Welcome to our blog! We document our adventures in travel, food, and family. Hope you have a nice stay!
I’ll begin by saying it was VERY hard to narrow down this list as almost every restaurant we ate at in Spain had its own merits. But, these 15 restaurants pulled away from the pack and were some of our favorite spots in Barcelona, Madrid and San Sebastian.
San Sebastian was the last stop on our Spain itinerary and likely the one that I’ll wax poetic about for years to come as it combined two of my favorite things: the outdoors and food. We visited in their off-season, which meant some restaurants were closed and it was a bit too chilly to want to hang out by the beach and ocean. What could have been a downer was actually really nice as we had both hiking paths and spots at pinxto bars available for us whenever we wanted.
By the time our train pulled into Madrid we’d hit our Spanish stride and were starting to feel like travelers again and less like tourists. The majority of time spent in Madrid was picking different neighborhoods to walk around and explore, with a few sites sprinkled in here and there.
Follow the itinerary below for a perfect five days in Barcelona! If you want to mix it, try and pick and choose 2 touristy things per day and mix it in with lots of plaza people watching, eating and drinking! With 5 days in Barcelona I’d say we did a pretty good job of packing in a good variety of activities, food, museums, and neighborhoods. There is certainly some wiggle-room in our itinerary to add more activities, make it more relaxed, whatever is your vision of a dream vacation!
This year Jeremy and I decided to choose tapas over turkey and booked a two-week trip to Spain over Thanksgiving! It seemed like the perfect time given that we had two extra days off work for the holiday and it would be after tourist season in Spain making everything a little bit less crowded and more affordable. We also had some fantastic fall weather while we were there as it was in the high 50s and low 60s most of our trip. We chose to visit three different cities during our time in Spain: Barcelona, Madrid and San Sebastian.
Right before the holidays this year I had a chance to attend two tasty food events in the city, LuxeHome CHILL and Spain’s Great Match. As you know I’m not attending as many food events these days, but both of these had a super appealing list of wines and restaurant pairings that I wasn’t about to pass up. It also helped that Spain’s Great Match was occurring right before our travels to Spain and was the perfect event to get us ramped up for two weeks of Spanish wine and food.
After traveling and witnessing firsthand the level of poverty a huge population of the world lives in, it became difficult for me to attend luxurious events when I knew at the end of the night so much food was going to be thrown out while so many people were hungry elsewhere. I’ve been trying to be conscious about choosing to attend the kinds of events that are tied to a charity or non-profit organization and are truly doing good deeds for those not as fortunate.
One of my favorite food events of the year has raised nearly 1 million dollars since 2007 to support Chicago area charitable organizations: the Lynn Sage Foundation, Respiratory Health Organization and Saturday Place. I’ve attended the event in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016 and each year is better than the next!
This year on November 9 nearly 50 restaurants and dozens of premium wine and spirits companies are participating in partnership with Wine Spectator Magazine in the amazing LuxeHome space in the Merchandise Mart. LuxeHome is the world’s largest collection of premier boutiques for home building and renovation with 30 different boutiques all in one location. This event always gives me great decorating and interior design ideas for my apartment and future home. Haven’t you always wanted to sip an expensive Pinot Grigio while lounging on a marble tub?
This easy weeknight meal is a great healthy alternative to Mediterranean takeout that still boasts the bold flavors of grilled chicken shawarma with fresh veggies, creamy hummus and flavorful quinoa.
