Tapas, rain and Mummies

Saturday 31 January 2015

Stormy and lashing down with rain 11 degrees

The river had risen significantly and was just below the bridge.  It was carrying a mass of frothy spume and its slate grey waters were crushing themselves against the ancient stone parapets and bursting spray into the air.  

Quick breakfast and decided to head off into a very large town and enjoy some tapas.  The roads were almost deserted.   Everyone else had had the same idea and we finally managed to squeeze the car into a tiny space and dived into a nearby bar for coffee and loo break.  There was a forest of leaking brollies at the side of the door and the owner periodically took out the bucket in which they stood and threw the water out into the street (without looking if anyone was coming).  Coats steamed on the backs of chairs and the air was heavy with the aroma of coffee and dank wool.

After ten minutes, the rain eased and we took a turn around the shops.  The Spanish are rather bling in fashion terms.  The shoes on offer were either gay pride with diamante or toe crushing stilettos.  The coats which fitted me were labelled as XL, much to OH's amusement.  I am between a 12 and a 14...  I was quite taken with a pale coffee coloured parka which was heavily padded and had a fur collar and sparkly buttons.  OH took me by the elbow and guided me firmly out of the shop before the sales assistant could get me to the till.

People were battling to cross the street and we passed a number of carcasses of dead brollies.  Unhappy small apartment dogs were being hauled along the pavements, their locks plastered to their heads.  Newspaper pages were stuck to the side of buildings.

We headed down into the casco viejo (old town) and into a great tapas bar.  The walls are covered in azuelos (hand painted blue and white tiles) and above the bar are many air cured hams.  The tapas are spread over the ten metres of the bar.  There were pimientos like delicate leprechauns fingers dancing over tiny cubes of pepper and onion and bathed in pale green olive oil, fat crusty rolls with delicate slivers of rich cured ham edged with a deep yellow layer of fat, succulent tortillas of potato and onion, great wedges of tuna and mounds of patatas bravas coated with mayonnaise and garlic.  The perfumes and aromas were exquisite and we dived in and carried a selection to a nearby table and ate til we could eat no more.

The skies were closing in and the hail started beating a tarantella on the rooves so we headed back and lit the fire and I was overjoyed to find the Return of the Mummy.  The Mummy is strangely compelling...

thank you Film Web