Eurasia Mega Trip 2026 - Day Sixty Five - Gastronomy Update

It has been a couple of weeks and it is time to get caught up to date on what we have been eating. As I often state, we don't do high end dining when we travel. We look for stuff that is in the neighborhoods we are visiting or living in, try to find things that are representative, and that are relatively well rated. 

The Many Meals of Lami

Pizzeria-Restaurante Lami in El Campello is our kind of 'regular'. It is not in the tourist center, offers good, solid food at good prices. We are now 'sort of known' by the young family member who manages the place. We usually go there 3 or 4 times while we are in Campello. We love the pizza

 

 And the menu del dia is even more of a value because it has an extra course of soup to start. Gazpacho was the selection a couple of times this trip

 

 

 First courses we had included

 Beans with Sausage

 

Croquettas

 

 Meatball Stew with Potatoes

 

 Seconds included

 A Lasgna Wife enjoyed a lot

 

And a Roasted Ham Hock (a popular item in this area) that I enjoyed a lot as well

 

 We are expanding beyond the pizza and menu del dia items

One day I had their version of Patatas Bravas

 

 It was made with homemade potato chips rather than roasted potatoes and had a different make of Brava sauce then we usually see.

RMG, who is vegetarian, had Pear Ravioli which featured a blue cheese type of sauce and walnuts

 

 I've seen on their menu a Roasted Meat Platter for Two. Having 3.2, a confirmed carnivore, visiting provided the excuse to try it

 

 The meat was far better than I expected, some of the best we've had in Spain. Plus 3.2 and I nearly finished the whole plate! We ate about 80% and consumed the rest the following day.

We had a couple of nice desserts. One, a tiramisu, didn't make it on the phone camera. The other, this hot brownie with both a dark and white chocolate center, was a big hit with Wife, RMG and I. Sharing a dessert is a very common thing to do in Spain according to RMG

 

 A Weird Meal in Cartagena

We usually do pretty well finding places to eat on the fly when we are visiting places for our day trips. But our selection in Cartagena was not a winner. It was a bar and hand small plates rather then the usual menu del dia we get. And it was a bit of an experimental/fusion type place which I hadn't anticipated either

This is Octopus Toast

 

The octopus itself was excellent. Very tender and tasty. But the sauce on it was sweet! Which was to NOT appealing to me at all!

We tried the Croquettas of Prawn 

 

 They were okay, but not particularly strong in prawn flavor

We tried Artichoke with ham and cheese

 

 We thought the ham and cheese would be melted on it. But it was just cold pieces and fell off as you tried to eat it so you didn't get the flavor combination. Plus which the sauce on the bottom was again a sweet, fruit based sauce with some very syrupy balsamic.

 Finally we had ordered what was called a Coconut Prawn Curry. This is what came out.

 

 The prawns were cold and the curry was a sauce over it. The black stuff was a type of salt crystal. The prawn heads were deep fried but a bit too big and tough to really eat (I sucked the juice). Underneath was a salad like an Ensaladilla Rusa but I think with crab.

This was the meal that did not sit well with us before our boat trip on the harbor

Later in the day, we stopped for Gelato. 

Wife contemplates the unusual flavor

 

 

 The chocolate was mixed with some kind of nut paste to give it an almost chewy texture rather than a gelato texture

We punted for dinner. We had Ramen

 

 Which was fine. Though the place it was served in was a bit over the top for us.

 

 

 

 A Menu del Dia by Alicante Train Station returns all that is right in the world

After picking RMG up at the train station, we realized it was lunch time. We picked a place that was on the way between the station and the parking garage. Nothing exceptional, and were rewarded with the kind of dependable, solid food we've come to expect.

I had a Andalusian style soup with Garbanzo Beans and Bacalao and a strong saffron broth

 

 Wife's first course was a Spaghetti Carbonara 

 

 Wife's main was Prawns and Scrambled Eggs (which she liked)

 

 I had a grilled pork dish that was quite tough

 

 RMG didn't want a whole meal so had a fried eggplant dish that was both attractive with the eggplant crispy on the outside and soft on the inside

 

 I've talked about this so many times, but the Menu del Dias were under $14 each which included a drink

Finally, no compendium of Eldership trip gastronomy is complete with out at least a small report on Casa Miquel

Breakfast of Pain au Chocolat & Chocolat Croissants from local bakery

 

 We had many meals of mega salads from the bounty of our local markets

 

 

Eurasia Mega Trip 2026 - Days Sixty Two - Four - Return Of The VEFS

Wife and I have fully embraced the Moors and Christians Festival ethos since our time coming to El Campello though we definitely are of the 'Moorish' fan base. These festivals commemorate the events of the Reconquista, the retaking of Spain by the Christians from the Muslim Moors in the Middle Ages. 

Therefore, it seemed both propitious and historically appropriate a couple of years ago when we found available the services of a down on their luck band of roaming Viking marauder opportunists for hire, the Viking Expeditionary Force from Sweden (VEFS). Discussions went back and forth. Yes, they would be willing to assist us with our Re-Reconquista, taking our little part of the Iberian peninsula back from the Christians. No, they would not send us their oldest and best. We were too cheap for even them, down on their luck though they were. We were able to secure the services of their apprentices. 

Well this turned out to be just the bit of additional firepower Wife and I needed to secure our little corner of Spain (though for the life of me I cannot figure out why no one else here or any other part of Spain has gotten upset by our conquests). Therefore, this year we decided to offer our young Vikings (aka 3.1. and 3.2) their own all expenses paid vacation at the brand new de-I Outfitters de'Espagne Resort and Penal Colony! 

 As the #3 clan has accumulated many frequent user points from de-I Outfitters being frequent users, they knew to NOT click on the 'Penal Colony' box when making their reservation. AND byt an insane set of coincidences, the VEFS force arrived on a Norwegian Airlines flight that arrived, at a normal hour of the day! 

Having secured them, and without a heavy schedule of town and castle conquering to follow, we have been doing much of what we at the de-I clan do best...eat.  

VEFS Rep 3.2 communes with rare El Campello cat

 

 The VEFS decide it is time to teach de-I the 'proper' way to do selfie's

 

 

 de-I shows he is capable of learning 

(Yes, that does look like sake..."Kampai". More on this below)

 

 A couple of miscellaneous things before the main event

We had the unusual occurrence of a full moon rising at sunset. The result was a Syzgy (which Wife writes about in more detail) which creates an almost completely pink environment in the sky

 

 And another rise, just because

 

A Report Card on de-I Euro Garage Performance

I am happy to say after almost 15 years of significant experience, I am starting to get the hang of negotiating and parking in European garages without complete terror and paralysis.

I took these pictures at the Alicante Airport because I backed into this space only using the car's on board cameras and proximity notifications. Pretty pleased with myself.

 

 

 SIGNS OF THE WORLD

Evidently the Alicante Airport has a lot of problems with people trying to put their cars in their work elevators

 

 

Eurasia Mega Trip 2026 - Days Sixty And Sixty One - Cartagena Picture Marathon Two - History, Patterns/Reflection, Night

We are finishing off our photographic exploration of Cartagena. 

As I mentioned in the last post, despite not being terribly excited to begin with, there ended up being a wealth of things to study. I've categorized them in this post as History, Patterns/Reflection, and Night.

 History

It is EVERYWHERE in this city. The old city is pretty narrow. If all you do is walk the main artery from the waterfront to the end of the old city, you don't see much. All it takes is moving off on to the side streets and you you are suddenly immersed into a world where around every corner there is something reminding you of the deep past. I can be your overseeing some kind of excavation or major site (like the Roman Theater) that is completely surrounded by the town. Or it can be the vast number of murals that are on the walls and on the dividers that separate the street from the construction. 

 

 

 

 

 Example of a facade wall with nothing behind it (yet)

 

 

 Examples of separation walls with murals with actual ruins behind them 

 

 

Excavation, Reconstruction, Murals

 

 

Massive Amounts of Murals and Historical Street Art

Patterns and Reflections

We came to what is the gate of the Naval Arsenal, which I took shots of but was not terribly impressed.

However across the street from it was something which I am not quite sure what it was. Maybe something to protect from the sun (because there was playground close by)? But it offered a very interesting opportunity

 

 

The sun was setting and the opportunities for light reflection abounded

 

 

One are in particular

 

 

Provided a wealth

 

 

The Reflections of Espouses Fotograficus

 

 

And we will finish up with a tour of the Old City at Night