Catch up

With the holidays, things have been a bit busy. There has been a lot of traveling and exploring! The kids had a long weekend break at their school, a puente or bridge, so we took the opportunity to visit the ocean. Valencia is Spain’s third largest city and is situated right on the Mediterranean Sea. We stayed in the old fishing neighborhood and could walk to the beach. The water was too cold for everyone except our San Francisco kids.

We had a good tip on a good paella restaurant so we had to try it since paella was invented in Valencia. It did not disappoint. Look how big the pan was!

There’s also an impressive science museum in Valencia that dominated the landscape with its modern and animal inspired architecture. The kids spent all day there. Their favorite part of the museum? An old school marble exhibit showing how gravity works.

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Before we left to go back to Madrid we wandered into a local restaurant for breakfast where everyone was having half meter long sandwiches and coffee with brandy. Turns out their specialty was horse bocadillo. The kids were traumatized. We had the chicken.

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The kids’ school had a Christmas and Three Kings presentation. Three Kings day, January 6th, is actually a way bigger deal. The kids all sang and gave their letters to one of the three kings. One may have been in brown face 🤦🏻. But that’s someone else’s future political career in ruins.

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A few weeks later, we jetted off to Paris to meet our friends Shane and Deidra and their boys. Paris is cold in winter but utterly charming still. The last time Vance and I were here was way pre-children and about 18 years ago. We never made it to the Eiffel Tower before. But tourist trap or not, we decided to take the kids to see it. It was SO tall! And, pro-tip: if you walk up the first 690 steps to the elevator on the 2nd platform, there is no line to get to the top. The climb was exhilarating and the views increíble!

The metro worker strike meant it was harder to get around but we got to see a lot on foot and scooter. Notre dame was undergoing reconstruction but was still impressive And the Musee D’Orsay was a highlight as well.

And CREPES!

Then we returned to Madrid for Christmas. We have a tiny Christmas tree that Vance bought in Plaza Mayor, about a mile away. He had to carry it back and ended up stopping halfway back to rest and get a beer.

Some friends from San Francisco visited Madrid and celebrated Christmas Eve with us. One of the saddest parts about being in Spain for a year is Jett is missing his last year at his wonderful elementary school, West Portal. Our friends brought him a West Portal class of 2020 sweatshirt that has all of the 5th graders names on it. It was such a thoughtful gift. Jett, who is usually not very expressive verbally said that he was so grateful for it. 😭😭

We then took the train to Toledo for a day trip and the kids all got weaponized!

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It is now 2020. January 2nd, to be exact, and we are in the Pyrenees for a few days of skiing. We stopped in Zaragoza on the way here. It is a cool city that was originally built by the Romans and called Caesaragustus, named for the first emperor of the Roman emperor. The city then was under Islamic rule, and now Spanish. Check out this scene above where you can see the entrance of the Roman ruins on the right, a mosque in the background, and two Catholic Churches from two different eras in the front.

The town square was full of Christmas stuff including a walk through nativity scene and little covered carts that sold lottery tickets! So cute!

The lottery is a really big deal here. I’m not sure why. Instead of buying your own winning number combination, you purchase with a group of people from your community, like a bar, or school group. Everyone gets the same decima, or number, and if you win, you split the winnings with everyone that shares the number. So socialist, right? I bought a ticket with a group of parents from the kids’ school and we won! Only 100Euros, but a win is a win! Here are a couple of many ads for the lottery. They are pretty well done and emotional for those prone to tears (I’m not crying, you’re crying!): https://youtu.be/poMLvQeDCkQ and another one: https://youtu.be/73lWWeCzOdo

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We are now in a tiny village called Garos that is over the top charming and just a few minutes from the slopes.

And that’s the catch up!