Month: September 2015

Thieves and Vandals

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DonQui knows that the Vandals took over much of Spain in the early 5th century. He thinks that some of their descendants still live their today.
Continuing his tale of car woes — in Tarragona the radio antenna and front licence plate were stolen from his car while it was parked overnight.

car1
In Granada DonQui woke up to find that thieves had smashed in the back window and then attempted to access the boot by pulling down the back seat to see if there was anything there worth stealing.

car3a

There wasn’t but the bright Gold Car sticker on the back had obviously told thieves that it was a rented car and may have stuff inside.

car2
Now DonQui had a car without a back window. As he previously pointed out in All that is Gold Does not Glisten what he thought was full insurance was anything but.

Taking a deep breath he called Gold Car.

A very nice lady on the other end of the line told DonQui to take the car to Granada airport where it would be exchanged for a new one.

So far so good.

At Granada airport there was again a big queue at the counter. When DonQui got to the front an angry man told him he would have to wait until all other customers had been dealt with.
“We have to do a long report because of all the damage you have done to the car,” he barked.
When DonQui pointed out that he did not do any damage the man simply replied that it was DonQui’s fault for not taking out extra insurance on top of the extra insurance he already had and that he should go and wait in the café until they were ready to deal with his case.
Half an hour later a different man (not so angry) told DonQui that they were ready for him. He again pointed out that as DonQui did not have insurance with them he would have to pay for the damage himself and then try to claim it back of the non-insurance he had taken out with rental cars.com.

He told DonQui that he had two choices:
1: get it fixed himself and the man at the counter gave DonQui an address – CarGlass – where it could be done; or
2: They would exchange the car in which case they would charge more than what it actually cost to fix and “an additional €42 per day that the car could not be rented our while waiting to be fixed.”

“How long might that be?” DonQui ventured.

The man shrugged — a few days? a few weeks? He did not know.

DonQui went for option 1.

He now has a plastic rear side window fitted by the very friendly and efficient people at CarGlass and is waiting for the real window to come in. The men at Car Glass pointed out that Gold Car was actually fully covered for glass on their insurance policy so even though they would have charged DonQui huge sums it would have cost them nothing to fix it.

The Moral to the Donkey’s Tail

Before signing up for any extra insurance policy from any of the car rental websites check out the details and make sure that you understand the fine print. All the web booking sites such as rentalcars.com and holidayautos.co.uk seem to offer full insurance when in fact they are selling a separate policy to cover you if you have to pay something for not having insurance. Even when you read the fine print this may not be obvious as the websites dress it up to look very much like full insurance buy using words such as “full protection”.

By all means use web comparison sites to see what is available but if you want full insurance in most cases you will need to buy it from the car rental company.

If you rent from a budget company such as Gold Car, be aware that, like Ryanair, they make money by selling you all the extras such as a tank of petrol, drop off charges and their overpriced insurance policies. It may end up being cheaper, not to say less frustrating, to go to a larger more established company. Also many budget companies are off site in big airports like Heathrow so it may also involve a shuttle bus trip as well.

In Spain Gold Car’s low starting prices seem to ensure there will be very long queues at the airport and you may have to wait an hour or two before you get to pick up your car.

Car theft is a major problem in Spain so never leave anything at all inside the car. If you can take off all advertising stickers that tell would be thieves that it is a rented car.

Best Meal in Spain so Far

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Before DonQui continues his tale of car woes, he would like to talk about something more pleasant, namely food.

meal1
Spanish meals and meal times are quite different from what DonQui is used to. As he already observed in The Importance of Breakfast, in Spain this is barely more than caffeine and a snack. The big meal of the day is lunch, usually from 2-4pm. This is a little later than DonQui is used to but as he rarely has much lunch at home anyway, waiting an extra hour for a substantial multi-course meal is no great hardship.

meal2

The evening meal is even later with restaurants rarely serving food before 9pm. Usually this is lighter fare such as a few tapas with drinks. Once he got into the rhythm of it, and made the long leisurely lunch his main food focus of the day, DonQui found the Spanish meal times quite satisfying.

The food on offer in Seville was universally good and excellent value for money. Even in the fairly obvious tourist haunts the prices were reasonable, atmosphere excellent and the quality high. Some were better than others but DonQui never had a bad meal there.meal3

Without a doubt DonQui’s most outstanding dining experience in Seville was at the Puerta Osario Restrobar. It was evening, it was raining and the Puerta Osario was just around the corner from the apartment he was staying at. He had not looked it up on TripAdvisor nor checked out their reputation anywhere else in advance. His choice was based on the simple practicality of not wanting to go very far on a rainy evening. And what a fabulous choice it was too.
Food service began at 9:00 pm. DonQui had arrived a bit earlier and was content to sip a fine glass of red wine while he waited and have a look at the blackboards which displayed the food and drink on offer.

He and Duchess ordered 3 tapas which arrived one after the other, each one for sharing:

meal4
mushroom risotto which was exquisite…

meal5
chicken skewers with oriental vegetables which was equally good — as you can see they were mostly eaten before DonQui got around to taking a photo…

wild boar
and wild boar filet on a bed of sliced potatoes which was to die for!
The boar meat was succulent, tender and juicy. Deep red in colour it had a rich taste without being gamey. Most of the ‘wild’ boar one gets in the UK is farmed and as a result is relatively pale and more like pork. Proper wild boar which has been roaming the forests of Spain like this one, is closer to beef and venison. The dish was mane-curlingly good and after three such excellent small dishes DonQui was feeling satisfied but not bloated. He had just enough room to finish things off with a shared chocolate mouse with a gorgeous raspberry concoction underneath.

desert
The atmosphere was understatedly cool, with a friendly unobtrusive vibe. All of this for a very modest price.
Worth going to Seville for!

DonQui Recommends:

Puerta Osario Restrobar for exquisite haut cuisine tapas in the evening. During the day it is a great café where one can come to have a drink, read, write or chat with friends. It is also open for coffee in the morning.

Carmen’s lovely apartment just around the corner available on Airbnb

All that is Gold does not Glisten

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DonQui wanted to get around and see a bit of the Spanish countryside so he looked on line to see what a rental car would cost him. He saw what looked like a pretty good deal on rentalcars.com £75.00 for 8 days, pick up at Seville and drop off at Alicante with “Damage Excess Refund — Full Protection.”
What could possibly go wrong?
Well quite a lot actually.

car rental 1

DonQui’s heart sank when he saw the queue at Seville airport. The car was booked with GoldCar and if DonQui had read the reviews on TripAdvisor he would have avoided them like the plague.

car rental 2
It took one and a half hours before DonQui made it to the front of the queue. There were three people working at the counter but it took them ages to process each person.

car rental 3

DonQui cast his eyes dolefully at the other rental car counters – no queues and when someone approached they were processed quickly and efficiently.

“You do not have full insurance,” the man behind the counter said after signing, photocopying and doing all kinds of stuff with lots of pieces of paper. “We recommend you take out ours.”

“Ah… but I do have full insurance,” DonQui replied smartly. He handed over the voucher, feeling pleased that he had signed up for the full coverage when he booked on-line. It cost more than the daily rental but he felt it was better not to take any chances.

“This is not insurance, this is ‘damage excess protection,” explained the gruff man across the counter.

Surely this was the same thing.

No it wasn’t at all.

The ‘non-policy’ that DonQui had bought from rentalcars.com had been dressed up to look like a full insurance policy but if he had read the fine print DonQui would have realised that it provided no coverage at all. What it did say it would do was to reimburse DonQui if he had to pay any excess to Gold Cars in case of accident or theft. They would take a €950 deposit, or block a credit card for that amount, and if something went wrong DonQui would have to pay and then try to claim it back from rentalcars.com.

The man behind the counter gave DonQui a rather patronising look and again recommended taking out additional insurance.

Not wanting to throw good money after bad, DonQui declined.

“Now you just need to pay for the tank of petrol,” gruff man informed him, “…And the drop off cost at Alicante.” That came to €100 each. When DonQui snorted in protest, gruff man tapped on the fine print in the contract. Gold Car’s policy was to sell you a tank of petrol at double the price and then the renter can return the car empty rather than the usual return with full tank. Although the car had been booked from Seville to Alicante for the £75 price quoted by rentalcars.com at the bottom of the contract was the note that explained the requirement to pay the car rental company an additional drop off charge. Gruff man’s face had an even more patronising look than before.
More than two hours after joining the queue at Seville airport DonQui was finally in the car and on his way to Granada.

“Thank God that is over, DonQui thought to himself,” with a sigh of relief.

However his car troubles were only just beginning!

To be continued…

Seville

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So what did DonQui get up to in Seville? Well, the usual tourist stuff…

Alcazar

He visited the Real Alcázar and was amazed at the incredibly fine Moorish architecture

gardens

…and the maze of gardens with their fountains, pools and wide variety of plants. He could have spent all day there but after a while his feet began to hurt and he felt in need to a drink.

Sangria

A glass of sangria did the job rather well

gates

Then he went inside the huge cathedral and saw that the gates to heaven were apparently closed for the moment.
altar gold
He also considered the huge amount of stolen Inca gold that it had taken to decorate the altar and .wondered how many donkeys it had taken to carry it all away.

cc tomb

And he saw Christopher Columbus’ final resting place, after a journey that took the explorer’s bones from Seville to Santo Domingo, then to Cuba and finally back to Seville again.

roof top

He climbed to the top of the Giralda tower (once a minaret of a Mosque) and looked out at the city below him.

bells

His head rang along with the bells as they chimed the quarter hour and DonQui was rather glad that he had not found himself in the bell tower at 12 noon.

carriage

In the afternoon Duchess fancied a horse drawn carriage ride around the town. Horses tend to take on a rather superior attitude towards donkeys so DonQui thought it a rather fine idea to sit back in comfort while letting a snooty horse do all the work for a change.

santa cruz

Later he wandered around the winding lanes of the Santa Cruz area, had a glass of wine or two and a few tapas before heading home.

waiter

it was a bit touristy but it was atmospheric too and without any of the kitsch and tackiness that is all to often prevalent in such places. The prices of food and drink were very reasonable and the quality high.

The Importance of Breakfast

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Breakfast is very important to DonQui. Almost as soon as he wakes he is thinking about what he wants to eat. If he goes too long without breakfast — say more than 20 minutes after waking — then Mr Grumpy shows up and DonQui is really not worth knowing at all.
His favourite breakfast is without a doubt buttermilk pancakes with blueberries, crispy bacon, lashings of butter, and swimming in proper maple syrup — none of the artificial stuff thank you very much!

Pancakes

French toast (well soaked before cooking) is a close second, tied with scrambled eggs on toast, both with crispy bacon. And DonQui also quite enjoys a full English every once in a while with fried egg (on toast) back bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans and maybe black pudding.
Of course he would be a very large donkey indeed if he ate this sort of thing every day, so on a regular basis he is quite happy with his own muesli mixture (with blueberries) or maybe a bowl of porridge on a cold winter’s day.

Image DonQui’s dismay, therefore, when he heard that the Spanish don’t really do breakfast. At best he could expect a cup of coffee and maybe a piece of toast or something similarly dull and uninteresting.

breakfast 1
Around the corner from where he was staying in Seville there was a small café/bakery called Cupcakes and Go which billed itself in an unusual multilingual style as

slogan

Here he waited with some trepidation to see if a Spanish breakfast was really as dull as it sounded.
His spirits rose when he saw what came. It may not have been pancakes and maple syrup but it actually looked rather good. Fresh squeezed orange juice, toasted rolls with olive oil and tomato pulp and superb café con leche would see him through to lunch without too much hardship after all.

breakfast 2

DonQui Recommends

Cupcakes and Go for great coffee, toast, croissants and, yes, cup cakes too. They also have a small selection of ice-cream All for very reasonable prices.

Midnight Ice Cream

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Rayas

DonQui is rather fond of ice cream, especially coffee flavour. Imagine his delight when he found Rayas (Calle Almirante Apodaca, 1, Seville) open until midnight. And most excellent ice cream it was too — amongst the best he had ever tasted.

Some time ago an Italian gave DonQui a tip. If you want to know if the ice cream on sale is made with all natural ingredients have a look to see if they have banana flavour. It the banana ice cream is grey then it is made with real fruit as banana turns grey when oxidised. If the banana ice cream is yellow then it is made with artificial ingredients or preservatives and it is a safe bet that the same is true for other flavours.

ice cream

Sure enough Rayas’ banana (platano in Spanish – front and centre) is grey and therefore DonQui knew that they used natural, fresh ingredients.

While on the subject of bananas, if you peel and cut them up for later use, a bit of lemon juice will prevent them from turning grey. The same applies for other fruits like pears and apples.

On to Seville

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It is a bit crowded in here DonQui thinks to himself while wondering at the propensity of humans to squeeze themselves into very small places.

fly to Seville

He is flying from Barcelona to Seville on Vueling Airlines. They are a budget airline apparently. As a creature who likes his comfort DonQui does not like the sound of that. First Class is the style he wishes to become accustomed to.

premium traveller

Fortunately he has a little black card which gives him free access to airport lounges. Earlier, when he showed it to the nice lady at the desk he suddenly became a ‘premium traveller.’ DonQui was very pleased that the humans treated him as special rather than herding him around the terminal like any ordinary donkey. With the help of a glass of cava even forgot for a moment that he would soon be flying on a budget airline.

The flight actually wasn’t bad and 90 minutes later DonQui is in Seville with plenty of time to explore and have a drink or two before tucking into tapas. First impressions are favourable: interesting narrow streets with something new to see around every corner.

seville street 2

More importantly there seem to be lots of tempting bars and restaurants.

Seville street 1

A beer or two later at the rather pleasant Milagritos Restaurant in sight of the cathedral, DonQui saw a sign advertising local flamingos at 21:00. This rather puzzled him. It was not clear whether they were on the menu or on show. Either way DonQui decided he needed to find out.

Milagritos

Duchess told him that he was a silly donkey and that flamingos and flamencos were not in any way related. Neither were on the menu but one was on show. And a very impressive show it was too.

flamenco1

It could have been cheesy and overly touristy but instead it was a very intimate performance delivered with great passion and emotion. The evening included 3 tapas per person for €15 and the food was good if not truly excellent. DonQui particularly liked the chicken with ceps (a type of mushroom), the pork in sweet wine sauce and chicken paella were also very good.

flamenco3

After the meal DonQui was offered a brandy on the house. It was a very nice gesture even if it did taste of toffee and old straw with a bouquet that reminded him of his stable back home.

brandy

All in all a very good night out.

DonQui Recommends:

Milagritos Restaurant (Alemanes 35, Seville) for its excellent location, friendly staff and wonderful flamenco. Despite the prime tourist area the prices were reasonable and there was a wide variety of descent tapas on offer.

Priority Pass is definitely worth having if you can get one free with your bank account or with some other incentive. It lets you into lounges worldwide even if traveling on cheap fares and budget airlines. Whether it is worth the full list price of £250 (prices vary according to country) is another matter altogether.

Tarragona

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DonQui Oaty is rather sad to be leaving Tarragona. He really liked it there and vows to come back soon.
What was so good about it? Well lots really

Ampitheatre
The old city is a Roman walled town. Now for some uncountable reason DonQui rather likes old stuff – particularly Roman old stuff. Tarragona has lots of it with walls, amphitheatre, circus, underground passages and an OK museum.

cathedral

A pretty impressive Cathedral

donkey
It is compact, easily walkable and has lots of good restaurants, bars and cafés, all of which are in trotting distance from one another. Donkeys are welcome.

forum
The old Roman forum is great for tapas in the evening or a coffee in the morning. DonQui tried out many of the places surrounding the forum but would have had to stay another week to try all of them. He rather liked the local Vermut (Vermouth) served neat, in a tumbler full of ice, garnished with olives and a slice of orange. He was also quite taken with the local Montsant wine.

tower2

The humans there do lots of fun thinks like building towers…

dragon

dressing up as dragons…

drums

banging on drums and making lots of noise…

dance

and dancing in the street.

beach
DonQui rather liked the beaches. The Costa Daurada, or Gold Coast, stretches for 15kms to the north of Tarragona. The beaches are all soft golden sand and barely a Brit, German or Russian tourist in sight. DonQui tried out Platja del Miracle in Tarragona which was OK, the 3km long Platja Llarga which was great and the smaller Platja del Móra about 10kms out of town which was also great.

apt view

What was not so good?
Parking was impossible. Not that DonQui needed a car in Tarragona. However, it did make it easier to get to the out of town beaches. In most cases it would be better to take a train from Barcelona but be aware that the fast train from Barcelona stops at Tarragona Camp which is 20 minutes out of town. The stopping train goes into the town proper.

Useful links

The Tarragona blog

Tarragona beaches

Ale and Hops

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Ale

DonQui’s step quickened as he approached the shop in Tarragona. This is my sort of place, he thought.…an emporium dedicated to ale, hops and the joy of the fermented grain. Maybe it would be as good as the Adnams store in Southwold — one of his favourite shops anywhere.

Ale hop full

He couldn’t work out what the cow was doing in the entrance, nor why so many women seemed to be heading inside, leaving their men to wait impatiently on the street. In his experience men seemed to get much more excited about beer than women. Perhaps in Spain things were different.

Imagine DonQui’s huge disappointment when he went inside and there was not a single bottle of beer to be seen—just lots of girly Stuff and nothing of any use to DonQui at all.

dejected

Duchess was happy though. She bought Stuff while DonQui sat on a step opposite feeling more than a little dejected and wondering when beer time would come around again.

Arròs negre

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DonQui realises that he has not talked much about food yet. This is quite unusual as he has food thoughts most of the time.

One of his greatest joys when travelling comes from trying out new dishes and his stay in Tarragona was no different.

Duchess rather fancied a paella but the set menu at the inviting looking Cucafera Restaurant near the cathedral caught DonQui’s eye. For €15 he could have arròs negre – a paella-like dish of rice cooked with squid ink along with a starter and desert. With house wine at €9 a bottle it was too good to pass up.

cucafera starter

The mussels DonQui chose for his starter were amongst the best he had ever had. Their taste reminded him of the sea. Duchess, who had a mediterranean salad with tuna, found them a bit  too salty but she thoroughly enjoyed her salad.

black rice

This black rice looks… well rather black… and very shiny, DonQui thinks as he contemplates the dish in front of him. But when he tucked in he released that it was even better than meadow hay. Strips of squid were hidden amongst the rice, the dish had a deep rich flavour and the seafood was cooked perfectly. To DonQui’s mind it did not surpass the beautiful saffron taste of a good paella but he was very glad to have tried it.

cucafera wine 1

The house wine was a local Montsant – not a wine DonQui was familiar with. The grapes are grown just a little inland from Tarragona and this particular bottle was a full bodied mellow red which went very well with the arròs negre.

cucafera wine 2

It went down so well that by the end of a long leisurely lunch DonQui was left with the feeling that he should look for a nice shady tree to lie down under for an hour or two.

DonQui recommends

Cucafera Restaurant for a long leisurely lunch outside under an awning on Place Santiago Rusinyol in front of the cathedral.

Pulvinar, Carrer dels Ferrers, 20, 43003 Tarragona. Owned by the same people as Cucafera but equally as good. They also have pizza which DonQui did not try.