I love to travel. It typically gives me new perspectives. But it can also be exhausting if things don’t go right.

I’m off to Piedmont in Italy to see what there is to see and more specifically to eat good food, drink good wine and bicycle. Not too many straight shots into Turin from my neck of the woods so I left home early Saturday to catch a 7am flight to Washington DC and then from there a flight to Frankfurt, Germany where I would transfer to Turin – or Torino as the locals would say – before grabbing a car and driving to Alba in the heart of Piedmont wine country.

Pretty routine in the early going but the flight out of Washington ended up delayed. Doh! That didn’t leave much time for my connection once I arrived in Frankfurt so my baggage got hung up en route. Bummer. It’s nasty not being able to change into clean clothes after showering after a couple long flights. I’ve been very lucky over the year with baggage. I can only recall having it lost in transit a couple times. I was not so lucky this time.

In hindsight the short connection time was probably optimistic – when aren’t there delays – and I should have planned better. Though I’m not sure there were other flights from Frankfurt into Turin today. Even the one I was on was at best half full.

Frankfurt is not my favorite airport. The times I’ve been through it have always presented unusual logistics. For example, our completely full 777 did not park at a gate with a jet bridge, instead it parked at a remote location on the tarmac and several buses came to pick us up and then drive us far across the airport. From there you proceed through passport control. I was very thankful I’d squeezed onto the 1st bus and was wedged up near the door. It allowed me to be perhaps 8th in line at passport control instead of 100th in line. From there I ran to the A concourse to catch my connection. But to get there I first had to go through security again. That always strikes me as odd. I just got off the plane and thru passport control and I never left a secure area but yet I have to go through security again. Thankfully that was moving quickly. Off and running again I found my gate and as before, no plane parked at the gate. Instead, a bus was parked at the gate. So we board a bus and drive halfway across the airport to a regional jet parked on the tarmac. My connection took me the full 45 minutes I had available and I was feeling happy I’d managed it in that amount of time. If only my luggage had made it too… Sure hope it gets here tomorrow.

The Memorial Day weekend presented an opportunity to get away and I love visiting the Willamette Valley in Oregon so a plan emerged. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been there and what I didn’t know was that Memorial Day weekend is one of only two times a year that most of the wineries in the area open up or have special events. I found a great landing page on the events at http://willamettewines.com/event/memorial-weekend-in-the-wine-country/.

Rather than try to cram the resulting visits into a single post I’ll make another 3 posts for each of the days. It’s been a couple weeks since getting back and even though I’ve had the best intentions of jotting some notes it’s always hard to find time. Thankfully I have a few notes and photos.

Here are the three posts:

• Willamette Valley – Memorial Day 2014 – Day 1
• Willamette Valley – Memorial Day 2014 – Day 2
• Willamette Valley – Memorial Day 2014 – Day 3

The following photo was taken off the back deck at Youngberg Hill inn just outside McMinnville. It was home base for the weekend and just a fantastic place to sit back and look out at the beautiful hills.

Work occasionally takes me to Seattle, and not just to greater Seattle but downtown Seattle. I enjoy visiting. There are always interesting food and drink choices in our off hours. I like to stay at the Andra and this trip that’s just where I landed. Though I did have one night at the nearby Warwick due to a scheduling snafu. The Warwick is nice too. I just like the Andra better. Maybe it’s because the restaurant Lola is connected to the hotel and they have the best breakfast going that I’ve found in that area – though the prices are ridiculous.

There’s only one non-stop flight from Austin to Seattle (on Alaska Airlines) and it’s definitely the way to go. With business to attend to Monday, Sunday would have been the day to fly but that flight was booked up so I just decided to go on Saturday. Gave me a chance to see a little more of Seattle that I do on a typical whirlwind trip to the area. So I had the whole day Sunday to bum around.

Now, that would have been a lot easier had it been a little warmer. Temps never got above freezing that Sunday but although it was cold, the sun came out and that made all the difference in making it pretty comfortable to get around town by foot. I felt a little bad for the thousands of people that came out that Sunday morning early for the annual Jingle Bell run. At that time of the morning – around 8am – it was probably closer to 20 degrees.

I spent the bulk of my day after a leisurely breakfast wandering around Pike Place market. See photo of pepper wreath at right and the one at the bottom of this post. Every time I’ve ever been there it’s been bustling and given this was a weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas it was jammed with people. The cold weather didn’t keep anyone away. Aside from the usual fish, fruit, veggies and flowers there were a lot of craftspeople selling their wares.

With the weather cold I was up for a warm beverage. People stand in line at the Pike Place market starbucks because it is known as the 1st starbucks. (Though I read that lore is perhaps not 100% accurate.) I wasn’t going to stand in line – beside which I’d been there many years before – so I pulled into Local Color – another coffee joint down the street. I had had so much coffee earlier in the morning I opted for a decaf tea so I don’t really know if their coffee is any good.

Prize for the nicest looking coffee place I think I have ever seen goes to Storyville, which is also in the Pike Place market area. This place is like a ski lodge. I stumbled across it late in the evening during the work week and wasn’t up for a coffee at the hour but, wow, I have to check this place out on the next visit.

Having said all of the above, my favorite coffee joint I have gone to now a few times is Moore Coffee Shop. It is a crackerbox of little place. The coffee is fantastic though. On this trip I noticed it had expanded in size a bit though. They have opened the space between the coffee shop and The Moore Hotel. If that was open before, I don’t remember it.

The photo of the bar here is from the Black Bottle. This is a place I’ve been to several times now. They bill it as “casual tavern serving rustic fare made from scratch” and I guess I’d agree with that. The wine list is nice and they serve small plates so you can try a variety of things. I see this trend in restaurants pretty much everwhere I go. It’s certainly become popular here in Austin. Anyway, I like this place and hope to return again some time.

The photo of the space needle here was one I snagged early one morning late in the week. The weather had warmed up and was misty that morning. It was hard to tell whether the sun was up or not – clouds were that thick. At this point in the week I was at the Warwick and from my room the space needle was prominently on display out my window. This photo was taken with a slighly telephoto lens so I look like I might have been closer to the needle than I actually was.

With a major work project launched, I took the opportunity to plan a getaway out to California. Primary motivation was to get some interesting cycling in and I hope to do that. Landed last night to enjoy a couple days of bumming around San Francisco before joining up with a bike tour group on Sunday for the rest of next week. Took BART into the city and it’s a good thing I arrived yesterday. Today BART is on strike. I suppose that would have left me grabbing a taxi but taking BART into the city from the airport is such an easy and economical option.

I’ve done a short term rental of an apartment in the heart of the city. The Nob Hill area to be specific. In fact, it’s literally across the street from the Ritz Carlton. I had intended to just find a hotel for the couple few days but all the places I usually stay out there that aren’t mega expensive and that are reasonably decent were booked. And I looked quite awhile back. Turns out there’s a big marathon going on Sunday that leaves from Union Square which is just a couple blocks from here so I’m guessing that is why the hotels around here are so booked. I had tried to stay at the Hotel Monaco (which is where I meet up with the bike tour) but – booked.

So, I found this place and schlepped my luggage up the hill to my home away from home for the weekend. It’s a nice little place. 3rd floor apt with 1 bedroom, a living room area, bathroom and small kitchen. Don’t need much more than that. It’s not large but it’s bigger and better and certainly more livable than your average hotel room. You can see the main living area in the photo below.

I arrived kinda late in the day so with the 2 hour time change it wasn’t long before I was ready for some dinner. A place named Cotogna had been recommended to me so I ventured off to find it. Made my way through Chinatown to get there. Trendy kinda place, with with hearty Italian food. “rustic Italian” the website says. Somehow I managed to score a table outdoors. Weather was ideal as far as I was concerned. They had a prix fixe menu that looked interesting so I went with that. Opted to add a salad which in hindsight was probably more food than I wanted. I apparently arrived at a good time because it wasn’t long before they were turning people away. The place filled up fast.

I snapped the photo at the top as I walked back through Chinatown after dinner. Nice evening. Full moon. Happen to catch it rising over the Transamerica building.

From there, back to my humble abode for the evening. More on the trip in subsequent posts.

A work related project presented the opportunity to visit Amsterdam. It’s a place I haven’t been before so aside from the work stuff I was hoping to at least explore the city a little.

It’s been a busy summer and continues to be so there wasn’t an opportunity to extend this trip into a significant vacation. And yet, I was able to fly out a little early. By flying out Saturday instead of Monday the flight was actually less expensive by several hundred $ and it gave me some time to explore. I needed the time anyway because when I fly to Europe it always takes me upwards of 2 days to deal with the jet lag. I’m a zombie for easily 24 hours until I adjust to the local time. More after the break…

My flight arrived on a Sunday morning and from Schipol airport it turns out to be a fairly easy trip into the central part of the city via train. For 4,40 euro it was a 15 min ride. Skip the ticket machines – they don’t take regular credit cards. Just queue up and get a ticket from an agent at the window the old fashioned way. I wasn’t entirely sure of distances when I booked a stay at Maes B&B, but the central part of Amsterdam is extremely walkable. So from the train station I just rolled the bag down the side streets and found the B&B.

The city streets in and amongst the canals of Amsterdam are a mixture of residences, restaurants, shops, churches, bars, cafes and ‘coffee shops’. The latter seemed to be closer in toward the center of the city and not as much out in the canal neighborhoods. Don’t confuse cafes and ‘coffee shops’. If you want some coffee, go to the former. If you want to smoke weed, go to the latter.

One of the things you’re immediately struck by in Amsterdam is the overwhelming abundance of bicycles. Amsterdam is flat and the narrow little roads in the central city are ideal for getting around by bicycle. Bikes are everywhere. And they’re not just on the streets. They’re chained to anything that remotely resembles a bike rack. Mostly these are city bikes with maybe 3 speeds and fenders, lights, racks, chainguards. They’re heavy, but fine for getting around a flat city like Amsterdam. Bike racks are overflowing so every bridge and spot in the city appears to have a collection of bikes chained to their railings or anything that looks reasonably nailed down.

Naturally I immediately found a place close to my B&B and rented a bike. A big heavy 3 speed job. Perfect for seeing the city. There are all types of folks on bikes. It’s not just a hipster set. Young and old alike. You see men dressed for work, women in dresses, women in heels for crying out loud! This is not recreation. This is transportation.

Nobody, but nobody wears a helmet. Even folks that are riding along with tiny childen – where those kids are propped up on the handlebars no less – have no helmets. The only people you see with helmets are obvious tourists on road bikes making their way through the city.

Clearly trips are normally short and the weather isn’t as warm as the time I spent in Amsterdam because none of the bikes have water cages either. Being from Texas, I can’t imagine having a bike without a water cage. And people are dressed in clothes that would suggest that normally they don’t have to get to their destination and shower immediately.

It is easy to go almost anywhere in the central city by bike. Where there isn’t an obvious bike path, the road is fine for bikes. The difference it makes in terms of noise, breathability, and simply pleasantness is hard to imagine for the average American that is used to our car-clogged roads/streets. Bikes and pedestrials rule the central city here. Now there are of course expressways and major roads, but these feed into the central city, and you don’t absolutely need them to get into the central city.

On the warm days I was there, the canals too were full of people. The canals are extensive – more than 100 kilometers of canals – but the canals are not like Venice where you’ve got gondola row boats carrying tourists around. Here, the boats all appeared to be motorized. Big tour boats and tiny motor boats alike. The weekend had groups and familys piled into boats just slowly tooling around and sipping drinks and picnicing. Most of the canals appear to be lined with permantly afixed house boats too.

While the city obviously had museums and other historic venues, in the little time that I had, I opted mainly to either bike around, walk the city or pull into a restaurant or cafe with outdoor seating. Amsterdam was just a fun city to hang around. It seemed very safe (I never once saw any police presence), casual and relaxed. Someday I hope to return to spend a bit more time than I had this time.

What would a trip up to Oregon be without taking a little time out to visit wineries. I always enjoy visiting the Willamette Valley. It’s pretty country to drive through and the wines are excellent. The last visit was all the way back in 2009. Time for a return visit.

I visited several wineries this time that I’d never been to. Here’s a quick recap of some favorites:

First up was Brooks. It’s a very small place and I was the only person tasting. I think I arrived shortly after they opened so I had a personal tasting. They were doing a complete tasting of their Rieslings. They also had a Rosé wine made from Pinot Noir. All very good though my fav here was their Janus Pinot Noir.

One of the more interesting tastes of the day was De Ponte Cellars Melon de Bourgogne. “green apple, pear, fruit blossoms, banana and citrus…” Ok then. This was tasty stuff.

My fav of the day went to the White Rose Estate 2009 White Rose Vineyard Pinot Noir. Click through for all the details.

Tip: If you’re coming up from the south like I was you can’t go wrong with a stop into Harvest Fresh in McMinnville. It’s a little grocery but they have a great deli and will pack up sandwiches for your trip out to the wineries. Lots of ’em have picnic tables and don’t mind if you have your lunch out there.

Check out the slideshow for some pics of the day.

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From Bend and the Cascades Gran Fondo I made my way through Eugene and west to the Oregon coast. Destination: Yachats. (Sounds like ‘Yah-hahts’) It’s a pretty drive – and a long drive. You’re on two lane roads the whole way and you’re never really going to be able to get going too fast. The drive up on 101 from Florence to Yachats is very scenic. It reminded me a bit of driving the coast near Big Sur.

Why Yachats as opposed to some other Oregon coastal destination? On more than one occasion I’d asked people from Portland where they’d recommend I go on the coast. Yachats got the nod more than once. So I wanted to check it out.

There’s not a lot to Yachats. It’s a small town with a few restaurants and businesses and plenty of homes scattered up the coast. I did not stay in a hotel but rather had arranged a home stay.

This worked out pretty well. They had plenty of suggestions for the best food and drink. First of all, you have to get up and get your morning coffee at the Green Salmon. This place was hopping in the morning. Be prepared to stand in line. Secondly, get yourself to the Drift Inn for at least one meal while you’re there. The two places are a block or so apart and it was funny that the person that took my order in the morning was working behind the bar at the Drift Inn later that day. Interestingly he was dressed like a woman in the morning and a guy in the evening.

The coastline here is beautiful. The photo of the gull here was taken in Yachats State Park which is essentially part of the town. The other photos were taken at the Cape Perpetua scenic area. I got a day pass there and hiked up into the hills. You can see a photo of the trail at one point. The other photos were taken from the trail.

You read about cycling the Oregon coast and it sounds like it’d be fun and scenic, but now having driven a chunk of 101 – the route that you’d have to go – I’d have to say the traffic looks like it would be daunting. It is marked as a bike route and there are definitely sections of it that have a wide shoulder. But there are also long stretches along the area I drove where it’s just two busy lanes with no shoulder. Unless you were with a pretty good group I’m thinking it would be a stressful ride.

The weather in Yachats seemed to be a perpetual 68 degrees. I slept with the window cracked open a bit and it never seemed to get that chilly at night either. If you’re looking for a quiet scenic spot to cool your heals for awhile, Yachats is hard to beat.

Best of Bend

Bend is an interesting and scenic town. With the snow-capped Cascades in the distance it’s close to outdoor activities and yet it has cool food and drink and places to stay.

1st off I have to highlight the Lara House Lodge B&B. I’d stayed there before years ago and it seems to me it’s only improved with time. I think it’s under new owners and it seems a little more upscale than it was the first time I was there (what was that, 2004?).

Lara House is an old house on a large lot right in the center of Bend. From the porch you can sit and watch the goings on in Drake Park just across the street. It’s also just a couple of blocks from the downtown area and you can walk to restaurants, coffee, shops and bars. The back of the house has a large outdoor patio. In the afternoon they set out some wine and cheese. In the morning there’s a pot of coffee ready and waiting. In either case, grab a drink and park it on either the porch or the patio. It’s August in Bend and the weather’s going to be good.

I’ve got a couple different shots of the interior of the house here. The style of the house both inside and out is primarily Craftsman. They’ve done a nice job restoring this house and keeping the interior looking nice.

Let me highlight a few other places in Bend that I would highly recommend.

As a traveler looking for interesting food and wine, you’re not going to be disappointed by a visit to the NewPort Avenue Market. I love going in this place. First they’ve got a great wine selection and 2nd they have a deli that’ll make you a great sandwich. Lots of cheeses to choose from too.

Bend is also home to a surprising number of craft beer places. They promote something called the “Ale Trail“. Check it out. I made it to only two of these during my short stay. The first was Deschutes brewpub in the downtown area. Enjoyed lunch there. The other, which I’d say I enjoyed even more, was 10 Barrel just a short walk from Lara House. I got the beer sampler, which you can see in a photo here. My favorite of that set was their Apocalypse IPA. Outstanding. That plus outdoor seating, live music and some pretty good pizza. What more do you want.

If you really want good food though, don’t miss a visit to Ariana. This place is small so you might need to get a reservation but I’ve been there twice now and each time the food was excellent. Both times I’ve had the pleasure of sitting out on the back deck with great weather too. I was still on Austin time so I was eating with the ‘early birds’ but no need for a reservation.

Finally just a quick mention of the bike shop that helped me out. I arrived with my Seven to do some cycling only to find I’d somehow messed up the headset when I reassembled it. This is not the first time. You’d think by now I’d have figured out how to adjust it right. I also needed to pump the tires since it’s not easy to bring a pump and the TSA is not fond of you bringing CO2 cartridges on a plane. Sunny Side Sports fixed up the headset in a jiffy though. And let me use their pump. Nice shop. I’d go there again.

I was already thinking as early as March that I wanted to get out of Austin and head to the northwest in the heat of the Texas summer – I get so sick of the heat here by the time the late summer rolls around. And then I happened across the Cascades Gran Fondo bike tour on some random facebook posting and thought, ‘Hey, that looks like fun’. Ok, so I’ve got a travel bike. Let’s do this thing.

At first I thought I might just plan a long weekend and as I got to planning things it quickly ended up being a whole week. By the time you fly to Portland and rent a car, you might as well take a little time and see a few things, right? At least that was my reasoning. So here goes. My blog posting summary(ies) of the best finds along the way. Your mileage may vary. Let’s start with Portland.

Portland

I wasn’t really in Portland all that long. I flew in on a Thursday evening and left the following morning. On the way back, I passed through on the way to the airport to fly home. Even so, I managed to catch two places I’d highly recommend if you’re passing through and are hankering for breakfast or lunch.

The first was the Bijou Cafe for breakfast. I met up with Jacque and Chris there and had an excellent omelet. I got the mushroom and ‘Bravo Cheddar’ omelet. Somehow I managed to walk in and find one table open. Just after snagging it, a line was already forming. While we were seated inside, the weather was great and they had the door open so it was a really pleasant spot.

On the way back through Portland as I was headed home at the end of the week, I met up with Blake at Clarklewis for some lunch. This is a place I’d been for lunch a few times before on business trips. It’s in the ‘Industrial District’ and if you didn’t know better you’d just say it looked like an old warehouse loading dock – which of course it was at some point in the past. I had a salad and the steelhead. Included some potatoes. Tasty. I really like this place and it’s just off the I5 freeway that runs through the center of the city.

I would be remiss if I didn’t recount at least some of my overnight stay in Portland before heading south to Bend. To cut to the chase, I chose a ‘home stay’ in the heart of Portland as my overnight stay. I’ll gloss over how such a home stay is arranged. Google it. I found a loft apartment in the Pearl District. The photo here is of the courtyard just outside the place. Note the artwork and the people. As it turned out, August 2nd was a Thursday – and in fact First Thursday in Portland. The place was hopping. Music. Drinks. Lots of people. My host for the evening was in fact the caterer for the food/drinks in the courtyard.

This was all fun and interesting until about 11pm when things started to wind down. Very fine by me considering the long flight to Portland and the 2 hour time change. It was 1am Austin time. But the interesting thing was that my host and many of the other denizens of this complex kept a little party going in the courtyard. It kept going and going and going. I was beat and nodded off quickly. By 3am though, I woke up. Keep in mind I’m in a loft apartment. The floor plan is entirely open. There’s one bathroom that’s next to where I’m trying to sleep. The party goers are starting to line up to use the bathroom. One by one. One after the other. 3am. 4am. 5am. Eventually even my host and his buddy crashed and only the sound of snoring could be heard. But of course by then on Austin time it was 7am. My body said ‘get up’. Sigh.

I contemplated making a lot of noise on the way out but instead just packed my things and loaded the car. Plenty of time on my hands before my planned meetup at the Bijou Cafe, so I walked a few blocks and grabbed excellent coffee and free wifi at Backspace.

Portland’s always fun – and the food and coffee great – but I was ready to head for Bend. In fact, mostly what I wanted to do was get to Bend and take a nap on the porch. By the time I hit the road though, I had enough caffeine coursing through me I never did get that nap. On to Bend…

One thing about traveling by yourself, you end up with time on your hands. Time enough to post blog entries. We’ll see if and how that changes as I meet up with the bike group tomorrow.

Cars

Most of the cars I’ve seen are small ones. Lots of Fiats and Renaults. Not far from where I’m staying is a Chevy dealership if you can believe that. The Cruze is for sale. 9.9% financing. That is, in fact, the only car dealership I’ve seen. I’ve only walked so far though so there’s bound to be lots more but generally speaking, I haven’t seen that many new cars. In general, I don’t see many American cars. German cars? plenty of VW’s but not much else.

I would hazard a guess there are few if any emissions standards. The hardest thing about taking a walk through the city is the amount of exhaust some cars and trucks are belching. It can often be hard to breath. On top of that, lots and lots of big busses in the city.

Diesel appears to be the least expensive fuel at AR$5.6 / liter. Consequently, lots of diesel cars. That amounts to AR$21.20 per gallon so that’s about US$4.82 / gallon under present exchange rates. Premium gas goes for AR$7 / liter. Ouch.

Garbage

Here in Salta, every house in the neighborhood has a little metal pedestal out along the street and it’s for putting bags of garbage. This guy has a good picture of one, but they’re not all uniformly the same. It’s just a pedestal of some kind, usually metal and you see plastic bags of garbage set out in them. I saw the garbage men doing their rounds tonight as I was on my way home from dinner. One guy walks through the neighborhood in his characteristic striped uniform and collects the bags, and another person drives the truck. I think they pick up daily. The bags are small. I’ve not seen any garbage cans.

Dogs & Cats

As I’ve traipsed throughout Salta and Buenos Aires, I’ve run across dogs that don’t appear to have any owner and that are completely sacked out and snoozing right there on the sidewalk on a busy street. If you didn’t see them breathing you might think they were maybe dead, but no, they’re just snoozing there. Sometimes 2 or 3 of them. No owner anywhere to be seen.

I saw similar in the botanical park in Buenos Aires only it was cats. The park is apparently known for its feral cats. See http://gatosdelbotanico.blogspot.com.ar.

TV & Music

Like pretty much everywhere I’ve ever traveled, American – or at least English – pop music seems to be universally popular. I heard Adele blaring from a car as I walked through the city today. The restaurant I went to tonight and the hotel I’m staying at have both been playing English speaking singers and songs that sound familiar.

It was funny to listen to the rock station the taxi driver was listening to as I taxied to the airport in Buenos Aires. The announcer was speaking in Spanish of course and it was clear it was some kind of advertisement. I couldn’t understand a word of it except for “Nirvana” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.

Banking

My Chase Bank card worked at the airport but not at 4 other banks I pulled into today. All the main banks in Salta appeared to be up and down one street in the central part of the city. Rarely have I ever seen so many people lined up to use ATM machines. Some banks – and oddly only some – had lines coming out of the building and down the street a little ways. I thought: is there a run on the banks around here today? Apparently not, but it seemed unusual to me.

Today did not have much on the agenda. I didn’t plan anything. I had a nice little breakfast at the hotel and otherwise wandered to parts of the city to see what there was to see. I took a few pics though and thought I’d post them.

This is the hotel from the street. You can see why it’s not surprising we drove by it once without seeing it. The sign kind of blends in.

Here’s the entrance to the hotel. The room I stayed in is just there on the first floor to the right of the entrance.

The hotel has some nice places to hang out both indoors and out.

I did not find an opportunity to use the pool. It was a little drizzly this morning and it never really warmed up to a point I wanted to take a dip – even just dipping my feet in. But it did look nice.

Breakfast was a collection of choices that reminded me of typical European style breakfasts: cereals, yogurt, orange juice, coffee, a variety of sliced cheeses, sliced meats, small croissants, pastries and breads. They also offered eggs and waffles. Tasty.

They set out a nice table.

The view out my window at breakfast.

Wandering through the city, I checked out the main square cathedral. I didn’t take any pictures inside. There was a service going on.

I noticed a cable car going up the nearby hillside so I had to check it out. Here’s a photo while riding up the Teleférico to Cerro San Bernardo. The hill rises 880 feet above the city and there are good viewing spots once you get to the top. There’s not much else to do once you get up there but it’s a nice birds eye view of the city of Salta.

From atop Cerro San Bernardo