Thursday, July 10, 2008

Hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque

The Prefab Sprout song “The King of Rock 'n Roll” catchy chorus “Hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque” has been spinning around my head ever since we landed in Albuquerque yesterday after an epic dash through the exceedingly large Denver airport. I’m not sure about hot dog, hot air balloon perhaps, as Albuquerque hosts several large hot air balloon festivals (though we’re a little early for that extravaganza as it’s in October) or even hot chilli as everything on the menu seems to be “would you like some food with your chilli?” And I haven’t seen any jumping frogs but we have spotted lizards basking on the adobe wall of the hotel. So my homage to Albuquerque would be "Hot Chilli, Jumping Lizard, Albuquerque", but that could just be the inevitable jet-lag talking.

Tomorrow we board the GrandLuxe train for our Western and Pacific coast treasures tour, we thought the trip started in Santa Fe but as we are meeting in this hotel tomorrow we must be in the right place, and it’s not Santa Fe. We’ve been asking around how we spend our first and last days in Albuquerque and as we’re asking people who were born and bred here they think a trip to Santa Fe is entirely unnecessary. So we decide to check out the old town today and board the Sandia Peak Tramway to dine at the restaurant up there tonight. Let's hope it's a fabulous sunset.

But first it’s a small matter of breakfast. The hotel restaurant is decorated in colourful paintings at every turn but is curiously dim at the same time. M is hankering after hash browns, yes, shock horror she occasionally (very occasionally and not at gunpoint) eats potatoes of her own accord. There aren’t any hash browns on the menu but they obligingly whip up some rather good ones anyway to go with her kind of Eggs Benedict dish. I go for steak and egg, and house potatoes which or course comes with the obligatory scattering of various chillis. I’m not sure I’d cope too well in New Mexico for long, it’s sad but true but I’m not good with that background taste of chilli with everything! I wonder what the several-mile-high restaurant can summon up tonight. Please no more chilli! I guess we’ll have to see.

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