A Few Days into Spain

A Magnificent day, with the clearest blue sky and even frost on the windshield. We drove a few kilometers to Torroella de Montgri for the weekly market laced through the narrow streets of the old center of town. I found two little health food stores each with their own specialties, and a charcuterie with local, gourmet items including sea salt from the Spanish island of Ibiza, and sheep milk yogurt. A bakery selling fair trade (comercio justo) food items and delectable fresh bread (full of gluten – not for me), were on the main avenue. The market had a plaza full of food vendors and one in particular was busy with customers – and the older woman whose stand it was clearly had the most beautiful produce. I purchased an enormous bag of chard greens for .86 cents.
After the market, we walked on the beach for about two miles past Les Illes Medes, rocky islands just off the shore of L’Etartit, that are protected underwater nature reserves, and are full of divers and snorkelers in the summer months.
After lunch, we hopped on our high-handled touring bikes and rode into our little village for some agua con gas con limon (fizzy water with lemon)while we checked our email at the wifi bar. Then onto the little local shops for our dinner—at the charcuterie we marveled as the butcher masterfully cut up rabbit and chicken for the customer ahead of us, but we opted only for some sheep cheese, local eggs and butter.

Is it Heaven or Spain?

Saturday was our first real day in Spain since yesterday was arrival day and I was still very in the altered state zone of exhaustion, disbelief, and what adrenaline rush my body could muster. The connection on Swiss was, not surprisingly, a breeze and made the trip to Barcelona short and sweet with incredible views of the Alps.
We were picked up at the airport by our host, we didn’t see anything of Barcelona except a distant view of Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia. Our host drove at about 160k/h but my airplane meds were still in effect so it seemed to not phase me.

The house is in the middle of fields and much is merely plowed up earth waiting for the coming crop to be planted. Formerly a stone “ruin’, the house is now a lovely renovated casa/villa with separated living quarters connected by grand rooms and a long, large, bright kitchen designed for entertaining. The renovated barn at one end houses the master bedroom as well as a huge open living room. Native clay tile-brick floors are throughout and domed brick ceilings are in three of the rooms. The old barn has its original post and beams exposed. Beautiful original paintings done by the owner, an accomplished, professional painter, adorn the walls.

Our bedroom/living room is ample but not huge. Since we are traveling very lightly it works. Our kitchen is tiny, but has everything we need. Certainly it is bigger than many New York apartments. The rest of the house is quite spacious with large airy rooms, and is clearly designed for entertaining and vacationing.
After a late meal (but quite early by Spanish standards) of chicken curry and rice, vino tinto, and uno poquito café, we all fell dead asleep on our comfortable beds and could barely move after twelve hours of shut-eye. We forced ourselves up and set off to explore the villages around us of which there are three. L’Escala is an old port town, now mostly filled with modern apartment buildings for the onslaught of summer tourists. There are three large foreign owned supermarkets which have a tiny amount of things I was interested in – the gluten-free baguettes and croissants were high on that list. The organic Spanish olive oil was only 4.25 Euros for a 500ml bottle and the local red wine (vino tinto) was 3 Euros a bottle.
By the time we went through the village of Torroella de Montgri everything was closed for the usual 1:30-4:30 siesta and lunchtime. We carried on past Torroella to l’Estartit and parked at the sea. We could have walked for miles (I think almost ten to be exact) on the flat sandy beach, but instead just took a ten-minute stroll along the rolling waves. We were saving ourselves for the walk into our closest village. Once back at our casa, we had a snack of goat cheese (queso de cabra), gluten-free baguette, and the freshest, sweetest Spanish clementine oranges. We then headed off on our twenty-five minute walk to Bellcaire d’Emporda, our local village. A tiny village filled with stone buildings, it has our three favorite stores thus far. One is Santi, a charcuterie with local delights. We bought queso de obeja (sheep cheese), pesto, rice grown in the region, and a special salami made from Iberian pigs. Our next stop was a café/bar with free wifi and delicious espresso for 1 euro – strong enough that three of us could share the tiny cup and all feel the effects of the caffeine. We bought two Cuban cigars (because we could) and checked email. We then walked up and over through residential areas and picked an orange from a tree overhanging the street. We passed a beautiful home, one that could be my dream home if it had just a little more yard. We walked home along a tree-lined canal on a muddy clay-dirt road with the sun setting ahead of us.
Once home I cooked our local rice, with local zucchini – hard and fresh- served with melted queso de oveja, pesto (some of the best I’ve ever had), fresh, orange peppers grown in Valencia Spain (four hours south of here), and just a few slices of chopped Iberian salami as topping. Wow – so simple, so local, so fresh, and so good! For dessert we experimented with a local sheep milk product called cuajada de oveja – a cross between a custard and a yogurt with no eggs – very bland, but divine with grated chocolate on top, which is just what we had – yum! The cuajada is sold in a red crock jar at the grocery store. Did I mention the delicious – truly – 3 Euro bottle of vino tinto we had with dinner? Are we in heaven? Well if not heaven, certainly Spain and we feel fully here now after our first day.

Portland Awesome Food, Health & More

Portland is over the top in terms of fresh, local sustainably grown food. Some highlights are listed here, but you almost can't go wrong in Portland, so eat up and enjoy... and try not to miss the farmers market!

You can eat breakfast and lunch at the renowned Bijou Café serving up organic and local foods– get there before 2 or else you will miss out. Bijou Café, 132 SW Third Ave, Portland; Tel: 503-222-3187; Open 7:00am – 2:00pm daily.
Two other restaurants especially known for good fresh, local meals include Higgins, 1239 SW Broadway, 503-222-9070, and Paley’s Place, 1204 NW 21st, 503-243-2403.

If you have a soft spot for food resembling fast food or diner-style, Portland has Burgerville, a “fast-food” chain using local, sustainable products in their natural beef burgers, ice cream milkshakes and smoothies. Flavors vary seasonally based on available ingredients. When I was there in November, pumpkin was the flavor du jour. The pumpkins are grown by Stahlbush Farms committed to sustainable farming. Burgerville uses recycled paper napkins, supports wind power, converts their used cooking oil to biodiesel fuel, offers free wifi, and has real juke boxes. For locations and more information see www.burgerville.com

Local health foods stores include New Seasons Markets which are locally owned and operated with nine stores in the Portland area, and Food Front Cooperative with two stores in Portland. Not surprisingly, you can also find Whole Foods and plenty of small specialty food stores. New Seasons Markets - www.newseasonsmarket.com; Open 8am-10pm; Food Front Cooperative – www.FoodFront.coop; open daily from 8:00am to 9:00pm.

Portland’s Farmers Markets rival any I have seen in Europe with an abundance of fresh, local and mostly organic foods from meats, cheeses, fruits and vegetables to coffees and oils. Open seasonally at different locations on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. See the website for more information www.PortlandFarmersMarket.org.

A very special store is in the northern part of the city in the neighborhood known as Mississippi. The Meadow sells salt, chocolate, wine and flowers from all over the world. It is a must stop for any salt connoisseur. The Meadow, 3731 N. Mississippi Avenue, Portland 97227; Tel: 888-388-4633; www.atthemeadow.com. Check out the Askinosie chocolate made with goat milk – it is incredible! (www.askinosie.com)

While Seattle may have Starbucks, Portland has Stumptown – the way hip, fair-trade, groovy coffee extraordinaire. Stumptown has cafes all over Portland, plus you can buy coffee by the pound in every health food and specialty store. Check it out - www.stumptowncoffee.com.

Gluten-Free eaters – don’t miss the breads and treats from New Cascadia Traditional: The Gluten-Free Artisans, a dedicated gluten-free bakery making out-of-this-world, hard-to-find, gluten-free sourdough and baguette breads. I was so mad I only bought one loaf at the farmers market. You can now buy all their products at the farmers market and their new retail store. New Cascadia Traditional, NW Glisan St. (between NW 21st & 22nd Ave, next to Trader Joes), Portland, OR 97208, Tel: 503-887-4392; NewCascadia@hotmail.com; www.newcascadiatraditional.com. Open Tuesday to Friday from 11:00am to 6:00 pm and Saturday from 11:00am to 5:30pm

Another over the top treat is the smoked salmon and salmon “jerky” from The Smokery. Made by an Irish couple who moved to Oregon and employ their Irish traditions in the smoking of Pacific Northwest Salmon. Available at the farmer’s market and online at www.thesmokery.com.

Portland is home to one of the few accredited Naturopathic Medical Colleges in the United States, the National College of Natural Medicine (www.ncnm.edu) so alternative health services are prevalent in the city. For Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture, Massage and Naturopathic care including nutritional infusions there is the Mississippi Health Center, 4631 N. Albina, Portland, OR 97217; Tel: 503-282-5358; www.mississippihealthcenter.com; Open Monday- Saturday by appointment and also walk-in herbal consults.
The Pearl Health Center in, you guessed it, the Pearl District, offers allopathic and alternative care. They offer a prepaid health plan as well as pay as you go. The Pearl Health Center, 721 NW 9th Ave., Suite 100A, Portland; Tel: 503-525-0090; www.pearlhealthcenter.com.

Other great resources:
• Pittmon Map Company, 825 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland; 503-233-2207
• Redirect Guide for Portland and Vancouver areas, a one-inch thick business directory of all things green, www.redirectguide.com available free at many stores.
• The entire Oregon coast is free and open to everybody- www.visittheoregoncoast.com
• Edible Portland quarterly free magazine with articles and ads from many of the wonderful natural, local foods restaurants and businesses – www.edibleportland.com
• The Portland Red Guide, written by retired political science professor, Michael Munk, offers a guide through the radical history of Portland

Portland, Oregon Gets the Green Thumbs Up

The overnight train from California to Portland is comfortable and easy. It leaves California in the evening so you get a whole day of visiting and touring in. You must have reservations. I boarded in San Jose after visiting the Santa Cruz, Carmel, and Monterey areas. I did not have a sleeper but rather a reclining seat (actually two seats since the train was not full). The Amtrak train is called the Coast Starlight and the cost is $79 from San Jose to Portland, Oregon - about a nineteen-hour ride. Not only is the carbon footprint much smaller by train than by air travel, but the scenery is not to believed! Once you wake up in the daylight in northern California you see Mt Shasta, and then onto the farm and wild lands of Oregon including Klamath Lake.

Portland is a fun and easy city - really not large at all by city standards and very accessible. Bikers predominate, while the public bus system – Tri-Met –seems too go everywhere and offers user-friendly web sites and maps for navigating the city ($2.30/ride).

There is no sales tax in Oregon, which is quite noticeable if you have just come from California or points east. The city is designed in a grid with the river as its center – so there is Northwest, Southwest, Northeast and Southeast. The east to west dividing line is the river; the north south line is Burnside Ave., making it very easy to navigate.

Portland is a green traveler’s delight. Bike paths are everywhere, as is public transport, and there are loads of wonderful local foods and stores. Book lovers shouldn’t miss Powell’s Books. The main store takes up a full city block and you will need the free store maps that are provided at the counters to guide you. Powell’s sells new and used books intermixed and it is all somewhat overwhelming, but fabulous – booklovers will feel like kids in a candy store. There are smaller Powell’s outlets around the city including one at the airport. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W. Burnside Street (in the Pearl District), Downtown Portland; Tel: 503-228-4651; www.powells.com. Open 9am to 1pm everyday.

You can walk through the Japanese Gardens that sit on a hill on the western edge of the city. You can also visit the Chinese Garden which encompasses a city block in the middle of Chinatown, creating a magical quality as you leave the city behind when you walk through the gates. You can enjoy the delicious and varied tea options at the Tao of Tea café in the gardens or go to their other restaurant on Belmont Street – a fabulous teahouse and eatery with what seems like hundreds of tea varieties. They serve delicious, vegetarian Indian food, with a store next door where you can purchase the organic teas (www.tulsiorganics.com). The Tao of Tea, 3430 SE Belmont Street, Portland; 503-736-0119; www.taooftea.com
Portland Japanese Garden, www.japanesegarden.com
Portland Classical Chinese Garden, NW Third & Everett, Portland; Tel: 503-228-8131; www.portlandchinesegarden.org

If you are in the mood for Yoga, studios abound. In the Pearl District you can go to Yoga Pearl. Open seven days a week with full daily schedules offering different types of Yoga and Pilates starting as early as 6am and ending as late as 8:30pm. There is also a Holistic Wellness Center where you can make appointments for massage therapy, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Naturopathic medicine and Cranialsacral therapy. Here you can also find the Blossoming Lotus raw foods café to refuel after yoga or walking the city. Yoga Pearl, 925 NW Davis, Portland; Tel: 503-525-9642; www.yogapearl.com

For foot massages you can treat yourself to the innovative services at the Barefoot Sage where you can indulge yourself by sitting in large puffy couches while you soak your feet and drink tea and try one of the various foot and leg massages offered. The Barefoot Sage, 1844 SE Hawthorne, Portland; 503239-7116; www.thebarefootsage.com