Check out this video of airplanes landing at the airport in St Martin. When I was in the Navy, my buddies and I sat on this beach and watched them come in.

In the video, you can see all sorts of tourists standing around, amazed at the proximity of the incoming planes.

When we were there, it was just a bunch of guys on the beach and it went more like:

“Wow, that runway comes all the way out to the……………HOLY CRAP!!”

Tonight, the Travel Channel showed the Madrid episode of Samantha Brown’s Passport to Europe. She toured the city, as she tends to do, and hit the usual spots you see on any travel show, places like the Prado, Retiro Park, etc.

Then she went into the food, glorious food. A big deal was made about the fact that the Spanish eat dinner at 10pm or so, preceding it with tapas and drink. Jen and I salivated as Samantha sampled chorizo al vino, calamares, and croquetas, then followed that up with a huge dish of paella.

However, the bit that moved us to act was about a favorite treat of ours when we are in Spain: Churros con Chocolate!

As soon as the segment was over, Jen asked me to find a recipe online. I did as I was told and found this (reproduced below after the jump, in case the site disappears). But then I took it to the next level; I said let’s make some now! Since fried carbohydrates covered in sugar accompanied by the thickest hot chocolate you’ve ever seen makes perfect sense at 9pm, I ran out to get a couple ingredients and voila!

If you’ve never had it, the chocolate is a thick, viscous beverage. I can’t really drink the stuff. As a matter of fact, I don’t recall ever finishing a cup, and tonight was no different. I tend to use it for dunking the churros into, as this is where it shines. Mmmm. See how it coats the spoon? We’ll be making this again.

While in Spain, Bri and I had it last in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain, next to the second-oldest hotel in the world (yes, we stayed there). In 2004, we enjoyed some in Barcelona on Las Ramblas. It was awesome, but we were essentially ripped off, having been charged just under $30 for two servings of churros con chocolate, two orange juices and a serving of toast (or something similar). Ah, the memories.

Check out the recipe below.

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While in Spain last year, Jen Bri and I stumbled upon a performance of traditional Galician dance. Jen, having been part of the Portuguese Club’s Rancho Folclórico, was ecstatic at having found something so similar yet so distinct from the portuguese style of dance.

Galicia is the region of Spain directly north of Portugal (see below). As you might imagine, the language, customs and cultural identifiers are similar to that of Portugal.

But surprisingly there is a Celtic influence in Galicia. It is evident in some of the food, even in the name of the region, but most of all, in Galicia’s music. You can detect obvious similarities to Celtic music through the use of bagpipes and other instruments I can’t name, but simply sound Irish. (Admittedly, Celtic is not synonymous with Irish, I’m just making an observation here.)

Getting back to the folkloric dancing, the Celtic influence is also readily apparent in the footwork and the costumes of the dancers. The dancers lifted their feet and performed turns which distinguishes this dance easily from that of the Portuguese to their south. One set of male performers even wore wooden shoes! I’m not sure if that is a Celtic trait, but it certainly separates them from the Portuguese.

Bri and I enjoyed it as much as Jen, although I think for slightly different reasons. In any case, I’m posting the first of several videos here, after the jump. I apologize for the low quality, but I only had my digital camera with me when I decided I wanted to record the performance for posterity.

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Jen tries to get Paulolo to run down the beach, as we had been doing for 10 minutes already. As soon as the camera was turned on, he refused.

Paulolo has eaten enough and decides to show me what he’s made of!!

my Costa Rican horse, Paulolo, didn’t like me very much!

Some of you may remember when I was sent to Madrid by my old employer. I had already planned a trip to Portugal with my father-in-law and his brother when I was informed that a customer needed an engineer in Spain. The dates coincided with my time in Portugal. I not only saved the frequent-flier miles I’d planned on using, but I earned many more! I felt like I’d won the lottery.

I ran across the pic above today at notesfrommadrid.com. It shows Madrid’s skyline as viewed from El Escorial, a town northwest of the city. While I was there, I worked in the Torre Picasso for a couple days, overlooking Real Madrid’s Bernabeu stadium. It was a ridiculously easy job, too. Ah, the memories!

First place is occupied by Hartford’s own La Paloma Sabanera. (here ya go, Luis, a little bit of Google juice for you). They’ve got it all: great friggin coffee, a cool atmosphere and free wifi.

Then, there’s Panera. They may not have the best coffee in the world, but this place is a traveling geek’s dream since they also offer free wifi. The agreement they flash in front of you before allowing access to the internet essentially says “Be courteous”, meaning don’t hog the big tables when we’re busy and you can stay as long as you like.

Even better, as I went up to the counter just now to order a coffee, the girl asked if I wanted it in a mug or a cup. I thought that odd since it was a couple minutes before 9pm, their closing time. When I pointed that out, she says “Oh we don’t kick anyone out…we’re here cleaning until at least 10pm anyway”. Man, that’s just awesome.

Take this as a lesson, Starbucks! You charge more for wifi as you do for your over-rated coffee and for that reason I’ve *always* headed to the nearest Panera when I’m on the road and in need of wifi. Bitches.

Here are our photos from this summer’s trip to Europe! (click on the photo below)
I do have some videos that I’ll be posting as well. Watch this space!

Well, the flight to Portugal left something to be desired. The service was lacking and there were no updates from the pilot for the entire flight, which made for a boring, long flight. It’s only saving grace was the fact that it was free. That’s the last time I’ll bring that up, I promise.

Oh, and some woman who couldn’t be bothered to slide a latch yelled at me when I assumed ‘Vacant’ meant exactly that and opened the lavatory door. Believe me, lady, I could have done without the horrible image of an old woman, mid-wipe.

As soon as Portugal knocked the Dutch out of the World Cup, we began to look forward to arriving here to watch Portugal play England in the quarter-finals. Although, I knew it would be pretty cool to sit at a bar and watch the game surrounded by locals, I was still somewhat unprepared for what we experienced afterward. The game was a gut-wrencher, with no goals through regulation and two overtime periods. There was one goal by Portugal, actually, late in the game, but it was disallowed because someone was offsides. Anyway, I was in absolute agony. I was so afraid England might break through and score the 1st goal. In the end, they were again sent home on penalty kicks! Portugal pulled off a huge win, and the locals went nuts!

I went somewhat hoarse screaming along with all the portuguese in celebration. I met someone today who apparently screamed his head off, he could barely talk a day later.

Mira de Aire, the town my father-in-law is from, went crazy happy. People began driving through the streets honking their horns, people hung from car windows and sunroofs waving flags and banners. There were fireworks being set off. It was pretty damn cool. Bri was taken aback by the whole thing, I had to remind her that the rest of the world is absolutely fanatical about soccer (football).

For now, since I´m running out of time, I´ll post some pictures right here. I have a short video I´ll post when I have more time. More to come later….