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!

Golf in Zaragoza

Ok, ok, I have to tell you about golf in Zaragoza.  Believe it or not, one of the most complicated things here.

First, finding a golf course in Zaragoza is a challenge in and of itself.  One day I saw one on the way to Madrid along the highway and got very excited.  Later, after a bit of research, I find that to play there you need to be a member, pay 120 € and have a handicap.  Of course, I had none of the three magic things to open the gates of golf (the 120€ I was simply not willing to spend after playing Bear Mountain in Victoria for 65$).

Then my search continued.  By accident I stumbled across a "public" golf course in the modern Expo site.  It is a pitch and putt, 18 holes, looks nice.  So I figured to give it a try.  The price was also ok: weekend rate of 25€ for 18 holes.  I got a friend to call to book a tee time....

But of course, that would have been too simple.  Supposedly, in order to play at any non-private golf course in Spain you need to belong to the Spanish golf federation and pay an annual fee!  In the meantime, the golf course on weeknights is completely empty.

So on Sunday I decided to go there anyway just in case the guy on the phone was mistaken.

We got to the course and indeed, we could not go play.  The good news was that there were people on the golf course so they must have filled out the forms and joined the federation.  We ended up going to the driving range, which looks more like an acre of Dubai real-estate: sand, sand, sand.  The upside is that if you hit the ball 50 yards, it rolls another 50 :)

Balls were cheap, and after an hour and a half of brisk swing action we ended up in the clubhouse for a refreshment and, of course, to fill out the mandatory forms to join the federation.  I suppose the urge to play on the green vs the sand did overtake and I gave into the annual fee of 60€.  So now I patiently await my membership card, which is just as important as the healthcare coverage.  The process seems similar too.

P.s. After the driving range we stopped by s special seafood fair, where the region of Spain called Galicia were displaying their culinary delights, most of which were seafood.  I had octopus with potatoes, mussels and some other yummy seafood, all of which was to die for!

The other day I even tried percebes which are gooseneck barnacles, which are delicious, but maybe weird to look at.

Now off to waiting for my card.  Dreaming of golf.



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


Anatolijus

Complex History of Spain: Belchite

The other day we took a trip to a nearby town of Belchite.  It is about an hour away from Zaragoza, but a nice drive through a landscape that reminded us of driving through Kamloops: deserty looking hills with very green grass at the foothills.

Belchite is a small village with big history.  In 1937, during the Spanish civil war, Franco was fighting the socialist-communist forces and the village was one of the key gateways to Zaragoza.  The little town was almost leveled to the ground in fierce fighting.  Supposedly British, US and other allied forces fought Franco's army, but eventually they lost.  Some 6000 people lost their lives there.  After the war, Franco ordered the people of the village to build a new village besides the destroyed one, leaving the ruins as a reminder of his victory and his enemies' defeat. (you can find more info on the history of Belchite here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Belchite_(1937) )
We got there on a very sunny day, which certainly helped when seeing what remained of once tranquil village.  It is amazing that some structures of houses, 2 churches and a convent are still standing, while significantly Tedder prates since their day time.

We walked into the main church and it was amazing to see some of the decorations still in tact.  It was, though, an eerie feeling, trying to walk through a skeleton of a village.  Many people say you can hear ghosts in the village.  At one point we heard a children's quite singing, very clearly.  Could have been from the new village, or...

It was an interesting experience, and a reminder that peace comes at at a significant price at times.  Even the children felt sad seeing such destruction and desolation.

After, we went to the new village, kids played in the nice park and we went back to Zaragoza.  A very special experience.


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


Anatolijus

London Town

Since we are not likely to get tickets to 2012, we decidednto pay an advance visit to her Majesty the Queen in the UK.  We got ourselves some very affordable Ryanair tickets from Zaragoza and went for a little tourist action in London.  (To see pictures from our trip, just click on the Big Ben)

Itinerary

Friday, March 11
Left Zaragoza mid afternoon and got to London at about 4 pm.
Got to our Marriott hotel to relax in a very spacious, by London standards, room.  The hotel  is located in Swiss Cottage, has a very nice pool and must have been renovated in the last few years. Very nice.

Auntie Glenda was waiting for us at the hotel already.  She got to the UK a few days earlier so we planned to spend a bit of time together.  We had dinner together at the hotel (menus in english! And dinner served at 6!) and made plans for the next day.  Of course, much of the evening we spent watching TV about the Japan earthquake, horrible, horrible situation.  Having lived very close to the Chernobyl disaster in 86, I could imagine the stress everyone was under to fix the nuclear situation.  Still to be continued...

March 12
We got up really early (not because we did not want to sleep in, but because the girls were demonstrating the reality of 1 hour difference between Spain and the UK), went for a swim in the hotel pool and took the subway to the Parliament buildings.  It was a beautiful sunny day, so our tourist expedition was to be marvelous.  We stopped by the Westminster Abbey (did not go inside), had some breakfast at PRET (coffee shop chain with amazing quality products and brownies) and then we went to the South Kensington station to the Natural History museum.

The lineup was decent and the museum - fabulous.  Best of all, it is free.  We saw dinosaurs, live animal show about animal sight, mammal exhibit and, of course, the gift shop where Auntie Glenda treated the girls to a keepsake.

After the museum we met my boss Brian, went for a walk to the Prince Albert monument, which was newly restored, and then for a fab lunch at the Whole Foods.

By that time we had done plenty of walking and were getting quite tired, but given the weather was very nice, we decided to go to the London Eye ferris wheel.

We were lucky with a short lineup, so we got our tickets, saw a 4 D show of the eye (it was a short movie with 3 D glasses and real snow) and then we went onto the eye.  The eye rotates every 30 minutes - enough time to get a fantastic view of London.  All of us loved the experience and the 52£ was worth it.  After the 360 panoramic overview of the city, we had about 0 energy left and kids, having done amazing, were ready to turn into pumpkins. We stopped at Tesco for some groceries, said good bye to Glenda and took the tube home.

We even did not go for dinner, as this would have required walking, which was unthinkable.  So with a bottle of wine, grapes, cheese and a few drumsticks from KFC we celebrated our evening #2 in London.  Cathy and the kids went to sleep, while I decided to maximize the day and do additional stress-test on my feet and took the tube to the Tate Modern museum.  I had 1.5 hours there, which was amazing.  Some big names at the museum: Kandinsky, Monet, Pollock, Rothko and many others.  And lots and lots of modern exhibits, which always inspires me to do some more painting.  I got home about 11:30pm and went into a coma.

March 13
We started the day with our traditional swim in the hotel pool.  By 9am we were on the tube heading back to town, starting at Bond and Oxford street, where we handily got ourselves a Starbucks and some light breakfast.  After that, we headed off to the Tower of London.  By that time it started raining, so the mood for the tour was set.  We started with Yeoman telling all the wonderful stories of the fortunate guests of the castle and their unfortunate endings.  Made us appreciate the more civilized times we live in...

The Crown Jewels were AMAZING! We did a couple of rounds to see them.  Kids were in awe, so were the adults.  The masterpieces, the wealth, the craftsmanship and all the tradition on display.  Nice to see that some of such old traditions are still well in use.

After we checked out the vistas of the London Bridge with the girls singing the "London bridge is falling down", we could not resist a quick Subway lunch. It still tasted the same, and, given it was my staple food for the last number of years in Canada, I must say I miss it.  So it was a treat.

After the Tower we took the tube to the Victoria & Albert museum.  We did not spend much time there, but did stop in their tea room.

A special note of apology to Glenda.  Glenda suggested that the dining room at the V&A was excellent, which I readily dismissed and said it could not be better than cafeteria food, but that indeed was not true.  They had a full spread, which all looked marvelous.  We had afternoon tea with scones and clotted cream, preserves and tea.  Thanks Glenda for your great advice.

Next, off to the Science Museum, which was also free.  We spent time in the hands-on experiments area for kids.  A bit similar to the science world in Vancouver, just much larger.  They had a whole section on space exploration, similar to the Smithsonian exhibit in DC.  I went on a 4D simulator ride to the moon, which was quite fun.

After the museums, the family headed back to the hotel and I went for a bit of shopping down Oxford street.  We met back at the hotel and had dinner at the restaurant there.  My first steak in 5 months... So enjoyed every bite.  Wine, on the other hand, more expensive and less variety.  So guinness was the order of the day.  The kids had nice kids meals which came with very nice chocolate deserts, which adults enjoyed just as much.

That night we watched a bit more news on Japan and off to bed.

March 14
We got an early sub and train to Stansted airport.  The day was sunny and warm.  We landed in Zaragoza a few hours later to a cloudy and rainy day.  The whole week after our trip was windy, rainy and relatively cold.  But the sun is now out and temperatures are back to the Spanish standard.

We loved our trip and surely will visit the Queen again.  After 2012 rush is over.

P.s. Lots of public works on the subway, many stations closed due to improvements.  You can surely see London getting ready for the games.

Anatolijus and family

Food, glorious food!

It is the second week in a row that we have allowed ourselves to indulge in the art of Spanish cooking.  It is a lot of fun.  So here it is, the menu:

Salt cod cakes with properly paired wine.  The result: yummmmmmyyyyyy!

Click on the picture above to see what I am talking about...

We went shopping for the cod only to realize that there is about the same amount of different varieties of salt cod as there is of salt!  But the lady in the store was very helpful and suggested to cut our cooking time by about 24 hours and try using fresh cod.  I have to say, the results were not disappointing.  It took about 1.5 hours of prep, with Grace being the best helper and Cathy mixing our first ever aioli in Spain, we sat down to a wonderful and flavorful meal.

Couple of thoughts that came to my mind while cooking.  At one point, the recipe called to fill the frying pan with about 3 inches of olive oil to fry the cakes.  I know that we are all health conscious in Canada....  I was thinking more about the cost of all that virgin olive oil I am about to pour into the pan....  So, compromising my recipe and staying true to my frugal nature (not) I poured about 1 CM of oil into the pan (good oil, too) and got the things cooking.  It worked out just great.  In fact, I am not sure what the point of the 3 cm was.

Anyway.  The taste of the cakes with aioli and the wonderful 2009 Chardonnay from Carinena (90 points by Penin guide) was MARVELOUS!  Grace enjoyed the food also, and she is not a big fish fan.

We made enough mix to have some again tomorrow, so off we go to sleep and dream about something with less calories from Canada :)

Anatolijus

Pictures, Pictures!!!

We have added quite a few pictures to our blog.  To find them in the future, just click on to title picture on this page and it will take you to our photo albums.  If that does not work, click on the link below or copy and paste this link into your browser:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aragon-adventures/sets/
Isn't technology wonderful!