Valladolid - an elegant city

We stayed at the Vincci Frontaura hotel on the outskirts of the city in Villadolid in a very elegant room, shiny chrome and glass everywhere, very nice.  As with most of the towns or cities we've travelled to, it has a very easy, efficient public transport system.  We caught the bus into the city on the first day to get our bearings, and of course, search for somewhere to eat.  We'd read about a place at the railway station, Estacion Gourmand, which housed a large variety of tapas bars and other eating areas, so we thought we'd try that.  Guess what?  Hardly anything was open, cos we'd got our timing wrong, yet again.  I think we ended up with a drink and a boccadilla, then we headed back to the hotel, needing a bit of a rest day. Near our hotel we found a little tapas bar where we had the best tapas so far of our trip - beautiful champignons in garlic and bacon, peppers stuffed with seafood, some chicken things stuffed with seafood and we went back and ordered more of the same.  Yum.

Next afternoon we headed back into town and had more of a look around - wide open streets, elegant buildings, many, many churches (what a surprise) and huge plazas.  We had a drink in the Playa Major, and watched the world go by.  It's a totally different lifestyle over here - it starts late and finishes late.  Whole families, mums & dads, kids and grandparents all start eating in the main squares from 8.00pm onwards, kids are playing in the square, mum and dad are having a drink and catching up with friends, and it's all very relaxed and stressfree.  Quite different from our point of view, where we put the kids to bed, go out for dinner and meet up with friends on our own, happy to have some 'me' time.  Interesting.

For dinner we found a 'NYC Hells' ribs place right next to one of the older churches.  We had a really good meal here, and finally managed to time it right, getting one of the last tables before the crowds arrived and started lining up.  Yay, a win for us at last.

Ok, next stop Bilbao.