We are back home now in Boulder. I had to pull my car over and take in the view from the ridge looking down into town, the Flatirons rising majestically up and the color of the sky, mountains and surrounding green pastures beautiful to behold.
I always did appreciate the view. We are settling in to a new house after a trip to Kansas to celebrate July 4th. It is good to be home.
When we began our travels over a year ago, we sat down with our two daughters and took turns sticking pins in a map of Europe for all of the places we’d like to visit. Six-year-old Grace wanted to see the Queen of England! We did agree to go to London, but we cautiously managed expectations that seeing the Queen was doubtful.
You can image our excitement then when we found ourselves in London last week during the annual Trooping the Colour. This impressive parade is held on the Queen’s official birthday. The ceremony dates back to the early 18th century when the flags or colours of the battalion were carried or trooped down the ranks so that they could be seen and recognized by the soldiers.
As the clock on the Horse Guards Building struck precisely eleven, the Royal Procession started. Over 1,400 soldiers, 200 horses and 400 musicians paraded down the mall on the beautiful, sunny London morning. Grace waved her British flag as the Royal Family proceeded by in their carriages. Princes William and Harry, Camilla, and then Queen Elizabeth herself! We couldn’t have expected more!
Posted in Children, Festivals, Life, London | Tags: London, parades, Prince William, Queen Elizabeth, Trooping the Colour
There were many delights in Turkey. I finally tasted Turkish Delight, the tempting sweet that I first read about when I was nine and reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The history, architecture, food and people were delightful too. It was a very diverse trip, with mosques and history in Istanbul, ancient ruins at Ephesus, five heavenly days of sailing the Aegean Sea from Marmaris to Gocek, and three magical days in Cappadocia seeing the fairy houses, caves and monasteries carved in the rocks. The kids said, “Thank you for bringing us to Turkey.” and “Thank you for the boat and the kayak.”
We were thankful too for the opportunity to travel to another new country, experience new cultures, and mostly to share the experience with the Roy family, a delightful family that are now life-long friends. (Steve is also a delightful blogger and apparently has more time and better internet service back in Seville than I do here in Greece! Click here to read all the details of our trip on his blog.
Posted in Beach, Children, Family, Foreign Food, Life, Mountains, Sabbatical, Traveling with Kids, Turkey | Tags: Blue Cruise, Blue Mosque, Cappadocia, Ephesus, gulet, Istanbul, Turkey
If you are considering a move to Spain… to learn Spanish, experience another culture, be in Europe to travel, look no farther… go to Salamanca.
Forget the beach, the warm weather, the international schools… go to Salamanca. It is a wonderful college town, just the right size to balance small town friendliness with big-city activities, full of beautiful architecture, museums, concerts in the Plaza Mayor, inexpensive, one of the most beautiful cathedrals I’ve seen in Europe, and a golden light that reflects off the sandstone buildings at dusk that is magical. We hardly heard English spoken. Time to reflect on our year may change my mind, but today, I’m enjoying and highly recommending Salamanca.
It is our last day in Salamanca today and our last day in Spain. To catch the blog up, we pulled our daughters out of school in Javea after the mid-April term. We decided to homeschool and travel and see more of Spain and Europe before returning to Colorado near the end of June. 
It was bittersweet saying good-bye to Javea and the wonderful friends we had made there. We were truly surprised and appreciative of the heartfelt connections we made with people. We had some wonderful good-bye lunches and days at the beach, and we look forward to seeing those friends again and keeping those connections alive.
We have since been in Barcelona and Salamanca to enjoy more of Spain. I loved Barcelona, like all big cities. Loved the architecture mostly and museums and vibrancy of life. It was less enjoyable for the girls and Scott, who has been battling a stomach bug for over a month. Salamanca has been a wonderful place to complete our time in Spain.
We go on vacation tomorrow to Turkey and Greece, then London and New York and on to home. Some of you may laugh and think, “haven’t you been on vacation for a year?” No, a move like this is challenging and full ups and downs. It’s not all vacation and idyllic days. But it is a journey I highly recommend.
Scott and I enjoyed our last Spanish menu del dia today and laughed and cried remembering what we have been through over the past two years that got us here. It was a year full of growth, some days magical, some days dark. We wouldn’t trade it, good and bad, for anything. We look forward to going home to Colorado and seeing what we make of life next.
Posted in Javea, Life, Moving, Sabbatical, Salamanca, Spain, Spanish Language | Tags: Javea, Sabbatical, Salamanca, Spain
We are in Barcelona, home to Gaudi and his Holy Family church. We came up out of the metro station into the bright blue Mediterranean sky and its there, on top of me, calling my eyes to the sky. It’s enormous, and unfortunately, also really dirty, which was impossible to not notice.
The people of Barcelona began work on the church in 1882 and commissioned Antoni Gaudí to be the architect. He worked on the project for over 40 years, devoting the last 15 years of his life entirely to the church. It is scheduled to be completed in 2026, one hundred years after his death.
We were in front of the Nativity façade first, which is the only part of the church finished in Gaudi’s lifetime and most reflects his vision. The details mix Christian symbols with images and patterns from nature for an intricate and sensitive portrayal of the holy family.
In contrast, the Passion façade was sparse with modern, jagged lines and gaunt, tormented faces. These apparently controversial sculptures are the work of Josep Maria Subirachs. I personally liked the sharp differences in the two façades.
The website of the foundation that manages the construction of the church is full of fascinating information about the construction. Click here to read more and see the amazing pictures.
I wonder at artists and architects like Gaudi who begin great projects like Sagrada Familia knowing they will not see the completion. I wonder if he would approve of and appreciate the direction the construction is taking today. The current architects are following his vision as much as possible given that his original plans and models were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War in 1936. I look forward to returning to Barcelona some day to see the completed church, with its central tower with a cross rising some 550 feet into the sky, dwarfing everything we see today.
Posted in Architecture, Barcelona, Spain | Tags: Antoni Gaudi, Barcelona, churches, Gaudi, Sagrada Familia, Spain
Goodbye Javea.
Hello Barcelona.
Posted in Barcelona, Beach, Javea, Moving, Sabbatical, Spain | Tags: Barcelona, Javea, Javea port beach, Sagrada Familia, Spain
Ahhh, Kansas! Yes, I can use these familiar lines because I am a Kansas native. And though it’s been twenty years since I lived there, at heart, I am a Kansas farm girl. So it’s been with surprise and delight that I have discovered bits of Kansas here in Spain.
No paella, octopus or squid on the menu at Annabelle’s in my hometown of Eudora, Kansas, but here in Valencia, Spain, the Cafeteria Kansas offers them on their menu of the day!
These wheat fields on the plains of Spain near Valladolid made me smile and remember the miles and miles of similar fields in western Kansas. I tried to explain to our good friends Rafael and Sonia how we “wave the wheat” in Kansas when the Jayhawks score a goal. I don’t think my limited Spanish did the tradition justice but maybe they’ll click on this link to watch it on YouTube!
Even Dorothy was here, at my daughters’ school play, uttering her famous line, “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore!” It crossed my mind that my husband and I were probably the only two people in the audience who were actually from Kansas. How surreal, I thought, as we chatted in Spanish at intermission, here I am in Spain, at a British International School’s play of the Wizard of Oz, which was a Comic Relief benefit for children in Africa. Dorothy apparently has worldwide appeal.
And then there is Suzanne. Imagine the chances of meeting someone in your first day of Spanish class in your new Spanish town who is also an American and has just moved to Spain for a sabbatical year with her family. She is from Los Angeles, where you used to live. You are from Boulder, where she is planning to move. You naturally have a lot to talk about. Then you discover she went to Kansas University at the same time you did. So you have Lawrence, Kansas in common too and the same bars and restaurants and stories of college. And she even knows the local butcher in Eudora because she’d drive there to pick up animal parts for her biology class. The world doesn’t get much smaller.
Kansas will always have a special place in my heart, and it will be the last stop of our year-long journey before we head home to Colorado in July. We’ll see if Aunt Janet’s Fourth of July fireworks remind me of Spain!
Posted in Expats, Family, Life, Spain | Tags: Eudora Kansas, Kansas, Spain, wheat fields, Wizard of Oz
Our sabbatical has taken us to over thirty hotels in the past year and a half, and I have become pretty good at finding hotels that work well for us and our six- and ten-year-old daughters. While my most recent hotel searching experience is with European hotels, I think my advise is global.
Here are my top tips for picking a great kid-friendly hotel:
1. Determine your top sight-seeing activities and search for hotels within walking distance. I find this especially helpful in big cities. Being able to walk out of your hotel and be near activities and restaurants is key to everyone’s happiness. When in Rome, the Coliseum was our number one priority. We stayed within a few blocks which made for excited and fresh kids the morning we visited. It’s also easy then to pop back in for afternoon naps or quiet time before heading out for more.
2. Read hotel reviews from other guests. My favorite website is TripAdvisor, which is also great for restaurant ideas. You can put in an attraction, landmark, train station, etc., and it will map hotels nearby. I also use Rick Steves’ website; his Graffiti Wall has many great tips from like-minded travelers. Some other things to consider:
• Hotels outside of the USA have much smaller rooms, few connecting rooms, and few rooms with two double beds. A double in Europe is actually two twin beds pushed together. For our family of four, we request a triple (three twin beds), a suite, which have various configurations, or if we can find it, a king bed with a roll-away cot.
• Consider trading quaintness and character for a business-class hotel. Though perhaps sterile in décor and atmosphere, you may be more likely to find two double beds, in-room movies and perhaps even an indoor pool! If we are traveling to two or three hotels on a trip, we try to balance charming local hotels with one business-class hotel.
3. Look for rooms with nooks and crannies so you and the kids can have your own space. Our daughters have relaxed and played in walk-in closets, bathrooms and the extra deep space created between windows and curtains. Kids love small spaces for building forts, pretending and layering pillows all around to read or listen to music.
4. Search for hotels with common areas the kids can use without you. Like the above mentioned nooks and crannies, you tend to find areas like this in smaller bed and breakfast type hotels and inns. In Marrakesh, Morocco, the common courtyard in the center of our riad was right outside our room. Our daughters would frequently take their journals or coloring out to a café table and spend a half hour or more by themselves. Though we could hear and see them from our room, they loved the independence and we loved the quiet time in our room.
5. Make sure breakfast is included. Kids wake up hungry; adults wake up wanting coffee, well, at least this adult does! If the hotel serves breakfast, both of these needs are met sooner, making for a happier start for everyone.
Recommendations from my daughters:
6. Let your kids play with the bathroom toiletries and accessories. Girls love hanging out in the bathroom playing beauty shop with the shower caps.
7. Request extra blankets and pillows for building forts or making corners cozy for reading.
Bonus Tip: I was really against buying iPods for my two young daughters. However, given the amount of time we were going to be spending in planes, trains and automobiles, I relented. They were the best purchase we made before leaving, especially for our six-year-old, who is too young to read chapter books. I download books-on-tape from www.audiblekids.com and they spend hours listening to stories while we’re traveling. The books and music are wonderful in hotels too for calm time in between sightseeing.
And if you haven’t realized, I highly recommend down time in your hotel each day. A short vacation from your vacation makes for a great kid-friendly vacation!
Posted in Children, Opinions, Sabbatical, Traveling with Kids, Where to Stay | Tags: family travel, hotels, kid-friendly hotels, travel, Traveling with Kids, Where to Stay
The tagines of Morocco indulged us. I try to remember one meal that stood out, instantly taking me back to this country of many flavors, but there wasn’t one; it was all of them! We became accustomed to delicious food awaiting us under every lid. Like at a magic show, we were enthralled at every meal when the garçon lifted the lid to reveal the meats and vegetables, dates and olives steaming in the swallow dish.
We quickly discovered the ubiquitous tagine at every mid-day and evening meal, whether in our riad in Marrakesh or by candlelight in our Bedouin tent in the Sahara. We learned the dish is not only the name of the traditional cooking pot but has grown to include the meal inside. The chicken with lemons and olives was my favorite, the lamb meatballs and eggs, called kefta, a close second.
The distinctive pointed lid and shallow dish came originally from the Berbers, the mountain people of Morocco. The ingredients are simple, usually chicken or lamb, vegetables, oranges, olives, dates. It is the spices that give these simple ingredients their complex flavors. Saffron, cumin, cinnamon and twenty-seven others make up a special blend called ras el hanout. There is no recipe that makes up ras el hanout; it is a unique combination of the best spices a seller has to offer.
We stopped in the village of Tamegroute, famous for its distinct green pottery, where I bought a tagine. There were beautiful hand-painted colorful ones used for serving and decoration, but I wanted one for cooking so I bought the traditional terracotta red with a few beige and yellow designs on the lid. The traditional method of cooking with a tagine is to place it over coals. Since I would be using my tagine on the stove-top, I was told to soak it in water for an hour, rub olive oil into it and cook it at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 hours. I was also to use it at a very low temperature or to use a heat diffuser to prevent it from cracking.
Scott graciously carried my new tagine home for me; its heavy terracotta pot and lid not exactly lightweight carry-on baggage. We will see how well I duplicate the Moroccans tasty cooking. I did buy a packet of ras el hanout from the local spice trader in Ouarzazate, the strong smelling spices also giving my suitcase and dirty clothes a distinct flavor of their own!
Bon appétit!
P.S. Want to try your own hand a cooking a tagine? You can find recipes and buy Moroccan tagines at www.tagines.com. To increase the authenticity of your tagine, you can buy the special blend of spices, ras el hanout, from the same spice trader in Ouarzazate I went to at La Caravane des Epices. You’ll have to decipher the French though! And finally, to virtually wonder the spice souks in Morocco, visit these fabulous photos that I found online.
Posted in Foreign Food, Morocco, Where to Stay | Tags: cooking, food, Moroccan food, Morocco, ras el hanout, spices, tagine, tagines, travel
My Mom and I were standing at a bus stop in Rome. It was our last afternoon in the eternal city, and we were hoping to squeeze in one final amazing Italian lunch before leaving for the airport. My sister was in a nearby shop.
The bus stop was entertaining as we casually stood against the wall. There was a group of school kids waiting, the Italian mothers in their three-inch heeled black boots and Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses, supervising the chaos. The nuns, in their traditional black habits, were more successful with one stern look.
We were caught off guard by the nicely dressed gentleman walking up the sidewalk towards us. He navigated around the kids, smiled at us, and said in English, “Two beautiful women out for the beautiful day! Do you have lunch plans?” Only in Rome! We were quite surprised. I think we actually giggled at each other, like the school girls waiting for the bus.
“Well, actually, we are looking for a restaurant for lunch, but we only have about an hour,” which in Rome terms is about enough time to take your coat off and order.
“My name is Federico. Come to my restaurant. It’s around the corner, number 133, via Barberini. We will make you fresh pasta, pronto. Bring your mamma.”
How do I refuse a command like that! After convincing my sister Theresa, who was not so sure this was a legitimate lunch invitation, we walked to the restaurant to take a peek. There was no peeking, Federico was waiting for us and after some hesitation on Theresa’s part, she does not like being forced into things by strange men, we were ushered into the restaurant. The wine was practically poured and appetizers ordered before we sat down. Theresa put the brakes on. I politely told Federico we wanted to look at the menu. Theresa wanted to choose her own food. I didn’t want a $200 lunch, even if it was fresh and pronto!
We broke with tradition and ordered one appetizer for the three of us, the mozzarella and prosciutto, and pastas for our main course. I apologetically reminded the aghast Federico we really only did have an hour so it would not be a traditional two hour, four-course, Italian lunch. He poured me more wine and went off to the kitchen.
It was the mozzarella and prosciutto that calmed us down, won us over. Well, perhaps Federico’s smile and hospitality too. The most perfect dish of mozzarella arrived, like a scoop of vanilla ice cream, with slivers of prosciutto draped around and olive oil drizzled on top. We all sat quiet and savored every flavor of our first taste. It was magnifico! Forget about arriving on time for our flight, we all wanted to relish lunch.
Federico was the stereotypical Italian man. Flattering, bold, gracious, outright flirting with my mom. We learned he had been in the restaurant business for 30 years and before that in the Italian stone business.
Our pasta was wonderful. The meal turned out to be the best we had in Rome. Of course we could not refuse the dessert and coffee when offered. If you know my Mom, you know she loves tiramisu. All tiramisu, even the ones you find in Spain in the local Mercadona’s refrigerated section. So when Federico brought out the dish of homemade tiramisu, Mom was completely smitten!
After dessert, I dug out my $200 and Federico offered to show mom the Italian marble in the bathroom. Priceless. I was worried for her for about two seconds. I figured when again would she have an Italian man showering her with attention. When in Rome…
Posted in Family, Foreign Food, Italy, Life | Tags: food, Italian men, Italy, Rome, tiramisu, travel
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