Spain

It's sometimes hard to write about Spain without falling back on cliches. After the European championships and Wimbledon, the country is clearly having a moment though.

I learnt Spanish at school and though I've spent more time overall in South America, I have adored the parts of Spain I have visited, mostly as a young student long before family and work stole most of my time. (Climbing on the Costa Blanca, El Greco's Toledo with the spectacular cathedral, the Roman remains of Segovia, the glorious moorish gardens of Granada, hiking in the Picos de Europa and the Sierra Nevada, visits to multiple art museums in Madrid, Dalís weird fantasies in Figueres and the spectacular cliffs of Montserrat), so how on earth to boil down all those immensely diverse regions and histories to one or two dishes?*

Reader, I cheated. There was one obvious solution in this case, tapas, or, actually pinchos. An array of small dishes, shared between the family, a very social way to dine, and a speciality in especially Navarre and the Basque region,though as far I can see, there are versions in many places in Spain today. I remember especially fondly a place selling pinchos in Bilbao in the mid 1990s....

Thankfully, we have several wonderful tapas restaurants in Copenhagen and one named, promisingly, Pintxos on Nansensgade - which I have had my eye on for a while. Perfect for a staycation Spanish nostalgia trip.

Pintxos could offer us a 14 tapas sharing menu. The food was excellent, and as far as I recall very authentically northern spanish, the wine well matched and the atmosphere - a small enclosed courtyard complete with olive trees giving just the Spanish staycation vibe we wanted.. Highly recommended. There were even some (though not many) vegetarian pinchos on offer ( pimentos de padrones, tortilla, escalivada, garlic mushrooms, vegetable croquettes, patatas bravas, postres) so the less picky about meat members of the family had perhaps more than their fair share.

It was a nostalgic tour to some extent, lots of reminiscing and promises to children to take them there at some point. It was almost only on leaving that we realised again we were in Copenhagen, not Madrid.

Every summer holiday should include a gentle cycle ride through waem streets both vibrant and quiet but also largely traffic free, with a soft breeze and the scent of sweet linden trees.

Spain, we will visit you sometime soon, but for now, just knowing your marvellous food and culture is waiting to be lived is enough.

Tomorrow, it's time for Andorra.

• Yes, I realise this is going to be a problem all the way through Europe in fact.