life without guests

 It's like we are empty nesters now- our 17th and 18th guest for the season have departed and we are off on a few trips before we have out last guest of the 24'15 season. Cousin Oscar is headed here April 26- May 2.  Meanwhile we are doing things like hitting our less edgy places. Last night pizza and chianti at La Piemontesa and tonight tortilla and other tapas at a bar nearby callled Casa Juan Paloma. 

Tuesday rolled around and Phil's class met for the last session before we go to Daylight Saving Time in Europe so we took advantage of the fact that it ended a 8:30 instead of 9:30 and went to Casa Juan Paloma.  We had our favorite traditional Spanish tortilla. And several other worthy courses. Originally recommended by Frank Patterson we first ate here shortly after he embarked for a Morocco and Tunisia segment of his late fall 2024 travels. We get here as often as weather and schedule allows. Good Arroz, excellent smoked tuna toasts, carpaccio of shrimp, and anchovies but the tortilla is to my mind the model of what this dish should be (including the onions!)

and then a dinner at Dos de Mayo-

and the walk home-

after a night at home - we had chicken tortilla soup and salad along with a lot of snacky items that needed to be cleared from the frig- we returned to dining out- at Casapuerta 

today was a gorgeous day with blue sky and sunshine- 

tomorrow we are off to Cádiz - and Sunday we will see Todd & Evie! so more ot follow!

Cousins!

Megan & Christian came on the morning train from Madrid. I met them for breakfast/brunch at ABA (a place Jennifer and Dave had gone to.) Megan & I got omelettes and Christian got a cubano sandwich. It was sunny in the morning as I crossed Plaza Nueva. We went back to the apartment and fed Phil my leftover omelette.  Later we went to MITO to have ice cream and introduce our cousins to Helena. Then we went for a coffee.  On the way home we stopped at VINUM/PLAY to do some tasting. I left them there and went home to take a nap. They came home and had a bottle of sparkling wine and were on to leftover red before we left for dinner at AMARA. 

an amuse croqueta  to start-

then the tasting menu to follow-

Some folks really enjoyed the restaurant! LOL LOL LOL

Then on Sunday we went to Desacato for lunch -it was packed! We had Cecina, and tartare de atún rojo, and then three "mains" and then shared a dessert of the tarta de queso.... all very good. 

Dinner Sunday night was a winner. Our second time dining here and we are still very impressed. "Fuera de carte" ("Outside or Off  the menu") which means specials here, we had the steak, otherwise everything is marked. We also tried to order the croquetas de Atun (another special) but they had already sold out.  Everything was excellent. No photo of this tarta de queso and after the one at lunch it just couldn't compete but Christian missed the lunch one so we ordered it to make up for that. #cousinsvisit #familyinspain

The rain from the morning let up and the sun started to peek through the clouds.  It is supposed to get better all week! On Saturday we are headed to Cádiz. Meanwhile we are having coffee with Becky and some other classmates of hers on Monday. 

Photos - on the way to coffee on Monday...