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.

Pintxos-munching in San Sebastian

San Sebastian is an old world beach resort of the more posh kind. Or it used to be. It is still a very pleasant place though, and foremost, it is the epicentre of the pintxos culture.
Naturally, we did our very best to taste our way through the maze of pintxos bars in the old city, something that one should probably not do everyday, desirable as it is.

We also visited a private gastronomical club, and of course the local market.

Food and design in Bilbao

Still in Bilbao, strolling around in summer weather and having a good time. Today, we visited the Guggenheim Museum, which is as gorgeous on the inside as it is externally. The exhibitions are not as cool (with some exceptions, like the huge plates of steel, shaped in to curvy figures), it is the house that’s the masterpiece here.

In the evening, we dined at the Michelin-starred Etxanobe Restaurant, a fascinating experience. Most odd was the “potato cloud”.

We polished off the evening with some more bars, for my cocktail story of course. What else?

Bilbao

After less than 40 hours at home, I’m off again. This time, luckily, Femke can join me. We are in Bilbao, the capital of the Basque region of Spain, to do a cocktail guide and a story about the food and drink culture here. I tell you, it’s hard work.

So we have been going from pinxtos bar (pinxtos being the local version of tapas) too pinxtos bar, and then cramming in a few cocktail bars in between. Very taxing.

We also passed the stunning Guggenheim Museum, but wont visit it until tomorrow.