Three Summers: Desanyunos, almuerzo y cena

Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

This past week we´ve learned how differently to us the Spainish organise these rituals.

At home our favourite breakfast pastime is with a coffee and a newspaper, early. Then, lunch in the middle of the day - midday-ish - sandwich or salad. Dinner, also early-ish at 6.30pm or 7.00pm.

Huh! One of the great things about travelling is things are not like home and we´ve learned that we won´t be having meals that way while we´re in Spain.

Even on holidays we like to get up early, seek out a cafe for coffee and watch the town, city, village or street come to life.

In Vielha we left the Parador at 8.00am, headed to the main square to find only the bread shop open. In Spain the bread shops sell....bread. Not coffee, not breakfast. Just bread. We looked, walked, and kept looking until we found a little bar open where we could order coffee. Coffee, not breakfast, just coffee.

And so it has been like this for us in the mornings in Spain. Nothing, apart from the odd bar, opens until 10.00am. In the villages and small towns that we have visited Spaniards seem to have breakfast in their homes, never out in cafes. At home from 7.30am on a week day, the cafes are full with pre-work breakfasters and coffee takers.

At the Paradores the breakfast room opens at 8.00am, so sometimes we´ve taken to having our morning coffee where we´re staying and then we head out.

For Spaniards, lunch is usually at least a two course affair. Cafes, bars and restaurants offer menu del dia - a two or three course meal for as little as 8 or 10 euros. Our observation is that the tables are most busy late in the afternoon after siesta. Shops close from around 1.30pm until at least 5.00pm.

However, it´s dinner that has surprised me most of all. Earliest we´ve seen restaurants open is 8.30pm - after the shops have all closed. At 8.30pm we´ve often been the only ones in the restaurant, though not for long. Most diners seem to arrive around 10.00pm - babies, toddlers and children in tow.

We´ve sat at tables next to 2 or 3 year olds eating their dinner at 10.30pm - perfectly happy they are. It´s señor and I who have been yawning as we finish our meal.

Things finish up and close by 11.30pm, tables are chairs are secured, shutters are closed, and then the streets are quiet again.

Until 10.00am when the daily cycle begins.

The food in Spain is incredibly good, and incredibly well priced. We´ve tried to eat regional food as we travel around which has included some choices that we would probably not make again. Pig´s ears come to mind. Pig´s trotters also come to mind.

We´ve had delicious paella for two, pa amb tomàquet (a rustic bread, toasted and rubbed with tomato pulp), octopus, jamón ibérico, olives of every variety, and of course everthing anointed with olive oil that tastes like sunshine itself.

When we´re walking along a cobbled street and señor turns around to find I´ve disappeared, he can guess that we must have just past a pasteleria (pastry shop). Sure enough I can be found choosing a couple of the beautiful tiny morsels on offer. The pastereria do not sell coffee though, only pastries. And there is no take-away coffee. In our weeks in Spain I have not come across a take away coffee. Always taken sitting down or standing at the cafe bar.

During the day we snack on olives and oranges. Beautiful, juicy oranges. In the east we drove past orange orchards as far as the eye could see. Olive trees everywhere, and of course grape vineyards.

Photos will describe more beautifully than I.