Hanging out + Casares and Estepona

Today we’d elected to take it easy, since the past two days had involved a lot of time in the car, which was hard on Yelena. We hung around, wrote and read, played with the baby, swam, walked, that sort of thing, until quite late in the day. Lunch ended up being an assortment of whatever was around the apartment, rather than an organized meal.

When we did leave, we headed to the pretty pueblo blanco of Casares, which is quite nearby and recommended as a beautiful place to see. And it is a beautiful place to see – improbably cradled on a ridge coming off a mountain, streets going here and there, up and down, with beautiful views of green fields, large white wind turbines, Gibraltar, and the mountains of Ceuta and Morocco.

What Casares did not have was open restaurants. There were restaurants everywhere, but every last one was closed, so we eventually left town and headed to central Estepona, the town in which our resort is located.

Downtown Estepona is quite nice, and very pretty in parts. We found a little square filled with plants, called Plaza de Flores (“Square of Flowers”), and ate in a restaurant on it, called Meson Cordobés. It was decent, but we could have done better with more time and less hunger. I had an ensalada andaluza (lettuce, onion, tomato, and tuna) followed by a tasty dish of pork chunks cooked in a house sauce with cumin in it. Eric had a fish soup that he enjoyed very much, followed by the same pork dish. Eli had a goat cheese and tomato salad, followed by a steak with “paté sauce” (“salsa paté”), which was very much like bearnaise sauce, and was good. Mila had an ensalada de la casa, which was like mine but also had shredded beets, hearts of palm, corn kernels, and other goodies in it, followed by fried fresh anchovies with olive oil and vinegar, which had been recommended by the host. The anchovies were a bit much, but we asked for lemon and then they were pretty tasty. Still, a plate with nothing on it but fried anchovies is an odd dinner. Eric and Eli had beer to start with, while I had manzanilla (or possibly just fino, though I ordered manzanilla); we shared a bottle of Rioja with dinner. For dessert Mila and Eric each had a flan, which was a huge disappointment.

We are home now, and it remains to be seen if Yelena will go to sleep easily.

Labels: journal, personal, spain

posted by Tony at 11:57 PM