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England

Cooking Pulled Pork in England (or anywhere else)

We were very lucky to be invited to house sit in Oundle, England. Not only were we staying in a lovely home in a neat little village, but the place was tricked out with everything one can imagine, including cable TV (in English), Wi-Fi and a BBQ grill. It also came with a great dog named Georgie and a classy white cat named Alfie. The two guys who owned the house (Lance and Adrian) have a gang of friends who immediately took us into their fold and made us feel right at home. It only made sense for us to have the gang over to the house for dinner and drinks.

We decided to offer our new English friends some good Southern hospitality in the form of slow smoked pork BBQ. For those of you who have not yet created this delicacy, the rest of this article is dedicated to a detailed explanation of how George does it. Note that before we sold everything and headed out to wander the world, George had a large pellet smoker and could smoke 50 pounds (22.7 kilos) of pork at a time. In England, we had fewer people to feed and a regular gas grill, some adjustments had to be made.

The first task is to figure out how much pork you need. In general, you should plan for a half to a third pound of cooked meat (150 – 200 grams) per person. Remember that the meat loses about 40% weight during the cooking process. In our case we were planning on feeding 7 people, but we also wanted some left over to freeze and share with our hosts when they returned home, so we were looking for a 5-7 pound butt.  Once you know the size, then you need to find a piece of pork that is worthy of the time and effort that it takes to make this dish. After several stops, we found a local butcher in the village that said they could fix us up with a seven-pound (3.2 kilo) pork shoulder. It is worth noting that in the Southern part of America, we call this cut a pork butt, not at all sure why, as it does come from the shoulder area. The nice folks at Trendalls Butcher Shop in Oundle got us all fixed up.

In most cases the butcher will cut the outer skin off the pork butt for you, if they do, ask them to leave as much of the layer of fat (called a fat cap) between the skin and the meat as possible. The fat cap will help add moisture to the meat as it cooks down during the smoking process. Because we will be cooking this meat for many hours at a low temperature (low and slow) it is important to keep it from becoming dry. The fat cap will help, but there are also other steps we can take. This first is a process called brining, in essence, we will be soaking the meat in salt water. The salt helps the liquid be absorbed by the meat and it also helps add flavor (double bonus). In a large container, mix about 2 cups of kosher salt and a cup of sugar into a gallon of water. Stir until all the solids are dissolved. Place the pork into a large plastic bag, pour the salt water over it, then work all of the air out of the bag and seal it shut with a strong twist tie. If you have enough room in the refrigerator you can put it there. I did not, so I put the whole thing in a small cooler with bag of ice to keep it cold. Brine the pork for between 24 and 30 hours.

At some point while the pork is brining, you can mix up the rub you will be putting on the meat. There are a lot of different pre-mixed pork rubs on the market, but it is cheaper and better to make your own. Use the list of ingredients below to mix up enough rub for 1 pork butt, double if you are smoking two. Store it in a Ziplock bag, and save any leftover for the next time you cook any kind of pork.

George’s Butt Rub

  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup sweet paprika (not smoked or hot)
  • 2 tbsp salt
  • 1 tbsp chili powder
  • 1 tbsp onion powder
  • 1 tbsp garlic powder
  • 1 tbsp pepper
  • 1 tbsp mustard powder
  • 2 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp cayenne pepper

There are two other steps that can be taken care of in advance, one is to soak wood chips in a bowl of water overnight. We find that apple wood tends to taste the best when smoking pork. The second is to set up your grill. Regardless of whether you are using gas or charcoal, the objective is to keep the heat source on one side of the grill and he meat on the other (indirect heat). If possible, remove half of the grill rack on the heat side and leave the other half on the side where the meat will be. This will make it easy to place and refill a chip box and water pan. Place a metal pan on the grill floor below where the pork will be and fill it with water. This will not only help keep the inside of the smoker moist, but it will also catch a lot of the messy fat dripping from the pork, making clean up much easier later.

Once the meat is brined for 24 to 30 hours, take it out of the salt water, rinse it with cool clean water to remove excess salt and pat it dry. Next sprinkle the spice mixture (the butt rub) liberally over the pork and rub it in well. If you have time, it is best to do this in advance, then wrap the meat in cling film and let it refrigerate for 2 or more hours.

On the morning of the day you will be smoking the meat (remember this process can take up to 9 hours), fill the metal pan in the grill with water. Place a generous hand full of the soaked apple chips in the chip tray and either light the charcoal in a chimney or light one burner on the grill. In the photo below, you can see that we placed to the chip tray to the far left and we only used a single burner on the far-left side of the grill (indirect heat). Warm the grill so that the temperature of a gauge where the meat will be placed reads 220 degrees F (104 degrees C). Don’t trust the thermometer built into the top of the grill, it does not give you and accurate reading of what is happening at where the meat is. We recommend using an oven thermometer.

While the grill is heating, make a mixture of half (50%) apple juice and half apple cider vinegar. You will need about 4 cups (1 liter) of this mixture to complete the day. Unwrap the pork butt and place it fat side up in a large pan. Using a large syringe, inject about 1.5 to 2 cups (about ½ liter) of the mixture into the pork butt. Out at the grill, take the pork out of the pan, and place it (still fat side up) on the grates away from the heat source.

Set a timer for 3 hours, find a good book: George re-read an old Travis McGee book (by John D. McDonald) and relax for a bit. For the first hour and a half just make sure your temperature stays around 220 F. If needed, add more wood chips to keep the smoke going. After 1.5 hours, mist the meat with a spray bottle full of your apple juice/cider mixture. Do this on the half hour until you have been smoking for 3 hours total. At the three hour mark, wrap the pork butt loosely in heavy duty aluminum foil, add half a cup of the apple juice/cider mixture and seal the foil tightly, this will allow the pork to “steam” inside the foil. For the next two hours the butt should be kept at a steady 225 degrees F, this can either be on the grill or inside in the oven. In BBQ cooking competitions, this step is known as “the cheat” or “the crutch”, it really helps keep the meat moist.

After two hours, unwrap the meat and put it back onto the rack on the grill. Continue to cook at 225 F and spray with your cider/vinegar mix every the half hour. After two hours, start checking the internal temperature of the meat when you spray. You are looking for an internal temperature of 169 F (76 degrees C) in all areas of the butt. Don’t worry if some areas get warmer, you will not overcook the meat. This final part of the cooking can take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours. Be patient, and do not be tempted to take the pork out before it reaches temp. If you do, it will make it nearly impossible to shred in the next step.

When you finally reach the desired temperature, remove the pork from the grill, place it on a pan and cover it with aluminum foil. Allow it to rest and cool for at least one hour (preferable two) before removing the bone and shredding the meat. The shredding (or pulling at it is called) is easiest with a pair of forks. If you are planning on smoking a lot of pork, you may want to invest in a set of “bear claws” to make the process of shredding faster and easier.

Once the meat is completely shredded, mix in a liberal amount of your favorite barbecue sauce (George likes Sweet Baby Ray’s)

Pro tip: most commercial BBQ sauce is way too thick to use and much too sweet.
Mix it down half and half with water for a better consistency and taste.

We have found that the pork tastes better if you refrigerate it overnight after it is shredded and mixed with sauce. Just pop it back in the oven for an hour at 250 F to reheat.

Last step: make up some side dishes, invite some friends over, pour a cold beer and bask in the glory of the compliments over your amazing pulled pork BBQ!

Romania

A Romanian Wedding

For many years Bonnie worked as the program coordinator for the Hansen Summer Institute where she was able to form long lasting friendships with young people from around the globe. As a result, as we travel, we are sometimes able to meet up with Hansen Alumni (or Fellows as they are called), and we have also been lucky enough to have been invited to several weddings. We recently attended one wedding in Israel (Shelly and Brian)  and then one in Romania (Ramona and Jason).

Ramona has vast network of friends and colleagues, and as a result there were a lot of non-Romanians at the wedding. Lucky for us several of them were Hansen Fellows, and we got to hang out with lots of folks we know and love like Martye, Michelle, Leini and Allen. As a matter of fact, the whole gang was all in the same hotel with many of us sharing a giant suite. We also got to meet Allen’s wife Nina and Martye’s friend Rosanna. You can be sure there was lots of fun, home cooked meals and laughter. In keeping with our attempt to watch locally relevant films (the King and I in Thailand or Fiddler on the Roof in Israel) we watched a movie perfectly suited to Transylvania…The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Yes, we got to Do the Time Warp Again!

Bonnie, George and Michelle all arrived in Hunedoara  (Ramona’s childhood home) late due to some weather issues affecting air travel.  Despite the late hour, we were invited to Ramona’s parents’ house for a “bite to eat” which turned out to be a four-course meal of home-made delicacies. George started falling in love with Ramona’s mom, Rodica’ at the beginning of the first course and became a life long follower by the time dessert was served. We waited until the next day for the rest of the friends to arrive (poor Leini took two days to complete a simple flight from Norway).

Ramona and Jason’s wedding ‘extravaganza’ was like no other we have ever attended, it was so big it could not be contained in a single day, it took two very full days to pack it all in…

On the morning of first day of the wedding we were invited to tour Corvin Castle  where the formal ceremony would take place the next day. The three-hour guided tour included a view of the torture chamber which once housed Vlad The Impaler (inspiration for the Dracula stories) and a bear pit where prisoners who had received a death sentence where thrown. Despite the ghoulish aspects,  the castle itself was quite beautiful.

After the tour buses took everyone to a very small town called Lelese, where Ramona’s grandmother lives. While waiting for the bride and groom we were treated to hand made doughnuts and cheese breads. We all crowded into a small country church, which was covered from floor to ceiling with amazing, hand painted bible scenes. When the couple and their chaperones arrived, we were all pleasantly surprised to see that they were dressed in traditional Romanian outfits. Ramona’s uncle, newly retired from his post as the villages’ priest, returned to the church to perform the engagement ceremony which was as filled with as much pageantry as most weddings.

With the engagement ceremony complete, everyone walked from the church through the village to Ramona’s grandmothers house for an amazing picnic lunch, full of hand-made food, home crafted brandies and liquor and a series of different meats grilled to perfection by Ramona’s dad, Vasile and his friends. We are told the party went on well into the night, we snuck off after several hours to greet the late travelers who had finally arrived at the hotel suite in Hunedoara.

While the engagement ceremony and picnic was very informal, the second day of the wedding was full on formal. I think everyone enjoyed getting spiffed up in suits and lovely dresses. The bus picked us up around noon and took us to the family home (where we had dinner two nights before). All the guest filled the street and generally stopped all traffic on the road in front of the house. Then we experienced another of the unique Romanian wedding traditions. The groom’s party, along with his male chaperone and his “spokesman” proceeded down the street, stopped at the house and knocked at the front door. The door was answered by the “spokesman” for the bride’s home. There is an initial exchange facilitated by drinking some very strong homemade liquor and then the formal negotiation. We will try to paraphrase the negotiation but please know that it was all in Romanian, some license may have been taken:

      • Groom’s Side: “we understand that you have a bride in this house, bring us something lovely with flowers”
      • Bride’s Side: disappears into the house and comes back with a nice hat adorned with flowers.
      • Groom’s Side: “That is nice, but we really wanted something in a lovely dress”
      • Bride’s Side: disappears into the house and comes back with a small doll in a dress.
      • Groom’s Side: “This is cute but we really want a girl that can dance…”
      • Bride’s Side: disappears into the house and comes back with a young girl (the flower girl from the wedding).
      • Groom’s side: twirls the girl around and everyone agrees that she is lovely, has on a nice dress can indeed dance “But she is too young, we want a bride, not a child.”
      • Bride’s Side: disappears into the house and comes back with Ramona looking amazing in her wedding gown. A collective gasp and cheer is heard from the crowd, the grooms representative spin her around to verify that she can dance, when he is satisfied, he hands her off the chaperone who also spins her around and finally she is passed to the groom who also spins her around. When everyone is satisfied with evidence of Ramona’s dancing skills she is accepted, the deal is stuck and the wedding party gets in a car to head to the chapel.

The wedding itself took place in the Chapel of the Castle, despite the small size of the chapel, the ceremony was quite grand and included crowns for both the bride and groom. After the ceremony there were many photos on the grounds of the castle, and then onto the buses to head to the reception.

As we entered the door we were greeted with glasses of champagne each with a small dot of dry ice (the solid form of carbon dioxide) which made the champagne bubble and mist. This champagne was the first of many, many well thought out delights that added up to an amazing wedding reception. Other accents included a meal of five extremely robust courses, each was a treat all its’ own. In the hour or so break between each course there was traditional dancing, a photo booth, a clown and entertainment for the children, displays of sweets and nibbles and a full bar with a wide selection of mixed cocktails. After a cake cutting ceremony out in the courtyard, at almost midnight, the guests were treated to a private fireworks. All in all an amazing two days of celebrating the matrimony of Ramona and Jason.

We would be remiss if we did not mention the gift bags that were given to each guest, one at arrival (full of all kinds of handy items and snacks) and one at the end of the event. Included in the bag that was handed out at the reception was a small bottle of brandy. It would be impossible for us to tell the story any better than the label on the bottle, so we have transcribed it below:

When Radica and Vasile Dragomire were blessed with Ramono, Rodica’s father created a special batch of Tuica, the Romanian national drink of plum brandy, which has been aging ever since in an oak and mulberry barrel hand built by Vasile’s father, patiently waiting to be shared in celebration this day…

After the wedding we packed up and back to Cluj where we spent a few more days exploring the local sights such as the amazing salt mines of Turda and a hike up the Bridal Veil waterfall.

Next up, we head to Oundle England, a small town outside of Birmingham where we will spend a month house sitting  and looking after Georgie the dog and Alfie the cat. More on that later…

Israel

Mazel Tov!

There is so much to tell about our trip to Israel it is hard to know where to start, so let’s just take things in the order that they happened so we don’t miss any important details.

We arrived at the Tel Aviv airport and getting through customs and immigration was a breeze. This was Bonnie’s first time but George remembered a much more laborious process a few years ago. We grabbed a cab at the airport (we were told that the taxis upstairs offer a discount). UBER does not work here, there is an app called “Gett Taxi”, but it calls the same taxis as you hail on the street and adds a booking charge; you are better off just hailing one.

After a of bit of a mix up on the address for the Airbnb we managed to get settled in. It was a small but cute apartment with a loft bedroom (bath and shower upstairs). Downstairs was OK for George, but upstairs had exposed ceiling beams at about 5’10” (178 cm). We managed to make it through this trip with no serious injuries.

The whole reason we were in Israel is for the wedding of one of Bonnie’s Hansen students. We wanted to see Shelly (and Brian) as soon as possible so we decided to meet them at a beach bar a short walk from our place. Shelly was nice enough bring a box of wedding clothes (a suit for George, dress for Bonnie and nice shoes). Thanks again Becky for packing these up and getting them to us, we will send them back after the second wedding!  After meeting the wedding couple and several of their friends, we wandered back to our place, hit the local supermarket and settled in for a quiet evening of dinner and Netflix at our flat.

This would be a good time to mention the Lightening to HDMI adapter. For those of you who have an iPad or iPhone, this handy little adapter will allow you to stream anything you can watch on your apple mobile device onto the screen at your rental (assuming there is a HDMI input). Perfect for travelers, when you combine this with a VPN service and a HDMI cable, you are set for almost any hotel or rental that has a TV. Especially since most rental places do not have smart TVs.

The next day (Saturday) was a free day for us, so we decided to walk along the amazing path that runs from the start of the beaches near Jaffa and works its way all the way down to the far end near the Hilton beach. One fun thing about this 6 mile walk (5K each way) is that the various beaches are all unofficially designated for different use groups. The first is a general use beach, followed by a family beach, then a beach to bring your dogs to play in the surf, followed by an ultra-religious beach and then finally a gay beach. Movement from one beach to another is casual and there is no real way to know you’ve moved from one to the other, except for the religious beach which is walled off and segregated.

Sunday was the day for the big wedding. Since it was not until the evening, we started the day with a wander through Jaffa, this is a mostly Christian (with a lot of Muslim mixed in) section of Tel Aviv and the sidewalks are lined with shops selling food, sweets, clothing and everything in between.

If you have never been to a Jewish wedding (we had one 35 years ago), then you should make an effort to get invited to one. There is so much symbolism and pageantry to it. The bride and groom stand under a canopy, known as a chuppah (pronounced hoop-a); this represents the home that the couple will build together. The rabbi or cantor “sings” the most of the ceremony in Hebrew, with many of the phrases beginning with “Barukh ata Adonai Eloheniu”. The couple start out drinking wine from two glasses, then during the ceremony they drink together from the same glass. At the end of the ceremony the glass is wrapped in a cloth napkin* and the groom stomps it with the heal of his foot. The breaking of the glass symbolizes that no one else will drink from the cup they have shared. Upon the sound of the breaking glass the crowd shouts “Mazel Tov!” (which indicates a lucky thing has happened, in other words congratulations) and this typically kicks off a party. And a wonderful party it was: a delicious dinner, with lots of wine, with speeches and dancing afterword. While the whole event was relatively casual (not suits and ties for the guest); Shelly looked amazing in her wedding gown and Brian handsome in his suit!

(*Spoiler: in modern day weddings, a glass light bulb is slipped in to replace the glass. This leads to fewer trips to the hospital from cut feet and the bulb makes a much better popping sound when it breaks…)

The day after the wedding the family was kind enough to invite us for a us for a guided tour of Jerusalem. Your religion (of lack thereof) doesn’t matter. There is enough history and culture here to overwhelm almost anyone. We started at the Mount of Olives and looked out over the old city.  There is a huge graveyard just outside the walls of the city. The Jews believe that when the messiah comes to earth he will walk though of the gates into the old city and the dead everywhere will rise and follow him into eternal life.  So religious folks spend a small fortune to be buried close to the gate with their feet facing the old city. This makes it some of the most expensive real estate in the world.

Inside of the walls, the city is divided into four quadrants (or Quarters) these include the Christen Quarter, The Jewish Quarter, The Muslim Quarter and the Armenian Quarter. Each group considers their part of the old city to be hugely important, if not central, to their religion. Each Quarter with the exception of the Armenian area is open to the public.  The Christian Quarter houses the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and is built at the location of Calgary (or Golgatha) where Christians believe Jesus was crucified. It is possible to kneel at an alter at the top of the church, stick your hand through a hole in the floor and touch the top of the Calgary stone, and on the ground floor there is a slab of marble that is said to be the final resting place of Christ’s body. Deep inside the church you can see the tomb of Jesus along with many other sacred relics.

One of the most important points of the Jewish sector is the “Wailing Wall” (or Western Wall), which is not technically part of the wall around the city, but it is physically as close as the Jewish people can get the Temple Mount. People come from around the world to pray at this extremely sacred place. Access to the wall is segregated so after a ceremonial washing of hands men and women approach the wall in separate areas. A common custom here is to write a prayer or wish onto a small scrap of paper and wedge the paper into the cracks of the wall.

We got home from Jerusalem tired but thrilled with our day grabbed a pizza and relaxed. The next day we headed back to the Jaffa in search of the best Shawarma, which is typically made with roast lamb sauces and lettuce wrapped in a pita. We found an excellent one and washed it down with a cold Israeli beer.

All too soon out trip to Tel Aviv was over, but we get to look forward to another wedding for another Hansen student…off to Romania!

France

A Rising Tide Floats All Boats

We were lucky enough to visit friends and stay in their lovely new home in Brittany, their hospitality was amazing. Brittany is in Western France, it is bordered by the English Channel to the North and Normandy to the Northeast. It was especially poignant for us to be in this region on D-day, the anniversary of the day on which the allied forces landed in France to push back the Germans during World War II.

Our friends house is in a small village called Locmariaquer, which is situated on the shores of the Golfe of Morbihan. One of the first, and most noticeable, things about this area is the dramatic change of tides. Most areas are used to a tidal change of 3 to 4 feet (one meter or so). In the area around Locmariaquer the tidal changes can be up to 18 feet (6 meters). As a result, at high tide the water is lapping at the sea walls and the boats bob happily on their mooring balls. But at low tide there are many kilometers of exposed sea floor and the boats end up resting in the mud, waiting to be floated again as the tide flows in.

  In addition to the boats in the mud, at low tide you can also see row after row of oyster beds, (more about the amazing oysters later). This scene is surreal no matter how many times you see it.

The small village had two bread shops, or boulangeries as they are called in France. Each morning, we enjoyed a leisurely stroll along the “customs walk” (a small path previously used by customs inspectors to review the contents of incoming boats) into the village. In the bread shop we would purchase fresh baguettes, croissants and, George’s favorite, pan du chocolate. The village also has a small convenience store, several gift shops, restaurants, creperies, a library and a small neighborhood bar. We visited the bar which included several different types of musical instruments: guitars, a piano, hand drums, a fiddle and an accordion. Guest were invited to pick up any of them and start playing or join into whatever music was happening. George had fun playing guitar with a local piano player, the only language they had in common was music, but they had lot of fun with it.

Just around the corner from the house was a small shellfish store. In this store you could purchase oysters or many different types, muscles (moules), lobster, crabs and other shellfish. All were extremely fresh, clean and very much alive. Oysters were €4.50 per kilo with about a dozen per kilo. That works out to about forty cents (U.S.) per fresh delicious oyster. You can be sure we ate a LOT of them!

Brittany, or Little Britain (as opposed to great Britain) was once an independent nation with its own Duke. We visited the Domaine de Suscinio that was previously home to the Duke of Brittany from the Middle Ages to the 1800’s. In the 1960’s it was declared a historical site and has been painstakingly restored to an amazing showpiece with lots of interesting displays and educational areas. This castle is well worth a visit if you get to the area.

We thoroughly enjoyed our relaxing visit to this charming coastal town, so much so that we were sad to leave. But we took heart in knowing that we had a great adventures ahead, so we packed up and headed off to Israel to attend the wedding of one of Bonnie’s students from the Hansen Summer Institute.

Misc Info

House Sitting

By house sitting, we are able to stay in many amazing locations that we might not have been otherwise able to afford. It also allows us to experience life from the viewpoint of a “local’ and also hand out with some pretty cool furry friends (like “Cuddles” from Australia, pictured above).

The group that we use to find our house sits is called trusted house sitters. You can read more at their site and by using the link below, you can get a discount when you sign up and we get some benefits as well 🙂

Click here for Trusted House Sitters

 

France

Drinking ‘Ti-punch in Vidauban

It’s great to explore new places, and it is wonderful to get to see old friends around the world, but it is extra special when you are invited to stay in the homes of friends while you travel. We were lucky enough to be hosted by a lovely couple, Charline and Julien, in Vidauban – Cote d’Azure, France. The bonus was that Charline’s parents are good friends from San Diego, who were also visiting at the time.

As a result, we got to visit and eat and drink and explore with our good friends Fred & Pascal along with their younger daughter Samantha, as well as Fred’s sister Mag (who came in from Antibe). Needless to say; the house was full of laughter, song, amazing food and a few cocktails.

Vidauban is a small town and the house we were in was a small country home, complete with chickens in the coop out back that provided fresh eggs. The house is bordered on three sides by vineyards, as a matter of fact the whole area is mostly rows and rows of grape vines.  The weather was lovely, we took most of our meals outside in the backyard where we could watch folks play in the swimming pool, cook on the bar-b-q, play guitar and sing and in general, just enjoy life. Fred demonstrated his bar-tending skills with a local specialty cocktail called ti-punch, which is made with fresh lime, rum agricole and demerrera sugar. Fred never did share the exact proportions for the perfect drink, he only commented about how most people get it wrong.

There were a couple of grand outings, one day we all visited Port Grimaud, which we called the Venice of France. A great area with beautiful homes interconnected by canals. We had a excellent lunch of local specialties there and then jumped on a ferry boat to cross the harbor to Saint Tropez where we wandered the town and had Carte Tropezienne which is a sweet cake with custard in the middle.

George got a to join a game of pentanque, which is played by throwing heavy steel balls, or boules, down a long hard dirt court. Game play starts by a member of one of the two teams throwing a small ball, called a jack, to the far end of the field (or terrain). The rest of game is all about trying to get your boules closest to the jack, and/or knocking other’s players boules away from the jack. It is good fun!

On another day Fred organized a “small hike” down to a cove close to Cassis, which could only be accessed by hiking or by boat. Well the small hike ended up being a little over eleven miles in total with the equivalent of more than 40 floors. But the cove, at Calanque d’en Vau was well worth the trek.

 

We had such a great time with the Hayem crew that really hated to pack up a rental car and leave, but we were excited about our upcoming visit to Brittany in Northwest France. Check back soon for our post about this next adventure…

Italy

Fun in Napoli

After having a great time with our friends in Nice France, we headed down to meet up with other friends in Naples Italy. This involved three different trains, including one overnight sleeper train. We can tell you now that each sleeper train is a bit different. The comfort and level of service we experienced in Thailand was quite different that we what we found in a second-class sleeper car in France/Italy. And the train we rode on the way down in Italy, while similar, was different than the one we road backup to France later.

We arrived in Naples and were pleased to find that our Airbnb home for the week was a very short walk from the central train station. Our gracious host, Fabrizio, allowed us to get into the apartment early. He met us outside and unlocked the gates to a large courtyard that was shared by all the units in the building. From there it was up 4 long flights of stairs (no elevator) with our bags. Did we mention that our roller bags weigh 20 kilos (about 40 pounds) each. The apartment was great with a well equipped kitchen and a very comfortable bed upstairs. The only challenge was that the ceilings and door jams were all quite low, George banged his head a few times before he got used to ducking when he moved through the house.

After a good night’s sleep, we were off to explore Naples, and all of its quirkiness and culture. While we thoroughly enjoyed Naples; we must be honest and say that the town and was not nearly as clean or well-maintained as other Italian towns (such as Genoa). If our friend Christopher the real estate expert were in this town, the phrase he would use would surely be “deferred maintenance”). In addition, once you got out of the main tourist districts (like up near the central train station), the city did not feel terribly safe. Fabrizio even suggested, if we had to be in those areas after 11pm, that we take a taxi, rather than walking on the streets.

If you look beyond the somewhat dingy exterior, Naples has a lot to offer. For instance:

      • The pizza is some of the best we have ever had in the world.
      • The cannoli were worth searching for. We went to a shop that we are sure has the best cannoli in town, which is located very close to the central train station. When you enter Cuori di-Sfogliatella  a friendly staffer takes you through the process of creating a culinary masterpiece. First you choose your shell size (mini, regular or large), then your shell flavor (original or chocolate), Next you choose the filling flavor: original cheese, pistachio or chocolate. Finally, you choose what you want sprinkled on the ends (mini chocolate chips, chopped pistachios or candied fruit). We went traditional with a large regular shell, original cheese filling and mini chocolate chips. It was AMAZING!

     

      • Most of the “traditional” music you hear in Italian restraints anywhere in the states comes from Naples: O Solo Mio, Fabriculi-Frabricula etc. During our visit we attended a performance of classic Napoli music, including a fun sing along of these well known songs. If you are in Naples, it is well worth paying the ten euro (include a complimentary beer, wine or soft drink) to attend the Napulitanata Traditional Music Concert. Plan to sing loud, dance and just have fun in general.

What made our exploration of Naples extra special is that we got to meet up with our dear friends Matthew and Stephanie. We wandered the city, and ate and drank our way through many wonderful experiences for a delightful day.

The next day it was off the train station to meet even more friends in Central France. More on that later…

France

Southern France

It’s great when you get to travel to new parts of the world and explore the location, the food and the culture. It’s even better when you get to reconnect with old friends and explore it with them. That’s what we did last week, and we have several more adventures coming up. Believe or not, over the next 8 weeks, we will be lucky enough to meet with old friends in Nice France, Naples Italy, Vidauban France, Brittany France, Tel Aviv Israel and Transylvania Romania. But before we get too far out in the future, let’s talk about out most recent reunion.

We’ve been planning this surprise for several months, and working very hard to keep it secret, so it was kind of a relief when we strolled into the Metropolitan cafe in Nice to surprise our friend Tom for his birthday. He had no idea we were even in France, and we spent the next several days exploring Nice and the surrounding towns.

Listed below are just some random thoughts; in no particular order:

      • We typically stay in AirBnB apartments; this gives us the advantage of having a kitchen and regular living space. As easy as it is to forget, we are not actually on summer vacation, this is our normal life. And just like most peoples regular lives, we eat a lot of meals at home, we watch TV some evenings, we do laundry, we take naps and we clean the house. Having said that:
        • every flat has a limited assortment of cooking stuff – it’s always interesting to see what kitchen tools are supplied in each place (this is why Bonnie travels with her knife set!)
        • just going to the grocery store is an experience in itself. It is different in every country and everything has a different name.
        • we try and plan at least one “adventure” every day, this might be visiting a museum, exploring a beach we haven’t to been to before, looking at boats in a marina or visiting a local fish and/or vegetable market.
        • Of course we eat out from time to time (like everyone does) and we revel in the experience.
      • We usually do not rent (or hire as they say in Europe) a car, but since the friends we met in Nice had one already, we got do do a couple of amazing day trips.
        • One day we left Nice and drove to Monaco, it was just few days before the Gran Prix, so we actually drove (kind of by accident) a section of the race course. Pretty darn cool.
        • That same day, we drove by Cannes, but the film festival was wrapping up so we figured we missed out on seeing most of the big stars. George really wanted to go see the premier of “Rocket Man” especially since Sir Elton John was on hand for the event.
        • Another day we drove up to the Verdun region, we had lunch in Sainte Croix du Verdun on the shore of the lake, the view was stunning.
      • If you are a fan of oysters, and other shellfish, then Southern France is the place to be (although our friends in Brittany tell us we will be in oyster heaven when we get there.) We had oysters with dinner at home twice and once again at an amazing shellfish lunch.
        • If you are still learning to love oysters, or even if you are a fan already: give George’s oyster preparation below a try.

 

“Oysters Orleans”

          • Shuck 1 dozen very fresh medium sized oysters, putting the oysters and the juice into a medium glass bowl.
          • Clean the bottom half of the shells, put into a plastic bag and pop into the freezer to chill.
          • To the bowl of oysters and juice add: 1 tablespoon on white sugar, 1.5 ounces (25 mils) of white vinegar, 2 small spring onions (green tops of the whites) chopped fine, ½ of a green bell pepper chopped fine, 1 0z fresh lime juice (30 mils), and 4 or 5 dashes or Tabasco. Stir together ingredients a cover bowl with cling wrap and place in fridge for at least two hours (overnight is even better).
          • Just prior to serving, arrange shells on a large platter (using coarse salt to help balance shells). Place one oyster into each shell and then divide the rest of the mixture every between the dozen.
          • Serve with chilled white wine or prosecco and bask in the adoration of your guest.
Portugal

The Music of Lagos

After a month in Lagos Portugal, we both agree that this area has certainly made the short list of possible places to settle down. We are not done yet, by a long shot, there is still a lot of the world to see, but we really like it here.

When we discussed what made this area attractive one of the things that really stood out was the active music scene. This included everything from the myriad of quality street musicians, to the regular live music events and the sheer quantity of musicians and music lovers given the very small population of this area (Lagos has a permanent population of just over 10,300 people).

We lucked out and met one of the locals, a delightful non-poet and musician by the name of David Dixon. When he is not actively busking, hosting open mike nights or writing sharp little sonnets, David is a bartender at the best spot in Lagos for Mexican food, the Green Room. You can read some of David’s stuff on his Facebook page.

David turned us on to several local events including a music festival at the cultural center in Barao de Sao Joao (about 15 minute Uber ride from Lagos). At this festival we were introduced to the music of Josephine Nightingale who, with good reason, is a local legend. We saw her busking in Lagos, we saw her at the music festival and we saw her at a local club in Barao de Sa Joao. Her soulful earthy vocals and deep lyrics have made her a favorite at almost every live music venue in the Algarve region.

The style of music played by the local buskers is as varied and unique as the buskers themselves.

Suffice it to say, even if we do decide to settle someplace else, the music and people of Lagos will always bring us back here.

Portugal

Lagos, Portugal

Portugal is one of the places that was on our list of possible countries to settle in. After a whirlwind three weeks in the States we arrived in Lagos a bit rundown and it took us a bit longer to bounce back from jet lag than usual. But after a couple of days, we finally emerged to begin exploring Lagos. Our timing was good, as we arrived before the majority of tourist and we were able to explore the city and beaches without the crowds.

Lagos is a quaint town in the Algarve region of Portugal. The “old town” is surrounded by the Lagos Castle which was built by the Moors in the 8th century. The town itself if divided by a large shipping canal that cuts the area diagonally. Most the residential area, old town, city hall and grotto beaches on are the Northwest side, while the major marina, ship yards and the largest public beach is on the  Southeast side.

Like many sun soaked areas in Europe, the buildings are almost all painted bright white with blue or green accents. The local language is Portuguese, and while almost no one speaks Spanish, many can muddle along in English. The distinction between Spanish and Portuguese is important since both Bonnie and I are pretty comfortable in Spanish, but we had each forgotten the Portuguese we learned while living in Brazil. One certainly wants to try and speak the local language, and since they sound similar the inclination is to ‘fake it’ by speaking Spanish. However, with all the similarities, they are different enough to be difficult. Orange juice, for instance in Spanish to jugo de naranja and in Portuguese it is suco a laranja.

All roads in Lagos lead downhill to the shopping/entertainment district that is nestled by the sea. This means there can be some pretty steep walks back up the hills to return from town or the beaches. The town in the old city is what you would expect to find in a European tourist area, jammed with small bars, coffee shops and trinket vendors. Kiosks line the boardwalk along the canal and small restaurants fight for space on the waterfront.

One delightful thing we have found is the quality of the live music presented by buskers in the street. Unlike many areas that shun traveling bards, Lagos encourages it and has it organized. Buskers are required to present their address and a photo once a year, they are also required to go in on Fridays and get a permit for performances the following week.  We are told that the enforcement of these requirements for newcomers is pretty loose, and a first time cry of “gosh I didn’t know” will get you a slap on the hand and an explanation of the rules.

We previously mentioned the beaches, on the other side of the canal is the the largest and longest which is called Meia Praia (Praia = beach). This white sandy beach runs for miles and is a favorite of the Brits who flock to Lagos in the summer. Along the beach, are several restaurants that offer a cool glass of Vinho Verde (a local style of white wine), excellent food and shade from the sun.

But the real jewels of Lagos are the grotto beaches just down the road from the old town. These beaches, starting with Batata do Praia (Potato beach) are harder to get to, smaller and surrounded by sheer walls of ancient rock. The waterline of the beach has more shells, stones and rocks than Meia Praia, but the views are amazing, Many of grotto beaches are interconnected by small passage through the stone cliffs.