Springtime in southern Spain was beautiful.


Jaén was covered in olive groves.















The Sierra Nevada mountains were still snow-capped














and spring wildflowers were in full bloom.














Cabo de Gata natural park had a lot to offer. There were fossilized sand dunes on which to climb











and cooled lava to climb on too.














There were goats to be herded (The goat herder and his dog kept watch from under the shade of a tree.)













and horses to ride.


















There was a (chilly) sea in which to swim




















and sand in which to play.





















There was a picnic spot to choose

















and desert mountains paths to hike. And...


















there was a 38 year old man to turn 39!

Since Charles and Daniel didn't have school during Semana Santa (Holy Week), we ventured out of Catalonia to see more of Spain. One doesn't need to drive far to realize that the fairy tales of kingdoms, knights and princesses are at least partly true here. We passed castle after castle along the highway. Amazing!


We spent a night at the Castle of Santa Catalina in the city of Jaén. The Moors (who were Muslims from northern Africa) were the first to build a castle on this site in the 8th century. Then in the 13th century when the Christians were taking back the land from the Moors, during the reconquest, a Christian king overthrew the Muslim king of Jaén. The Muslim king agreed to leave peacefully if he was allowed to begin a new kingdom in the faraway land of Granada (which is 1.5 hours away by car).


This cross, which stands high above the city of Jaén, is a remembrance of the cross the Christian king erected on the castle grounds after having taken it from the Moors.



















In Granada, which was our next stop, the Muslim king began building the Alhambra, a fortress and the last stronghold for the Muslims in Spain. In 1492, the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand II and Isabella I completed the reconquest and took over the Alhambra from the Moorish King Boabdil.











We also witnessed catholic Holy Week celebrations in Granada, which have taken place each year since the time of the Christian reconquest. Each night "brotherhoods" proceeded from catholic churches to the cathedral. The cross led the procession.
















It was followed by bands, people dressed in habit with long pointed hoods carrying candles,


















incense swingers and floats carried on the backs of the necks of many men. In this picture one can barely see the feet of the men underneath the float.












Here's a closeup of the float of Jesus carrying the cross.

















The processions ended with a float of the virgin Mary behind lit candles.





In the same manner, this post will end with the virgin Mary. After our three day history lesson, we headed to the coast to enjoy Spain's natural beauty at a park named Cabo de Gata.

This statue, located on a municipal building, is of the patron saint of Catalonia, Sant Jordi.
The kids celebrated La Diada de Sant Jordi (St. George's Day, April 23) at school by writing a book and making a red rose. St. George's Day is the Spanish equivalent of Valentine's Day, though celebrated differently.

The Catalan version of the Sant Jordi story says that, as a knight, he slayed a dragon to save a (beautiful, of course) princess. A rose bush sprouted where a drop of the dragon's blood fell and the knight picked the most beautiful rose to give to the princess.

So, since the middle ages, it has been tradition to celebrate this holiday by men giving women a red rose. Nowadays, the holiday is celebrated with the exchange of roses and also books. In the early 20th century the holiday morphed to include World Book Day, since both Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes (author of Don Quixote) both died on April 23, the same day as St. George's Day.

Charles celebrated his 9th birthday with school friends at a neighborhood martial arts club.

Spring has arrived in Barcelona! The trees are in bloom and the warmer weather (low 70s) feels great. This is the entrance to our apartment builing.


We've spent most of the past three months in the routine of school, dinner, bed, weekend. Repeat. Here are the kids Monday morning on the way to school. And here they are Sunday night eating popcorn and watching Spanish TV, which is their way of preparing for the upcoming week. While it's routine, we love it!

Since so much has happened in the past 3 months, I will let the pictures speak for themselves and simply list the highlights.

*Sarah and 4 mothers of Daniel's classmates form "cooking club." Teach each other how to cook a meal from our native countries which are Spain, Italy, Ecuador, Bosnia and USA.

*Duane and Sarah begin teaching weekly English classes to friends at church.

*Charles begins intermural soccer. Games at other schools give us opportunity to see new places around Barcelona.

*First parent/teacher conferences.

*We learn that in the mornings, just off school grounds, companies frequently pass out free toys to advertise their products. It works and the obsession with "Invizimal" stickers begins! The stores are out of them for days!




*The boys celebrate Carnestoltes (Mardi Gras) at school. Charles is a Barcelona soccer player. Daniel is Darth Vader.




*After school visits to the neighborhood bakery begin. This morphs into getting a pack of Invizimal stickers instead. They are SO much more exciting than chocolate-covered croissants.


*Alicia, the portera (door woman for our building), begins doing our laundry in another apartment, which HAS a laundry machine, and brings the wet clothes back to Sarah to hang up on the line. As long as no one is staying in the upstairs apartment, Sarah doesn't have to do the laundry by hand.

*We venture to the country, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, to celebrate a Calcotada with Duane's colleagues. This is a traditional Catalonian "onion festival" where one eats burnt leek-like plants called calcots which are served on a clay roof tile.





*Duane travels to the USA twice and also to a conference in Chile's Atacama Desert. Grandpa arrives the same day Duane departs. They meet in the airport and Duane gets on the SAME plane which flies back to the USA!

*Grandpa, Sarah, Charles and Daniel travel to Paris and London.



These are pictures
in front of Notre Dame Cathedral,
in line to walk up the Eiffel Tower,
in front of Big Ben, and
inside a London telephone booth.

We spent New Year's Eve at a church dinner with new friends. Amazingly, 18 different countries were represented. We were the only non-native Spanish speakers (though to call us Spanish speakers is still a stretch).

Here are my boys waiting on the subway platform, at 3am, on our way home. The event began at 9pm, which sounds just right for a New Year's Eve party, right? This is, actually, the normal time in Spain one would meet for dinner, though it's a bit on the early side.

We enjoyed a traditional meal of paella, thinly sliced sausages and flan. The tradition here is to stuff a grape into one's mouth for each dong of the clock striking midnight. Apparently the official dongs of the clock in Madrid (like our Times Square) are slowed down a bit to accommodate grape-stuffing. It was hilarious. The seeds threw Duane off a bit, so he only made it to 6 grapes. Charles and Daniel made it to 9 and 8, respectively. Sarah filmed the event so she enjoyed the grapes later with the champagne.

Celebrating "Dia de los Reyes" (Epiphany) was the final holiday celebration. The day before, we attended the "Cabalgata de Reyes" and flocked, along with the other 4 million residents of Barcelona, to the marina to see the three wise men arrive by boat, supposedly passing through on their way to find Jesus. Though it was overcast and near dusk, it was a magical event and excitement hung in the air as children anticipated the many gifts the kings would also bring to THEM! A grand parade followed.



On "Dia de los Reyes" Charles and Daniel awoke to find the kings' journey to Bethlehem had even brought the wise men through our apartment. Perhaps the poop-centered Catalonian traditions are getting to me, or perhaps it's the influence of 2 young boys, but breakfast included a crepe star which, no doubt, is what led the kings to our apartment, and pee (apple juice) and poop (chocolate spread which is Spain's equivalent to peanut butter) left by the kings' camels.





The kings left better presents than their camels: not gold, frankincense, or myrrh, but more Spanish Pokemon cards!

Our Barcelona holiday celebrations came to an end as the final piece of the "roscón de reyes," a special cake eaten on "Dia de los Reyes," disappeared into Daniel's mouth. Fortunately he took out the hidden faba bean first. He'll be buying the cake next year!

Happy New Year!

Here are a few pictures from the holiday season in Barcelona. Our Christmas tree was a paper tree taped to the wall and decorated by the kids. It worked well enough as there was plenty of space under it for presents!

On Christmas we hit our well-cared-for Caga Tio who delivered favorable droppings. Fortunately Daniel had celebrated Christmas with a Caga Tio at school, so he was able to teach the rest of us the song.

The translation of the song is,

"Poop log, Christmas log. Don't poop herrings, which are too salty, poop turrón, which is much better!"

Turrón is like peanut brittle. A curious Christmas tradition that will most certainly live on in our family. Here's a video of our Caga Tio celebration.

Apparently a common hostess gift around the holidays is a dried, whole pig leg. Actually, one finds them hanging around all year, but at Christmas time, the legs seem to take over grocery stores. Whole walls are covered in them and Christmas tree displays are formed out of them. Each leg pictured here is about 2.5 feet long...We opted for the turrón.

Spanish nativity scenes include a whole countryside, much different from the manger in a stable to which we're accustomed. Here is Escola Augusta's giant scene. However, this one did create a bit of disappointment. We couldn't find the traditional Catalonian caganer anywhere! The caganer is a figurine of a pooping person hidden in the scene. The idea is that he's fertilizing the earth which will ensure a good crop next year. Think this is strange? It's a Catalonian tradition from the early 18th century. If you want to read more about it, click here.



Duane and Sarah sang in the Christmas choir at church. Two of the songs can be heard on youtube. We also sang the Hallelujah Chorus in Spanish. That was fun, but nobody stood up.

Mas allá by Gloria Estefan

Es Navidad by Marcos Witt