On my recent trip to Spain a friend introduced me to the wines of the Ribera del Duero region. This region is located in the north-west central Spain on the banks of the river Duero, around the cities of Burgos, Segovia, Soria and Valladolid. Wines that have been produced there lately are becoming hugely popular among Spanish wine drinkers (that makes prety much the whole of the population). I must admit I enjoyed it as much as my favourite Riojas.

The wines are made of Bordeaux grape varieties as well as the local ones, Tempranillo and Garnacha. The top vineyard of the region, Vega Sicilia, produces the “Unico” which is reputedly the most expensive wine in Spain.

Tags: Ribera del Duero, Rioja, Wine

“It’s a beautiful day”, you have to live in Bono’s Dublin to appreciate this phrase. At least when it comes to weather. Well, it’s one of those beautiful days today, sunshine everywhere.

Some people ask me what satisfaction do I get from writing free software. It comes down to, among a few other things, putting smiles on peoples faces, including mine. It’s a great feeling to see how something you’ve created positively effects people. Thanks Jerry and Matt, you’ve made my day too.

I’m now going for a walk with my Mrs, down to the blue Dublin Bay, to listen to the waves and clear our heads from last nights party. Still feeling the nice taste of the newly discovered cool drink - Zubrowka, Bison Grass Vodka. Thanks Adam!

My major complaint about Yahoo’s My Web beta service was that it’s Save functionality was unusable in browsers other than IE and Firefox. Well, they now provide a bookmarklet for other browsers. Works great in Opera. Thanks Yahoo!

Tags: Yahoo, My Web, Bookmarklet

Ten years have passed since my last visit to Spain. At that time I was a student on a very low budget, enjoyed wondering the streets of Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Valencia and San Sebastián, living mainly on tapas and cañas, listening to rumba and, overall admiring the Spanish way of life and trying to “blend in”. In the following years, I made a few great Spanish friends (Hola!), developed a high appreciation for their beautiful wines, ate a bunch of imported Spanish jamón and chorrizo, practiced my paella making, listened to their few alternative bands, on ocassions smoked Ducados. The time came to visit again…

So, we gave ourselves a treat and went on a holiday to Barcelona and a “small fishing village” of Santa Pola, south of Alicante, to visit a dear friend of mine. Powered by years of dreams and a much stronger budget than the first time, we explored Barcelona the way ten years ago I promised myself I would do. We ate on average 5 times a day (not counting smaller “refreshment” tapas ), drank some nice wines, wondered around the city, looked for Manu Chao, took it easy and enjoyed the atmosphere. Again, admired the Spanish (OK, Catalan) way of life.

Over the next few days I will write a few posts related to this trip. In the meantime, you can take a look at some of the Barcelona photos in my public gallery.