A few years ago I began writing a travelog called "Where's Waldo?" documenting my travels throughout southern Europe.

In these posts I focus primarily on Spain because we have a home, our warehouse and our restoration shop in a small medieval village located in the Costa Brava region of Catalonia.

I thought it might be interesting to post some of these travelogs here on our new website.

Enjoy!

Marc

Yesterday I began my day early in a clear but absolutely frigid Zamora and drove to Valderas (province of Leon) where I found 8 very interesting unrestored antiques at a new contact's "warehouse" (a euphemism in the business for small out-of-the-way storage units and garages that are usually so jam-packed with stuff that you can barely squeeze your way through them). Juan is a good humored and very gracious 52 year old Castilian gypsy tinker who I feel sure is going to be a great collaborator and friend (see attached images). 

After a quick early bite to eat, I continued east 156 kilometers to Tardajos (province of Burgos) to see another colleague where I found two small 18th century pine tables, and ended my day an hour further east in Santo Domingo de la Calzada in the Rioja wine region ... and woke up this morning to snow falling on the vineyards around the town.

Santo Domingo de la Calzada is one of our favorite places in Rioja. Set along the "Camino de Santiago" (Way of St. James) the town has a splendid "parador" (for those of you who are not familiar with the Spanish system of "paradores", they are state-owned hotels set up in stunning castles, convents, monasteries, villas, etc., and have the best price - quality relationship of any hotel chain in the world). This is a four-star hotel that costs 81 euros a night for a large double room. That's less than a second rate Holiday Inn Express in SoCal ... 

The parador in Santo Domingo was originally a hospital built by Saint Domenic in the 12th century to care for pilgrims as they made the long and harsh trip from France to the resting place of the Apostle James in Santiago de Compostela in far northwestern Spain.