Law, Partially

To start November and get to Spain, we flew a godforsaken European airline, Air Europa, that got us safely to Madrid, but disgusted us and annoyed us in the process. (The timings weren't good for Milan-Madrid flights, and this airline offered the most convenient time.) I missed the first night in Madrid with food poisoning courtesy of a Milanese airport ham sandwich -- not recommended. We had several hopes and goals for the Spanish leg of the Great Adventure to the South -- not all of them culinary -- Goya, Alhambra, and Mezquita. In Madrid, we wanted to soak up the Spanish cosmopolitanism of the imperial capital and see the Museo del Prado, hoping to recreate our Louvre success with our nascent art fan. In Andalucia, we wanted to explore the tapas heartland and the multicultural history (again, with the multicultural family's interest in multiculturalism...). I was worried how Bobby would react to his constricted pasta supply in Spain. Back in London, Bobby would almost a...

Which city is best? Christine, Bob, and I have been compiling some evidence on two candidates: Barcelona and Lisbon. Barcelona Barcelona is a handsome city like Paris, with a medieval quarter and stately buildings on wide boulevards outside. I was picturing a city full of cafes overflowing with Spanish wines, ham slices cut straight from the legs, sheep cheeses, roasted vegetables, and those famous small glasses of beer. Instead, the city was just overflowing with tourists, many of them at these cafes. Other tourists have as much right to visit Barcelona as the FD Linges. But at some point the city feels a bit less authentic and designed just to serve the tourist trade. Were the people at the sidewalk cafes drinking those giant beers on La Rambla locals? Does it matter? Tourism morality is not easy to make sense of. Unfortunately, we probably just picked a poor weekend to go. We visited on Easter; several venues in our list were closed, including restaurants and museums; and Barc...