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Made in Spain
Whether you’re an expat chasing the dream, a traveller inspired by European elegance or a foodie seeking the perfect paella, Made in Spain is your insider’s guide to all things chic, cultural and quintessentially Spanish.
Join hosts Nalini Sharma and Laura Senior García for a glamorous mix of travel, food, fashion and the rich cultural narratives that make Spain a global icon of style and sophistication.
Nalini is a former Canadian TV presenter, who has previously covered red carpet and live events, and major news stories. She channels the same wit and curiosity to the Made in Spain podcast, offering sharp, unscripted takes on everything from Spanish traditions to expat surprises.
Laura, a seasoned leadership coach and global traveler, shares her deep, first-hand knowledge of Spain—not just as her birthplace, but as a country she continues to rediscover. With a British father and Spanish mother, she considers herself a global citizen with deep roots in Spain. Her insights connect Spain’s rich past with its modern evolution, offering a unique and personal perspective on life, culture, and luxury in Spain today.
Every episode of Made in Spain explores the country’s hidden gems and exclusive experiences, but it’s more than just a guide—it’s a conversation.
The show’s Slice of Life segment gives listeners an unfiltered peek into Nalini and Laura’s daily experiences – the joys, frustrations, and unexpected moments that make life in Spain, and beyond, full of surprises. Sometimes, it’s about the reality of settling into a new country – at other times, it’s about their travels, funny mishaps, or behind-the-scenes stories from researching the podcast. No matter the topic, listeners feel like they are right there with them, stepping into their world.
Made in Spain
Epic Day Trips From Bilbao: From Dragonstone to Ghecho
Beyond the gleaming curves of Bilbao's Guggenheim lie two extraordinary destinations that showcase the true magic of Spain's Basque Country. Our adventure begins in Ghecho – the "Hamptons of Spain" – just 20 minutes from Bilbao yet worlds apart in atmosphere.
Strolling through Ghecho feels like stepping into another era. French-style châteaux line tree-shaded streets, remnants of a time when Spain's industrial elite built summer palaces along this privileged coastline. The town presents two distinct faces: one of aristocratic grandeur with boutiques and refined dining, another more authentic and connected to its seafaring past. What truly distinguishes Ghecho is the UNESCO-protected Puente de Vizcaya – a hanging bridge designed by Gustav Eiffel's student. This remarkable structure isn't just a tourist attraction but a functioning transport system locals use daily, with a suspended gondola carrying pedestrians and vehicles across the river.
But nothing prepares you for San Juan de Gatelugache – better known to millions as Dragonstone from Game of Thrones. Unlike many filming locations that quickly commercialize, this ancient hermitage remains untouched by branding, honoring its centuries-old history as a spiritual pilgrimage site. The dramatic stone pathway leading to the church, with 241 steps carved into rugged cliffs, creates an almost mystical experience as Atlantic waves crash against volcanic rock formations.
What makes this location particularly special is how it's managed. Free timed-entry tickets must be reserved in advance, creating a measured flow of visitors that preserves the site's magic. While queuing, we witnessed dozens refreshing their phones hoping for last-minute cancellations – testament to its popularity even years after Game of Thrones concluded.
Between adventures, we sampled local specialties including Calimocho (the surprisingly drinkable combination of cheap red wine and Coca-Cola) and burnt Basque cheesecake that The New York Times once crowned "flavor of the year." These culinary innovations, born from necessity and creativity, perfectly mirror the resourceful spirit of the Basque people themselves.
Whether you're planning a romantic date (we've included three budget options!) or seeking to escape Bilbao's urban energy, these day trips offer unforgettable glimpses into the region's aristocratic past and dramatic natural beauty. Subscribe to hear more as we continue exploring Spain's hidden treasures in upcoming episodes!
in game of thrones. Dragon stone is the dramatic, windswept ancestral home of house targaryen all dark cliffs, crashing waves and volcanic energy. It's where daenerys returns to reclaim her birthright, where jon snow meets his fate and where a lot of very serious brooding happens In real life. It's San Juan de Gatelugache.
Speaker 1:Wow, you said it. You had the very difficult pronunciations in this little miniseries Gatelugache.
Speaker 2:Yes, or Dragonstone, or Dragonstone. We kept calling it Dragonstone the whole time because it's difficult to pronounce. It is San Juan de Gatelugache and, yes, it's every bit as breathtaking as it is on screen. I am Lara Senior-Garcia Nelini.
Speaker 1:Sharma, and this is Made in Spain.
Speaker 2:Welcome to episode three, season three, of the Made in Spain podcast. We are super happy to be here with you for the last part of our three episode mini series about Bilbao and the surrounding areas. Today we're going to focus on day trips from Bilbao, two very different, very, very special spots. We happen to do both of these in one day, but I would not suggest that. You know people do both. The name of our episode is From Dragonstone to Ghecho Epic Day Trips from Bilbao.
Speaker 1:It honestly, and it is an epic day trip. So we originally had planned it for Ghecho on the Saturday and then the Dragonstone on the Sunday. It just so happened that the car rental was a Saturday, so we decided to do both at the same time. I think the idea was that we would have gone to Getcho, which is a municipality, a little town outside of Bilbao, 20 minutes by car, but also, fantastically, you can take the train there. So the metro, train, subway I don't think it costs more than three euro to get you out to Ghecho. The issue with that is that once you get there, it is I mean, it's a small town, but it's still a big town.
Speaker 1:Yes, so, there's a lot of walking and there are, I would say, two separate sides to it. Yes, in that it would be, unless you're a real walker, walker and you know. But if you kind of want to enjoy your day, you would have to take a taxi, or just factor that into your day or budget, to take you from one side to the other. There's also buses there are buses.
Speaker 2:We sometimes are a little bit lazy about having to wait for the bus, look for the bus stop and all that, but there are buses and if you want to get out there in the metro, it's line one towards plencia and it will take you about 30 minutes from central bilbao but well worth the visit, whether you go by car, whether you go by the, the train.
Speaker 1:Uh, we rented a car, which it cost us a little bit more than what we had budgeted for, only because we were doing two stops in one day. Otherwise we would have gone and returned the car on time. We had to keep it an extra night just because we went out to Dragonstone the same afternoon.
Speaker 2:Exactly so 47 euros to rent a car from the city center of Bilbao, center of the city, yeah, and from there, you know, you can take the car for the day, go explore in nature, go to the beaches, etc. So that is a really good option to do the car rental if you do want to get around to more than one place like we did and I mean Laura did the driving but very actually easy driving, well paved roads, very well marked.
Speaker 1:It's not as if you're going to pull off, which has happened to me in the past, where you decide to go somewhere but you pull off and then it turns. The road turns into no road and then you're a two-lane road but it should really be one uh, in opposite direction. So that will not happen to you if you do this trip. It is very straightforward to get there it is.
Speaker 2:I will say that once you leave bilbao, the signs are mostly in basque, right so? So it's just something to be aware of. Good to have your google maps, your gps, because they are mostly in basque when you get out of there. So talk to us about getcho. We started off in the mythical Dragonstone and then we'll go back to it later, but let's do our first stop in Ghecho.
Speaker 1:It's a very, very special town, very special town, and I think what's really interesting about some of the towns that we visit, they end up being a real sort of like just a surprise, because I sort of pictured Ghecho as more of I don't know, maybe more of a little village in a sense. But it's actually a throwback to a time where, I mean, people had a lot of money Spanish had a lot of money and they would build their vacation homes there. So you have these really stunning, very large.
Speaker 2:I mean I wouldn't call it castles, but semi-castles that they're that large and I think really, when you look at them, they remind me of chateaus like. They're like french and if you think of where you are in the basque country, how close you are to france it's very.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the architecture is very different. It does look like a chateau. A lot of the homes look like chateaus. Now they have turned into what I believe are little boutique hotels or apartments, or separate you know apartments that you would buy. I still think some of them are private homes, but very few of them, but that was where the wealthy would come to vacation. So it would be the same as, if, you know, in North America.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you buy a cottage. Yeah, the Hamptons Ghecho is Hamptons of Spain.
Speaker 1:In a way I would say yes, absolutely so.
Speaker 2:I do know. A while back someone mentioned to me that it was very much the elite from Madrid that either had connections or family members there, and also the elite from Bilbao, so the industrial elite Families, yes, and when you go there, there you will see why.
Speaker 2:It is almost as if you are in a different part of Europe, and I know we've said that about you, know Bilbao or the surrounding region, but you, you could really be, maybe in a little Swiss town absolutely, and when I think, when you go to get you, though, it's kind of interesting, even though we are talking about a day trip from Bilbao, it does not remind me of Bilbao at all, not at all Like the way that the architecture, like you said, the homes, the landscape, the port, it does feel like you're in a totally different area.
Speaker 1:Completely and so, okay, we took the, we drove. I would just recommend that have patience with parking, because we went and listen, we are traveling off season, so if you are traveling in the middle of summer I would maybe not recommend taking the car. Or if you do take a car, be prepared to be very diligent with parking or arrive early to find a parking spot, because the one thing that I have found, traveling to some of the not just Gacho but other cities, smaller cities or towns within Spain, is that parking is very limited, especially in tourist you know, kind of tourist season, and that becomes difficult. So pack your patience with that.
Speaker 2:There's one more thing as well. We didn't visit it, but there is a very nice beach there, beautiful beach.
Speaker 1:Yes, Really really beautiful beach.
Speaker 2:So you have that the water is very cold though because, again, as we mentioned in the last episode, with the food, it is the Atlantic, and some people may think, oh, Spain beach, it's like. No, it's not the Med, you know, so it's very, very cold. No, it's different, it's not the Med, you know, so it's very, very cold.
Speaker 1:And also people surf there, so that just gives you an idea of the type of water that you have in the waves. But it was established in the 12th century and it's basically a seafaring town and over time turned, I think I would say it was kind of like a playground for the elite and it has evolved since then. Now I think it's maybe people who are kind of retired there or they want a really picturesque place to live but maybe commute to the bigger city to work because it's very quiet. I mean they're. I think it took us like 18 minutes by car.
Speaker 1:So it wasn't yeah.
Speaker 1:I could definitely see. If you live there and you were commuting to Bilbao, for example, it would not be a big deal. No, and it's. You know these beautiful, very quiet, tree-lined streets. I mean there's the grittier side to get, which we ended up walking through, but not in a bad way. A very different looking area closer to the port, with all these stately homes, the trees, the fancy boutiques, really nice restaurants and boutique hotels. And then you have a slightly girtier side to it. So that's just the split between it, but it's a small town, but it's still big enough that you can spend the entire day and enjoy many things to do.
Speaker 2:So one of the things to do that we didn't actually find out till the very day before I was actually looking on social media of, like, oh, things to do in Guecho, because I had been there before a while back, but it was mostly centered around eating and seeing the port area is the Hanging Bridge, which is also called the Puente de Vizcaya. It is a really, really interesting visit and, especially for the engineering fans, I think they would absolutely love this spot. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2006, and it was built in 1893. Interesting fact that I found out afterwards in doing a little bit of the research for this episode that I didn't even realize when we were there, is that it was designed by Alberto de Palacio, who is a student of Gustav Eiffel.
Speaker 2:Oh that makes sense, it does.
Speaker 1:When you get there it's like.
Speaker 2:Why does this strangely remind me of the Eiffel Tower?
Speaker 1:No, that makes sense. So we I mean again, we went there and we thought, okay, well, let's go up and we'll go up the bridge so you can take an elevator. You buy tickets, you take the elevator up and you can cross over. You're crossing over the river to the other side. Now, this is it's not it's really not a tourist attraction. It has become a tourist attraction, but it's functional for the people who live there.
Speaker 1:It is functional Because you have to cross. So if you live on the other side of the river and you have to get to that side or leave, you have to use the bridge, put your car on it to get across to exit the city.
Speaker 2:It's 10 euros. If you're doing it, as Nalini said, as a tourist. And, by the way, I would not recommend going to the top of the bridge like we did. If you are afraid of heights, do not do that. We are not afraid of heights, but if you are afraid of heights.
Speaker 2:You can actually see through the wood planks, yeah, at the top, and it is a huge drop and I could see how someone with you know, the, who has a fear of heights, would really struggle there. But so maybe don't do that if you are, but if you are not, it's a really cool experience in that 10 years you also get included going on this thing that hangs off the bridge. It's a cable car, it's? Is it a cable car?
Speaker 1:yeah, like this. Yeah, I mean, I don't it's how you would describe it, so it's like a cable car that goes from one side to the other.
Speaker 2:It's basically suspended gondola yeah exactly that's what it is.
Speaker 1:So you and really there were some tourists on there, but there were also people who just live there yeah you know, they just live there and they have their pass I guess their resident pass to cross over and it's just a normal thing for them, from one side to the other, that this is what they do on a daily basis.
Speaker 2:We got this scare of a lifetime, when we went all the way up to the top and for some reason, they put a mannequin in the I don't know if you see, yeah, a mannequin. They put a mannequin in, like the little uh thing where they used to operate the suspended gondola from, and you know, all of a sudden we realized it wasn't a human being, you know the mannequin is kind of like slumped over.
Speaker 1:yeah, like, oh my god, the mannequin just had a heart attack. Yeah, and they do tell you at uh, not the midpoint, because we did not walk. The day we went was actually quite cool. It was windy and it was windy, but we got to a certain point on the bridge where it tells you that if enough people were to jump on the bridge at the same time, you would feel it move.
Speaker 2:And didn't it actually. Yes, I was like yeah, no thanks, Thank you for letting me know about that when we're up here. No, it was interesting because obviously we were with your children.
Speaker 1:I think they really enjoyed it as well.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, they loved it, they loved making us nervous while we were up there. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that was Gheccio. Yeah, we had lunch at the Italian. Yes.
Speaker 2:So super recommend. We mentioned it in episode two, but it was Casa Liotta. Yes, very, very nice and again, very affordable, very affordable, very.
Speaker 1:I mean I would say we did not have in any place that we went poor service, except our hotel in Bilbao. Except the hotel.
Speaker 2:Which, by the way, was also the most outrageously expensive meal for a BLT. And so, yeah, other than that, yeah, I think that was definitely.
Speaker 1:And again, if you are going in a peak season or listen, even if it's off season, I always recommend to people please just go online. If you can make a reservation, just make a reservation. If you can't keep it, cancel it, but at least you have somewhere. Don't assume that you can just stroll into any place and have a lunch because that may not happen and as a business owner here, I would say make sure you cancel.
Speaker 2:It doesn't cost anything, and people really appreciate it, especially knowing that you're not going to show up. All right, so let's go from Getcho.
Speaker 1:Yes To. I mean honestly the highlight of the trip.
Speaker 2:I think so, and a surprise highlight, I think Right, and probably a surprise highlight for you as well, because your kids and I kept going on about Game of Thrones and I know you mentioned. You know you hadn't watched it and you're probably thinking what are these people going on about? You know about the location, so tell me a little bit about first impressions.
Speaker 1:OK, well, let's first talk about how to actually get in.
Speaker 2:Not ruin your day.
Speaker 1:No, no to get in because you this is, I mean, if you listen to nothing else in this episode and you decide for some reason you're going there.
Speaker 2:You must reserve your tickets and you decide, for some reason, you're going there, you must reserve your tickets. So we were sitting in Valencia Airport, you know midday, and we're talking about oh, what are you excited for? What are you excited for? And we started talking about and I'm going to say it right this time San Juan de Gatelugache, right. And someone from the group I believe it was your oldest son said oh, you know, I think you need tickets. And I went how can you need tickets? It's, you know, a beach, it's a public place. So in my head there's like no, why would you need tickets? And then Nalini all of a sudden went really quiet and started just doing like a deep search on her phone. I didn't understand what was going on.
Speaker 1:Can you explain? I told Laura, I said you've never seen somebody uh interpret Spanish as fast as me in that Valencia airport. I'm like, oh my god, I think I know what this means. I think I know what this means because it was in Spanish. Thank god it wasn't in.
Speaker 1:Basque yeah, because then I would definitely be lost. But um, I started to read and it says that you need tickets. It is not negotiable, they are free. So our thing was that we know we don't like to necessarily pay for a tour or tickets, because then you're locked into that time and maybe you don't want to do an entire tour that is X number of hours long, especially I've never seen the show. So in our minds we thought, oh, we'll just see it from the distance. You cannot see it from a distance, you need the tickets. So we go on. I booked the last four of six tickets available for that Saturday and in my excitement I thought it said 5.30, but it was 6.30, which I didn't know until Saturday.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So we're sitting in the lobby ready to get the rental car and I just said let me just double check that I actually have the reservation. And I checked and I said what's 1830? Because I know it's 630. My son's like that's 630. I said I'm sorry. He's like oh my gosh, what are? Are we gonna do for the next six hours? Yes, so we thought you know what, let's go, let's see what they say. Maybe we'll get in early. Anyway, we drive from getcho it. How long was it? Maybe half 45 minutes.
Speaker 1:Oh 40. Oh, yeah, actually sorry, it was long because we have to. We took the highway. Yes, um, if you have a reservation that is a certain time, you have to know that they will not let you in prior to 10 minutes before your time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it doesn't matter, it's a digital entrance system, so it scans your ticket and the guy kept saying to us it's not me, it's the machine, it's not me, it's the machine and we're like you know, just let us in. But there are beaches that you can stop at prior if you want to, if the weather's nice, you can stop, you can spend some time on the beach, you can swim if you want, I mean, if that's what you want to do, or you can just drive to the location. So what was your first impression?
Speaker 2:So first, of all, if you've watched the Game of Thrones, the location is a very gray and cold. You know like it's a cave of dragons. So in my mind I thought, okay, I'm sure some of it is digitalized and so on and so forth, but I didn't really picture such a spectacular spot. I was picturing something a lot darker and grayer because that's what you see in the show, Right?
Speaker 2:So my first impression when we got there was like when are we? You know, I mean I've been to Galicia, I've been to other places in the north of Spain, but just the impression of how did they build this, you know where? It looks like a little wall of China really that goes out to this beautiful church, on a stone or hill or almost an island. That looks like a resting dragon.
Speaker 1:You know, that's why they call it, that's why the rock formation actually in the water, that's what it looks like a dragon asleep in the water yes, it is so gorgeous.
Speaker 2:so when game of thrones was at its peak, there were so many tours professional tours, people would like cosplay, people would cosplay, dress up to go out there, and I think it became absolutely huge. And I'm not sure that before that they actually had this ticketing system in place.
Speaker 1:No, no, I can tell you. It says here that the ticketing began digital tickets began in the summer of 2018 because of Game of Thrones, thrones, and a year later, uh, 730,000 people visited, which was more than 150,000 than the previous year. So imagine for a little town that doesn't really have parking or the amenities um, now you have this increase in tourism, and I mean. The other thing is that, yes, it brings money to the area. However, first of all, the tickets are free, so there's no money going to that town one. Secondly, there are two little restaurants there. One is a little bit more expensive and the second restaurant is it's very, very cute.
Speaker 1:It looks like a little medieval, I don don't know. Stone house yes, it is, and you can just sit there, and there's a little pony. You could see the water, the trees, and you have a glass of wine, coffee, whatever. You want some lunch, but you have to wait for your time slot. And the other thing that's really amazing about the site and the location is that it is not branded at all. If you did not watch game of thrones, you don't know what game of thrones is.
Speaker 2:There isn't one thing that says game of thrones we were actually thinking we were gonna go there and, you know, get like a little gift shop or something. There was absolutely nothing and I do appreciate that you know, at the end of the day that is, that location is way more than the show.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:The show just happened to pick a really cool location, but it's a pilgrimage place. It's actually one of the most popular pilgrimage areas in the Basque countries. We we actually found out that on the 24th of June there is a pilgrimage that happens that you know a lot of people from the Basque Country go and do this, where they get like their fishing boats blessed and the fishing season blessed, and it's almost like a protection, you could say. There's a lot of ritual and superstition around it as well, and also, apparently, when you get all the way to the top, you can ring the bell three times for good luck.
Speaker 1:I never saw a bell while we were up, and I'll tell you why because they took the rope out. That's why they actually took the rope out several years ago because the bell disturbs the natural habitat of the birds. So imagine you have thousands of people going through all the time, so they took it out.
Speaker 1:So you can't ring a bell unless it's on the day of the pilgrimage they allow it on that particular day and they've limited the amount of people that can visit, I think, to 3 000 on the pilgrimage. No, each day. Oh, wow that. So when we went there you know we rock up as we do and we said hey, so we have this reservation. Here's a QR code and he's like oof, you have two and a half hours to wait. We're like can you let us in? Nope, the machine says no Ten minutes ahead of time and he showed us that people were just sitting there, there was actually 100 people plus sitting there waiting for someone to cancel their tickets.
Speaker 1:And they just keep refreshing, refreshing to see if there's like a ticket open, ticket open, ticket open. So I respect what they are doing 100%, because you start the walk and you are not. It's not crowded. There are really not a lot of people in front of you or behind you. They've staggered it in such a way that you can really enjoy the beauty of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't feel like. You don't feel like you're in a tourist spot. No, Actually, when you're doing the walk, many times you feel like you're just surrounded by nature. I mentioned to Nalini while we were there that there were times where I really got goosebumps just from looking around. I mean, the rock formations are out of this world. It's not just a dragon. It's the, you know. It's the other things that are there that look like. You know they have been shaped by someone instead of by the sea.
Speaker 1:No, and just the little path to. You know you wind your way up. It is. It's a difficult walk, but because they control it, you have the space. Because they control it, you have the space. So it's not as if people are behind you and you got to go fast, because as you walk, you have to first go down all these stairs and it's a lot. And again, I've mentioned I've had an injury in the last year and my knee was not cooperating, so I was extra slow and it was not easy for me, but I made it down. And then you have to start climbing up on the path, which is fine. You make it there and, of course, coming down it's a lot easier. You're coming down, but you have to go up all those stairs.
Speaker 2:So apparently it's 241 stone steps up to the Hermitage.
Speaker 1:Okay, from once you get down the first set of stairs. I believe so it has to be yeah.
Speaker 2:What I find very interesting and found out, since quite a few people actually do get married there, like famous people. I don't know, you know, how they're getting in to get married there. It's before.
Speaker 1:Game of Thrones Must be. Yeah, they said that. I read where a local from the area said prior to Game of Thrones, he related a story where his aunt was married at the top in the church and then, after took off her wedding dress, went down to the beach and lay a pilgrimage in the water to the Virgin Mary or something like that as part of her ceremony. And he said in today's world that would not be possible because now it's a tourist attraction.
Speaker 2:I will say this I was trying to picture how on earth you would go up 241 steps with a wedding dress on.
Speaker 1:Right, we met somebody who told us that it built out, didn't we? Yeah, yeah, my hairdresser, oh, that's right.
Speaker 2:Oh, where you went to get your hair done, yeah, the hairdresser said that she got married there and the where you went to get your hair done. Yeah, the hairdresser said that she got married there and I was like the whole time I was like how did you get up all those stairs with a wedding dress?
Speaker 1:But now she obviously did it prior to this 2011, the year that they started shooting the show. So I mean, I don't think there are words to describe it.
Speaker 2:And I mean it's just really Just go If you have a chance I think it's definitely a once in a lifetime walk, I would say and just taking the nature surrounding it. And we did meet a lady that was walking back. She was a little bit older and, you know, really kind of looked at us while we were walking up and said just make sure, on the way there, you take it all in, because on the way back, all you're thinking about All on the way there, you take it all in, because on the way back, all you're thinking about is getting it over with, because it is a lot of stairs. She was right, though. Yes, she absolutely was. So look it up, plan it into your trip If you're going to the Basque country. I believe it's a must.
Speaker 1:Yes, All right, slice of life. Slice of life. Slice of life. All right, Laura, slice of life. First, let's talk about what we're eating and drinking. Maybe not the combination we would recommend, but this is what transpired.
Speaker 2:So we may end up in a bit of a bad place after this combination, but you know, we wanted to get all the little bits in this mini series about the Basque Country, and these are two things we could not leave out of our Basque Country experience. So we're drinking Calimocho, yes. So I'm just, you know, gonna just open that.
Speaker 1:All right, let's describe what it is. It's basically equal parts red wine, typically inexpensive, and Coca-Cola. Now the history of and I would say this holds true for many of the you know whether it's a pincho, a tapa, a drink, something particular to a city. Sometimes the history is a little bit murky. However, the town of Guecho lays claim to the Calimocho. The story goes is that in the 1920s, Coke was not necessarily widely available throughout Spain, so it wasn't until the 1950s that the Coca-Cola plant opened and it became a bit more common to mix cheap red wine with Coke.
Speaker 1:According to the town of Ghecho, they were celebrating in August their patron saint, St Nicholas, and the town had ordered thousands of liters of red wine which had gone off. So to mask the taste of it, they decided that you know what we have all these revelers here we're going to add Coca-Cola to it. They added Coca-Cola and this is apparently happened in the 70s and it took hold. So it's become, it's become quite well known. I mean, you know that you, you hate this drink, by the way, it's become quite well known.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know that you you hate this drink, by the way, so I would say that anybody at hitting when I was growing up it was the first drink kind of that you had like as a kind of late teens, right. Why? Because it was cheap, right, and I remember that even this is going to make me look old, for sure, but I remember that at some point in my teenage years I still paid with pesetas instead of euros check me out and it was 500 pesetas, or the equivalent of three point something euros, for a liter of calimocho.
Speaker 1:Okay, but the wine we're not talking about bottled red wine. We're talking about.
Speaker 2:Don Simon, which is like a carton of milk.
Speaker 1:No offense to Don Simon.
Speaker 2:No, no, don Simon, all the respect in the world You're getting like basically, I think probably even a little bit cheaper than a carton of milk for a carton of red wine. You know the idea of red wine coming in a carton. It probably already tells you that it's not going to be the most, let's say, flavorful experience of your life. But anyway, imagine then you mix that with Coca-Cola and if you have copious amounts of it the following morning you will be regretting it.
Speaker 1:Now, I mean, there's only two ingredients and I think the beauty of the drink if we're going to call it that is that cheap red wine is used. There's no point in buying a better bottle of red wine to mix it or to do anything. It's just cheap red wine and the Coca-Cola, that's it.
Speaker 2:That's like a huge offense to expensive wine, mixing it with Coca-Cola. As you know, I drink whiskey sometimes and it's like when people drink whiskey whiskey or mix whiskey with coca-cola and I was like, well, please use the cheapest whiskey you can find right I mean why would you mix it with coke?
Speaker 1:today we're using a slightly expensive red wine because it's what we had, so yeah, we didn't go to the supermarket to get the two euro carton of don timon.
Speaker 2:But and actually I, I will play it for you later but there is a song by a Spanish rap group I think they're actually from Mallorca, uh, that is called Don Simon, which means like Don Simon, to get like drunk, because again it's like something really kind of actually, you know what I don't think I've ever had it no, okay, that's coming up next on our experience if you want to forget. Yeah, we should try it okay, I'll try it, yeah you'll try it, I'll play, I'll.
Speaker 1:We'll play the music in the background while you do all right now we're drinking uh, our cali mocho with burnt basque cheesecake. Um, I made the cheesecake, which actually is not that difficult to make. It tastes delicious, delicious. Let's try it In 2021,. The New York Times named the burnt bass cheesecake as the food flavor, the taste of the year. I didn't even know that was a thing. How did they come?
Speaker 2:up with this.
Speaker 1:I don't know, but it was a thing. I think it was very Instagrammable. People were having it, it just took hold. Programmable. People were having it, it just took hold, and I think the you know the history of the cheesecake may be a little bit murky as well. The burnt bass cheesecake created in the 80s, I think, in San Sebastian, where the chef came up with this idea of using very simple ingredients that he had on hand. It's more of a custard that you bake and there's no crust to it. So that's just kind of the history of it. One of the things I have learned doing this podcast is that many of the iconic foods here, or even the drinks I mean we're joking about the Cali Mocho or what have you, but it also just came out of what was there and a necessity Bit of innovation.
Speaker 2:Innovation.
Speaker 1:Creativity, creativity and also I don't think you know- I don't think like people are that creative anymore. No, I think we try to like follow things that other people have done, right, and like you know, like imagine just sitting at home going, oh, I'm going to try a different way to make a cheesecake whole recipe again for most people, not everybody, but right. But then you just think that they used what they had, you know, to create something to put on the menu and um, you know people in this country.
Speaker 2:As an outsider I'll say they work very hard and and that's sometimes a misconception big time that you know sometimes spanish people is like oh yeah, well, everything we do is like you know. Take siestas and drinks in Angria, come on.
Speaker 1:That's not true, that is actually very far from the truth that you know. Yes, there is siesta here, which drives me crazy when you have to.
Speaker 2:I think I have like one siesta a year when I'm like six.
Speaker 1:So not everybody does siestas. What the outsiders don't realize is that, yes, it closes in the afternoon, but it's also maybe a civilized way to sit down and have a lunch or maybe pick up your kids with your family pick up your kids from school. Schools tend to close a little bit earlier here and then the flip side of that is that people go back to work and it's a later opening hours.
Speaker 2:It's right.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, this I this is one thing that I've learned here is that things were often born out of necessity, the need to sell something, the need to have. You know this in the restaurant, that maybe you don't have access to the most expensive ingredients. And you know burnt bass cheesecake. The New York Times elevated it, but people have been eating it for a long time.
Speaker 2:So, nalini, why don't you tell us what are the ingredients in the cheesecake?
Speaker 1:You have cream cheese, sugar, a bit of vanilla, eggs and a little bit of flour to set it and that's it.
Speaker 2:Okay, it's actually very, it's very simple. Did you put it Okay? So did you put any flavoring in it? No, okay, just the vanilla, that's it, and again.
Speaker 1:I'm sure somebody's going gonna take hold of this recipe and make I don't know chocolate burnt bass cheesecake, coconut burnt bass cheesecake like there's no point cheesecake sounds delicious, but it you don't need to do that. You can just follow this very basic recipe and bake it.
Speaker 2:It's delicious our recommendation is do not eat it with cali mocho, even though we're doing it here. It's not the best combination that you can have. Cheesecake and calimocho not so much. All right, so for our slice of life. Today, we actually wanted to do something a little bit different. We wanted to talk about some data ideas, and what actually inspired us to talk about data ideas was when we were in San Juan de Gatelugache. There was a couple sitting behind us waiting to do the walk, as we were doing as well. It was actually pretty hilarious, because you could tell that they were on their first or second date, and I don't know if it's just me, but I'm always kind of. If I'm in a restaurant or if I'm in a new place, I always look around me and I can see the people who have been.
Speaker 2:You can tell oh, yeah, you can see the people who've been together for years that are like, yeah, I don't care what you're doing.
Speaker 2:And then you see the people are like so into each other. Their body language is like Super interested, yeah, you know, like super excited, and I think it's so much fun to watch, right. So they were very much like into like each other and you could see, yeah, just the whole body language was very obvious like it was a first or second date and I thought, oh, what a great idea for a date.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then Nalini said and I said, yeah, nice idea, except for the tickets are free yeah, I was like so, but the thought of it, you know.
Speaker 2:And then the other cool thing is they were speaking half Spanish, half Basque, and it was driving me nuts because I was trying to understand what they were saying because, again, you know, you're kind of like sitting there waiting for our time to come to be able to make the walk and I'm like I want to know what they're talking about but couldn't follow because it was a half Basque and half in Spanish. So it was, it was pretty cool, but, yeah, like I said, it was pretty hilarious when Nalini pointed out yeah, the tickets are free. So I'm not sure how I would take that. You know, if that's where we were, but it is really spectacular.
Speaker 2:It is beautiful, it is.
Speaker 1:And you would, I mean you, get to know somebody. That walk is a test.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you get to know if they're fit enough to go to the gym with or not. So you know both of our spouses and people that we know the idea of going on a date. It doesn't have to be with someone new. It could be with your partner, it could be with someone that you've been with for a few years, but it's nice to actually plan a date Exactly and it's nice to be intentional about it. So we have some different proposals. We're going to talk about budget for the different proposals, but we think you'll find these really cute.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we have that one, and then the next one you have is but we're going to talk about the actual budgets for each one.
Speaker 2:Okay, each one, okay, so that? So the first budget option, uh, that we recommend is the flower market, so we thought this would be something that you could do with 15, 1, 5 euros. So, again, we're going from a range of different budgets here, free, yeah free, yeah, free To 15 euros, yeah, 15 euros, 50 euros, 100 euros.
Speaker 2:So you've got some different options. So the first one is for 15 euros. You could go to the flower market on a Sunday. You can take the metro or you could even walk, because it's actually walkable from a lot of the places in the city. There are a few tours there, but it's mostly for the locals because you know at the end of the day where are you going to take flowers. So so on a sunday you can go down to the market. You can buy a coffee in a specialty coffee place, buy your date a beautiful flower, sit next to the river and there's yeah it's quite um shaded there as well.
Speaker 1:They have a really nice park benches. You can just sit in the shade just watch people go by. I mean they sell books, they have sort of antique coins, it's just a. I mean it's a small market. But I thought it was very strange that there was a DVD stand and like people were buying DVDs.
Speaker 2:And then he goes. Where are they watching this? I'm like they must have a DVD player they watching this.
Speaker 1:I'm like they must have a dvd player. I mean it was busy that particular market seller. He was very busy moving those dvds and I thought it's very weird unless there was something else in that dvd.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think so let's not go there. So first budget option flower market. Uh little vintage 15 euros, coffee flowers, who knows, maybe even a kiss. So next is the.
Speaker 1:I would recommend Getcho. Now we rented a car and drove because we were a little bit under a time constraint, I would say because we had our tickets to do our walk, our Dragonstone walk. But it is a quick, I think the subway. You can take the train out there. There's a train that runs from the center of bilbao.
Speaker 2:It's not that expensive and I think I don't think actually it takes that long by the time you get in the car and get out there. I probably think you'd be better off in the metro, absolutely gecho is extremely walkable.
Speaker 1:It is a really, really picturesque town. There's a lot of history in it. Um, you can go up to the hanging bridge, which is really cool. You can walk across the bridge if you want, or you can take what is that like a cable?
Speaker 2:car. It's a cable car. It's a short one, but it is actually a functional one where people also take their cars on there.
Speaker 1:Well, because people who live on one side of the river to the next, that's how they get across. I mean, most of the people actually when we went were local people. That's how they get across. I mean most of the people actually when we went were local people. Yes, just trying to get to their appointment or back to where they came from. Vice versa.
Speaker 2:Looking at us like what are these Twitters doing over there?
Speaker 1:And I think you could do that within a 50 euro range. I mean you can get a little snack. The food is not super expensive there, so you can still probably get a little lunch.
Speaker 2:But we actually think that you can get the pizza, the metro and even go on the hanging bridge within the 50 euro five zero budget.
Speaker 2:Or another option for that 50 euro range is you could get tickets to the guggenheim and do a coffee there, so that one's also a really good one. And then, finally, we have our third budget option, which, if you happen to live there and you have a car, could be a lot cheaper. But if you're, you know, even potentially renting, and it would be to go to San Juan de Gastelugate with a car, make a day out of it, eat out there and potentially even like and potentially even visit one of the nearby beaches. So either if you're a Game of Thrones fan or if you just want to see one of the most beautiful places in the world, I would say that that third date option is worth it. The other thing you could do is you can take a picnic basket with you, because there was no restriction about taking food in. The tickets are free to go in there, but again, it's the transport to get there that's going to maybe cost you a little bit more it's a transport, it's the parking.
Speaker 1:I mean, if you do, there is a beautiful restaurant there, um that you can book into to eat lunch. We didn't check the prices. We sat at just a little the restaurant, at the bar outside, yes, um, sunshine, it was really quite stunning. So a beautiful place for a date. Yeah, and I think that would be 100, you'd say a little bit more.
Speaker 2:I think it would be around 100, depending on how you get there. Yeah, I think, if you're smart about it because, again, the tickets are free to go in, so about 100, and if you don't eat out and you do like a little picnic basket, the views are worth the picnic. Absolutely actually a great place for a proposal. I'm getting really romantic today. I was like you should propose up there whoever's listening to this go do your proposal, in san juan de gato for sure, dressed in a game of thrones costume laura do it in cosplay.
Speaker 2:Okay, so that was our three date ideas. Let us know if you try any of them. If you happen to go to Bilbao, we'd love to hear your success rate with these. And now we're going to go on to our sentence of the day. Okay, ta-da. And since we had a bit of a Game of Thrones theme today and there's a lot of, I would say, stabbing behind the back, that goes on in the Game of Thrones, wink, wink. The sentence of the day is El que avisa no es traidor.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Traitor, something about being a traitor. Your Spanish is getting way better and, by the way, it's impressive. So if you translate it directly, directly, the one who warns is not a traitor the one who warns is not a traitor.
Speaker 2:Yes, but maybe they are the traitor well, this one is kind of saying okay, if I tell you like let's say, for example hey nalini, uh, you know, I'm really, really afraid of heights, so I'm not sure if I'm going to be good going on this ride. And all of a sudden we go on the ride and I freak out, right, you know, I warned you.
Speaker 1:Oh, I see I'm not a traitor, so like I warned you this was going to happen so.
Speaker 2:I'm not a traitor, so it's like giving a heads up, or you know, if you're going into a situation and you know, I say you know, I told you that's the kind of you know, it's like giving the heads up. Ok, good, ok, that makes sense then I like that awesome. So thank you very much for joining us for this mini series. Our first three episodes of season three. That was on the Basque country. We've got lots of interesting things coming up in our episode four, five and six of season three, including hidden gems of the Costa Blanca, an incredible experience at a wine festival, as well as an episode about the one and only Madrid.
Speaker 1:Yes, can't wait for that.
Speaker 2:Please recommend us and make sure that you subscribe and look for us on social media. We always love to hear from you All. Right bye for now.
Speaker 1:The Made in Spain podcast is an Everything's Rosie production with executive producers and hosts Nalini Sharma and Laura Senior, with special thanks to production assistant Ayrton Nath.