Tuesday, July 31, 2007

A day trip to Lleida

There are many places we have yet to visit and less than 2 hours north of us is the city of Lleida which is in the west of Cataluña. With today being our wedding anniversary, (36 years!), we decided to have a day out and so set off this morning on a very pleasant route through the countryside to Lleida.


One of the highlights of this city is the Cathedral which stands on the highest point.


Inside the church, various old relics of interest are displayed,
NB that comment refers to the picture below.



This is the type of fountain that we want as a feature in our garden!

Another great menu del día (at the Hotel Zenit) - I'm having the roast beef and potato crisps!

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Lunch with the campers!

Got a phone call from Jordi this morning inviting us to join him and Floyd with Rosi and Pablo with their friends from Valdealgorfa who were camping by the river in a nice shady spot just outside our village. Although this was very short notice we knew what to expect as it would be just the same as last year when we did something similar.

Every year for the last 5 years Rosi and Pablo's friends, around 3 families, come from their village of Valdealgorfa to camp in the same spot. Valdealgorfa, by the way, is about 15 minutes from us. They set up their tents and a long table with side benches which is inside a netted area to keep the flies away. The very large net is one of those for gathering up the olives after they have been beaten from the trees at harvesting time in December and is very effective at creating a "no-fly" zone so that you can eat in the open air without being disturbed.

Last year we had a paella - this year there was a change to the menu and we had a stew of potato, bits of lamb and caracols, (snails), (freshly caught from the surrounding woods), and artichoke hearts.


Here's Floyd and me sitting inside the large netted area waiting for the snail stew to be served...

...and Margaret with tents.

"More snails for me please Rosi!"

And the legend of the Spanish Robin Hood is born.


I have eaten better/different snails, (in France already out of their shells and individually cooked in the oven with garlic butter), but these were quite tasty! What will they cook up for us next year? - possibly crickets or water rats if they could catch them!

Sunday, July 8, 2007

The meal for the "mujeres"

The womens group had arranged to meet for a meal at the village restaurant / bar at 21.00 on Saturday 7th July to mark the end of the year for their painting and restoration classes.


It is just impossible to get 19 women all talking and eating to look at the camera at once!

So here's the view from the other end of the table - it seems that those furthest away from the camera seem to know what's going on at least!

Lola, Rosi and Margaret taking a break for the camera between conversation and eating!
¡Muy guapa!
And a very good time was had by all!!