A Rainy Pre-Game Friday

Friday, March 14, 2025

It started off as a rainy day but would turn into a brilliant afternoon perfect for, what else . . .

SHOPPING! 

After the short walk to our transport

stop to take the reliable #1 bus . . .

. . . we arrived at the super

secret spot for the BEST

Tortilla de Patata in Gijón

It was proclaimed as such by our resident Gijón expert and Mariners Team President Kike Prado Alonso.

Now after two trips to this hidden gem, I concur.

We arrived to the as expected packed little café and waited in a line of about seven people outside for one of the coveted 25 seats inside.

We happily grabbed two open

seats at the bar after waiting outside

for approximately 15 minutes

Our two Nutella Cappuccinos were

AMAZING!

As for the two Tortillas de Patata,

there are no words to fully describe

their moist goodness

"We're #1! We're #1!"

The Sun was out again so we opted

to stroll home to aid our digestion

This small store selling fruits had an eye appealing front. 

The joys of Gijón's architecture

know no bounds

A Spanish Civil War poster

in the Jovellanos Public Library

The ceiling of the Basilica

del Sagrado Corazon

The Basilica's stunning main altar

Why is there a circus tent

inside the Basilica?

All is right with the world,

Laurie is buying a new pair of boots

Doctor

Constantino García

Traumatologist

Orthopedic Surgery

Spine

Two Vagabonds afoot in Spain

In the late afternoon, we

ventured out for an aperitif

before a little more sauntering

We stopped in at the nearby Hotel Polar's bar where Laurie ordered a glass of of Spanish Alberiño white wine and I ordered a Carajillo, the Spanish version of an Irish coffee.

The wine was no problem but my Carajillo was. The young lady at the bar was honest and said that her Carajillos were really not all that good so I ordered the usual Café con Leche.

She gave me a much relieved look, the pressure on her was off.

When our two beverages arrived, we were also given a plate full of potato chips and a second plate with three different mini-sandwiches as part of our afternoon snack.

Our bill came to a whopping

4.50 Euros!

I felt good about helping to Make Spain Great Again!

At 9:00 P.M., our Mariners had a well attended and focused one hour walk-through practice.

On Saturday, our Gijón Mariners (1-4)

will face the two time defending

National Champion Las Rozas

Black Demons (6-0)

Back on January 25th, in Madrid, the Black Demons defeated the Mariners, 49-27. 

On Sunday, our Under 12

Flag Football team will play

a pair of games in Valladolid

The drive to Valladolid takes about three hours to cover the 180 miles between Gijón and Valladolid.

At Noon, it's the Mariners vs. the Valladolid Penguins.

The Mariners finale sees the Gijón squad facing the arch-rival Oviedo Phoenix.

It is going to be TWO BEAUTIFUL days for American football!

Stay tuned . . .

Getting Back Into the Groove

Thursday, March 13, 2025

We re-explored Gijón a bit this morning for the benefit of the city's newest soul, Laurie Contreras.

The colorful architecture was a

main topic of our tour today

After another fine Menú lunch at Casa Toni, we headed back to the apartment where my bride slipped into full on jet lagged mode and took a long, much needed nap.

I found things to do for our upcoming home game against the Las Rozas Black Demons (6-0) on Saturday.

The weather was starting to

change as I left for practice

 

This weekends slate of games

The byes this week went to the Coslada Camioneros (3-3) in the Western Conference and to the Terrassa Reds (4-1-1) in the Eastern Conference.

The current Serie A Standings

Again, to avoid any confusion, the team records are listed in this order: Wins-Ties-Losses.

Our Junior Flag football team

was practicing when I arrived

A full moon near the clocktower

that overlooks our practice facility

We had 26 players tonight!

The ability to scrimmage despite not having our three starting Defensive Linemen was a plus.

We had a spirited and competitive session tonight which I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed!

On a positive note, it looks like 29 of the players on our now 31 man roster will be suiting out for the Black Demons game.

This includes our newest American import, DB/WR Geoff Green, who arrived at the Asturias Airport about two hours before the start of practice.

Geoff is replacing our former American import DB/WR, James Douglas, who bolted for a more lucrative, two year deal with a team in China after our fourth game of the season.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

My gut feeling on meeting Geoff is that we have ourselves another good person/weapon that is going to help us.

Towards the end of practice

the heavens opened up!

Senior team player and Mariners guru of ground transportation, Jorge Unzueta, recorded this video of the downpour which lasted a good 15 minutes.

Jorge took this cool photo as well of

a small group of our Senior players

breaking a small after warm-ups

After practiceI joined Kike and Eduardo for our usual Thursday night dinner with Laurie joining our late night dining group.

We opted for Dipo's Sports Bar and shared nachos, ribs and chicken wings not to mention another round of tall tales and interesting facts and fables.

Good times, INDEED!

Meanwhile, back in Camarillo . . .

Jacob was receiving his medal for his efforts in the U.S. History portion of the Camarillo Academic Olympics competition.

The Ceremony

The Medal

The Proud Sister

The Proud Family

What a great honor for Jacob as he strives to become a true scholar/athlete.

News from the net . . .

I see her point completely . . .

. . . and his as well

It was another good day in Gijón with my bride.

Laurie Arrives in Gijón!

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

After 63 days of being apart, I would finally be reunited with my youthful bride Laurie today!

My apartment lease includes having a professional crew come in once a month for thorough cleansing. I scheduled their visit this month to this morning at 9:00 a.m. so that Laurie would see our flat at its absolute best upon arrival.

The two person crew arrived precisely on time and said that I should return in about two hours.

I took the hint, it was time to vacate the premises and stretch my legs.

The first stop, the

Iglesia de San José

The BVM in all of her splendid glory

La Playa de San Lorenzo looked

quite calm this morning

Mini-Heraldry on the

Palacio Revillagigedo Centro Cultural

Certainly a Café con Leche was

called for to calm my giddy nerves

Finally, the apartment was sparkling clean and Mariners Team President Kike Prado Alonso was on his way to pick me up for the drive out to the Asturias Airport.

Laurie was flying the same long route that I had back in January, Los Angeles to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to Madrid and finally Madrid to Asturias.

She arrived on time and after a great hug, we were off.

Once we got back to the apartment, Kike received a two part present from us for the Mariners.

Part I, a brand spanking new

ball bag with a Mariners logo

Part II, the bag was filled with six

helmets and all sorts of helmet parts

needed to rejuvenate some of our older

helmets in the team storage shed

Kike was pretty stoked about all of this equipment for the Mariners.

Speaking about being stoked, sharing

a beer and a tortilla de patata

at Van Gogh's was an elixir for me

By mid afternoon, La Playa

de San Lorenzo was no longer calm

 

Two Carajillos helped us both

cope with the fast changing weather

We returned to the apartment so that Laurie had time to unpack her things and then we went out for one more long walk in the evening in the rain.

This building looks MUCH different

when lit up at night

WOW!

I took a whole lot of steps today while walking on Cloud Nine!

An easy mistake that I make

almost every day here in Spain

LIFE IS GREAT!!!

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

It was a day to finally start getting back into our normal routine because it was . . .

. . . Time for Mariners Football!

After not having played a game in 17 days, we had entered the final difficult part of our schedule where we play our last games of the season on three successive weekends.

First up is a home game this coming Saturday at 4:00 p.m. against the best team in Serie A, the two-time defending National Champion Las Rozas Black Demons (6-0).

Our first game against the Black Demons played at Las Rozas, a suburb of Madrid, saw the Mariners 

(1-4) on the short end of a 49-27 score.

After this tough game, Gijón has a seven hour bus ride on Sunday, March 23rd for an 11:00 a.m. contest taking on the Zaragoza Hurricanes (0-5). The Mariners won the previous tilt between the two clubs in Gijón by a score of 13-7.

The final game of the season will be fought in Gijón's cozy Stadio Las Mestas against the Osos Rivas eleven (4-2) who beat the Mariners 38-0 in Madrid back in mid-February. This game will take place on Saturday, March 29th at 4:00 p.m.

Julien Urgenti came to the blog's rescue

I posted this picture of a, to me, unknown flag that I spotted in Bilbao yesterday morning.

Julien tracked it down as being the flag of the Galician Separatist Movement.

The three northern provinces of Galicia, País Vasco and Catalonia have all had strong feelings for years about each breaking away from Spain to become their own nations.

At times these sentiments have turned into acts of terrorism but things along these lines have been discussed peacefully in recent years.

Merci, Julien!

Great Physical Fitness News

Until you realize that you are told that all of this walking is only burning 676 calories per day.

An average sized Snickers bar is but 280 calories.

I wonder how many calories are to be found in an order of churros?

Seen on the way to practice

I know that because of the rain in our area that our coastline has earned to soubriquet La Costa Verde, but this car is ridiculous!

At practice a little early as

a local hamburger restaurant wanted

to do a photo shoot with the team

MARINERS ON THREE!

After that loud break each player got

a promotional hamburger to enjoy

Nothing quite like a cheeseburger on the practice field 15 minutes before the start of a workout.

The players all gave the burgers

their stamp of approval

OH MY GOD!

We wound up with 24 players at practice!

We were able to work our Special Teams and scrimmage 11-on-11 for the first time since our last game.

The only draw back to this joy was that our starting QB was not with us. He had taken a trip over the weekend to parts unknown and was scheduled to be back in town late this afternoon until his flight was cancelled.

Nobody said this season was going to be easy.

Defensive Line Drill

Our Field Goal team about

to spring into action 

It was an overall rewarding evening both gastronomically and athletically.

100% True!

This is worth doing

And Laurie arrives in Gijón

TOMORROW!