The Canary Island of Lanzarote is a UN recognized Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System and a UNESCO designated Biosphere Reserve. But I know it from a previous visit as a party island with barren lava and volcanic ash landscape and some gorgeous beaches. This trip I vowed to reconcile the world view with my own admittedly narrow tourist vision, to experience the history and culture I had missed before.

Noche del Fuego (Night of Fire)

Driving north to Haria to participate in the solstice ritual of San Juan Bautista Festival was remarkable for the number of fires we passed. Even the horizon was dotted with smoke plumes as if Lanzarote’s hundreds of dormant volcanoes had come alive for this special night. It seemed everyone had a bonfire of combustibles they’d been collecting for the year. Tradition has it that these fires consume all the wrongs and worries of the year as well. Just write them down and throw them into the flames. As with most Spanish holidays, feasting, dancing, and fireworks occur around the pyre, the evening rocks! Dawn brings the newness of the season, a clean slate, and – for some – blurred memories of the evening’s reveries.

And while every community and household have their own bonfire celebration, locals from across the island follow the flames, like moths, to Haria, which has the largest “Night of San Juan” spectacle. We were the only tourists there.  After the long-winded speeches politicians love and constituents must endure, the festivities began with a bombardment of fireworks heralding the arrival of a primitive-looking band of creatures in horned masks called the “Devils of Haria”. To ominous goosebump-inducing music they danced onto the field and around the pile of wood. An effigy called Facundo, representing all the ills of the world, was tossed on top as flames hungrily licked the edges, climbing higher as the effigy was strung up, hanging in strange-fruit fashion over the fast-growing fire. And as the fire-dancing and eerie music continued, Facundo was consumed by the flames, the crowd cheered, and the burdens of the past year were lifted. It was symbolic, it was visceral, and it had an ageless depth of meaning not to be ignored. I felt as one with the community, not an onlooker at all. And I hesitate to tell you about it now because the purity will be lost when the celebrants swell from hundreds to thousands, as this small-town festival is devoured by the tourism juggernaut that is so devastating elsewhere.

That said, Nuria Acuña asked me to say that if you find yourself in Lanzarote on the June solstice, the San Juan Bautista Festival in Haria should not be missed.

Cueva de Los Verdes (The Cave of the Verdes, or Verdes Cave)

During the 16^th and 17^th centuries North African Berber Pirates were a plague on the Canary Islands. Fortifications and lookouts can still be seen along the coasts to warn of and protect the islanders from their assault. On Lanzarote, a family called Verdes had a farm in the vast volcanic landscape of the North of the island. There they sheltered their livestock in one of the many lava tubes common to Lanzarote.

But while these other lava tubes and jameos (exposed lava tube chambers) have been developed into polished tourist destinations throughout Lanzarote, the Verdes Cave is much as it was when islanders and their livestock hid from the pirates in them. Sure, stairs and handrails have been installed in most places, and dramatic lighting highlights the beauty and surprises to be encountered, but it is nothing like the homogenized, saccharin rides of modern cave experiences. Verdes Cave still retains a raw edginess, places where the unwary or unsteady could disappear, and enough low, jutting boulders to make me wish for a helmet. This lack of polish raised the level of excitement of cave exploration to non-touristy heights. I even scared myself once or twice! Go. The cave is dramatically lit and beautiful – well worth your visit.

Tierra de Vinos Y Volcanes (Land of Wine and Volcanos)

On Lanzarote, in Volcanos National Park, the protected landscape of La Geria is home to many bodegas, or wineries. They exhibit the typical architecture of Lanzarote – low one- and two-story, white stucco and stone houses with few windows, all small, to keep the intense sunlight out, with all trim painted either green (for agriculture) or blue (for the sea.) Around them the ancient expanse of volcanic ash is literally pockmarked with depressions, each with a low semicircular volcanic rock wall to break the wind, and each planted mostly with grapes along with a few fruit trees. The sea breeze carries moisture which condenses on the rock and ash to provide the only water for the plants in this nearly rainless environment. I explored this harsh landscape during a visit to Finca Testeina to taste their Vega de Yuco wines.

My young guide, Marco, a blonde and blue-eyed Northern Italian, was a refreshing sight in his skinny jeans and burnished smile, and a most knowledgeable budding wine maker in his own right. We had a good walk among the vines and fruit trees – there were even some palm trees scattered about – as he explained grape cultivation and the protracted harvest they were experiencing due to climate change. He pointed out that some grapes had just formed while others on the same vine were almost ready to pick, making for a longer harvest, if not necessarily a more productive one. “It doesn’t mean twice as many grapes,” he offered, “but often fewer.”  A vintner’s problems never end.

Besides a warming climate, Lanzarote is the island of rabbits, overpopulated with a potentially crop-ruining “fluffle” of bunnies. The folks at Finca Testeina have staked out supposedly rabbit-deterring plastic bottles cut to flap and rattle in the wind. Marco said that they also have rabbit hunts, and I was served rabbit for dinner at least once during my island visit. Their efforts seem to be effective because I saw no live rabbits during my stay.

The real surprise of my visit was the wine tasting itself. I’ve been to so many wine tastings, but Marco pulled a twist I didn’t see coming. He paired our wine with chocolate for the most unusual tasting I’ve ever had. I’m that rare person – I’m not a chocolate lover. I’ll only eat white chocolate. So, I was pleased to see the Vega de Yuco white wine “Yaiza Blanco” paired with white chocolate. Tasting the wine both before and after tasting the chocolate was a revelation. The Yaiza Blanco, made from the Malvasia Volcanica grape, was fine on its own, eminently drinkable, with delicious nutty\fruity flavors that lingered longer after tasting the chocolate than before. Pairing both my favorites, white wine and white chocolate worked beautifully.

Surprisingly, Yazia Tinto, the Vega de Yuco red wine made from the native Listan Negro grape, when paired with the dark chocolate made my two least favorite foods taste good. The pairing worked spectacularly. And, if – unlike me – you like red wine, you will thoroughly enjoy the Yazia Tinto even without the chocolate. Thanks to Marco and the talented folks at Finca Testeina for opening my eyes to new possibilities.

Bonfires and Skinny-dipping

Now, don’t get me wrong. There is still plenty of hedonistic pleasure to be enjoyed on Lanzarote. Even the solstice ritual of San Juan Bautista Festival includes bonfires and skinny-dipping on the beach for the first swim of Summer. It’s just that you can return from this island visit with so much more than a hangover and a sunburn. Rub elbows with the locals, learn their history and culture, appreciate how their architecture and viticulture is shaped by such a harsh environment. Then pack a few bottles of Yazia Blanco in your dry swimming gear and check your “Lanzarote luggage” straight through to your home airport. That way you can taste and revisit your memories when you get back to the USA.

• Noche del Fuego (Night of Fire)
• Cueva de Los Verdes – tickets for timed entry must be purchased in advance online.
• Vega de Yuco Winery Soon to be available in the US.
• Princess Yaiza Suite Hotel 5 – Resort Named Best Family Resort in Spain.

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Chances are, what you’ve been calling paella all these years was simply a rice dish – good perhaps – but not paella. If it had chorizo – not paella. If it mixed seafood with meat – not paella.  A true paella is made with tomatoes, (garlic), saffron, stock, beans, rabbit (or chicken) and snails, all nestled in an al dente bomba rice.

These ingredients are all found practically at every Valencian’s doorstep. It took a visit to the birthplace of paella – Valencia – to learn the nuances of cooking Spain’s most famous dish.

From the Beginning . . .

I started traveling to Spain after a column I wrote for my local newspaper referenced growing saffron crocus in the Catskill Mountains so I could make paella. (Saffron is one of the most expensive spices, so I definitely wanted to grow my own.) A Spanish friend forwarded my piece to some people of influence who invited me to attend a forum on the “Year of Gastronomy” in Spain. They liked how I reported on that and the curiosity and gravitas I brought to the journey. They have invited me back many times in the decades since.

But, while I’ve been nearly all over Spain, I was never to Valencia! I’ve wanted to see the City of Arts and Science since they started building it twenty-five years or so ago. I also wanted to find out what Spain’s biggest festival – Fallas, an explosion of fireworks and burning effigies throughout the city – was all about. And of course I wanted to taste paella on its home turf. Finally, I could.

Valencia Club Cocina

I thought I knew how to make paella already, but I visited Valencia Club Cocina so chef Zaher could teach me the Valencian way. It is a lively, almost raucous cooking school.

Cooking here is a great trust and team building event where everyone has a hand in the making of traditional Valencian paella. After peeling, chopping, de-stringing, crushing, and mashing the ingredients – while drinking copious amounts of great Spanish wine – my new friends and I enjoyed a delicious meal together. The paella was great! I was disappointed that the only things missing were rabbits and snails.

La Barraca de Toni Montoliu

Then I visited chef Toni Montoliu at La Barraca de Toni Montoliu in Meliana, just outside of Valencia city, who is famous for his paella and for just being a larger-than-life cooking/farming personality. He is truly an ambassador for Spain.

The setting was amazing! Just a block off a main city street, in the back yards of businesses and apartment buildings, abundant fields of produce stretched across Valencia’s plains. Big plots of lettuce, artichokes, tomatoes, onions, beans, eggplants, corn, garlic and herbs of all kinds wrapped around Toni’s farmstand cum restaurant. Right there in front of a traffic light. Orchards stretched into the distance behind them. Not a man of modest proclamations, Toni gestured with his arms wide across this expanse and exclaimed: “This Huerta of Valencia is the great garden of Europe.” Meanwhile, chickens and kittens scurried out from underfoot as he hustled (yes – we almost ran) through the fields gathering the freshest of perfect produce for our meal. It was almost more than I could carry.

Then he ushered me through a maze of half-filled picnic tables into what looked like an old open-sided wagon shed converted into a paella kitchen. Friendly staff unloaded my armful of produce to wash and prep it while I looked around in amazement. There were five huge paella pans on one long grill along the back wall with separate wood fires beneath each.  And each was at a different stage of paella cooking. Here was the chicken (first disappointment – no rabbit) sizzling in olive oil, next were the aromatics being sauteed with them.

At the third Toni checked the meat mixture then let me stir the rice equally throughout the pan. The pan next to that was ready for me to stir in the stock and after a bit add the beans. Finally, the last one was bubbling away nicely. He added some straw to the flames to raise the heat creating the prized bottom crust of rice called socarrat that elevated arroz con cosas, or rice with things, into the lofty realm of Valencia Paella. It was telling that when I asked where the snails were he said, “no snails today”, I suppose in deference to the erroneous Spanish belief that Americans don’t eat snails. (My second disappointment.)

This cook-shed was just off the back door of his restaurant. So, while the picnickers enjoyed paella in the dappled shade of the olive trees in the courtyard, he ushered me into his restaurant to enjoy the full range of his cooking skills. And, while I enjoyed everything I ate – yes, the paella was spectacular – the taste that lingered longest on my palate was the simplest of condiments – a garlic and olive oil aioli – served essentially with potatoes but which I added to almost everything. What a great meal!

Eating at La Barraca de Toni Montoliu should be the “de rigor” experience when visiting Valencia. And go soon. When I asked Toni how old he was he said 72, but I later learned he was at least a decade older, yet still with the wits and vigor of a man much younger. Go. Eat. Learn.

Visit Valencia #visitvalencia

Spain Tourism  #visitspain

Novotel Hotel Valencia — I liked this hotel both for its central location (next to a shopping mall and a subway station) and for its efficient, modern design. The people were really nice, too.

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Within the city of Valencia is an area called The City of Arts and Sciences. It is an example of modern architecture seemingly floating in reflection pools, the whole being largely designed by the world-renowned architect Santiago Calatrava, a native of Valencia, with assistance by another Spanish architect, Félix Candela.

It contains six elements, each remarkable in its own right. The Hemisfèric, the Umbracle, the Science Museum, the Oceanogràfic, the Palau de les Arts, and the most recent addition: the Agora. Touring each, visitors are exposed to different aspects of science, technology, nature, and art, all housed within buildings that are works of art themselves.

A recent tour of Valencia during a rainy spell had me nervous about flooding, especially after Valencia’s devastating floods of October 2024. An explanation about the differences between the city of Valencia and the Valencia Region eased my fears. It seems that last fall’s flooding was in the region not the city, which was spared largely because of the city’s flood control program and planning after the previous major flooding of 1957.

Valencia was founded on the banks of the River Turia but eventually outgrew the flood-plain location. After the devastating 1957 flood, it was obvious to the city fathers that something radical needed to be done. Rather than move the city, they moved the river to the south, out of the city center.

This created a miles-long corridor through the heart of the city which was developed into a linear greenway. It is a beautifully landscaped recreation area with small parks and gardens connected by walks and bike paths which are easily accessible to virtually everyone in the city. Near the end of this repurposed riverbed is The City of Arts and Sciences.

I’ve been wanting to visit Valencia since I heard of The City of Arts and Sciences being built. As you can see from the pictures, the buildings are beautiful. They looked as if waves from the nearby shore froze and were reflected in the surrounding still pools. It is a breath-taking experience just to stand beneath them waiting for the cascade to fall. As Valencia tamed the river Turia, turning it into a flowing green space amid the asphalt, it seemed to tame the sea, turning it into glistening undulations of white concrete on the shore.

When visiting Valencia, either for the recent annual Fallas Festival, which culminates in bonfires in the streets while exploding fireworks fill the air in a brilliant display of smoke, sparks, and pavement-rocking percussions, or for this year’s 25th Anniversary of the Museum of Sciences at The City of Arts and Sciences, you’ll marvel in this beautiful, walkable city, and all it offers.

And while you are here, you must taste the city’s claim to culinary fame – paella!

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There are three hotels that really impressed me during my recent stay in Mallorca. Each has a distinctive vibe quite different from the others, but all have a warmth and enveloping comfort that invited me to stay. Two are located in the dramatic interior of the island and are very high-end. Both their fabulous locations and exclusive nature put them out of my price range, but I did spend a day each luxuriating in their service and amenities. Under different circumstances I would enjoy a more extended stay.

Treurer Finca

The Treurer Finca is the Miralles family’s centuries-old rural estate with a five-star, eight suite hotel in its 16^th century stone building. The epitome of agritourism, Treurer sits on a hilltop across the patio from an excellent restaurant run by chef José Cortés. The entire compound is surrounded by beautiful gardens backing up to acres of young olive trees.

Olives are relatively new to the estate, having been planted only since 2007. The production is still small, but growing, with about 15,000 liters of award-winning olive oil bottled each season. It is available in the best markets of Europe, the United States, and elsewhere. And, of course, it is widely used in the flavorful creations of chef José Cortés which, inspired by his global sensibilities, are grounded in traditional Mallorcan dishes and ingredients. If, for whatever reason you cannot book a stay in the boutique hotel, plan on visiting Treurer for one of Chef José’s incredible meals. Be sure to pick up some olive oil while you are there.

Son Brull

Son Brull is a 5-star luxury hotel & spa creatively situated in a centuries-old monastery in Pollensa, Mallorca. It is part of the Relais & Châteaux hotels collection, making it one of the most exclusive hotels in the world. The stone three-story building wraps around a central courtyard and houses 23 luxurious rooms on the two upper floors. The ground floor is home to reception, two restaurants, a bistro and a spa, with ample room to display the huge wooden wine press from the old days. (Modern wine production takes place in newer outbuildings which can be seen in the distance beyond the vineyard.)

Outside, there is a bar and dining area beside the patio surrounding the pool. This is bordered on one side by a rock cliff climbing 100s of feet towards a forested mountaintop. The other sides are elegant gardens that stop at the vineyards. Paths through the gardens lead to a tennis area and four hidden two bedroom villas, each with its own pool, on lower terraces.

In addition, the solar powered property is nearly self-sufficient. They make their own wines and liquors, honey, and breads, plus they grow their own vegetables. What they do not make or grow onsite is purchased locally. With a friendly and most accommodating staff, surrounded by a building exuding the history of the ages, and with amazing cuisine, Son Brull is perfection, as one would expect in a Relais & Châteaux property.

Hotel Saratoga

Located on the harbor in the city of Palma, Hotel Saratoga was my home for my week in Mallorca. From there I could walk to fine dining, tour fun bars and clubs, visit the Gaudi tweaked cathedral, or just hang out at the rooftop pool and bar enjoying the views.

The included breakfast was an elaborate buffet that featured omelet and pancake stations and two automated espresso machines. After my daily explorations visiting wineries, salt farms, pearl factories, caves, and nature preserves, I returned to a cozy sauna and a swim in the heated pool before exploring Palma de Mallorca’s nightlife. On many evenings my last stop was at the rooftop bar where the friendly (and long suffering) staff served the last drink of the day in a refreshing atmosphere of camaraderie.

Hotel Saratoga, with lodging much kinder to my budget than the others, is also steeped in a different kind of history than the first two hotels. Unlike their centuries-old accommodations, the four-star Hotel Saratoga is a modern building, opened in Palma in 1962, not retrofitted from a previous use, and therefore much more functional in design and layout. Family-run since its inception, it has been updated every year since. But, coming to Mallorca from upstate New York very near the city of Saratoga, it was the meaning of the name that intrigued me most. For that I needed a history lesson.

The facts from my research say that Saratoga is not a Spanish word but a Mohawk word referencing the springs and bubbling waters that made Saratoga famous. Additionally, there have been several US Naval ships called USS Saratoga after the pivotal Revolutionary War Battle of Saratoga. It was the fifth aircraft carrier to have that name, commissioned in April of 1956, that anchored in the Palma harbor during a 1958 Mediterranean tour. Over the years, other iterations did as well. Shortly after that, planning and construction of Hotel Saratoga began.

Anecdotally, the front desk personnel told me one USS Saratoga was in the harbor during a period of unrest in Mallorca’s history as a show of force to keep the peace. Its presence so impressed the families that founded the hotel that they named their hotel Saratoga.

Whatever the story, I enjoyed staying in Hotel Saratoga, comfortable in the surroundings and in the connection to so much US history and my home state.

Here’s a Bonus Fourth Mallorcan Hotel video from a previous visit.

• Hotel Saratoga
• Treurer Finca
• Son Brull
• Fleur del Sel

Photo credits: Hotel Saratoga & USS Saratoga images provided. All others by Richard Frisbie.

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There are many sights to see on the road to Santiago, Spain, better known to pilgrims as St. James Way, or simply the Camino. Perhaps one of the most unusual I’ve experienced is Herreria de Compludo – the Forge of Compludo. Older than the pilgrimage itself, which became popular during the Middle Ages, the forge dates back to the seventh century.

Not only is Herreria de Compludo the oldest blacksmith shop in Spain, but it has been continuously running with a fire in the forge since then. It uses coal mined in the mountains to the north for fuel, and an ingenious system of waterpower to run everything else. It is a self-sustaining industrial marvel crafted before the dawn of the industrial age, back in the shadowy prehistory of an automation that was just a gleam in the first smithy’s eye. And it is the last vestige of a farming community nestled in a remote valley of Northwestern Castilla y Leon, Spain.

We hiked in on what was probably once a wagon road, a half-mile path winding in from the highway along a crystal mountain stream. The water swiftly descends into the valley while the path gently climbs the steep slope above it. The elevation can be misleading. As the path and stream separate a stone-lined causeway becomes visible between them, seemingly flowing up hill. The illusion ends as the path levels and it becomes evident that gravity channels the water into a small, natural-looking reservoir between the path and the stream below. Beneath the reservoir is the stone building that houses the forge. It is so shielded by the lush greenery of the forest that a casual hiker could pass it by. A small sign announces Herreria de Compludo.

We walked down a woods path to the clearing in front of the forge to meet the smithy, Manuel Sanchez. He, with his faithful German Shepard named Rex after the popular Spanish TV series of his youth, “Rex, un Policia Diferente”, that starred a German Sheperd police dog, broke the loneliness of this nearly abandoned setting. He is the fourth-generation smithy to operate this self-sustaining forge since his great-grandfather took it over in 1908. Manuel has traced the ownership back to the 1700s, but local histories place a forge at this site one thousand years earlier! With sections of the original stone building – probably the residence – collapsed, the moss and lichen covered forge looks its age. It is thanks to Manuel’s commitment and perseverance that people can still visit to see the ancient process of forging metal into plowshares and other tools.

Behind an outbuilding there was a pile of stones with a tree growing out of it that Manuel described as what was the shared oven for the once-thriving farm community. As a baker, after seeing how the forge worked, I wondered what marvelous system they used to have in place to heat the communal oven. But that is another story lost to the ages.

Behind us, the runoff from the reservoir spilled down next to a water wheel before being channeled back into the stream. Everything looked rundown and cobbed together, the last repairs done before even baling wire was invented. It was a doorway into antiquity.

That doorway opened to a dark cavernous space with the crashing sound of water surrounding a lighted hearth. We entered the cave-like structure, our eyes adjusting to the glowing coal fire. That, and what light entered through tiny windows made my eyes widen at the primitive surroundings. There was nothing simple about what I perceived. Genius was evident at every turn.

The stationary waterwheel was as much inside the shop as outside, visible in the dim light as connecting to a massive tree trunk that we learned was basically a huge hammer. Through an ingenious rigging a cable snaked up through the roof and connected to a spillway door. One need only pull the cable to open the spillway causing the water to turn the wheel. How much it was opened determined the speed of the waterwheel which, in turn, regulated the speed of the hammer. Because this was all made out of wood except for the hammer’s head, the connections would overheat relative to the speed of the work being done. To counter that, a wooden trough was placed to catch more of the water the faster the wheel turned, channeling it to cool the friction sites. It was brilliant, if ancient, engineering!

The sound of cascading water came from the rear of the forge as well. Behind the hearth there were carved stone steps up through a curved doorway into a well-like structure. Hidden beneath ferns and moss was the wooden system that replaced the conventional bellows. It is a Catalan horn, in which air is injected according to the Venturi principle. As water from the reservoir came down in and outside wooden tubes that narrowed in size as they descended, air was forced into the forge. That air was in turn regulated by a stopper that, when removed, allowed the air to flow into the room, but when in place it directed the flow right into the glowing coals of the forge. No bellows were needed! So much of the labor was automated that the smithy’s main task was to move the hot metal from the fire to the hammer to be shaped. It enabled the farming community built up around the forge to have all the repairs and tools they needed to survive.

Speaking of surviving, Manuel is part of a family tradition. I asked him about a fifth generation, a son to take over and he said “I have no son to succeed me. It would be impossible! Don’t get me wrong. I can have sons, but not one to continue this tradition. No one would want to.” And with that final statement, he picked up a hammer and shaped a metal spike for me, pounding it flat on four sides and curving the head. While it was still hot he hammer-stamped my name on the shaft, cooled the spike in water, and handed me a historic souvenir 1700 years in the making.

To visit Herreria de Compludo contact Castilla y Leon Tourism or see:

The Herreria de Compludo website.

There is a fee and specific times it is open. It is advised to make arrangements in advance. It is well worth the visit.

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