A rice paddy from La Zorra (Sitges)Mònica Escudero
What exactly do holidays mean in this anxious 21st century?
After how many days does a break become a disconnection?
Is it simply about turning off your cell phone?
If this Easter you want to leave the city but you don't have time or money to spare, a short getaway can help you regain your spirits to continue feeding the insatiable Google Calendar later.
It is also valid when it is the holidays that take you to the city in question and you have already seen all the museums, bars, shops and friends there have been and will be.
A quiet trip by car or train contemplating the landscape plus good food, a typical dish, a humble rural sweet, a walk without notifications or likes, stones on the walls, stubble in the field... Smelling, as well as breathing: a great plan of peace, wow.
We have asked gourmets, journalists and people who know how to sniff out rich towns where to take refuge for a few useful hours.
With your choices, we propose a collection of excursions near cities, apparently short, but of deep pleasure and slow digestion.
Logically, they do not cover the entire geography, since it is impossible to summarize Spain in 2,000 words;
but we can complete it together using the comments to this article to add our favorite excursion.
Perhaps this is how we will find ourselves on the roads, like those countrymen from Emmaus who were eye-popping as they wandered through Judea.
From Madrid
Miguel Ángel Almodóvar, constant inspiration for those of us who write about cooking and author of classics such as
Hunger in Spain
, directs us to “Morata de Tajuña, belonging to the Las Vegas Region, formed by the Jarama and Tajuña rivers, which reach Aranjuez together. to join the Tagus: its vegetables are remarkable.”
To eat, “Mesón El Cid: Castilian cuisine, with a superb gypsy pot, which also won the Valladolid Contest as best regional tapa.
In the same space is the Museum of the Battle of Jarama, the only one in Spain about the Civil War.”
María Luisa del Amo, another veteran gastronome who is a pleasure to ask because she controls everything, adds “Becerril de la Sierra, in the Sierra de Guadarrama.
There are a lot of routes of all routes and degrees of difficulty, for children with a tricycle or bicycle, even for expert mountaineers.
They also have a route from one of the oldest optical telegraphs in Spain, and to eat, at Malabar Bistró”, one of their favorites.
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If you prefer a different getaway, María Luisa is a fan of “Chinchón, with its beautiful main square, and with its anise as a typical product, which hits you with an onion that knocks you back: purple is the strongest.
And, while you're at it, you buy garlic.”
You can also go to the Parador de ella to eat the particular taba stew, a classic with crayfish - which were caught in the Tajuña and other rivers in the area - as an ingredient.
From Barcelona
If you want to see the sea you can escape to Maresme and treat yourself to Tres Macarrons, or to Garraf to eat rice at La Zorra (they are all very delicious; if you go for the first time be sure to try the vegan one or the crab with bottarga ).
We also recommend visiting the Baix Llobregat Agrarian Park, one of the largest agricultural areas in Catalonia, and getting warm at the Pota Blava and Carxofa Prat Gastronomic Days (by the way: if you are a big fan of poultry meat, you have a specific tourist route).
Only in Prat itself there are farm shops, a Saturday market
,
historic wineries such as Cal Pere Tarrida, memorable walks through the delta and seasonal activities to choose from;
in addition to the original Can Pizza, the Cafè l'Artesà or the hooligan haute cuisine of Gastro Garatxe.
It is also the time, of course, for Ramos cookies, torrijas, fried milk and fritters.
In the towns of Olesa de Montserrat and Esparreguera, they also compete every year to offer the best representation of the Passion of Christ with theatrical performances (both are declared a Festival of National Tourist Interest).
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From Valencia
In twenty minutes you are in El Palmar, birthplace of paella, and in the heart of the Albufera Natural Park: rice fields, barracks, canals.
Pure Blasco Ibáñez;
pure
all i pebre
, that centuries-old sauce that gives its name to the dish that substance, especially the delicious all i pebre eel.
If you want to know more about the richness of its rivers, visit the Fish Research Center, tour the lagoon (where you will see the Holy Week pilgrimages) and wander through towns and landscapes.
To eat?
There is everything, but here is a special one: El Parador de El Saler, with a luxurious natural environment.
From Santander
Javier Hernández Sande is president of the Official College of Physicians of Cantabria, and also a caretaker who has mapped the tablecloths and culinary stories of his community.
He proposes an infallible plan from Santander: “Go by boat to Somo, see the bay, and have some beer, for example, at the Melly.
Then, eat at a fish grill: at Tronky they make it very good.”
If you prefer an indoor plan, Javier undoubtedly points to “the Puente Viesgo caves, which you can complete by also visiting the traditional Tres Valles Pasiegos cheese factory.”
To eat, “a stew at the Mesón de Borleña (Corvera de Toranzo), where you can do a circuit in the spa.”
As a third option, “visit the Cabárceno Nature Park, eat at La Yerbita, in Sobarzo, and visit Sobaos and Quesadas Joselín, in Selaya.”
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From Pamplona
The Navarrese journalist David Fernández Lucas, one of those essential friends to discover corners and tables, suggests that we “go to Olite and see the Castle and the medieval area of the city.
There you can buy the Txantxigorri cakes that the Baztán Trilogy popularized at the Bidaurre bakery, originating from that town and from that bakery (not Elizondo).”
With the cakes devoured, or stored in a bag, “you can take advantage and go up to Ujué, which is twenty minutes by car, to see its wonderful church from above and eat the best migas de pastor in any of the restaurants.”
David adds a plan B from Pamplona: “Go to Elizondo to buy Malkorra chocolate, the best chocolate in Navarra, and also a Dolmen, a cake of which very few are made and that is only prepared there.
Then go up to Zugarramurdi, which is nearby, or go to the Maya Castle, in Amaiur, where the last Navarrese defended the kingdom from Castilian troops before the conquest in 1512.
There it is na.
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From Logrono
As David works for the newspaper La Rioja, we expressed his knowledge and he recommended “Villoslada de Cameros, far from the wineries, but with an immense natural environment for hiking and walking.
You can eat some typical La Rioja caparrones or any spoon dish at the Corona Restaurant.
They are filling portions and satisfy the palate with all the Rioja flavor;
Furthermore, during Holy Week they exhibit the Sarga in the Church, a Renaissance fabric from 1560 made in Antwerp (Belgium) that was hidden for years, something very curious.”
From Zaragoza, Huesca and Teruel
The day I met José Miguel Martínez Urtasun changed my stomach, as well as my humor and love for my homeland.
The director of the magazine Gastro Aragón assigns an excursion to each provincial capital, with a destination, restaurant and landscape.
In Zaragoza, Ejea de los Caballeros, in the Cinco Villas region, which houses Aquagraria, an agrarian museum dedicated to water, very much in line with the current protests in the countryside.
To eat, eat, the Gratal Restaurant, with spectacular cuisine.
From Ejea you can get closer to the Bardenas Reales, in Navarra, a natural park and Biosphere reserve.
If you are in Teruel, come to Tramacastilla, in Albarracín, a charming town in a mountain range that is breathtaking for its beauty (and with fewer tourists than Albarracín itself).
You are in the land of truffles and mushrooms, and there you have the El Batán hospedería restaurant, a renovated construction that is scrumptious.
If Huesca is your starting point, Urtasun directs you to Tardienta, where you can see the Abrazo de Tardienta, a surprising hydraulic work that marked the union of the flows of the Cinca and Monegros canals.
Where to eat?
Well, at the Casa Rural Marga, which houses the Asador Galino Pueyo, surnames of a chef who works with magic.
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From Badajoz and Cáceres
The Extremaduran food journalist Alba Baranda starts with Olivenza, “15 minutes from Badajoz: it was named one of the most beautiful towns in Spain, it has an ethnographic museum and, above all, there is the factory and the legendary Casa Fuentes pastry shop that sells the tecula original mecula”, a sweet of almonds, egg yolk, sugar and puff pastry.
“There is also another small town, Fuentes de León, where the food is great at La Taberna de Noa.
"You don't expect to find something so creative and cheap in a town of 2,000 inhabitants, which also has some interesting caves to see before or after."
Alba also sends us to “Zarza de Granadilla, a town 15 minutes from Plasencia and an hour from Cáceres”, with typical sweets such as coquillos, perrunillas or fried threads.
She also adds “a small restaurant called Versatile”, with local roots in its food.
One last idea: “Jerez de los Caballeros, in Badajoz.
The town is worth a visit for its Templar past, and it has an Italian boy who fell in love with a woman from Extremadura, they came here to live and set up a restaurant, Il Mesón.
“He respects traditional recipes – carbonara without cream, pizza without fruit – but he also fuses them with Iberian pork.”
Just reading it makes you hungry.
From Zamora and Valladolid
Antonio Encinas is a journalist in El Norte de Castilla and a good connoisseur of bars and taverns.
He says that “on the way to Zamora, if you come from the North you can stop at Litos, whose town bar, the 5 & Caña steakhouse, serves meats of all kinds with a spectacular wine cellar.
“Everything grilled and with oak charcoal: the Iberian pluma is a delight.”
In summer you see Lamborghinis, Maseratis and Porsches parked: if you don't make a reservation, you won't have dinner, even if you're from the town.
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Antonio adds, in this splendid Sierra de la Culebra to contemplate and walk, the town of “Ferreruela de Tábara, with the Casa Pepa restaurant: menu of the day with stew, leg of veal, pig's ear... Those types of things they embroider.”
From Valladolid, in Traspinedo, coming along the Soria road, they put a tremendous skewer of grilled lamb, made with live flame and shoots.”
From Cadiz
Antonio Hernández Rodicio, author of the wonderful blog El goroso en llamas, tells in detail why it is worth visiting Vejer de la Frontera, 45 minutes from Cádiz: “It is one of the most beautiful towns in Spain.
It fell into Muslim hands in the Battle of Guadalete in the 1700s, and preserves very interesting heritage traces such as the walled city or the city gates.
Architecturally it is beautiful, a white town on a permanent slope, it is a painting.”
It has a coast with legendary beaches, an open-air contemporary art museum –mountain in the middle–, and it is in a Mediterranean forest with deer and wild boar.
You have to try the “lomo en manteca and the veal retinta”.
As a complement, a restaurant: El Jardín del Califa., with cuisine from Africa and the Middle East.
“I also love La Vinográfico, because the food is very good and because they have a collection of wines, mostly generous ones, and they have reached agreements with wineries so that artists can make exclusive labels.”
Finally, La Castillería, which happens to be one of the best meat places in Spain.”
From Oviedo or Gijón
David Castañón is the author of Les Farturrutes, a book with mountain routes throughout Asturias that lead to a tasty village chigre (bar).
From those included in the book and on his blog, he chooses the Xurbeo Waterfall, which, as its name indicates, contains a brutal landscape and starts from the town of Murias, in the council of Aller, just half an hour from the two main cities. Asturias: “It is perfect because it only has 2.2 kilometers in total and it is a linear route, with hardly any unevenness, a couple of short, very bearable hills, and a truly spectacular environment.
In half an hour you arrive at the waterfall.
To eat, El Corral de Murias, a place specialized in rice, with spectacular rice with bugre (lobster).
If the mountain doesn't bother you, I propose another plan in the center of the community: a day in Pola de Siero, going for vermouth in its many fun bars, eating at the Abrelatas restaurant and then having a cocktail at El patio de seats .
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From Bilbao
On a recent trip, the chef David de Jorge recommended that I go to Larrabetzu, 20 minutes from the capital of Gipuzkoa, with a historic center declared a Monumental Complex, and an enclave where choosing to eat becomes difficult.
The chef and writer is a fan of Horma Ondo, who turns grilling into art.
Obviously, there are many provinces and communities to review.
From Coruña you can escape to Betanzos to get a warm tortilla.
From Tarragona, or even from Valencia, you can go to Ulldecona, a medieval land of centuries-old olive trees and with more than twenty restaurants to choose from, many of traditional cuisine.
From Toledo, the Campana de Oropesa region, and more specifically Lagartera, whose Llares Restaurant, located in an 18th century building, is a culinary memory and ethnographic museum.
Spain is still full of towns, although we see it more and more through a screen.
Holy Week, like any other week without a blessing, like any weekend or free day, is a great time to change the mouse for the fork, the keyboard for the steering wheel and social networks, for the chat with the countrymen you find yourself in. in any corner.
Instead of a thumbs up, you might still be met with a friendly hug.
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