Four days of tapas & canas frenzy in Madrid

Last weekend I had the great pleasure of spending four days in Madrid with two of my oldest and best friends. As usual, I was working and they were playing, which resulted in lots of fun. Some of it will show up in a newspaper near you sooner or later. Meanwhile, here is a small selection of photos.

Tapear in Sevilla

Arrived Sevilla today for three weeks of touring Southern Spain. I have seven stories to produce, so I am under no illusion that it will be relaxing. But it is of course fun anyway. We started with strolling around and having some tapas.

They say that tapas were invented here in Sevilla, and we did find some nice ones. But judging from what we have seen today, the undisputed kings of tapas (although they call it pintxos) are Bilbao and San Sebastian in Northern Spain (blog entry here).
Then again, Sevilla wins hands down when it comes to sights.

New Years party in Utrecht

New Years Eve! We went back to Ruth and Sander in Utrecht, who threw a combined New Years-party and housewarming party. Our mutual friends Nienke and Marten was also there. Together, we cooked Spanish tapas (I made albondigas – spicy meatballs in tomato sauce, and Femke made a lovely tortilla). Great food. At midnight, it was time for champagne and lots of fireworks. The neighbors had some serious large caliber-stuff, but Ruth also had a stockpile of crackers and rockets.

The rest of the night we danced and danced and danced. But somewhere after three in the morning, we ran out of energy and went to bed. A great party!

Femke and her lovely tortilla

Dancing all night

Femke throwing firecrackers