I awoke early on our last day in Madrid, left my son sleeping peacefully in his bed, and decided to go for a long walk before the streets filled with the hustle and bustle of a Monday morning in Madrid.  It was also our last day of vacation before leaving the next day for our journey home after this wonderful three week European adventure filled with visits with friends, amazing sites, hikes, relaxation and culinary expeditions.

A part of me is sad to leave as I have loved every minute of this experience, but there’s another part that is absolutely starving to be home. As I stopped for a quiet cafe-con-leche in the middle of my walk, I wondered why? Don’t we often wish we could be on a permanent vacation?  Would we, could we really be happy in such a state? I’m not so sure.  Because what I realized is that there is something to be said for this place called “home” which got me thinking about what that word really means and why my son and I were feeling homesick despite having a marvelous trip.  As we continued our journey home, I realized that home is much more than just a physical place, it is a state of being or a feeling. And it takes spending time away from it to truly appreciate.  The phrase “home is where the heart is” had finally made sense to me.

A cancelled flight had us stranded in Zurich, Switzerland which is one of my favorite cities in Europe and despite wanting to enjoy this added time, our hearts were simply not cooperating.  We made the best of it and had fun, but I cannot describe the joy of finally boarding the airplane, the view of the New York skyline during landing, seeing my mother’s car pull up at the airport, walking into my house and sleeping in my own bed .  A few days earlier, I had asked my mother if she would please cook some of our favorite foods when we arrived and she happily obliged.  As we sat and ate this food for dinner that evening, I truly had the sense of “Home”!!!!

Chicken Kheema, Chapati, Cauliflower, Moong Dal & Cucumber Raita

In closing out our European adventure, we were scheduled for a 17 hour overnight layover in Zurich Switzerland.  This was not by design, rather just the way our flight worked.  But I was excited to be back even for a short while.  Zurich is one of my favorite cities.  It is the German influenced area of Switzerland and is just a beautiful walking city with a large lake and a lively old town area called the Niederdorf.  For ease of travel, I had booked the Radisson Blu hotel in the airport for the night which is a short train ride from downtown.  Unfortunately (or fortunately), our original flight was delayed by a full day due to mechanical problems and we scored one extra day in this beautiful city.  While it meant moving to another hotel for the second night, there are many many worse problems in life and thus we opted to take full advantage of our “luck”.

So, why is Zurich so special to me?  It was my son’s first international destination when he was only five months old.  It was his first flight, first stamp on the passport, first European adventure during which he visited Germany, France, Austria and so much more.  More importantly he was clearly a true blue traveler at that young age and enjoyed the experience thoroughly.  We had returned again when he was 18 months old for another summer of travels in the region.  So, the coolest part of the two days for me were the memories of those days (seems like yesterday), of mixing formula and baby food or feeding him his first bites of cheese and sausage contrasted by sharing a beer with him on this trip while he inhaled yet another plate of wurst in all varieties.

First flight to Zurich

First Shared Beer

On this trip we spent our time walking around the Niederdorf, ate gelato, drank beer near Lake Limmat, and revisited some favorite dining spots from the past trips – Zeughauskeller and Sternen Grill.  The Zeughauskeller is an old restaurant that has been in Zurich for ages and is a classic beer & wurst kind of place.  The waiters are no nonsense but friendly and have been there forever.  The sausages (wurst) here accompanied by spicy mustard (senf), potatoes and vegetables are delicious.  Washed down with a not so cold (Europeans prefer beer that is not ice cold, as do I) and life is just about perfect.  It truly was an unplanned yet perfect ending to an amazing three weeks of wonderful memories that we will hold onto forever.

After a full breakfast and a wonderful conversation on our taxi ride with Manuel (thankfully my broken Spanish didn’t fail me), we arrived at Barcelona Sants train station for our high speed train journey to the capital city of Spain, Madrid.  I absolutely love traveling on the trains in Europe. It is easy, affordable, comfortable, and a wonderful way to catch the scenery outside. A short three hours later our train pulled into Madrid’s Atocha station and we made our way to our hotel which was a short two block walk.

We were quite hungry upon arrival in Madrid and decided to venture out to find some lunch.  By this point in the trip, I was facing serious competition with the World Cup tournament in trying to get my son to leave the hotel to explore or do much else.  Finding restaurants that were showing the matches became important at certain times of the day.  Wanting to eat something different after five days of Spanish food and tapas, we decided to try a well rated Turkish restaurant called Jalo on Calle de Atocha.  It’s not fancy, but they had a TV and the food was quite good.  We ordered the Burek Pachanga (vegetables and meat stuffed in a thin dough like phyllo and fried crisp) and Lahmahjun – A thin dough crust topped with ground lamb, peppers and spices. Both were delicious and we were happy to taste some different flavors while watching the football match.

Our energy replenished, we continued our first day with the walking architectural tour of the city which included some beautiful buildings, but also took us through some crowded areas in the intense heat of the afternoon which we weathered and forged on determined to visit all ten destinations on the tour.

A quick snack in a plaza on our return walk and some very welcome gelato at Illy, we returned to our hotel very tired and called it a night.

The next two days in Madrid were spent perusing through the Museo de Prado, Museo de Reina Sofia, walking through the Parque de El Retiro and the Plaza Mayor

We also did a walking foodie tour through the city including the famous Mercado San Miguel (crowded and very touristy), and ate at some wonderful restaurants like The Spanish Farm where we found the best sangria and burrata. Other restaurants we liked were Sant Arcangelo with its fresh pastas, and Ramses with its lively outdoor atmosphere and great food.  We even enjoyed our lunch of bocaditos at Cerveceria 100 Montaditos at Madrid airport while waiting for our flight to Zurich, which would be our final destination before heading home.

After a short train ride from Perpignan, we arrived at our hotel in Barcelona Spain and were ready for a new adventure.  Just a few days before leaving home, I had changed our hotel to one in the Fira area of Barcelona which is a business district and less touristy.  The location was convenient to the Metro, walking distance to a supermarket & restaurants and it had a beautiful rooftop pool and bar to spend my afternoons and one day of work.

While we did visit the usual tourist sites like Sagrada Famiglia, La Pedrera, Las Ramblas and Barceloneta, we spent most of our time relaxing and walking the quieter neighborhoods.  My son and I both don’t like crowded tourist zones, so spending time in the not so busy restaurants or just eating food from the market in the room while watching the World Cup or Wimbledon championships was just fine by us.

The main food draw in Barcelona and in Spain is of course Tapas.  And we had plenty.  The problem for us was that by this time, we had gotten tired of eating out and while the tapas were all delicious, we still didn’t find any bold flavors with the exception of a few dishes like the spicy coconut curry muscles at Casa Varela and the Sausage & beans stew at Cal Pep.  We did enjoy some wonderful meals throughout the city.

Mussels in Spicy Coconut Curry at Casa Varela – a small neighborhood restaurant

Sausage & White Bean Stew with a Balsamic Glaze at Cal Pep in Gothic Quarter

Jamon Iberico

Croquetas

Gambas Ajillo

Chocolate dessert at Ciutat Condal

Sardines at Cal Pep

Seafood paella – Petit Pau

Oil poached Cod Jowls – Petit Pau

On one of our days, we took the train and cable car to Montserrat which is about a 1 hour train ride from Barcelona.  Montserrat is beautiful and well worth a visit.  We hiked several trails and burned off some of the calories of the past several days. There isn’t much to eat at Montserrat so I recommend packing a picnic as we did.

One of my favorite things to do during our five day stay was simply to relax at the rooftop pool & bar of our hotel and watch the city below move through the day.  A true vacation must include true down time without scheduling activities every minute of every day.  Well relaxed and feeling like staying in Barcelona for another month, we prepared for our next journey to Madrid.

The day came to leave our friends in Limoges and continue our journey to the next destination.  Our original plans to get an early start was modified when my friends requested that I cook Indian food for them for lunch before leaving.  I was not going to deny their request given the hospitality they had shown us for so many days.

After a trip to the market for all the ingredients I would need, I made chicken curry, stir fried zucchini, cucumber raita and rice.  We paired it all with Champagne to celebrate our friendship and some wonderful cheeses, and lingered over our final conversations.

Lunch complete, we said our goodbyes and hit the road towards Carcassone, a medieval fort city in Southern France.  Although holiday traffic delayed us, we managed to get a few hours to climb the walls and explore this beautiful site.

As the sun started setting, we headed to our destination for the evening, Perpignan; a city I had not been to before.  It is located on the Southern end of France, close to the border of Spain and we intended it simply as a stopping point to drop off the rental car, get a night’s rest and get on the train towards Barcelona. But as we spent the few hours we had walking and exploring the streets, I found it to be a beautiful city with an interesting vibe and made note to return some day to spend more time.  It was also where we had our most favorite restaurant meal of the trip – PIZZA!!!!

Yes, it was late and yes, we were very hungry but our love for this pizza at Le Napoli, which was a short walk from our hotel, had nothing to do with those two factors.  It was just really great pizza.  I ordered the margarita and the my son opted for the one with prosciutto & parmigiano and we both finished every single morsel of each individual pies.  The crust was thin, crispy, chewy and perfect as was the flavor of the pizza itself.  Our server was friendly and charming and although we were tired from our long day, we lingered with a carafe of wine in the warm summer night just feeling very relaxed.  Our train to Barcelona wasn’t until quite late into the morning and there was no rush to get to sleep……