“Respond to every call that excites your spirit.” – Rumi
We arrived into Granada on a Sunday and already I left on Thursday. But for a good reason, my parents were coming to visit! They’d wanted to see us in London but now there was one little catch – Ezra couldn’t return to the UK unless he wanted to start paying taxes. Because they still wanted to see England they decided to head there first. Ezra stayed in Spain and I met up with them. It was cute to see how excited they were about everything and to hear their stories about what they’d done so far on their own. It was fun to do touristy things and take all the silly quintessential pictures!
We decided to visit Stonehenge and because we are gluttons for punishment we decided to take a tour called “England In A Day.” If that doesn’t tell you something about how tortuously long this day was I don’t know what will. But England we saw.
After Stonehenge and a drive thru the Cottswalds we arrived in Bath. Bath would definitely have been the place I chilled back in the day. I think I was more interested in this than my parents.
I took a little swig of water, which tasted very mineral-like. I guess this is what makes it so special:
More driving up to Stratford on Avon where we saw Shakespear’s birthplace and were rewarded with a strawberry cream scone and champagne. This was much needed before a long drive back. I was tempted to ask for seconds.
After a quick ride in the chunnel we were in Paris and had literally about 48-hours to see as much as we could. We had a very interesting apartment experience which I will recap in my next post. We hit the major attractions, drank a bunch of wine and ran around the Louvre like crazy people so we could make our appointment to go up the Eiffel Tower.
View from the top (well halfway up).
Treats!
It rained a lot.
After Paris the three of us flew over to Spain to reunite with Ez. We were staying in the old part of town, the Albaycin, and wandered around the narrow Moorish crooked streets.
Sierra Nevadas
We spent a day at the Alhambra palace but not before partaking in a nice leisurely lunch and glass or two of wine. We have learned that drinking makes sightseeing significantly more fun.
View from our apartment – not too bad, right?
Lots of great intricate details and carvings.
We drank a bunch of Sangria and have since turned my dad into a wine drinker. As long as the wine is sweet, he will now drink it! Obviously the rest of us never had this problem.
My parents had a flight south out of Malaga so we took off for a weekend by the coast. We took a boat ride that promised free sangria (would we call punch a drink?), walked thru a park listening to noisy parakeets and watched an uncomfortably close Flamenco show. Then mis padres were off – midwest bound.
The smell of orange blossoms abound.
Oh yes, there were more drinks.
After my parents left we briefly returned to Granada. We loved where we were staying, but the cell service was non-existant and we weren’t really fond of the rest of town. Ezra had a trying week or two trying to make it work but as soon as my folks left, so did we. After being further south by the water we completely shifted our focus. The “musts” on our list now resolved around the “Med”, the sun and sleepy relaxed towns. This is how our week in Nerja was born. Which gave us a dose of relaxation and a sense of calm after trying to make work, what previously just wasn’t.
We were just in time for Holy week known as Semana Santa. The music, the crowds and the penance processions were all quite moving. It was hard to see past the hoods at first (which bares no relation to the KKK) but it was hard not to be touched by the outpouring of community.
cultivating joy 