This town is the best! And now we have a legit market hall – United Farmers Market – in the old Matthews Brothers building – what a transformation and fabulous selection of food, goods and produce.
Category Archives: Markets
Montreal May days
A terrific little city break in Montreal to meet up with Irene from Toronto. A great AirBnB apartment in south west Montreal and very convenient to metro and downtown.
May 17 was Montreal’s 375th birthday and we were treated to free metro transport! We visited the impressively huge Jean Talon market and Old Montreal.
Subway sights….
Despite the blistering heat (totally unexpected after all the cold weather!) we spent an enjoyable day at the botanical gardens. In another week or so we would have been wowed by the peonies, but I will be wowed by my own in the garden at home!!!
For foodies and market lovers
Today is a drizzly, rainy day in Barcelona and the perfect day to visit some of the fabulous markets! We spent several hours wandering the aisles of La Boqueria – or officially – Mercat de Sant Josep de La Boqueria! This huge public market is on the records back to 1217, and it still stands today as a huge market hub.
Don’t I wish I could shop here regularly!!!!
An extensive array of seafood…
Vibrant and fresh fruit and vegetables ..
Wonderful breads, meats, spices, legumes, gelato – anything your heart desires ..
Valencia
So glad we made the short stop-over in Valencia, and our apartment was situated within walking distance of most of the highlights which made it especially nice.
We took the three-hour free walking tour with Elena as our guide. Once again we were given so much anecdotal information as well as history. These tours are the best!
We started at Plaza de Virgen – behind the cathedral – and witnessed the end of the Fire Festival, heralding the start of Spring, where the Virgen statue was totally covered in flowers. Had we known about the Fire Festival (Fallas Festival), we should have arrived a couple of days earlier and experienced the bonfires and celebrations in plazas throughout the city!
As we all know, Valencia is famous for its oranges, and Elena told us about the popular beverage Agua de Valencia which, of course, we had to sample.
The main market building was one of the striking buildings we saw with a beautiful central dome, lots of lovely ceramic tiles, and leaded windows. One of them displaying the Valencia coat of arms with the two-Ls (given by King James when Valencia twice showed loyalty to his reign, and the bat which is part of Valencia’s lore.
The food of Galicia
I had heard about the amazing food in Galicia long before we even planned this trip. We have not been disappointed! Walking through the market one sees an abundance of freshly caught fish, beautiful beef, lamb and pork and so many different types of cheeses and sausages! Oh! and chocolate, pastries and cakes that are found in the Pasterias! And then there is the olive oil and the wonderful wines! One of the specialty cakes is the St. James’ Almond Cake which is decorated with the St. James’ Cross.
Another fabulous thing in Santiago DC is that a complimentary plate or two of tapas are served with first drink order.
Outside the market this delicious looking octopus (pulpo) was being cooked in a large tub. It was served on the little wooden plates by cutting into bite size pieces, seasoning with salt and pepper and then drizzling with olive oil! I wanted it so badly, but we were going to have a delicious lunch and I couldn’t spoil my appetite! Ps. I found some on the road to Salamanca and we had it for our picnic lunch!
Our picnic of pulpo, cheese, bread and wine!
We lingered over an amazing lunch at O Curra da Parra.
Honey and cheese
I bought this honey directly from the bee-keeper at the market in Ponta Delgada (Azores). It is the most flavorful honey I have ever had – this particular one is clover – or so he told me! We are enjoying it on the delicious Portuguese bread with salted butter or sharp cheese – as we learned at Taberna Acor….
Yesterday we enjoyed limpets in garlic butter at Restaurante Caravela in Sao Vicente (Madeira). Local flavours abound
Around Wiesbaden and Out on the Town
More wandering the streets of Wiesbaden with our friend, Sue, who flew in for the weekend!
A ride up to Neroberg to see the Russian Chapel.
Relaxing few hours spent at the Thermal Bad
An evening out on the town to see the shop windows, lights of the Weihnachtsmarkt, and a few songs at der Eimer!!
A weekend in Fort Pierce and beyond
Saturday morning was spent in Fort Pierce at the farmer’s market, which is really much more! In the lovely waterfront and downtown location it was busy, busy and Lucy did extremely well with the crowds of people and other canines.
On Sunday we took at drive down to Lake Worth to check out the Street Painting Festival which was even more spectacular than I’d imagined. 600 artists – professional and amateur – take part over the weekend creating masterpieces in a 10×10′ space on the downtown streets. This, a fundraiser, is in its 22nd year, has raised money for art scholarships.
Food vendors, crafters, and others were also there ..
We also enjoyed some of the local neighborhoods with the quaint little Florida cottages.
A little slice of Germany
A short trip to Waldoboro took me back down memory lane – more than 40 years! and my time spent in Germany. It’s always fun to visit Morse’s for a browse around their store stocked with european food items, and enjoy a hearty lunch in their little restaurant.
Muscat, Oman
One of the ports we were most looking forward to and it did not disappoint! Muscat must be one the cleanest and most beautiful cities on the Arabian peninsula – in fact, cleaner than many cities that we’ve visited worldwide . We arrived as the sun was rising over some small, craggy islands, and like Salalah, the city hugs the water with mountains as a backdrop. Once again, we secured a taxi to take us on a three-hour tour of the town and we saw all the highlights.
Visiting Oman has given us the opportunity to learn more about the country and its ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said, than we would have had we not visited. He appears to be a much loved Emir and has done great things for the country with his progressive and forward thinking ways. After attending Sandhurst and serving with the B.A.O.R. in Germany, he continued studying in England and then embarked on a world tour. He rose to power after overthrowing his father in a palace coup in 1970, but has continued to keep Oman neutral, maintaining friendly relations with both Iran and western allies.
When driving around Muscat it is evident that he put his country first and the results are in the beautiful architecture, good roads, magnificent Royal Opera House and mosque, manicured parks and flower lined highways.
Evidently he is in failing health and has no children so the line of succession is in question – probably falling to one of his nephews. The palace is also amazing – set in a cove in Old Oman, it is a complex of different palaces within the grounds – ranging from an older fortress style structures to marble dome topped and white modern buildings that one can only imagine mirror the opulence we saw at the mosque and Opera House. The 155 meter royal yacht, Al Said, was docked very close to our ship in Muttrah port.
A week in Puerto Rico
Our first visit to PR was in 2009, and we vowed to return soon – six years later we did it! It is an easy hop, skip and jump from Portland to San Juan, but the atmosphere, weather, food, environment is definitely vastly different than Maine! While staying at the beach in Isla Verde (at El San Jan – ELSJ) we enjoyed having a car to explore the countryside. Having previously visited Rincon in the west coast, and the south coast, we decided to stay in the eastern third of the island. The temps (at times in mid-90’s) meant morning and late afternoon sightseeing or beach walking!
Photos from “out and about”
Food and eating!
Old San Juan
The beach..
El Yunque National Forest
Chatuchak not for me!
We took the MRT early to get to Chatuchak market – a humongous market (covers 30 or so acres!) It wasn’t crowded when we arrived, but by the time we left I couldn’t stand it any longer, and walking to Mo Chit station was like swimming upstream against the current! We picked up a few odds and ends, but, frankly, saw better deals elsewhere. A gazillion clothing stalls and just about anything else too!