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Gerry Dawes is writer-photographer and author of Sunset in a Glass: Adventures of a Food and Wine Road Warrior in Spain, who lived in Spain for eight years and has made more than 125 trips to Spain. He has spoken frequently on on Spanish gastronomy, wine and cultural themes and has organized and led more than twenty customized gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He has shown Spain to many top American chefs such as Thomas Keller, Mark Miller, Michael Chiarello, Mark Kiffin, Norman Van Aken and many others, including U. S. Senator James Abourezk, baseball great Keith Hernandez, the Commonwealth Club of California (twice), the 61st Tactical Fighter Squadron (twice), the World Trade Center Club and the Club Chefs of NY & CT.
In addition to being awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronómía He was a finalist for the James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts retrospective piece on Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.
Airfare not included.
Itinerary
(B, L, D, T = Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Tapas)
Day 00, Wed, May 3 USA to Madrid
Flights to Madrid from U. S.
Day 01, Thurs, May 4 Madrid (L, T)
Arrive in Madrid, Spain's capital, where we will rendezvous at our hotel, which will be near the Prado Museum. We will allow everyone to rest and freshen up, then we will meet at 2 p.m. for lunch at a restaurant owned by Spain’s greatest cortador de jamones, Ibérico ham carver (he travels the world demonstrating how to carve these exquisite expensive hams should be properly carved) and sample the best jamón, personally selected by this superstar personality. This will be our first introduction to jamón Ibérico, the world's best hams from acorn-fed, pata negra (black foot breed) pigs. The woman chef, mother of the cortador’s restaurant partner, is a great traditional cuisine cook, so jamón will just be the intro to our meal.
After lunch, we will visit the Prado Museum with a professional guide.
In the evening, we will stop at a couple of very special tapas places on the other side of Retiro Park.
Day 02, Fri, May 5 Madrid – Segovia – Ávila – Salamanca (B, L, D)
From Madrid, we will drive up into the Guadarrama Mountains to Segovia, the roast suckling pig capital of Spain and home to an amazing 2,000-year old Roman aqueduct that still crosses the city. For lunch, we will have exceptional roast suckling pig, so tender they cut it with the edge of a plate, in a restaurant that has been a must visit for celebrities and just plain folks for decades.
After lunch we will drive less than an hour to visit the amazing Medieval walled town of Ávila, then move on to spend the evening in the historic university city of Salamanca, whose Plaza Mayor (main square) is the most beautiful in Spain, and just sample an order of tostón, roast suckling pig with crackling skin and other non-pig regional specialties.
We will being staying at a hotel near the southern approach to the city’s famous Roman bridge over the Tormes River. We will walk across the bridge and up into old Salamanca. (You may recognize the Plaza Mayor square in Salamanca from the 2008 movie Vantage Point.)
Day 03, Sat, May 6 Salamanca – Guijuelo – Hervás – Trujillo - Mérida (B, L, D)
We will spend a little time in the morning seeing some of Salamanca and visiting the market, then head south through the major pig town of Guijuelo, where we will stop to visit one of Spain's top jamón Ibérico producers, then travel south, stopping off to visit historic Hervás (an old Jewish town), then arriving in the monumental medieval town of Trujillo, where we will have late lunch and sample the sensational local Torta del Casar and Torta de la Serena ewe’s milk cheeses and Ibores goat's milk cheese.
The important nearby hilltop town of Trujillo is hometown of Pizarro (conqueror of the Incas) and Orellana (the first European to make the 2400-mile trip down the Amazon). Trujillo has a major cheese fair every year in May and producers here make great goat cheeses, including Ibores. In Trujillo, we will take a break from pig and have some roast goat and try other regional specialties.
Day 04 Sun, May 7 Mérida (Roman ruins) (B, L)
We will spend the whole day in Mérida, one of the best-preserved Roman cities in Europe. The Roman bridge across the Guadiana River, a superb amphitheater and arena, the Raphael Moneo-designed Roman Museum and the well-preserved remnants of this important Imperial city are scattered all over town. (One shop in this city has the figure of a Roman Centurion whose shield is an Ibérico ham.)
We will stay in a lovely converted palace on the main plaza in Mérida (excellent evening lollygagging territory) and within an easy stroll of all the major Roman ruins. At a local restaurant, for lunch we will sample traditional Extremaduran specialties, including more local cheeses and different grilled cuts of pork from Ibérico pigs.
The afternoon and evening will be free to relax, tour the Roman monuments, the Rafael Moneo-designed Roman Museum, stroll across the river on a pedestrian-only Roman bridge and sample local tapas in the restaurants around the plaza and amongst the Roman ruins in the old quarter.
Day 05 Mon, May 8 Mérida – Villafranca de Barros - Monesterio - Pallares (Eduardo Sousa Farm) – Sevilla (B, L, T)
After the tapas tour, there will be the option of going to an authentic tablao for a flamenco performance.
Day 06 Tues, May 9 Sevilla - Sanlúcar de Barrameda (B, L, D)
We will have breakfast at a very special place in the Macarena district, then walk through parts of old Sevilla on the way to an optional guided tour of the Cathedral and the Moorish fortress-palace El Alcázar, the Barrio de Santa Cruz (the old Jewish quarter), do some strolling and shopping, have lunch al fresco in the old quarter, then leave for the hour plus ride to Sanlúcar de Barrameda and have the afternoon free to shop, stroll or relax.
May 07 Wed, May 10 Sevilla - Sanlúcar de Barrameda - El Puerto de Santa María - Sanlúcar de Barrameda (B, L, D)
In the morning we will be in the superb fishing port and Sherry town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where Columbus set sail on his second voyage to America.
We will prevail upon one of Gerry’s friends to open his centuries-old Sherry bodega and let us taste some of his exceptional manzanilla Sherries, then we will have an early light seafood tapas luncheon at a beachfront restaurant with more manzanilla, grilled shellfish and some of the best fried fish in the world.
Gerry Dawes with his long-time friend, owner Javier Hidalgo, at Bodegas Hidalgo, producers of the famous La Gitana Manzanilla de Sanlúcar de Barrameda.
In the afternoon, if we
have good weather, we will cross the river on a ferry and ride in authorized vehicles
for a tour of on of the world’s greatest wildlife sanctuaries, el Coto Doñana.
In the evening, we will take a 20-minute ride to El Puerto de Santa María for dinner at the sensational Aponiente Restaurante (if reservations are available!), where Chef Angel León is doing some of the most creative, innovative, seafood-based dishes anywhere.
Ángel León, who bills himself as "El Chef del Mar," Chef of the Sea, cutting seafood charcutería at his three-star Aponiente restaurant in El Puerto de Santa María.
After dinner, we will return to Sanlúcar for an optional nightcap and an end to the evening.
Day 08 Thurs, May 11 Sanlúcar de Barrameda – Cádiz - Barbate – Bolonia - Ronda (B, L, D)
This morning we will return to El Puerto de Santa Maria and take the ferry to the exceptional sea-surrounded city of Cádiz, tour the town, enjoy the sea views and visit the colorful market. Our bus will pick us up in Cádiz and we will ride down the Atlantic coast and have lunch in Barbate at one of the great fish and almadraba tuna restaurants in Spain.
After lunch, we will visit the archeological site where the restoration of the ruins of the Roman fish factory town Baelo Claudia at Bolonia is ongoing.
After lunch, we will drive back through some of the striking pueblos blancos, the white hilltop villages of Cádiz and Málaga provinces, to the spectacular city of Ronda, which is set astride a 300-foot gorge that splits the town in two. We will visit Ronda, have some time to relax, then have dinner in a special restaurant in front of Ronda's 18th-century bull ring.
Bridge spanning the 350-foot deep gorge that splits the town of Ronda in two.
Our lodgings will be in magical Hotel Reina Victoria, the great traditional hotel of Ronda, where Rilke once lived and whose gardens, with Rilke´s bronze statue, overlooks a vast panorama of the beautiful sierras de Cádiz and Málaga. There will be the option to linger over a snifter of Sherry brandy after dinner.
Day 09 Fri, May 12 Ronda – Córdoba - Sierra Morenas - Almagro (La Mancha) (B, L, D)
We will leave Ronda in the morning and drive north through some of the villages of the province of Córdoba, where some wonderful olive oils are made. In late morning, we will arrive in Córdoba and tour the old Jewish quarter, see the marvelous Moorish mezquita mosque, which houses a full-sized cathedral with its vast horseshoe arch-lined interior.
we will have lunch in a very special Cordoban restaurant where we will have fried eggplant strips along with two kinds of salmorejo (a thick gazpacho that is at its best here). We will also sample the excellent jamón Ibérico from the up-and-coming Pedroches ham region north of Córdoba, then churrasco (grilled pork loin) or steaks and some good red vinos.
Dinner at a very special Cordoban restaurant, where we will have fried eggplant strips along with two kinds of salmorejo (a thick gazpacho that is at its best here)
After lunch, we will ride a couple of hours through the Sierra Morena mountains and into the heart of La Mancha, where we will stay in the parador in the atmospheric small La Mancha town of Almagro, which is home to the Teatro Siglo de Oro, a perfectly preserve Corral de Comedias, the Manchegan equivalent to London's Globe Theater.
Day 10 Sat, May 13 Almagro – La Mancha – Toledo – Chinchón (B, L, D)
The windmills and castle at Consuegra in La Mancha.
In the morning, we will roll on from Allmagro, after a visit to the Golden Age Theater, into more of La Mancha, land of Don Quixote, stopping briefly in some Quixote villages along the way, then arrive for a tour of monumental Toledo.
Before lunch, we will visit the historic city of Toledo for a couple of hours,
see El Greco’s home and the great former Jewish synagogues and other sights in this magnificent city.
Just on the outskirts of Toledo, we will have a very special lunch at Cigarral de Santa Maria, a spectacular site overlooking Toledo owned by Adolfo Muñoz, a famous chef that Gerry Dawes calls the “Emperor of Toledo.” Adolfo and his family are dear friends and our lunch will be accompanied by wines from the exceptional vineyard on the property.
Chef Adolfo Muñoz with Gerry Dawes at Cigarral de Santa Maria overlooking Toledo.
After lunch, we will ride for an hour to the magical small town of Chinchón, which is a perfectly preserved 16th and 17th Cervantine town. We will check into our hotel La Condesa de Chinchón, which is block from La Plaza Mayor, where Gerry Dawes has stayed many times. The rest of the afternoon will be free to explore this lovely town.
We will have our farewell
dinner at La Balconada overlooking the charming Plaza Mayor. At this romantic
restaurant, Chef Manuela and her husband Isidro, offer superb classic
Castilian dishes, including more pig (roasted) of course, but with the option
of having roast lamb, wood-grilled steaks, bean dishes, fried potatoes with "broken eggs," artichokes cooked with jamón Ibérico
bits, bean dishes and other specialties, accompanied by simple D.O. Madrid
(province) rosado and red wines. We can linger over snifters of the town's famous Anis Chinchón
licor (dry or sweet), watch the peregrinations of the people down in the plaza
and reminisce about the high points and comedic episodes of our trip around
Spain.
We will leave Chinchón in the morning for a 45-minute ride to Madrid airport to arrive in time for our travelers to catch their flights back to the USA.
More true than Don Quixote's vapouring?
Hath winged Pegasus more nobly trod
Than Rocinante stumbling up to God?
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36. Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel
About Gerry Dawes Bio, Awards, Quotes from Famous Chefs and Culinarians and Custom Gastronomic and Cultural Tours to Spain
Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com
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