the iberian peninsula : : travels in spain, portugal, gibraltar and more


	Madrid to Cuenca Iberian peninsula \| January "...I can see one of the seven peaks. Most of these peaks are unreachable except by foot, and so this entire range protects an array of vultures, eagles and buzzards and Spanish lynx..." Read It
	Lisbon's Alfama Iberian peninsula \| March "...Lisbon feels tropical, connected to Africa, on a biting cold day, and in its southern sun, like a mix and match of its neighbor’s architectures. It is colored in a smudgy gray, festooned with pinks and canaries and aquas and limes. Its slight inhabitants dress urbanely like their country cousins; just in tighter weaves..." Read It
	Tangier and the Imaginary Fromager Iberian peninsula \| March \| TRAVELS WITH AN IMAGINARY FROMAGER "...Chickens hang upside down with their throats slit and the esophagus dangling. Cowheads sway from ropes and men carry just-dead sharks over their backs. The smell of mint, the color of saffron, the light of bare bulbs." Read It
	Ernest and the Barbary Apes of Gibraltar Iberian peninsula \| March \| TRAVELS WITH AN IMAGINARY FROMAGER "...The apes are not exactly apes. They are monkeys - tail-less macaques, origin Morocco. Nobody knows exactly how they arrived on the peninsula, although theories abound. Many say they were brought here by Arab or Berber pirates in the fourteenth century. Others insist they were a tribe from the Baltic, pushed back to the edge of Europe by the Ice Age." Read It
	Andalucia and the History of Spanish Cheese Iberian peninsula \| March \| TRAVELS WITH AN IMAGINARY FROMAGER "...When I tell Johann I am Norwegian, he says, "we are enemies you know." I say, "Yes, I know." He says, "You Norwegians drink too much." He says this with the words slurred, and I say, "Why here?..." Read It
	Extremadura Iberian peninsula \| September \| TRAVELS WITH AN IMAGINARY FROMAGER "...We arrive in Badajoz, one of the old Moorish taifas, and it's Columbus Day, so nobody is working and most are asleep. If they're not working, they're toasting Columbus with the pitcher. It's eleven in the morning." Read It
	The Beiras Iberian peninsula \| September \| TRAVELS WITH AN IMAGINARY FROMAGER "...Four youngsters approach me on a bridge in Covilhã. One fellow is blonde and wears a goatee. Another is lanky. The third a dwarf, and the fourth is olive-skinned and seems the leader of the pack. " Read It
	The Alentejo Iberian peninsula \| September \| TRAVELS WITH AN IMAGINARY FROMAGIER "...Nothing in all of Iberia compares to the road that connects Covilhã to Evora, especially with one hand on the wheel and the other on a cheese that took us forty eight hours just to find. A hotel man had warned us not to take this road, because of its length. “It’ll take you all day,” he says. “Better to take the coast.” But we are in no hurry..." Read It
	The Lisbon Coast Iberian peninsula \| September \| TRAVELS WITH AN IMAGINARY FROMAGER "...Setubal is a mazelike city, even more gnarled and twisty than Evora. It hugs the coast of the Setubal Peninsula, facing south. Immediately west of the city, the mountain road rises high above the ocean. It is a chapparal-like landscape, and at one point, we pass a whitewashed monastery clinging to the scrub. This old Franciscan monastery faces the ocean. We are looking for the Azeitão region, where Azeitão cheese is produced..." Read It