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Sunday, May 22, 2022

Dear Harvey: On business in Spain (Parador de El Saler GC) ⛵️🍤🍷🏌️‍♀️🏖

Harvey on practice tee at Austin CC

Dear Harvey,

Flashback to early April when Cathy joined me in Barcelona for a sales meeting. I failed to get this in the mail, perhaps due to the NCAA Tournament, staying up all night cheering the Tar Heels unexpected run to the Final Four. It still feels like we won a championship, even though we came up one-half short! By the way, I never heard back from JJ Redick?

This may not look like work, but I promise I'm making a difference here. While my teammates and I planned strategy around Common Data Environments (CDE) for enterprise manufacturing clients like GE, JCI, Unilever, and BAE Systems, Cathy took to bike tours and a city completely rejuvenated following the 1992 Olympics. 

"The 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona were an enormous success, both as an international sporting event and as the catalyst for wide scale urban renewal of the city." Ref: The summer when Barcelona dazzled the world.

I saw a bit of Barcelona from the Southern Cross during our 'team activity' mid-week. Except for Vancouver, I could not recall a more picturesque portside city. Most of my colleagues loved the sailing excursion, but a few were seasick by the time we returned to port. Considering my lack of sleep, I had flashbacks to a deep-sea fishing excursion in the Outer Banks of North Carolina during college days with good friend Tabb Evans, our fathers, and my dad's good buddy Ed Carter Nettles. We nearly had a triple grand slam that day, but I was not in good stead after partying too much the night before. A Carolina grand slam consists of a blue marlin, a white marlin, and a sailfish, so it was remarkable to nearly do it three times. 



By the end of the week, we had a grasp of where Autodesk is going with CDE in the Building Information Modeling (BIM) space and Product Information Modeling (PIM.) Think of Tom Kite's more analytical (left-brain) approach to golf versus Ben Crenshaw's (right-brain) creative style, and you get a sense of the world I live in at Autodesk. It takes both types to solve BIG problems like climate change. Stay tuned for some exciting customer visits that will stretch your engineering brain.

Before leaving Barcelona, I walked with Cathy to see incredible architecture, followed by dinner with colleagues at Botafumeiro, a place recommended by a friend at Tube to Tee: Sudbury Golf Club, Hemant Patel. Without a doubt, the best restaurant recommendation I have ever received, and that sentiment was echoed by all who joined us. Thanks, Hemant!






The next day, we rented a car (steering wheel back on the left) and headed south to another seaside city, Valencia. On the way down, I surprised my bride (birthday) with a wine tour of Ferrer Bobet near the little town of Falset Tarragona. Shout out to my good buddy Jay Hallberg, Austin CC, and his colleague Jose Peralta on the ground in Spain. Check out Vineify, one of Jay's business ventures, not yet available in Europe but good to go in the USA!
Our global team is building a better way to buy wine that brings joy to consumers, takes the hassle out of buying wine, and helps the wine industry sell more higher-quality wines. We're open for business in Austin! Join our waitlist.
Bacelona to Ferrer Bobet to Valencia (4th bubble is El Saler)
As wine tours go, this ranks top of my list. Here is how Jose set things up:

Hi, again, Page,
So, you have more or less two hours by road from Barcelona to Ferrer Bobet winery. Just before to arrive to Tarragona, you have to take the road to the inland and keep the Mediterranean Sea at your back directly to the mountains. Here you have the GPS coordinates: North 41 10’ 09’’  Est 0 51’ 18’’. It is the kilometre 6.5 of the road T-740 Falset from Porrera. 
The visit is programmed at 12:00. The expected duration is between 60-90 minutes. Please, ask for Elena, she will be in charge. Don’t forget to try his Special Selection Old Vines (a 100% Carignan-based) in case it is not included in your taste. The 2016 is my favourite. You can if you want to ask Elena to buy some bottles even if there is not really a boutique in the Estate.
 
Then, you take the road to Falset (15 minutes more or less). You have a reservation for two at 14:00 in the restaurant ‘El Celler de l’Aspic’. The reservation is to my name, Jose Peralta. The staff had a small problem with yours.
 
And Happy Birthday to your wife!
 
Jose

Elena was remarkable. Her smart and happy vibe reminded me of my Grandmother, Gabriella Van Patten McDowell, though I don't recall Gaymom drinking even a sip of wine. I'll share photos and a video or two to give a sense of Elena's personality and the winery itself. What an incredible tasting room and view!

"The winery works like a boat squared between vineyards, an object that rests its precarious balance in the undominated landscape of this hidden corner of the Priorat." [Photo above and text from website]








After wine tasting and lunch, we made our way to Valencia and checked into the Las Arenas Balneario Resort. We rose early the following day and headed out for a game at the unique Parador de El Saler. The website gives the golf course a bit too much hype, but it is located in Le Saler Natural Park on the Mediterranean Sea, and what is not there in terms of course conditions is made up for with stunning seaside views and spectacular wildlife. (Read between the lines, and you might surmise I lost too many golf balls off of tight fairways and in gnarly rough.) 

We were paired with Ferdinando Maritien and his partner Elizabeth (from Madrid), who added spice and fun to our round. There was a language barrier, but the golf camaraderie connected us fine. "If you play golf . . . 





Check out below putt by Cathy and our new friend celebrating to give you an idea of the fun we had:

After El Saler, it was beach and pool time. I'm not the best at just sitting still, but this is not a bad gig if one must. 


Even though on vacation, I used that table as a desk for a few hours each day. 



I sent this video to my high school mates with a straightforward question. Did we ever have these 'football' skills?


We enjoyed more incredible food in Valencia, especially seafood. We also ended up in the middle of a Passover celebration on Saturday night after our dinner in the village. Check out scenes from the ceremony below.

Highly recommend Civera in Valencia for its amazing seafood, atmosphere, & service.




We will be back in Spain (Madrid) in mid-June. Beautiful people, fantastic food, and breathtaking scenery. If Spain were a US state, it would rank right up there among my favorites.


gPage

Letters to Harvey from The Kingdom:

Other 'golfy' scribblings:
"Millions of people were charmed by the homespun golf advice dispensed in Harvey Penick's Little Red Book, a sports classic that became the best-selling sports book of all time. Yet, beyond the Texas golf courses where Penick happily toiled for the better part of eight decades, few people knew the self-made golf pro who coaxed the best out of countless greats -- Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Betsy Rawls, Mickey Wright -- all champions who considered Penick their coach and lifelong friend." - Kevin Robbins, author of Harvey Penick: The Life and Wisdom of the Man Who Wrote the Book on Golf.
"And if you play golf, you are my friend." - Harvey Penick
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