Espana

• 31 July 2026
• spain

Hello friends and family, Sarah here! Jamie reminded me we’re past due for an update, so here goes:

When we last left off we were in Indonesia and from there we flew to China, but only for a quick airport layover, before continuing on to our real destination - Spain!

Now that we aren’t experiencing the challenge of learning to crew a sailing expedition, we decided our next challenge would be advancing our Spanish.

Luckily there is A LOT of room for growth in this area.

We signed up for a month long language course at a local university in Logroño in the north of Spain. Some might call it a small city but it still has more people than all of our beloved Kittitas County back home.

Logroño's Casco Antiguo, or old town, translated literally as "ancient helmet"

Is it possible we picked the area because they are famous for their tapas and wine? Yes, most definitely yes. And it didn’t disappoint.

A man, his Rioja, and his sardine

Their region is famous for their Rioja wines (mostly made with Tempranillo grapes) and the countryside surrounding the area is filled with vineyards and wineries (called bodegas here).

Our university course included both a winery tour and a tapas tour. I learned on the tour that we have sailors to thank for aging wine in barrels as they did it for practical purposes but began noticing that the wine was smoother and tasted better after a longer time in the barrel. Somehow we forgot to bring a wine barrel with us when we crossed the pacific. Next time!

Logroño has several famous tapas streets where we got to try lots of anchovy and squid related delicacies as well as the famous papas bravas (“brave potatoes”) and Spanish tortillas.

A quiet night in front of our apartment.

Our apartment for the month was one floor up from street level on one of these famous tapas streets so we got to enjoy the ambiance until midnight 7 days a week as we attempted and failed to adapt to the late night habits of locals.

Here in Logroño lunch is typically 2-3pm with dinner around 10pm. Much more so than most regions in Spain, Logroño restaurants seem to hold to traditional hours, thus finding food from 4pm to 8pm was not really an option.

Alcohol and coffee, however, seem to be enjoyed throughout the day. It is not strange to see grandma enjoying a caña (an ~8oz beer) at 9 in the morning nor an espresso at 11pm. People seem to savor their small drink over 1-2 hours, typically at a table in the square, and always in the company of friends and family. It is rare to see anyone with their cellphones out while enjoying food/drink and I appreciate the emphasis on conversation and presence in the moment here.

You may start recognizing Dirk's "going out" shirt

Our class was made up of a few retirees taking the language for fun (like us) and a lot of early 20 something college students from around the world. One of the students from South Korea taught me US slang (“body tea” and “chopped”) which I am far too old to understand.

Our professors, Ana and Andrea were fabulous and put up with us 4 hours daily. My head is still spinning with all the Spanish tenses that I have yet to use fluidly in conversation. I think life is really meant to be lived in the present - at least when I attempt to speak Spanish.

Americans, French, Japanese, Spaniards and more in our class

We enjoyed our first seafood paella of the trip as a celebration for finishing our final. It was cooked by Carlos, our beloved barista for our daily class coffee break, who we discovered was a talented chef as well.

Paella. We discussed Spanish stereotypes in class, one of the teacher's favorites to mention was that Spaniards eat paella and take a siesta every day. They don't, but Dirk is keenly interested in living out this stereotype.

Master chef Carlos, aka fastest barista in Spain. He knew our order and would start pulling shots as soon as he saw us in line.

The month in Logroño went by quickly and we are now making our way south to spend a month in Granada continuing our Spanish journey before we head to other regions of the world.

Is it going to be 100F+ almost every day in Granada, like we experienced in Logroño, in this unseasonably hot year? Yes. But do we have air conditioning at our upcoming lodging (unlike in Logroño)? We do!!!

Dirk should be happy, he finally got on a train!

Sending our love (across the Atlantic this time) to friends and family back home.

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