First dessert: tomato, lovage, fermented honey.

Second dessert: Queen scallops ice cream, beet, blackberry, rhubarb and fir cone tips.

At the beginning of our trip on the Santiago camino.

Chrystal peppers (so-called because they are very fragile) with a sort of bacon made from pig cheeks. ⁦Baserriberri⁩, Pamplona.

The 11th century Puente de la Reina, a meeting point of camino routes.

12th-century octagonal church of Santa Maria d’Eunate, Navarre.

On the Camino near Najera, Rioja region.

Cathedral of Burgos.

Sunflowers along the Camino in Leon.

Stained glass rose window, cathedral of Leon.

Leon cathedral, an extraordinary example of Gothic architecture.

Astorga, the episcopal palace designed by Gaudi beginning in 1889.

Last kilometer before arriving at the cathedral of Santiago.

Cathedral of Santiago, the gigantic incense censer, the “bota fumeiro”

As it burns incense it is swung across the transept by five red cloaked men.

A little frightening…

Soon this will not be possible, alas, until spring.

A dinner in San Antonio with a history book club who had watched my Yale Open Courses lectures on the early Middle Ages.

Fried quail, a feature of that dinner.

Another important election — in (the country of) Georgia. Hundreds of citizens living in NYC lining up to cast votes at the Georgian consulate, East 44th St., NYC.