Spain (again)

I wanted to share a little bit about our recent trip to Spain. Inspired by our son, Wes, who has fallen in love with the Spanish language this year (thanks to his AMAZING Spanish teacher, Ms. Milica), as well as the generosity of our good friends, Al and Althea McConnell, who generously gave us a week of their Interval timeshare which we were able to use at a Marriott resort in southern Spain (thanks, guys!!!), we spent the kids' spring break in Spain. The week was wonderful, the country gorgeous, the food and wine outstanding. We continue to be blessed to be able to visit so many amazing places, and are incredibly thankful for these opportunities!

We started our trip in Madrid, but only had one day to try to see the city, which is pretty unrealistic. I would recommend the Hop On/Hop Off bus for anyone trying to see any major European city in just a day or two. (We've had great experiences with these buses in other cities, as well -- you buy a ticket for a 24-hour period, and then can literally, hop on and off wherever you like along the route). We just barely, I would say, scratched the surface of Madrid, though. We hit the major squares -- Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor (the latter being our favorite), had a delicious lunch at a little place near Plaza Mayor, walked through Retiro Park (one of my favorite European parks -- so much fun for all ages!!), and then, as it started to rain, boarded the bus and just rode around town for more than an hour. You could easily spend 3-4 days (or more) in Madrid, visiting art galleries, and seeing all of the sights. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your view on these things), though, for us, southern Spain beckoned, and we boarded a plane on Easter morning to Malaga.

We arrived in Malaga around 11:30, and rushed to the rental car place, in an effort to get to Marbella where we were hoping to catch the town's Easter Procession. These processions (I posted photos in a post a few days ago) are famous in Andalucia, and take place throughout Holy Week, culminating in the Easter Day Procession, in which a Pasos -- a large painted wooden depiction of Christ's Passion -- is carried through the town by members of special brotherhoods formed for this purpose. It takes many men to carry these Pasos due to their weight. Luckily, we arrived in Marbella just in time to see the Procession, and since we had missed church due to our flight, we were pleased to have this special and memorable experience on Easter Sunday.

We stayed at one of the Marriott resorts in Marbella for the week. Not surprisingly, it was fabulous -- full of pools, restaurants...and Brits! We took road trips two days of the days we were there, and spent the other days relaxing at the resort. Our day trips were to Ronda, one of the white towns in the mountains north of Marbella, and Granada. Both places were spectacular. I fell in love with the Alhambra in Granada. This place is just oozing with history -- built by the Moors in the early to mid 13th century, and finally taken over by the Christians after their defeat of the Moors in 1492. I must say that standing in the room where it is said that Queen Isabella gave Christopher Columbus the go-ahead to make the sea voyage that resulted in the discovery of the "New World" was a pretty intense experience.

As for Wesley and his Spanish, he did, indeed, bail us out of a couple of sticky situations where there clearly was a language barrier, and we needed to get or convey information. As I said, he does love Spanish, and I am grateful to his teacher for making it so interesting and exciting for him. Here's to hoping he has many more opportunities to travel to Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries to use the language, meet the people and see the beautiful sights!

Happy Saturday.