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Sample Taste of Spain Tour
Customed Designed & Personally Guided By
Spanish Gastronomy & Wine Expert
Gerry Dawes
Spanish National Gastronomy Award 2003
Barcelona – Priorat/Montsant - Valencia – La Albufera - Alicante
La Mancha - Chinchón - Toledo – Madrid
(Please keep in mind that we can adjust some of the hotel and/or restaurant combinations and departure dates. For instance, we can leave the U.S. on a Wednesday evening and return on a Monday, etc.)
Preliminary pricing (subject to currency fluctuations) will be available in mid-July. I am aiming to bring this tour in at around $3,995 per person, but that will be contingent on 16-20 people going.
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"Gerry has an extraordinary knowledge of Spain, not just the cuisine and wine but the geography (little tapas bars on tiny streets in villages up in the mountains), history, culture and people. One of the highlights of the trip for me was not a 3-star Michelin meal, but a lunch at a winery. Gerry, of course, knew the winemaker, and we dined in a large beautiful room with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the vineyard. We ate simply: tomato salad, jamón ibérico, great bread and olive oil, baby lamb chops grilled over grape vines cuttings (exquisite), ewes’ milk cheese and, of course, great wine. What was special about this was the people, who invited us into their home with warmth and genuine hospitality, their alegría de vida (joie de vivre). I don’t speak Spanish but didn’t have too, we communicated through food, wine, banter, laughter and facial expressions." - - Terrance Brennan, Chef, cookbook author, creator-owner of New York’s Picholine and Artisanal restaurants. Brennan rates this trip, which predates the film pilot, as one of the top two gastronomic experiences of his life.
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Phone: 914-414-6982
Teléfono movíl (during stays in España): (011 34) 670 67 39 34
Itinerary
Day 00, Thursday, USA – Barcelona
Evening flight to BCN from USA for members of our group. Gerry Dawes arrives in Barcelona today.
Vondell and Susan can fly into Madrid a day early and take the AVE high-speed train from Madrid to Barcelona to arrive the same day as the rest of the group.
Day 01 Friday Barcelona
We will stay in the four-star in Barcelona's in the tony Eixample. The Hotel Condes de Barcelona occupies a prime location on Paseo de Gracia, in the heart of Gaudí’s modernista Barcelona and facing his famous building, Casa Mila, “La Pedrera.”
The hotel is built on two splendid nineteenth-century Modernista mansions, carefully restored to offer maximum comfort, the best in contemporary design and cutting-edge technology. A four-star hotel offering exquisite, personalized service in keeping with the warm atmosphere and avant-garde gastronomy.
We will meet at the hotel and go to dinner at 9-9:30 p.m at a special, but relaxed, wine-oriented restaurant with modern Catalan cuisine, which is easy strolling distance.
Day 02 Saturday Barcelona
On Saturday, morning Gerry will take us on an orientation stroll through the Eixample, where we will see a number of Gaudí and modernista buildings, to the Plaza de Catalunya (the heart of Barcelona), the Gothic quarter and the shopping areas, including the El Corte Inglés, Spain’s Macy’s-cum-Bloomie’s-cum-just about anything you could want-store.
We will stroll down the lively Las Ramblas, Barcelona’s most famous street and see the human statues and other sights. By 1:00 p.m, we will arrive at La Boquería market, explore this incredible temple of food, meet some of the people who make this place tick and have a second “breakfast” at the market bar of a very special friend of Gerry.
After La Boquería, we will have lunch in La Barceloneta at Can Majó, a wonderful family-run restaurant.
Optional afternoon tour of Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia, Parque Güell and other Gaudí monuments, Picasso Museum, etc. Depending upon how acute our desire for visit-a-monumentitis gets, we may or may not get a licensed Barcelona guide (a requirement for visiting the interiors of many monuments for a formal tour).
The rest of the afternoon—for the survivors--will be free for shopping, siesta, etc.
Saturday night dinner will be at 9:30 p.m. at one of Barcelona’s top star-chef restaurants.
Optional drinks and Barcelona nightlife after dinner.
Day 03 Sunday Barcelona
The morning will be free for organized tours of Barcelona. Around one p.m., we will go to see traditional Catalan Sardana dancing in front the Cathedral and go for lunch in a Barcelona traditional cuisine restaurant.
Afternoon free to enjoy Barcelona.
Optional tapas in the evening.
Day 04 Monday Barcelona – Priorat/Montsant
8:30 a.m. Leave early for Tarragona, see the Roman ruins, then visit a spectacular winery in scenic Priorat. We will have a wine country lunch with an up-and-coming winery owner from Montsant and taste his wines.
After lunch, we will head out on a one-lane paved country road to a hidden hotel set amongst the vineyards with a mountain as the backdrop. We relax, perhaps take a dip in the pool or go for a stroll on a trail into the hills.
In the evening, we will take a five-mile drive to a country hotel-winery and have a paella cooked over grapevine cuttings with the wines from this excellent up-and-coming Montsant winery. We will make an early night of it and return to our lovely hotel in the outback.
Day 05 Tuesday Montsant - Valencia
After breakfast we will leave for Valencia, where we will stay at a top hotel in downtown Valencia near the old quarter and the City of Arts and Sciences.
Before lunch, we will explore part of the Valencia’s mega-equivalent of the Bilbao Guggenheim, the sensational architectural wonder that is the Cuitat des Artes y Sciencies (a multi-building, multi-billion dollar, “City of Arts and Sciences”) made up of five main elements: the Hemisfèric (IMAX cinema and digital projections), the Umbracle (a landscaped vantage point and car park), the Príncipe Felipe Science Museum (an innovative centre of interactive science), the Oceanográfico (the largest aquarium in Europe with over 500 marine species) and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía (which takes care of the operatic programme). The Ágora, which will give the complex a multifunctional space, is under construction. Most of these buildings were designed by Valencia’s famous native son architect, Santiago Calatrava.
After touring part of the city of Arts and Sciences, we will have lunch at a superb tapas bar, (founded 1836) and owned by a very special friend of Gerry. This marvelous place has an excellent wine cellar.
After lunch we will relax awhile.
In early evening, we will take a tour of the the Oceanográfico in the afternoon, then have dinner at the amazing Submarino restaurant, whose dining is surrounded by the Aquarium with fish continually swimming by behind the glass within inches of your table.
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Video of Gerry Dawes leading a group, including
New York Chef Terrance Brennan through Valencia & Alicante.
Day 06, Wednesday Valencia
By 10:00 a.m. we will tour Valencia’s exceptional Mercat Central, the main market in the center of the city, visit a spice stand, an horchata stand and a colorful place that sells paellas pans, pottery, caceroles, etc. then stroll on to other such emblematic Valencia sights as La Lonja, the Cathedral and old quarter.
After we visit the market, we will drive to the southern shore of the Albufera lagoon and visit a village that has some 20 paella restaurants.
Depending on the weather, we will take a small shallow-draft boat, whose owner will pole us for a short ride out on the Albufera where the eels and other fish for some of the local restaurants dishes come from.
After our boat ride, we will see how paella is made and sample different types of paellas at lunch at one of the great rice restaurants around the Albufera. We will also sample a typical dish made with eels fished from the lagoon, along with other typical dishes.
After lunch, we will return to Valencia and have time to relax before dinner.
Dinner will be at one of the best restaurants on the Mediterranean Coast, where the star chef has developed a menu that includes stellar modern cuisine dishes interspersed with some of the best traditional seafood in Spain.
Day 07, Thursday Valencia – Parcent (Casta Diva) – Monover – Alicante
In the morning, we will drive south, exploring a bit along the way, then visit an unusual winemaker, Felipe Gutierrez de la Vega, who plays opera in the background as he works in his award-winning winery, where he produces the luscious sweet wine, Casta Diva.
After our winery visit, we will drive back to the coast, pass by astounding Benidorm, whose skyscrapers make you think you are looking out on Manhattan, then by-pass Alicante and head for Monóver, west of Alicante, to visit the factory of Paco Torreblanca, one of Europe's top chocolates and desserts maestros and a good friend of Gerry. (We will await confirmation that Paco will be in town and can take our visit; if not his pastry chef son will.)
In nearby Xinorlet, we will have lunch at Casa Elias with a winemaker in an unusual restaurant whose thin-layer paellas are made with local rabbit and snails. After lunch, we will visit with our winemaker host, see his bodega and taste his unusual, exceptionally good, historic wine, Fondillón, mentions of which can be found in Dumas’s Count of Montecristo.
By early evening, we will arrive in Alicante and check into our hotel, the Melia Alicante, where we will stay two nights alongside the yacht basin and beach, relax a bit, then explore the Puerto and stroll along the palm-tree lined, pedestrian street, La Explanada, facing the port.
In the evening, we can either dine casually in the port in a restaurant that has more than 130 rice dishes or we can go to a terrific, laid-back American-style bar for burgers and drinks—we may go there for drinks anyway.
Day 08 Friday Alicante
Today is a free day to relax, lay on the beach, stroll, or shop. If the group wants, we can go in the afternoon to Elche to see Europe’s largest palm forest—the town is built within it—and to Santa Pola to watch the fishing fleet unload.
In the evening, at La Taberna del Gourmet, near our hotel, we will meet Gerry’s friend, English-speaking Maria Jose San Roman (and her colorful husband, once the goalie for Spain's national handball team). Maria Jose will demonstrate some dishes using saffron (she is working on a book on the subject) and then we will have dinner at the Taberna del Gourmet, one of the great casual restaurants in Spain—voted this year as the best tapas bar in Spain--which has some great traditional dishes made with choice ingredients.
After dinner, we will go to the Explanada and settle in with a very special gin-and-tonic or other libation and perhaps try a local night club or bar with our friends, the owners of Monastrell / La Taberna del Gourmet.
Day 09, Saturday Alicante - La Mancha - Chinchón
In late morning, we will head for La Mancha , where we will visit a couple of towns that figure prominently in Don Quixote, then have lunch at in La Mancha’s greatest restaurant, whose chef-owner is a friend of Gerry’s.
After lunch, we will drive an hour or so through more of La Mancha to the magical village of Chinchón, where we will check into a charming hotel just a block from Chinchón’s legendary Plaza Mayor, one of the best preserved and loveliest plazas in Spain; it is like a page out of the 16th Century.
We will relax a bit, then explore this charming hill town and have a glass of vino and a tapa or two along the way, then have dinner in one of the romantic restaurants overlooking the charming Plaza. We can linger over a glass of local Madrid D.O. wine or Anis Chinchón and watch the peregrinations of the people down in the plaza.
Day 10 Sunday Chinchón - Toledo - Madrid
In the morning, we will drive to Toledo, sample wine at a spectacular site overlooking Toledo, visit El Greco’s monumental city and have lunch in a restaurant belonging to some very special friends of Gerry.
After lunch, we will leave for Madrid and check into one of Madrid’s most emblematic hotels, then visit the Prado Museum and have the rest of the afternoon free.
In the evening, we will have dinner in one of Madrid’s most famous traditional Castilian cuisine restaurants, where the King Juan Carlos, Bill Clinton, Sarah Jessica Parker and any number of famous bullfighters, nobility and movie stars have dined. We may be joined by some special friends from Madrid.
Day 11, Monday Madrid
Morning free to visit museums, shop, tour Madrid, etc.
Optional lunch of tapas in a beautifully renovated food market in Madrid.
Afternoon free to stroll, take a tour of Madrid, pack or just have a siesta.
Evening. Farewell casual dinner in a legendary Madrid restaurant--gazpacho and roast suckling pig or lamb--in the old quarter of Madrid at a world-famous, 200-year old restaurant that was featured in Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises.
Optional flamenco after dinner.
Day 12, Tuesday Madrid - USA
Departure from Madrid airport for the U.S.
