The kids were introduced to this Spanish candy, Juicy drop pop, a sweet lollipop that you put sour drops on and eat.

A: why do kids like sour stuff so much?

Jett: I don’t know. Why do parents like mushrooms so much?

Touché

The highest seaside cliffs in Spain are near Ortigueira where we are staying. We ventured there yesterday and saw some impressive cliffs towering over a jewel-toned ocean. The mountain were topped with windmills and wild horses that seemed to poop everywhere. Lots of cute ponies to follow.

The tiny beach town of Espasante has beaches on both side of their tiny peninsula which makes for nice surfing. After a lot of convincing and no small amount of forcing, we got the kids into some surf lessons. They had a blast and were super cute in their matching wet suits! Jett stood up on a surfboard for the first time and later thanked us for forcing him to do a lesson! Ah parenting!

Then we ate a huge platter of clams! Our best yet in Spain!

We had a wonderful time in Fisterra. I wish we could have spent more time there but all of Spain appears to be on vacation and we got the only two nights available there. So we moved on to our next stay, a big stone house in the countryside along the North coast is Galicia. The views are stunning and we have a big (but prickly) yard all to ourselves. There are small beach towns all around here which we will slowly checkout during our 5 days here.

A one hour flight north and we are now in Galicia, a region known for sandy beaches, spectacular seafood, and an eclectic and varied history. Over 2000 years ago, this area was inhabited by the Celts which is reflected in the presence of old circular stone structures called castros and bagpipes (!) in Spain! We started our visit in Santiago de Compostela, the main end point of the famous 800km Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage trail traveled by 150,000 or so people every year. The endpoint is the cathedral where Santiago is supposed to be interred. The cobblestone streets lead through small alleyways and there are ancient plazas and churches around every corner.

Today we found a quiet little beach that does not seem to have many foreign tourists. The beach is littered with beautiful seashells and there’s a small restaurant nearby. Perfect! The place where we are staying as a little terrier that lives next door and the kids have semi-adopted it. We got to take it on a walk to the beach.

And now we ventured to the end of the known world from Roman times, Fisterra, literally ‘Earth’s End.’ This little finger of a peninsula was where people used to think the world ended. Just imagine, they thought that if you sailed out into the sea from here, you would fall off the Earth into who-knows-what. There’s a lighthouse at the point that some hikers use as their pilgrimage endpoint. This small fishing town is really charming with small alleyways and stone buildings. This morning I took a peaceful solo run out to the lighthouse. It was so foggy and misty, it reminded me of San Francisco. In a bit we will all walk out to the lighthouse and behold the great beyond that is the Atlantic Ocean!

Legend has it that Walt Disney based Cinderella’s castle on the real life castle in Segovia, Spain. It’s only an hour outside of Madrid we had to go check it out. In addition to being a charming little Spanish town, it also has an amazing remnant of the historical Roman presence in Spain. One of the most intact Roman aqueducts is in Segovia. It is amazingly pristine and impressive.

Then a couple days later, Jett turned 10! We celebrated with birthday churros! Around the corner was a museum for kids that we decided to check out. It turns out that in Spain, instead of a tooth fairy, they have a tooth mouse named Raton Perez who has a bag for collecting children’s milk teeth which he uses to make magic! His house is in the museum and the kids all tried to find him. I don’t think anyone saw him, but they did hear his footsteps as he scurried away. Very cute! I’m glad the tooth fairy doesn’t have to fly all the way to Spain to collect Kaia’s loose tooth! Then we walked to Retiro Park for a scooter ride. It was a scorcher that day, over 100F, so Jett found a creative way to use one of the numerous water fountains in Madrid.

Madrid is known for its amazing art museums and on Friday we went to its main attraction, the Prado Museum. It was stunning to see original Velazquez and Goya paintings in person. We also ran into out SFSU colleague, Ed Connor and his family there! What a small world!

Kaia wanted to touch everything, ack! We had to explain the meaning of the word ‘priceless’ to her. I’m not sure she got it. But we managed to not break anything. Whew! Jett loved the artwork and recognized the similarities between the biblical scenes depicted and Greek mythology, hmmm. We will have to go back many more times to take it all in.

Saturday was our friend, Iñigo’s birthday so he invited us to his mom’s house in Miraflores, a village just outside of Madrid. We had a full three course Spanish lunch which was a surprise to the kids when they got a hamburger after their first course of pasta! And then cake! She has a pool! It was paradise!

It’s super small but if you don’t mind sleeping in tight places, you are welcome to visit!

After a hard week of apartment hunting, we took the weekend to explore our new home, Madrid! All the rental agencies were closed anyway.

We explored some beautiful plazas and then rented bikes and and an electric scooter for Jett to zip around Retiro Park. No pictures there since we were going so fast. Then we had to try the famous churros and hot chocolate, which is actually thick chocolate syrup. It was delicious and may be a regular breakfast for us!

Then we explored the palace, the plaza San Miguel, and most importantly almost adopted the worlds cutest chihuahua. We also checked out the palace cathedral which was beautiful and huge and had lots of statues and paintings of Jesus. I had to finally explain who Jesus was to Jett. Where to begin… Jett spoke his first Spanish sentence to a Spanish person, “mas pan, por favor.” Bread may be the gateway to learning!

It is very hot! The kids are doing well but very confused about how it can be hot when they wake up, all day, and at night! Luckily we found a pool nearby that is lovely and provides a little relief. We have been busy setting up our lives here. Cell phones, bank account, school visit – check! We just have to find a place to live and we will be ready for the year ahead! The metro system here is a public transit loving family’s dream! We can take the metro to every corner of the city! It’s so fast and clean and most importantly, is air conditioned (I’m looking at you NYC).

Our lovely friends, David Buckley and Iñigo Martínez-Solano, have been wonderful to us. They picked us up at the airport and provided a Spanish welcome meal of tortilla, manchego cheese, and salami. David has even given us his house to stay in while we look for a flat. Who does that?? He is staying with his mom so that we can have his whole place. Amazing!

While we haven’t had time to take in the sights yet, looking for housing has brought us to some different neighborhoods in town and it has been fun to see the classic homes in Madrid’s Centro district including the party scene in Chueca, the high end shops in Salamanca, and the small cobblestone streets and literary history of Cortes. The kids have been troopers and their enthusiasm for apartments is highly correlated with the effectiveness of the AC system in each place. Yesterday, after a long day, we got very expensive ice cream at the Palace hotel to escape the heat and relax for a bit. Jett declared it the best ice cream ever and wants to live nearby so he can go every day. He’ll need to get a job if that’s is his plan!