vinaigrette. Okay, so I ordered it because of the banana...which was quite a tasty combination.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021560844_4a99ed75ba_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Tapas in San Sebastian">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021560844_0a172d0554.jpg" alt="Tapas in San Sebastian"/>
</a>

More shish kebabs. Calm down, my anglophile readers. It does say "rape bacon", but _rape_ is Spanish for monkfish.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021007915_c2f5f0d1b7_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Tapas in San Sebastian">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021007915_5544ee089c_z.jpg" alt="Tapas in San Sebastian"/>
</a>

Goat cheese, smoked salmon and peppers. Who else is getting hungry?

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021009483_063d35c321_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Tapas in San Sebastian">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021009483_9c5830b2c5.jpg" alt="Tapas in San Sebastian"/>
</a>

Squid kebabs.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021565440_9c8d146290_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Tapas in San Sebastian">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021565440_46e8d4e14b.jpg" alt="Tapas in San Sebastian"/>
</a>

Left: eggplant stuffed with crab meat, right: eggplant, ham, peppers, and cheese.

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  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021012659_bd4ebc950c.jpg" alt="Tapas in San Sebastian"/>
</a>

Quail eggs are so cute, and just the right size for tapas!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021568170_986fcbf0ec_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Tapas in San Sebastian">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-11-tapas-in-san-sebastian/6021568170_a9dfb20d77.jpg" alt="Tapas in San Sebastian"/>
</a>

Our grilled brochettes. Mmmm!!

Who's up for a tapa-hunting trip to San Sebastián?


Tapas in San Sebastián


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6021532950_3f60e3b856_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="San Sebastian Beach">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6021532950_7f514b6b63_t.jpg" alt="San Sebastian Beach"/>
</a>

Our two-year-old daughter, Nora, has been in [Extremadura](/category/extremadura/) with her grandparents for all of last week and will be there for another two weeks, one of which we will be visiting her. It's hard to be away from her for a whole fortnight, but we've been video conferencing with her with some success. We thought it wise to take full advantage of our childlessness and do some tourism that would be a lot more difficult with Nora around.  On Saturday, after running quite a few errands, we made our way into San Sebastián, probably the most beautiful of the Basque cities. We got there late, around 5:00 PM, and, after deciding to leave our umbrella in the car, the weather turned nasty. We walked around for a bit, took some photos, drank some beer, ate some tapas, and then headed home. We were glad that we went, but disappointed that it couldn't be for longer and with better weather.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6021524698_46eb95a673_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Maria Cristina">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6021524698_6c3677c45e.jpg" alt="Maria Cristina"/>
</a>

The Maria Cristina hotel. This is _the hotel_ to stay at in San Sebastián. It was built in 1912, during the rise of San Sebastián into prominence as one of the top tourist destinations for Europe's upper class. This is where all the Steven Spielberg and Julia Roberts types stay when they come for the annual film festival.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6021526280_31ee4af7a8_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="San Sebastian River">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6021526280_b50336d4b2.jpg" alt="San Sebastian River"/>
</a>

The hotel overlooks the mouth of the Urumea River.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6020973263_5661c0e9c0_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="San Sebastian Facade">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6020973263_3cf4f309de.jpg" alt="San Sebastian Facade"/>
</a>

Almost all the facades in San Sebastián are worth examining.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6020974687_b840378e64_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Sedimentary Rock">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6020974687_d3b0ce5192_z.jpg" alt="Sedimentary Rock"/>
</a>

This photo is not tilted. This is the cliff face looking up to a lookout post. It was yet another time when I wished I had my Uncle Jamie, the geologist, with me to explain what type of sedimentary rocks make up the various layers and approximately how many years each centimeter represents.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6020976337_8d4e896349_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Locked">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6020976337_3b86d99e2a.jpg" alt="Locked"/>
</a>

The sea wall had these little rings and padlocks every ten meters or so. I wonder what for?

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6021532950_3f60e3b856_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="San Sebastian Beach">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6021532950_7f514b6b63.jpg" alt="San Sebastian Beach"/>
</a>

A look at the beach.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6021540756_4308361bd0_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="San Sebastian Street">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6021540756_5a083205b7_z.jpg" alt="San Sebastian Street"/>
</a>

This is the must-photograph shot from San Sebastián's pedestrian streets. I've never seen a documentary about San Sebastián without it.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6020987731_d4825f52ac_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="San Sebastian Street">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6020987731_6fa1b27e04_z.jpg" alt="San Sebastian Street"/>
</a>

I was not aware that if you turn 180Â° from the previous shot, you can see all the way down to the cathedral. City planning win!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6020981319_ea5f085c0f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Stairs to the water">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6020981319_0905807276.jpg" alt="Stairs to the water"/>
</a>

I loved this stairway down to the water. The steps have been worn down by the waves and weather to the point where it's almost a ramp.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6020982887_8b92de9afe_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Stairs to the water">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6020982887_32246f3a74_z.jpg" alt="Stairs to the water"/>
</a>

Good thing they have a gate on it. They look dangerous.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6021539064_453f86a6ea_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Restaurant Display">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-08-a-cloudy-walk-around-san-sebastian/6021539064_6648d54168.jpg" alt="Restaurant Display"/>
</a>

The fisherman's quarter would've been a lot more intriguing if I didn't live in a northern Spain fishing village myself. The menus in the seaside restaurants were very pricy, but probably very delicious.

Don't touch that dial! There are tapas photos coming up in the next post!


A Cloudy Walk Around San Sebastián


[![Virgen del Carmen (in bottle)](https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-07-3d-bottle-window-effect/6019002121_cab81d553c_t.jpg "Virgen del Carmen (in bottle)")](http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikrasmussen/6019002121 "View 'Virgen del Carmen (in bottle)' on Flickr.com")In my local cured meat and cheese shop, they have this bottle of water that is very intriguing. It's meant to be a souvenir of Colindres, the town where I live, showing the _Virgen del Carmen_, the statue of [this version of the Virgin Mary](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Mount_Carmel) (more or less a goddess of fishermen) that they parade around town once a year. In the photo, she's seen in front of [the town church](http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikrasmussen/1292668091/). What's cool about the bottle is the exceedingly clever 3D visual effect it presents. Watch the video first, and then I'll explain it.  

<iframe width="505" height="316" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/n__WCy5Z6Oo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Pretty cool, huh? Did you figure it out?

Details that are crucial for the effect to work:

1. The frosted nature of the bottle, with just the window bit being clear. If the rest of the bottle were opaque, there would be very little light to see the image.
2. The lines between the window panes to give a parallax effect.
3. It has to be a clear liquid.
4. And the photo on the back of the label on the back of the bottle, of course.

Personally, I'm dying to know if the liquid is actually water, because water in a glass bottle [refracts a lot](http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikrasmussen/5949515457/). I also wonder if the actual image on the back label is distorted in anyway to counteract the refraction.

Pretty cool, huh?


3D Bottle Window Effect


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-05-roundabouts/6011339146_1c7e10347a_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Roundabout">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-05-roundabouts/6011339146_f39717dd29_t.jpg" alt="Roundabout"/>
</a>

This rant has been near the surface for several years now, but [a news report on television yesterday](http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/telediario/piden-campanas-ensenen-circular-rotondas/1167963/) set me off, and I need to write it down to get it off my chest. Let me be clear. It's not that Spaniards are stupid or generally bad drivers, the problem is that _they are taught wrong at driving school_! Believe me, I know, because [I had](/2006/11/16/the-day-i-forgot-how-to-drive/) [to go to](/2006/11/22/driving-theory-exam/) [Spanish driving](/2006/11/23/hanged-by-the-loophole/) [school to](/2006/12/01/first-driving-lesson/) [get my Spanish license](/2006/12/18/i-remembered-how-to-drive/). 

### Bad Education

In Spanish driving school, the students are taught that, **when circulating in a roundabout you should always be in the far outside lane _no matter which exit you are planning on taking_**. How ridiculous is that? Any driving student with half a critical thinking neuron should raise their hand and ask, "Then what are the other lanes in the roundabout for?" But no one does because the authoritarian Spanish school system has extinguished any such behaviors.

I've lost track of the number of times that I've narrowly escaped an accident when trying to exit a roundabout from the inside lane and somebody is trying to keep going around the roundabout in the outside lane. I suspect that if we were to collide, the authorities would rule the accident as being my fault.

This brings me to what I consider to be a fundamental flaw of roundabouts, specifically roundabouts with two-lane exits.

### A Fundamental Flaw

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-05-roundabouts/6011339146_1c7e10347a_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Roundabout">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-05-roundabouts/6011339146_f39717dd29.jpg" alt="Roundabout"/>
</a>

Please focus only on the northeast exit in the image above, and the red and black cars approaching it. Follow my logic here:

1. If there are two lanes in the exit, then cars are meant to exit parallel with each other from the outer two lanes of the roundabout.
2. In the image above, if the black car wants to exit into the left lane of the exit road, it may do so legally.
3. Therefore the red car **_must_** exit to the right exit lane to avoid a collision.

The conclusion #3 is a necessarily consequence of the premises #1 and #2.

Not only does that fly in the face of what Spaniards are taught in driving school, it also is contrary to my speculation of legal fault above. There is something very wrong here, because I don't think anyone, in practice, truly believes that the red car is prohibited from continuing around the roundabout to another exit. In that case, either premise #1 is false – in which case, _why do they build roundabouts with two exit lanes??_ – or premise #2 is false, meaning that the black car may only exit the roundabout if he somehow verifies the location and intention of the car to its right – in which case, _why do they build roundabouts with two exit lanes??_

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-05-roundabouts/6011233874_09dcd49592_o_d.png" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Roundabout Exit">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-05-roundabouts/6011233874_221a421654.jpg" alt="Roundabout Exit"/>
</a>

This is the same roundabout exit, as seen from street level. If you're in this lane of the roundabout, can you continue on around, or must you exit? Does it depend on whether or not there's a car to your left that wants to exit? Who yields? Argh!!

### In Practice

Personally, I am utterly dumbfounded that more traffic accidents don't happen in roundabouts. The whole scenario seems so chaotic, and the proper rules can't account for every situation, not to mention that they don't even teach the proper rules in driving school. But somehow there is an emergent behavior of the system and [swarm intelligence](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_intelligence) takes over to avoid accidents and make roundabouts safer and more efficient than they seem at first glance.

**UPDATE** \[Jan 21, 2015\] – Someone has invented a new kind of roundabout that solves these problems. Presenting... [The Turbo Roundabout](/2015/01/21/the-turbo-roundabout-just-what-spain-needs/)


Spaniards Don't Understand Roundabouts


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998513823_1b1243fcfd_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Goat Cheese and Walnuts">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998513823_10f2e826b6_t.jpg" alt="Goat Cheese and Walnuts"/>
</a>

Every year, right around [Santiago](/2007/07/25/santiago/), nearby Santander celebrates its [_Semana Grande_](http://www.semanagrandesantander.com/) (Big Week), with the most Spanish of traditions: [bullfights](/2006/07/25/bullfight-in-santander/) and tapas. My interest in bullfighting has waned in recent years, but my interest in tapas is as [strong](/2008/12/22/semana-del-pincho-%E2%80%93-laredo/) [as](/2009/12/22/semana-del-pincho-2-laredo/) [ever](/2010/12/24/semana-del-pincho-3/)! On Sunday, the last day of the festival, my wife and I went to sample the wares that the restaurants around Santander had to offer.  Each participating restaurant or bar had set up a _caseta_, a little stand, in the pedestrian streets of the city. The tapas were all 2.50€ with a small beer or _crianza_ red wine included. It was pretty pricy, I must say, especially considering that I ended up eating seven of them, but it filled me up and filled an hour or two of time for under 20€, so it was only a little more than a meal at a nice restaurant would've been.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998479159_d7fd25834c_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Blood Sausage and Goat Cheese">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998479159_b1eac37ced.jpg" alt="Blood Sausage and Goat Cheese"/>
</a>

Two of my most favorite foods in Spain: _morcilla_ (blood sausage) and goat's cheese, topped with a bit of balsamic vinegar. This tapa could easily have been the best thing ever, but the slices of both ingredients were very thin, and it was served cold.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5999029074_377d494a31_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Cheese and Raspberry">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5999029074_51344a62f8.jpg" alt="Cheese and Raspberry"/>
</a>

More goat cheese, raspberries and walnuts.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5999030786_7e855979a2_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Chicken Kabob">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5999030786_c896cd3eae.jpg" alt="Chicken Kabob"/>
</a>

A bit of chicken on a stick.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5999033694_753ba3712b_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Mustard Meat">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5999033694_36e5935485.jpg" alt="Mustard Meat"/>
</a>

Some sort of meat (chicken or pork?) topped with a mustard sauce. I didn't eat this one.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998488405_3b83662504_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Tomato, Ham, Asparagus, and Anchovies">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998488405_917a8de157.jpg" alt="Tomato, Ham, Asparagus, and Anchovies"/>
</a>

Bread topped with tomato, ham, white asparagus, chives and an anchovy. White asparagus is about the only Spanish food that I don't like.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5999038258_780a6d26cd_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Tapas in Santander">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5999038258_88ddb42d3d.jpg" alt="Tapas in Santander"/>
</a>

More tapas on display. On top, those are sandwiches of breaded calamari.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5999041426_0d46521ecd_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Octopus and Potatoes">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5999041426_16c3dc412e.jpg" alt="Octopus and Potatoes"/>
</a>

Octopus with boiled potato and paprika. Very Galician.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998498287_4ebf547a63_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Calamari Tapas">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998498287_99fab18da6.jpg" alt="Calamari Tapas"/>
</a>

Squid on bread.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998500529_47d6280e57_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Oyster Mushroom Tapas">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998500529_9e979b10e0.jpg" alt="Oyster Mushroom Tapas"/>
</a>

[Oyster mushrooms](/2010/06/28/oyster-mushrooms/) with garlic.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5999048824_5e8c82596f_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Oyster Mushroom Tapa and Wine">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5999048824_611ab3c465.jpg" alt="Oyster Mushroom Tapa and Wine"/>
</a>

My mushroom tapa and wine.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998504041_d674c66939_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="We have Sangria!">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998504041_b269f25755.jpg" alt="We have Sangria!"/>
</a>

"We have sangria!" What a great sign.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998506569_f4d1ca30f3_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Ham and Paté Tapas">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998506569_bfa2f30385.jpg" alt="Ham and Paté Tapas"/>
</a>

Spanish Iberian ham, with paté and [quince jelly](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulce_de_membrillo).

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998509045_afa35518ab_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Cecina Rolls">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998509045_89586f2533.jpg" alt="Cecina Rolls"/>
</a>

[Cecina](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecina_(meat)) (smoked beef) on fried onions.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998511855_f55dbdd333_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Sitting Marga">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998511855_ef83f3985a.jpg" alt="Sitting Marga"/>
</a>

My companion, waiting for me to bring her a tapa.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998513823_1b1243fcfd_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Goat Cheese and Walnuts">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998513823_10f2e826b6.jpg" alt="Goat Cheese and Walnuts"/>
</a>

Goat cheese, walnuts, and balsamic vinegar. I ate the red one in the back, which had raspberry sauce, I think.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998516569_42eb8a80d3_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Cheese, Anchovies, Peppers, Cherry Tomato and Olive">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998516569_5e8ce199be.jpg" alt="Cheese, Anchovies, Peppers, Cherry Tomato and Olive"/>
</a>

A simple one. Cheese, pepper, cherry tomato, anchovy and a black olive.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5999065206_170a1c9bac_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Salmon on Mayo">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5999065206_1dd48306a7.jpg" alt="Salmon on Mayo"/>
</a>

Smoked salmon on a bed of mayonnaise.

When we were full, we decided to take a touristy cruise around the Santander bay, around the [Palacio de la Magdalena](http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palacio_de_La_Magdalena), Santander's [principal](/2006/07/03/luisma-visits/) [tourist](/2006/09/01/market-pizza-and-santander/) [attraction](/2008/10/28/santander-with-robert-and-ania/). We enjoyed it a lot, and it was nice to sit out in the sun and cool breeze.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998521309_7fc0f38843_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Sun Worship">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998521309_8bbc32761a.jpg" alt="Sun Worship"/>
</a>

Some of us enjoyed the sun more than others.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998528783_f53ca466d0_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Canonical Santander Port Shot">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-02-tapas-in-santander-semana-grande-2011/5998528783_355642f12f.jpg" alt="Canonical Santander Port Shot"/>
</a>

Upon disembarking (or is it [deboating](http://letterstosg.com/deplane-no-tattoo-jokes)?), I had the opportunity to take this stereotypical shot of Santander. It's so stereotypical, in fact, that it was used as [the image for the festival this year](http://todofiestas.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/cartel_semana_grande_santander_2011.jpg).

We had a great time, and I'm already looking forward to next years tapa-fest!


Tapas in Santander - Semana Grande 2011


<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-01-colindres-beer-festival-2011/5985921072_e1c5159d59_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Beer Maid">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-01-colindres-beer-festival-2011/5985921072_9e9b3e4bbe_t.jpg" alt="Beer Maid"/>
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This past weekend my town, Colindres, celebrated its Second Annual Beer Festival. We went only one day [last year](/2010/06/20/first-annual-colindres-beer-festival/), but this year we went all four days. I had a total of 3.5 liters of beer in seven half-liter (Â±1 pint) mugs. They also had liter steins, but I couldn't bring myself to buy one. Plus, I subscribe to the "smaller servings is better" beer philosophy of my adopted country.  In Spain, when you walk into a bar and order a beer, you have to choose between large and small, which correspond to a half-pint and quarter-pint respectively. To someone from the US or northern Europe, these sizes are ridiculously small. Spain, however, doesn't have a lot of beer culture. People drink mediocre lager (which is still way better than the US mega-breweries Miller, Coors, and Budweiser put out), and very little else. The quarter-pint beers, it turns out, are particularly handy when you are planning to hit 7 or 8 bars on a particular outing (which is not unusual), as such endurance cannot be achieved by mortals when drinking pints. Ordering more, but smaller, beer servings also means that your beer is colder; the last sip of a pint has had time to warm up since leaving the tap, but the last sip of a half-pint hasn't been out of the tap for so long. In conclusion, a festival serving pints and double-pints is strange to Spaniards, and there were many couples that opted to share a single pint.

The beer festival this year had a selection of three beers: _rubia_, _tostada_, and _de trigo_. That's blond (lager), toasted (brown ale), and wheat beer. Over the course of the three days, I tried them all. The lager was very watery and not very good. It later became clear to me why, when I saw them pouring it from a tap of _Fosters_. Blech! Fosters sucks. Ask an Australian, they don't actually drink it in Australia; they just export it. The brown ale was _Affigem Dubbel_, a decent Belgian brand, and the wheat beer as _Paulaner_, a Munich-based German brewery. After tasting my wife's lager and having a half-liter of the other two, it quickly became clear that the _Paulaner_ wheat beer was my favorite, and I stuck with that for the remainder of the festival, especially since wheat beer on tap is very rare in Spain.

A half liter of beer cost 3.50€, plus a 2€ deposit on the mug, which was returned to you when you returned the mug. A 0.25L glass of lager in any local bar is between 1.20€ and 1.30€, so the festival beer was a little bit more pricy, but it was fun drinking from a big mug, and they had some pretty good live music, which was so loud that it could only be reasonably enjoyed from _outside_ the tent. One of the bands was an excellent Beatles tribute band.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-01-colindres-beer-festival-2011/5997697523_9d50434b6b_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Beer Festival, Colindres 2011">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-01-colindres-beer-festival-2011/5997697523_5f03014181.jpg" alt="Beer Festival, Colindres 2011"/>
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The decoration was nice, with scenes from Oktoberfest on the wall and some faux clouds overhead in the tent. I've seen the Oktoberfest hangings in other festivals. The tent was packed on all but the last night, when this photo was taken. This year seems to have had much more success than last year. It's nice to have a beer festival you can walk to from home. It sure beats shopping for [last minute cheap holidays](http://www.onthebeach.co.uk/caribbean/dominican-republic/cheap-holidays-dominican-republic) to Munich for Oktoberfest. Especially since our friends in Munich, who will eventually have to deal with us crashing at their place during Oktoberfest, were inconsiderate enough to have a baby due in the middle of the festival this year.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-01-colindres-beer-festival-2011/5997693459_5e6fe973a7_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Beer Festival">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-01-colindres-beer-festival-2011/5997693459_ba1c4761de.jpg" alt="Beer Festival"/>
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Drinking with friends.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-01-colindres-beer-festival-2011/5985921072_e1c5159d59_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Beer Maid">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-01-colindres-beer-festival-2011/5985921072_9e9b3e4bbe.jpg" alt="Beer Maid"/>
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This beer maid looks positively German!

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  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2011-08-01-colindres-beer-festival-2011/5997698905_401a6d8876_z.jpg" alt="Mugshot"/>
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Cheers!


17 posts from August, 2011