Unmikely
@unmikely
Old dad, fortunate husband, nonprofit marketeer, jaywalker, viajero, Chicagoan by way of many places.
If you’ve been to Hawaii you might know about Zippy’s, a local chain that sells Hawaiian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and American food. The menu would blow a “mainlander’s” mind. We left Oahu in 1986 and somehow I still have this old Zippy’s chili tub. They’ve redesigned their logo. www.zippys.com
On a visit to NY in 2002, I stayed with a friend who lived in London Terrace (the apts, not the co-op). Her place was ~200 SF and you entered right into the kitchen. It looked into the courtyard. We went on the roof and I remember looking down at the patios, imagining Susan Sontag walking out.
Extra cool watching the lone-motorist commuters scream by when the air is toxic.
This is the “Aldi Nord” logo, the only one I’ve seen on Aldi stores in Spain. Aldi is two companies, Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud. I guess this means that the Trader Joe’s we see in the states are owned by Aldi Nord and the Aldis we see are owned by Aldi Sud. m.youtube.com/watch?v=WSjY...
I got back from our annual Spain trip last week but my wife is still there with our son. They went to an Aldi in Gijón and saw these.
I’ve seen lots of baby bunnies in our yard over the years but these are by far the smallest and the cutest. There are three. Earlier they were all together but scattered when I tried to get a picture. They’d fit in the palm of your hand.
No family trip to Spain would be complete without at least one stop at Carrefour. The ones in Spain are like Walmart, but with small parking spaces, paella pans and legs of jamón.
The 4 km Negrón tunnel cuts through the Cantabrian mountains between Asturias and Castilla y León. The weather is usually very different once you emerge. We just left Asturias (17C / 76% humidity), grey and cloudy when we entered the tunnel. Emerged a few minutes later, sunny 25C / 41% humidity.
First saw them in Portugalete outside Bilbao last year and I also wondered how they stand up to the weather.
We’re in Santander (northern Spain) and Cantabria has mercifully avoided the extreme heat wave melting parts of Europe. But for my fellow Americans, here’s how most people keep their homes cool here. You can’t install window units in these windows. In hotter places you see lots of mini-splits.
Santander, Spain has street escalators and the old, recently restored Tetuán tram tunnel, now a 300 meter ped/bike path.
Laberinto de Villapresente, Did this yesterday with a hungry 7-year-old. He handled it way better than I’d have ever expected, better than me. It took us 90 min and we cheated (took a salida de emergencia) to get out. laberintodevillapresente.es
We’re in Cantabria which isn’t bad, but this is bonkers. Almost no one in the Basque Country has A/C. And yeah, it cools off considerably at “night” but the sun sets at 10 pm, so the lowest temp won’t hit until like 7 am. Just miserable.
Filling up the rental car in Spain. Gas is always way more expensive here, first time I’ve seen it so close to the cost in Chicago. 40 liters is about 10.5 gal., so I think this works out to ~$6.40/gal. On a related note, seen a lot more BYD electric cars.
Started our northern Spain roadtrip with a stop in Riaño. Riaño and six other villages were submerged in the 80s when the Rio Esla was dammed for the Riaño resevoir. Residents were relocated to the “new Riaño.” This lookout with huge swing looks across the resevoir and the Picos de Europa foothills.
I’m in NW Spain, will post sporadic, mostly non-touristy stuff. Currently in my wife’s hometown of Valencia de Don Juan, pop. 5K. It’s all walkable thanks to Spanish land use. It has 5 supermarkets. My MIL has never driven, walks everywhere. She was recently immortalized by Google Street View.
When we had major masonry work done on my old condo building, this went up in a few hours. Cars and trucks could drive under it.
Saw Al Scorch at the Hideout last night, a nice way to ride out scary storms. When the emergency alerts chimed on people’s phones, there was a collective “oh shit.”