More London Landmarks

After our relaxing break in Spain, we returned to London for another week off (the Easter break here is two weeks) and filled it with lots of sightseeing. Our friends, the Dohertys, came to visit, so we had fun returning to many of our favorite sites and playing tour guides for a while. We also proved that two families of four could fit in our little London house (just!) for over a week.

Some of the highlights included a private tour of Westminster Abbey (friends of friends of friends who work and live there arranged an awesome walk-through for us all), a new exhibit at Kensington Palace, another afternoon at the Tate Modern, walking along South Bank and across the Millenium Bridge, shopping at Notting Hill, climbing the lions at Trafalgar Square, and enjoying the sun in St. James Park.

The girls returned to school last week and I am back at Abel & Cole, but we've managed to fit in some other fun as well. Steven and I met our friend, Kevin, last weekend for another urban walking tour. This time we checked out the Olympic Stadium and Park, as we hadn't been over there yet. It's definitely coming along, but it's hard to imagine the millions of people who will be there in just a few more months. The City is clearly getting excited about all of the festivities. And today was good practice, as it was the day of the London Marathon, which was a huge event. We got into town early to cheer on our cousin, Robert, who completed the race in just over 3 hours! It was great to see everyone out supporting the runners, and we were able to spot Rob at a few different locations.

The day the Dohertys left, Susan, Robert, and David arrived to spend the weekend and be here for the run. It was great to see them, and we squeezed in Covent Garden and the Transport Museum, lunch at Wagamama (I had to work that day, so missed those activities), a nice dinner and Steven's famous rhubarb (from Susan's garden) and strawberry (from Borough Market) crumble, then today's big race event. We are all completely knackered tonight and we didn't run at all!

Granada y la Playa

Granada

Flat Stella

Alhambra

Holy Week parade

On the beach

The walk down to the water

Dodging the waves

Swimming!

The Andalusian countryside was absolutely gorgeous- we had a week's worth of viewing mountains dotted with villas and white villages; I loved it. But my two highlights of the trip would have to be our visit to the city of Granada and Costa del Sol, the Mediterranean beach.

Granada is large city, and there was loads to see: outdoor squares with marble floors, all the main Spanish shops (Franny got a watch), stalls on the street selling tea and meats, and an older area with views of the impressive Moorish Alhambra. We were especially lucky to be in Granada on the Wednesday before Easter, as it is the same day that the city holds a parade through the streets, as part of Spain's Semana Santa or Holy Week. It is celebrating when Jesus visited Nazareth, so the people wearing the red pointy hats and gowns are called nazarenos, and made up most of the procession. There was also a large crucifix and candle lighting- very religious (Franny was disappointed that they didn't throw out candy like at the Ballard parades). So, topped off with frambuesa flavored ice cream, the parade was really interesting to see. 

But my two most favorite days were the ones spent at the beach. I had never seen the Mediterranean Sea before, and it was exactly like I pictured it- amazing light blue water. On our first beach day (Monday), we stopped at a supermercado to make a picnic to take to the beach, which was perfect. No swimming that day though- just lying in the sun napping and reading. We went back on our last day (Thursday) to a different beach that was less secluded, with more people around. It was also very, as Mom put it, 'anything goes'...and Dad said it was "rather European:" about half of the beach goers were nude! It was really warm that day; Franny and I even went swimming! Jumping waves in the Mediterranean was the perfect way to end the trip. Although driving to the sea actually seemed like a bad decision at first: Spain takes religious holidays very seriously, because that day was a national holiday for Easter and not a single supermarket, local store, or restaurant seemed to be open! We were planning on a picnic again, but had zero food in the fridge and found out once we were nearly at the beach that it was either the gas station mini-mart or nothing. We decided to just head to the beach, play, then figure something out later for food. We drove down, and right next to the beach were two restaurants, both open. Miraculously, we didn't starve but instead ate gazpacho, fresh fish, and candied eggplant while looking onto the sea... bliss. 

Amazing Andalucia

The White Village of Comares

Comares sits on the top of a mountain

"El Gato," who we adopted for the week

Franny lounging by our pool

View from Comares

Comares

Another view of beautiful Comares

Spending last week in Andalucia, Spain still feels like a dream. We rented a villa on a mountain near Comares, an old "white village," where it was like stepping back in time. We had decided that we wanted to do something different than a city break, and have some more time at the beach and on the trails, which was exactly what this week was. We shared our time between hiking the hills around our villa, wandering the old village streets, spending a few days at the Coast, an urban day in Granada, and just hanging out by the pool. We had fires and played games at night and enjoyed the sun during the days. I made flan!

Our simple villa kitchen 

Day hike through the olive groves

Old stone fortresses

My flower girl

Kids by cacti

Road trip to Antiquerra

The blue skies of Andalucia

We had an amazing time exploring some of the smaller villages, checking out Granada, and hanging out at the Costa del Sol. It was just such a different atmosphere to the UK, and we all had fun practicing our Spanish and seeing new sights.