Month of fun and visitors!

Cheers!  Been a few weeks since we wrote our last blog: a month exactly.  No excuses, but the number of visitors kept us busy with entertaining, enjoying great company and more Spanish wine.

After our trip to San Sebastian and after Cathy’s parents left, the next weekend we went to Barcelona to pick up my mom, who came for a month-long visit.  We spent a wonderful weekend in Barcelona, with the weather being just spectacular.  We showed my mom around town (by the way: driving in Barcelona is very, very easy, one of the best big cities to deal with traffic): Parc Guell (Gaudi), Sagrada Familia Basilica (which is still being built 100 years later after being started), La Rambla (the big walking plaza with merchants, cafes and pedestrians), excellent places to eat, one of which we stopped at and had a wonderful Catalan meal.  After lunch, back onto La Rambla, where the girls got their charcoal portraits done by artists.

That night, taking advantage of our new Lithuanian baby sitter, Cathy and I went out to La Flauta, a very popular restaurant for dinner.  After about a 1.5 hour wait, we got in about 11pm and had a great meal.  The best part was when we got the bill, with my 100 Euros in hand, I thought they made an error when they charged us only 37E!  Inexpensive and great (included a good bottle of Navarra wine).  http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g187497-d787824-Reviews-La_Flauta-Barcelona_Catalonia.html

Our Barcelona trip lasted 2 days and absolutely the top experience was La Sagrada Familia Basilica (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia)  which was concecrated in 2010 when the Pope visited the city.  I was at the Sagrada Familia 2 years ago, when things inside were still obfuscated by the construction scaffolding.  This time, when we walked in, I had shivers going down my skin.  The spectacle of the church is indescribable.  To think that Gaudi, who lived at the turn of the century, could have imagined all this is to believe that he was truly inspired.  It was a jaw-dropping experience, of engineering and spiritual marvel.  By far the most inspiring and impressive building we have ever visited.  (See some pictures on our blog!)  On the way back to Zaragoza, we stopped at a medieval town of Mont Blanc, which was celebrating an annual medieval festivals.  Fashioned with real knights, medieval market and a wine tasting, we had a grand time spending a few hours and then having a picnic in a field by a winery.

Then back to Zaragoza, where my mom spent a nice and relaxing month with us and the girls.  Of course, she can never sit still so our place was spotless and we got an opportunity to go out without kids a few times.

In the meantime, our Montpelier apartment turned temporarily into a 4 star all-inclusive resort: we had several visits from our friends from Canada, Chad and Brit, who are on a whirlwind tour of Europe for 4 months.  When they first came and outlined their plans, it was not initially clear if they were competing for the Guinness world book of records title for the most time spent on trains during the 4 months or of the record was going to be the most places visited.  I myself was a bit dizzy just imagining the amount of sensory input.  After a few relaxing days in Zaragoza, then a trip to Portugal and then back to Zaragoza, they decided to slow down a bit and try and enjoy a fewer less places and experience more of the feeling.  They are great guys and I now call them our “adopted” family, as we are their emergency landing strip in Europe…

Our other friend Adrieane came to visit us from the UK, where she is studying in Reading.  She is from Victoria, Canada, but while on her studies, she decided to pay us a visit, which we enjoyed very much.  She is studying food safety, and we had a few interesting chats about the origin of our nice steaks J

In between all this, we joined a community event where about 400 people kayaked 10 kilometers down the river Ebro.  It was spectacular: did not take much effort, as the river naturally takes you down.  The vistas of the city and the enjoyment of a sunny day on the river were very memorable.  Again: a few pics if you click on the picture above. 

Then, in between Chad and Brit’s visits, we had our wonderful Irish friends (Gwen and Monty) come to stay with us while they were doing their own Spanish excursion.  After a weekend with us, they went to visit Catalan Pyrenees and now they are back in Zaragoza.  They had excellent weather and fab time and last night we watched the European football final at Wembley: Barcelona vs. Manchester.  I had to wear my Barca jersey, and we WON!!!  Ole ole ole ole….. (Sorry Barry, next time)

One last bit.  Yesterday, Tessa had a school gymnastics performance with her Infantil class.  They were all dressed in special outfits and did surprisingly complex routines for the parents.  Tessa, in comparison to her being shy and self-conscious just a few months ago, was super happy and proud of her performance.  Was a very nice experience (some pics above).  They even got medals!

After the performance, we were invited to the school club, where we had some food, wine and a huge paella!  We stayed at the school till about 7pm, having some beers, gin and tonics.  Who said schools were boring?  A great group of parents.  Afterwards we collected Grace from a play date she went to and went home to watch the football final.  Life is getting very full again, what a difference from just a few months ago.

P.s.  They are filling our pool, so soon the pool parties will start.  Can’t wait.  Have you booked your tip to visit us yet?  We have some availability, but book early!

[To see pictures, click on the title picture to go to the gallery of the Blog pictures]

Family Visit

On Thursday April 7^th my parents arrived in Zaragoza for a 3 week visit.  Aside from the one day we spent with my Auntie Glenda in London this is the first family we have seen in 5 months and we were all very excited.  I tracked their flights and was disappointed when they had a 2 hour delay in Frankfurt due to fog in Barcelona, however the good thing is that Anatolijus had been in Madrid for meetings that day and arrived at the train station around the time I imagined their train would be arriving.  Anatolijus called me as he watched people disembark and then spotted them coming up the movator.  My parents were going to take a taxi to our house because we didn’t know exactly what train they would be on so their relief and joy to see Anatolijus waiting for them meant their journey was over as he got them safely to our house.  When the buzzer rang in the apartment announcing their arrival the girls and I all screamed and started running in circles trying to find our shoes.  As we walked out they were just coming down the driveway and Tessa let out a scream of excitement that couldn’t be contained.  To say our reunion was joyful would be very accurate.

We spent the first weekend showing them around Zaragoza and they really liked the city and how pretty and clean and friendly it is.  The first week was fun for me as mom and dad joined in our regular routine of walking to school and getting groceries and picking Anatolijus up from work.  It was so nice for me to share these everyday aspects of my life and I realized how alone I have been in these things.  Although we have some friends we see them on the weekend and because I don’t have very much Spanish yet I haven’t been able to connect with parents from the school.  I had gotten used to my routine but was struggling and feeling very tired.  I found I was able to get back in balance and feel more like myself with my parents here and now I am building in some enriching things for me to maintain the balance. A highlight of that first week was a day trip I took my parents on to Loarre Castle (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castillo_de_Loarre) which is a beautifully preserved Medieval castle and is a 80 min drive.  It was a beautiful sunny day and the farm land was so green and alive with Spring it was fabulous.  We had a picnic after our tour and enjoyed the spectacular views as we were up in the foothills of the Pyrenees and had sweeping views of the whole valley that extends all the way to Zaragoza.  The girls were in school that day and I realized it was the first sightseeing I had done without them in 5 months and I thanked my parents for not asking, “when are we going to get there?” or throwing up or fighting over the front seat!

On the weekend we had our friends Eduardo and Sira and their children Eduardo and Claudia over for a BBQ on our new big stainless steel BBQ.  We had a lovely evening and at 11:30pm when the kids were really tired and in Canada we would be saying goodnight, instead a fresh round of drinks was poured and the poker chips came out. The kids all fell asleep on the couch and we played until 1:30am.  I was so impressed with my parents for partying Spanish style and needless to say the following day was a quiet one.  The next night saw our only unfortunate event in that my dad tripped on an ill placed scooted on the deck and cut his foot open.  We had to take him to the emergency where our lovely friend David met us and did all the translating which was great.  Dad ended up getting eight stitches and this really slowed him down as he loves to walk and explore and was very limited in this regard.  The good thing is that he had virtually no pain and didn’t complain once.

The following week was Holy Week and the children have the whole week off and this is their Spring Break.  Anatolijus also got 2 days off so on the Thursday we left for a four day trip driving through the La Rioja wine region then into the Pais Vasco also known as the Basque region up to San Sebastian which is on the Sea of Cantabrico and is about 20 km from the French border.  We had an apartment right on the water and although it was very basic and not too clean the location was spectacular.  We were right on La Concha beach and the girls played in the waves and we all breathed in the sea air we have been missing.  San Sebastian is a holiday destination and one of the wealthiest parts of Spain.  The brief history is that 200 years ago the Queen of Spain decided to spend the summers here away from the terrible heat of Madrid.  A beautiful Palace was built and then all  the infrastructure to support the royals kept developing.  It is famous for the beautiful fancy white cast iron railings that go all along the promenade and food is considered to be some of the best in the world.  An overview of our activities:  riding the rollercoaster in the amusement park built in 1912 way up on the hill (incredible views); walking through the old town shopping and later enjoying pinchos and Txacolina (chakoli, an amazing white wine); the girls riding the ornate merry-go-round; walking the promenade and eating great food at La Concha café; on Easter Sunday climbing way up to the huge statue of Jesus on Mt.Urgul.  Another highlight was the day we spent going to Bilboa to see the Frank Gehry designed Guggenheim Museum (http://www.guggenheim.org/bilbao).  I have known about this Museum for years but somehow thought Bilboa was in the south of Spain. I was thrilled when I realized it was only a 2.5 hour drive away from Zaragoza and it was a fabulous experience seeing it and being in it. 

There were a couple of things that surprised us on this trip.  The first thing is it was virtually impossible to get a map or information on how to find the wineries.  We realized after that it is only April so many of the wineries aren’t yet open for tours, however the information is still not useful or helpful.  We did get to Marques de Riscal which has the amazing Frank Gehry designed hotel at it (http://www.hotel-marquesderiscal.com/en?PS=EAME_aa_Starwood_Iberia-1539_Google%20US_marques%20de%20riscal_12/13/10).  On the way there we past 4 of the wineries we were looking for so will now have to go back when the season gets rolling and enjoy time doing tastings.  Also as we drove through the Basque region we couldn’t believe how green and gorgeous it was.  It reminded all of us of Austria or Switzerland with Bavarian styled houses on the side of high green hills dotted with sheep.  We drove through luscious deep valleys with quaint little villages set in, very beautiful.  We had a lovely time exploring this corner of Spain and would like to go back, however there are so many new places to explore as well.  We arrived home on the Sunday evening and sadly my parents had to leave on the train Monday to overnight in Barcelona before flying home on Tuesday.  We comforted ourselves knowing the girls and I will be home in Victoria in just two months to spend the whole summer and Anatolijus will join us for August.  The time went incredibly fast and after saying goodbye to my parents on Monday we prepared to welcome a new guest on Friday so we were off to Barcelona……

To view pictures from this Blog, just click the picture above!