Posts Tagged ‘wine’
We left Luxembourg in the morning and had a rather slow train ride to Strasbourg, in France. Â I’m not sure if there was something wrong with the train, but about every 20 minutes we would stop for five or ten minutes before continuing on. Â And not at a station either, just in the middle of nowhere. Â Still, it was pretty countryside and we were not in too much of a hurry.
Once we got to Strasbourg it about noon and we headed straight to the information desk in the train station. Â They were very helpful and explained how to get the tram to the hotel we had booked, and what the best transportation options are. Â Strasbourg has a really good tram system that runs at most hours of the day and it is possible to get a ticket (for about 5 Euros) that lets up to three people travel on the trams as much as they want for 24 hours. Â This was so, so good. Â We were able to see so much of the city and had no problems at all getting around.
Our hotel was called Cerise Hotel and was a big success.  Inexpensive, really clean, internet in the rooms (important because we still had a lot of planning we needed to do) and even had a fridge and microwave in the room so that you could eat in a bit.  We took pretty full advantage of that!
Our plan was to do a few hours of planning and work on updating the (very out of date) blog and then to get out and see something of the city in the evening. Â Despite having a small setback with our internet not working, the hotel sent someone up immediately to fix it, and we were able to get a few days of plans finalized. Â This calmed us down substantially and as we set out to see the city we were feeling so happy and positive!
We took the tram to the central area and then walked around taking it in.
Canal and "Petite France"
Hazel decided that for my birthday she would get me a nice night out in Spain – complete with Flamenco Dancing! Â This has been something I’ve been really into since I saw a show in Ithaca back in 2005. Â So I was stoked! Â It turned out to be the perfect evening. Â We started out the night at the restaurant “El Buey” – a favorite Hazel found on SpottedByLocals.com, a site that’s half TripAdvisor and half blog with entries by locals from the area. Â We love this site! Â Anyway, back to our date. Â The specialty of the house is cook-it-yourself OX! Â They bring 1kg of ox tenderloin sliced thinly (along with patatas fritas of course) and ceramic plates heated to a really high temperature. Â Meat goes on plate, and voila!
El Buey
Dr. DeWitt the veterinarian!
We had a very fun and joyful stop in Ithaca, NY to watch Justin’s sister Jessica graduate from veterinary school at Cornell University. Â It’s good to have a doctor in the family!
We headed south from Los Vilos, past Santiago, to the city of San Fernando for the 2011 Fiesta de la Vendmia. This was the second year this festival occurred and it showcases wines from the Colchagua Valley, which is considered one of the best wine regions in Chile. We had a blast!
We stayed for two nights in the town at the Hotel España, which was a slightly bizarre place, but not in a bad way. Half of the interior of the hotel was filled with giant plants and greek looking statues like a strange indoor mini-plaza. It was a bit shabby, but a nice place to stay and an easy walk from the square with the wine festival.
The festival itself was really well put together and the wine was absolutely awesome. There were booths all around the main square with the wineries in the middle and all kinds of delicious bbq and ceviche and other tasty foods around the outside. There were even booths from a couple of local breweries. The bbq was done over large piles of coals and whole animals were cooked at a time – pork and lamb. The air smelled like delicious roasting meat, wood smoke and red wine!
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Well it has been a long time since I talked about the various libations that Hazel and I have tried. Â Having been to both Argentina and Chile since we left New Zealand, we’ve gained even more of a perspective on how people around the world consume their beer. Â Turns out that the pacific coast of the US has a different opinion about beer than most other places in the world! Â (Sorry East Coast, Yuengling just doesn’t cut it anymore :) )
In Argentina, we had the realization that there just isn’t much in the way of beer.  The two main players throughout the country were Quilmes, a very light lager whose primary characteristic was that a liter cost US$1.50.  The other choice was Brahma, which costs less than Quilmes.  Neither had much going for them other than that they are cheaper than water around there.  I did enjoy the occasional Brahma (my preferred of the two) but the most interesting beers were found while we travelled around Patagonia.  We went to three Patagonian towns: Ushuaia, El Calafate, and El Chaltén (We also traveled to Chile’s Puerto Natales, but I’m saving that for another post).