Parent's Visit 2013

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This year my parents arranged to come for their third Spring visit to Zaragoza two weeks early so they could be here for Grace's First Communion.   The weather here has been untypically wet and cold, like the rest of Europe, in fact it was the wettest March since 1947!!  Due to the inclement weather and the fact that this was their third visit we did not do any touristy things in Zaragoza.  We did do a lovely day trip, on a nice day, to Tarazona which is about 1 hour away, located in the Borja wine region (capital of Grenache grape varietal) close to Moncayo Mountain.  The main reason we went to Tarazona was to see the cathedral which has been restored and is in the Mudejar style (Muslim/Moorish).  The restoration is amazing and unlike most places we have visited they are prepared for, and want visitors to come.

Interestingly, on our way we decided to take a detour to a small village that gained a lot of notoriety last summer.  The news showed a wall painting of Jesus that an 80 year old woman tried to fix, but in doing so distorted the picture making Jesus look like a monkey.  The story literally went around the world but was misleading as the news made it sound like some random woman went in and ‘defaced’ the picture of Jesus.  The real story is a bit different and it was told to me by my friend Marta whose family is from that village and knows the woman.  The woman has volunteered at the church for years and has often touched up the paintings on the walls as they are deteriorating.  Marta said her daughter Christina has often sat in the church watching her do this work.  On this occasion apparently there was too much humidity and the paint ran creating the now infamous image. The painting is called Ecce Homo and we, like thousands of other people, we went to visit it.


When we left the village we took a beautiful country road and came to a lookout with a spectacular view of the snow covered mountain, villages and countryside.  One advantage of all the rain this year is that everything is totally green and lush, very uncommon for a desert.  Our last stop was at Monasterio de Veruela which is a beautifully preserved monastery which also has an excellent wine museum.  It teaches a lot about Granache which is the famous grape of this wine region.

Here in Spain our Spring break is always around Easter so this year we planned to explore Barcelona with my parents because, although they have flown into it three times, they have never seen any of it.  In order for all of us and the luggage to get to Barcelona we had to rent a car for a day so we decided to visit Montserrat on the way.   The drive up was spectacular and although the church was small it was very beautiful and we saw the Black Virgin which is a famous part of Montserrat.  Due to some unforeseen time constraints our time here was quite short, however it was enough to know we would like to return to see and do more.

The rest of our journey to Barcelona went very smoothly and after returning the rental car we arrived at our aparthotel.  Our apartment turned out to be beautiful penthouse on the 9^th floor with glorious views, a deck and very comfortable beds.  We had a 180 degree view which included Tibadabo, the towers of Sagrada Familia and the Mediterranean Sea.  It would be fair to say we hit all the highlights and luckilly the weather improved so it was sunny and 23C - perfect for touring.  One of the nicest meals we had was at an Argentinian restaurant we had not planned on going to.  We had seen a lovely Indian restaurant that we wanted to go to so when we arrived at 8pm (very early by Spanish standards) and it was empty, we were surprised when they said they were fully booked with reservations.   All was not lost as just two doors down was El Punt which he heartily recommended.  We were welcomed with open arms (almost literally) by the owner who took very good care of us.  Meat is the main thing on the Argentinian menu and it was very good.  In addition mom had a wonderful goat cheese salad heaping with raisins, nuts and seeds.  We also enjoyed a lovely Argentinian Malbec.

In Barcelona we visited Tibidabo, Sagrada Familia, the Beach, Montjuic, la Rambla, Port Olympic and Parc Guell.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time and were all quite tired after 4 days, on our final day the rain moved in.  Anatolijus decided to return to Zaragoza on an early morning train and after lunch I put mom and dad into a taxi to head to their airport hotel and then Grace, Tessa and I headed to France…..

In the apartment complex we live in we have become good friends with a French family who are living in Spain but are from Toulouse which is only a 4.5 hr drive away.  Anne was home for Easter holidays so invited us to come for a couple of days.  In addition to enjoying spending time with Anne we were also very interested to go and see her house which has just recently been restored and renovated.  In the countryside close to Toulouse Anne’s family has a castle, a real castle.  It was so wonderful to hear about the history, to see where Anne grew up in the other ‘side’ of the castle and to now see how she and her husband Hugues have created a beautiful home full of history, warmth and charm.  I enjoyed tending to the fireplaces, walking the country roads, buying fresh artisan bread baked in a wood burning oven.  We visited a 15^th century flour mill that is still powered by water like it was 4 centuries ago.  The flour is 1 euro a kilo and the owner scooped it into a brown paper bag for me, put a label on it and then wrote down the transaction in pencil in his little book.  Also the pancakes I made with it were out of this world.  To drive home the girls and I drove a spectacular route that took us through French villages, up into the Pyrenees and then through a tunnel back into Spain.  The drive was 5 hours with stops and because we are having so much rain the countryside was emerald green and the scenery gorgeous.  We arrived home Thursday afternoon just in time to get settled and receive our next set of visitors.

My mom’s cousins Barb and Don Basserman arrived safely on the Friday afternoon although I was getting worried as it was getting later and later.  At one point I was sitting on the couch and thought, "I need to take the recycling out and maybe they will be driving by or I will see them." So I walked down my driveway and out the gate and the first thing I see is a tall, white haired man walking towards me.  Yeah it was Don Basserman!!!!  I was so happy and we couldn't believe the timing.  The first night we made 5 different Spanish dishes for them to try and we talked late into the night.  It was a special time of sharing and hearing stories of their lives that we did not know.  The second night we invited friends to come for dinner and the two couples got along like a house of fire.  On the Sunday we went for a day trip to the medieval town Alquezar and even did a side trip to find a small village Colungo where they make their own liquor also knows as ‘fire water’.  We saw the ‘stills’ and had a few samples and purchased a few to have at home.  On the Monday the Basserman’s headed off to Barcelona and we so appreciated that they included us in their travel plans.