Author: Katy Mayert

A month since I’ve written! How time flies.  The days are busy with our two active boys and our growing baby who is now starting to snake her way round the house.  Dave and I are both being kept on our toes. We had two minor accidents last week which were a good reality check.  Today there was a “hair” mishap – apparently when you are a ‘knight’, you need short hair. Fortunately there were no trips to the hospital…

I wanted to point out that if you are reading this blog, for some reason it reads much better via the actual site www.davidmayert.com.  We try to place the pictures near relevant text but it doesn’t display this way in email format.  Just an FYI!

To the Dordogne…

My adventures over the years have led me to France on numerous occasions.   I am drawn to this country.

I visited several times as a child with my British parents – we did a yearly trip to visit their own parents and family in England and it occasionally included a little French vacation.  When I was five, we lived in England for 6 months (I went to school and came out with a cute little English accent recorded by my parents on cassette tape).  On this particular trip, we also enjoyed a month of travelling around France.

When I was 12, we travelled around France again and brought with us my good family friend, Amy, from Vancouver Island.  I distinctly remember one of our days on this visit – staying in an actual ‘chateaux’ where we slept in antique four-posted beds and for dinner we ate delicious crispy haricots vert (green beens).

Later I explored France on my solo travels.   My first French experience alone was during my university summer holidays.  After an attempted stint as an Au Pair in Italy (which was cut short – long story), I was stuck for something to do so I headed by train from Lake Como to the south of France to visit mum’s cousin.  There I tried to find work but unfortunately my French wasn’t quite up to local employment status so after a few weeks of enjoying the area, I headed back to England and found a job there in a local Cornwall pub.

After university, I found myself pursuing my singing career in London, England.  From there, travel to anywhere in Europe was easy.  A weekend in France wasn’t that uncommon.  Pretty amazing to have all of Europe at your fingertips. The next trip I remember was going to meet up with mum and dad, the Robinson’s and some of their friends at a beautiful French farmhouse called “Le Pigeonniers” in the south of France.  I remember thinking I’d died and gone to heaven (especially coming from my shared 2 bedroom London flat – between five). The beautiful stone house, shimmering blue pool, amazing food on the terrace (especially enjoyed the tomato salads), beautiful countryside, delicious Rose wine and lots of good chat and laughter.

For my next French adventure, cousin Tessa from Vancouver came to meet me in the South of France (Nice).  We had made plans to explore the Cote D’Azur together by ‘bike’.  We found a rental agency who gave us two bikes at a reasonable price (heavy bikes, no panniers and mechanically un-sound) and we set off on our “adventure”.  Without much touring experience, and with limited funds, the trip was minimally planned.  Our goal was to ride in the morning, stop at a beach for a picnic lunch, glass of wine, mediterranean swim, a snooze and then ride a bit more and find ourselves somewhere to stay for the night – preferably with a pool.  We had 6 days. Apart from being sent off the main autoroute by the police on day one (no bikes allowed!), our first few days went fairly well and we managed about 60km each day.  Being the month of May, we thought booking accommodation was unnecessary.  This would have been the case if we hadn’t unknowingly chosen a “holiday” weekend.  On about day four, we arrived in the glamorous city of St. Tropez at 6pm with nowhere to stay! We ventured on only to find that every hotel in the vicinity was fully booked.  At 9pm we found ourselves in a restaurant trying to work out what to do and I daresay, with a few tears rolling down our cheeks.  The restaurant owners took pity on us and eventually sent us to the local church. The priest at the church kindly offered us a caravan to sleep in on the property (no bedding/shower/water/toilet etc.) for the night.  Squatters had definitely been there before us.  Needless to say we were both up and on our bikes by 6am the next day after a few hours of restless, cold sleep and we headed out of town.  Despite some definite hairy moments, this was an adventure to remember!

The next French travel chapter in my life began when I met Dave.  We were both equally excited to learn that one of our major passions was ‘travel’.  Within six months of meeting, we were headed off to Europe for 6 weeks during Dave’s school summer holidays.  As always I was drawn to France and he enthusiastically agreed to feature this country on our first adventure together.  From Paris to the Loire valley to Orange, Aix en Provence, Nice and surrounding areas.  Together we spoke French, we ate French food, drank French wine, observed the French ways, took in some French culture (Dave’s first opera experience was at the grand amphitheatre in Orange watching Roberto Alagno sing Pagliacci!), explored chateau’s, gardens, vineyards, beaches, cafes, restaurants, churches, cathedrals, old French farmhouses, and so much more.  France definitely helped bring us together and a year later, we were getting married in mum and dad’s English garden.

So young! Our first visit to France together.

Of course when Nick was born, where else to take him on his first travel adventure other than France. At 14 months old, Nick had shared some of our favourite French experiences with us.  Among many a wonderful memory will always be our week long stay with mum and dad in Villefranche-Sur-Mer (on the Cote D’Azur).  A two bedroom apartment at the top of the old village overlooking the town and the crystal blue mediterranean sea.  We floated in the salty mediterranean sea daily and enjoyed drinks by the boats on the sea front nightly.  Nick charmed all the locals and we enjoyed watching him grow through these experiences.

This brings us to now.  A little late on providing Matt with his first French experience maybe and perhaps a little early for Olivia’s, but here we are.  You have read a little about our first month in France exploring Biarritz and the surrounding Basque region.  This was all very new to me and quite different from any of my previous French experiences.  In fact so much so that I felt I was learning a whole new France! We had fun exploring and getting to know the area.  The Atlantic coast was quite spectacular with it’s roaring ocean and rugged shores.  I will miss my daily walks along the 5km promenade.

We are now in La Dordogne just a few minutes away from the Dordogne river.  I feel much more at home.  This is the France I know and have come to love.  The countryside is beautiful.  We are surrounded by luscious shades of green.  We are staying in a beautifully renovated stone farmhouse.  As I sit here at the large kitchen table, I can see the sun shining through the trees onto the terrace.  The pool is glistening blue.  The birds are chirping.  There are salamanders crawling over the warm stone walls.  The garden is on about 4 levels and the boys have had a great time exploring the grounds.  They have turned it into their own little chateaux with lookouts and battle grounds (hence the ‘knight’ haircut).  We hear the local church bell ring at 7am, 12pm and 7pm daily.  Someone actually climbs to the top of a ladder to ring them three times a day (and an extra ring on Sunday).  There are 200 inhabitants in this village and nothing but a church and many beautiful old stone farmhouses to see.

A few days ago we took the boys to their first real Chateaux.  Chateaux de Beynac.  What a grand fortress.  The boys were in awe.  Two moats to protect the castle.  A dungeaon.  A church.  A guards room.  Huge stone fireplaces to heat the rooms.  A big cooking pot.  Swords, shields and crossbows.  Knights in armour.  Chandeliers.  Meat hooks hanging from the ceiling.  Long dining tables.  Lookout towers and gun windows.  Winding staircases.  All at the very top of the village of Beynac.  The view was magnificent.  Overlooking the Dordogne river valley, surrounding fields and two other castles.   Looking down, the cars and people were miniatures.  We were on the edge of a cliff  hundreds of feet high.

There are several different outdoor markets to choose from in our surrounding villages/towns every day.  We have tried Confit de Canard, Foie Gras, Haricots Vert (just as good as I remember), Sarlat potatoes, Chocolate mousse, Tarte au citron, provencal rose, Bold Bordeaux red wine, heirloom tomatoes, goats cheese, aged cheddars, olives, olive tapenade and we enjoy a fresh baguette every day.  We’re pretty excited to have 3 more weeks to continue to explore the castles, markets, villages and towns of this region.

We are pretty excited to welcome cousin Jenny, Mike and Isaac who arrive today.  It will be lovely to have friends to share this place with.

This is the France I love.  So much history.  So many people and so much life has gone before us.  Love exploring it. Let’s hope the sun continues to shine…

We have arrived in Biarritz, France.   A picturesque surfing town.  We were told on arrival that we would likely experience all 4 seasons in one day! C’ést vrai…

Our 2 bedroom apartment is just a 5 minute walk from the “Grande Plage”.  Today, the kids learned the word ‘beach’ in French: “plage”.  We will try to learn one French word every day.

The Grande Plage has enormous waves.  We have seen some top notch surfing, in fact the first day a surfing contest was taking place.  We have watched for hours from the sand but unfortunately the waves are much too big for the kids to even paddle in…

So on Wednesday morning, we decided to venture over a little further.  The kids were desperate to swim and boogie board. We packed up our two-wheeled shopping cart, 2 boogie boards, a surf board, 3 wetsuits, 2 skate boards, helmets, pads, some beach mats, beach pails and shovels, towels and a picnic lunch and we headed over to a beach called “Port Vieux” on foot.  We had read that this beach is often protected from wind and waves. We didn’t bother to check the weather.  The sun was out and there were only a few clouds in the sky.  There was a light breeze in the air.  We wore shorts and lathered ourselves in sunscreen.

We made our way down to the promenade starting at the Grande Plage.  Our load was heavy.  As we walked, we began to notice more than a ‘light breeze’.  The waves were crashing against the shore.  The beaches were empty.  Most walkers were wearing parkas.

Spirits still high, we ventured on.  15 minutes into our heavily laden walk, Matt declared sore feet.  Sure enough he had a blisters on both.  His shoes are officially too small.  To continue on or to turn back – that was the question.  The shoes were removed and we ventured on – barefoot.  Stunning views.  Amazing architecture.  A gothic church.  An old fishing port.  A statue of the virgin on the cliff.  Sun still shining.  Winds picking up slightly.  Huge waves. The ocean is powerful.  We could watch it for hours.

45 minutes later, we made it to our beach! We climbed down several flights of stairs with our heavy load and headed into the middle of the empty, clean and beautifully swept, beach.  Not a soul to be seen.  The wind was howling.  The waves were crashing against the shore.  The sand was whipping against our faces. We had to yell to be heard.  “Time for a picnic anyone?”

It may not have been protected but it was all ours.  We devoured our picnic of French bread, brie, saucisson and apple.  The boys dug in the sand.  Olivia gulped down a bottle.  And we gazed out to sea…

As we allowed our minds to drift into the big unknown, we slowly began to notice the ocean filling up with people. One by one, emerging out from rock cliff behind us, were men and women in bathing suits, swim caps and some had flippers.  They tottered down to the beach, walked into the ocean (it’s almost as cold as Tofino FYI!), and began to swim (or as Dave noticed, many were just floating/bobbing in one place).  (Today, on my walk, I returned to this beach to discover a private swim club built into the cliff.  It even had change rooms and showers.  There was a group of young kids (probably 8-10 year olds) doing beach drills with their coach as the lifeguards prepared their rescue surf boards.   The kids were apparently headed into the wild, roaring ocean for some boogie board fun.  They must be such incredibly strong swimmers.  The waves were crashing against the rock walls and the swell was coming way up the beach.  My boys are most definitely not ready for this!)

Back to our walk… A promise of ice cream helped the boys get back to the Grande Plage.  Turns out that this was the protected beach of the day and so we settled into another couple hours of beach play, boogie boarding (short lived), surfing and sand play.

That night Dave and I both collapsed on the sofa with a nice cold glass of Rosé…

As our time in Sevilla comes to an end, we can honestly say we have had some great experiences and really enjoyed our time in Spain (despite the unusually rainy weather we experienced).  We wrote about some of them in an earlier post Sightseeing in Sevilla. Here is a little summary of some final impressions of Seville from the both of us:

• Seville is a very social city and at the same time Seville is a very child/family friendly city.  Every restaurant/cafe/bar etc welcomes children and so often there is a playground nearby for children to play while adults socialize. We have been lucky with this!

• It is important to have a very solid/strong stroller for travelling along the cobbled streets.  Babies enjoy very bumpy rides here. It often put Olivia to sleep, but it is taking a toll on our poor old stroller.
• It seems we have been very unlucky with the weather (apparently this is unusual for this time of year).  Lots of rain which means lots of umbrellas on the streets!  Everyone is ready to quickly pull out the umbrella when the sudden downpours occur.
• Most women have long hair here (we’ve seen very few short haircuts).
• There is very little craft beer here – if you order a beer (un cerveza por favor or uno canas) you automatically get a light pilsner called CruzCampo.  Everyone drinks the same beer and it often costs less than bottled water.  They seem to have a monopoly! If you find other types of beer, it’s usually very expensive. Dave tried a couple craft beers here and there, but they were hard to find. The best he sampled came from a brewery out of northern Spain called DouGalls who had some decent pale and amber ales. The Andalusian craft beers available on tap all seemed to be lagers.
• Apparently it is so hot here during the summer that everyone goes inside from 1-9pm (for siesta and the air conditioning).  Everyone then comes outside to play and socialize at 9pm (kids included!).  Makes sense in the summer but pretty strange for us at this time of year, and hard to adjust to with three young kids.
• Our favoritelocal foods have included: Churros con chocolate, salted almonds soaked in olive oil, rustico loaves of bread – x3 for 90 cents – (bought fresh/warm in the morning), manchego cheese, Iberian ham, paella (meat or fish), Solomillo al Whisky (pork in whisky), large sweet strawberries, oranges, carrots, Calamari, Salted cod (We have not figured out how to cook the salted fish – Katy tried and it was VERY salty), cola del toro (bulls tail), large fresh shrimp (gambas).  Here’s Dave’s first delicious attempt at a seafood (calamari and shrimp) Paella (yum!)

• There seems to be a beautiful church on almost every street corner and they are frequented daily and are welcoming to the public.  Religion is a big part of the community here.  Young and old attend and seem very committed to their local church. It was great to see each church in preparation for Semana Santa. Last Sunday, we noticed a very large number of people entering and exiting the church next to our apartment.  There was a constant flow all afternoon.  Curiosity finally took the better of us and we decided to follow the crowd in.  We stood in awe as we gazed upon four “pasos” that were beautiful carved and decorated in golds and silvers, with statues of Jesus and the Macarena on top. We also witnessed one of the bands that accompany the procession perform at  the square. It was a lot like our pipe bands but with trumpets instead of bag pipes.

• The other religion here seems to be football. There are two teams in La Liga in Seville: FC Sevilla and FC Betis. Betis seems to be the most popular, especially in our neighbourhood, but FC Sevilla seems to be more successful. Nick and I were lucky enough to catch a match between Sevilla FC and Valencia FC. We were unable to get 4 or even 3 tickets together (in a stadium of 42,700 seats), which is unfortunate because Katy, and hopefully Matt, would have really enjoyed it. It also became apparent that infants were not really welcome in the stadium. We got there early, bought our scarf to support Sevilla and had a hotdog lunch. The game started with the entire crowd standing and singing the team song and it seemed many fans didn’t sit down the rest of the game.
• The game ended in a 2-0 loss, but Seville went on to win last week in Champions league play against Manchester United and their birth in the quarter finals has the city excited. Our trip ended with Nick asking for a soccer ball, which I happily obliged. There have been daily games of street soccer with Matt ever since.
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• Construction is constant here.  The outside of buildings seems to be kept intact and the inside is often gutted.  So much cement is being made at each site.  It looks like very complicated work – the workers seem to always be ‘patching’.
• Flamenco dance is a major art form here.  The flamenco dance performance we saw was truly wonderful at the Flamenco Museo.  Intimate theatre environment, stunning dresses, incredible dancers (male and female) – such intensity and strength in their performance. We didn’t realize they did so much percussion with their feet/shoes! They aren’t tap shoes but they are specific Flamenco shoes (a bit like character shoes) and they play incredible quick and wonderful rhythms with their feet.   The flamenco guitar playing is also beautiful – classical intricate finger plucking – it really guides the whole structure for the dance and voice.  The voices seems a bit less classical trained – it’s very speech like/story telling.  Lots of moving chromatic melismatic lines – and contrasting dynamics.  Perhaps reflecting the emotion of the story or the characters dancing? Even when not singing, they are always calling out throughout the performance (we wondered what they were shouting!)
• Flamenco dresses.  Every other shop here seems to have beautiful flamenco dresses.  Mixes of so many different colours and patterns. There are also beautiful tasseled shawls of all different colors and floral patterns.  I was in a department store this week that had a new stunning display of silk flowers for the hair set-up (I’m wondering if it was for Semana Santa or the April Feria?).

• Not to mention the children’s clothes for first communion…
  

  

  
• We had lovely visits from Peter, Will, Maria and three B-R aunties (Jane, Sue and Annie)!  Thank you for coming and sharing our Spanish experience with us.  It was SO lovely to see you all:)

• The Seville Communion was our other travel read for Seville. It put you right into the setting of Seville and gave you a feel for the city including the importance of the church, bullfighting, flamenco, the former nobility, Santa Cruz, Triana and the tapas culture. It was a good read before our visit.

Our next instalment will be from sunny (hopefully) Marrakesh, Morocco!

Last Sunday, we headed out for our usual morning walk and noticed a large group of people gathering just outside our apartment.  Curiosity took us closer and we noticed a number of Spanish men (of very similar build, height and age and all wearing white undershirts) helping each other fasten something on their heads.  It looked like this:

We walked a little further and noticed a big wooden structure loaded on top with blocks of heavy cement.  Underneath the structure looked like more than 30 men huddled together in a crouched position preparing for something (see picture below)? An older gentleman (leader) suddenly shouted something and then the men grunted and jumped up onto their tiptoes lifting the structure up before gently settling it onto the back ‘roll’ of their headpieces.  The men then slowly began to shuffle their feet in unison – at first rocking back and forth – then inching forwarded.  When they came to a corner they rocked back and forth again in unison slowly turning each time they rocked.

We found out that this is called a “pasos” (float) and is carried by 24 to 54 men during the Semana Santa procession.  And here’s a little video of the men lifting the pasos up in rehearsal.

It turns out we happened upon a ‘rehearsal’ for the big Semana Santa (holy week).  This year it is March 25th to April 1st and it starts soon after we leave Seville.  Originally we had hoped to be in town for it but all the accommodation (including our apartment) was more than double the price and apparently it is a VERY busy week in the city so we decided it probably wasn’t worth it with our entourage.

As we continued our walk, we happened upon a number of other rehearsals throughout the city.  There are apparently over 70 ‘brotherhoods’ who will have one to three (very heavy) ‘pasos’ that will be carried through the streets of Seville during the week of Semana Santa.

Each float will go from its own church to the Seville Cathedral and back home again. Some can take up to 14 hours.

These images show what some of the floats look like.  The men we saw rehearsing are hidden under the float that is beautifully carved and is dressed in flowers, candles and fabric.  There are hundreds of other people in the procession as well as thousands of people watching from the streets. This is taken from Wikipedia to explain what Semana Santa is: ” It is celebrated in the week leading up to Easter (Holy Week among Christians), and features the procession of pasos, floats of lifelike wooden sculptures of individual scenes of sorrowfull Mysteries of the Rosary, or images of the grieving Virgin Mary.”

Some processions are silent while others have a music accompanying them (in the form of a brass quartet, trumpets and drum, brass band or accapella choir).

La Catedral

La Giralda and La Catedral in the background

On one of our very first walks to the Cathedral back in February, we passed through the Plaza Nuevo.  We noticed a large amount of scaffolding type materials leaning up against the wall of the city hall.  At first we wondered if maybe they were preparing for a concert in the square?  As it turns out, they were actually preparing for La Semana Santa (1 month before)!  We walk through this plaza most days now and they are busy every time we pass through setting up the stands – a carpeted viewing area as the pasos arrive to the cathedra for this massive week long celebration.  There are many workers involved in setting it up and they have been at it for 3 weeks already! In the image below you can see 2 cars parked – this is where the procession will pass through.

Something else that has taken us a bit by surprise – but we have come to notice all over Seville – is this ‘head dress’ – it is called the “Capirotes” (tall pointed hoods with eye holes).

This is a widely celebrated image in Spain.  We have seen both young and old trying on their Capirotes in shops in preparation for the Semana Santa week.  It will be worn as a sign of mourning for Christ.  It will then be removed in jubilation when he is resurrected.  This image can also be found in most souvenir shops – in the form of dolls, candy lollipops, cakes, costume etc.

We feel privileged to have witnessed some of the Semana Santa preparations.  It has been very interesting for us all to see how passionate and dedicated the Spanish people are to their religion.  There is a sense of belonging.  Of community.  The boys have asked many great questions which we have done our best to answer.

After we witnessed the ‘rehearsal’ last Sunday, we later found all these same men filling the bars socializing and having a good time together with their families!  They are really good at enjoying life here in Spain.

Our first visitors arrived this week and it was lovely.

When we began planning this trip, we really wanted to find a way to visit some of the many friends and family we have dotted around Europe and the UK.  As a family of five now however, we weren’t too sure how people would feel about us showing up on their doorstep. We are ‘busy’.  After many different planning sessions, we decided that the simplest way was just to book our own itinerary and then spread the word and hope that friends and family come and find us wherever we are.

I have lots of family in the UK still thanks to my British ancestry.  I also lived and worked in London for five years and some of my colleagues and friends are still living in London and other parts of England as well as Berlin, Copenhagen and Amsterdam.

So…we spread the word! And to our wonderful surprise, a few friends and family actually booked.  (And I’m still hopeful others might book last minute?! hint hint;)

The first stroke of luck was that cousin William proposed to his lovely Maria from Jerez a few months back and they have decided to move to Seville this month.  What are the chances!

William and Maria are busy searching for a home and work in Seville.  A very busy and exciting time for them. We enjoyed tapas and drinks with them on their first night here.  It was extra nice to have Maria help translate and interpret for us. We had many questions for her about life in Spain and she was kind enough to listen.  We are still trying to work out the very different time schedule here so we asked Maria.  From what we can fathom out, it seems to look something like this:

• 9am – shops open
• 2pm – shops close & tapasbars are open (and busy!)
• 5pm – shops re-open & tapasbars close
• 630pm – tapas bars re-open
• 830pm – restaurants open for dinner

The part of the day we’re struggling most with is early evening.  At home, 530pm is ‘pub’ time in our house. The bar is open and we enjoy a tradition of a drink with the kids.  This is a special time for us.  Dave gets home from work and instead of rushing straight into dinner/bed routine, we enjoy 45minutes together as a family.  We head to a different space in the house – our music room/pub so it feels “new”. We catch up.  We chat about our day.  We hear each other’s stories. We listen to some music.  Sometimes we play music together.  The kids climb all over us. They usually go a bit wild and then we know it’s time to quickly get dinner on the table…

Wine/Tapas at 4pm – playground for kids:)

As you can probably guess from the schedule, 5:30pm here in Seville is VERY quiet. We can’t find anywhere open for our ‘pub’ time so instead, we settle for our own tapas creations at home.  The tapas bars are open and full of life from 2pm – 5pm but everyone disappears around 5pm for siesta time!  We have tried many times to find somewhere to pop into early evening and everywhere is empty.

We have yet to attempt to go out for dinner as it means heading out of the apartment after 8pm and that just seems crazy with our entourage!?  Dave has ventured out after the kids are in bed a couple times and he has returned to tell me that the city is truly buzzing with people after 9pm.  We continue to hear it through the night from our apartment windows.

Our second visitor, was my long time friend and singing colleague Peter, from London.  Some of you might also remember Peter from the 2nd annual Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular (2008). What a joy it was (as he would say) to meet up in this beautiful city.  It was great to have some English speaking companionship and I loved hearing the British sarcasm again. We had a great time reminiscing about singing together and the fun we had while I lived in London. The boys also enjoyed getting to know Peter and by the second morning, they were waking him up and climbing into bed with him for morning snuggles.  He kept us well entertained for three days and we will miss his enthusiasm, energy, passion for delicious Spanish treats, ‘reason for everything’ and company!  We definitely need to eat salad tonight though…

We took Peter back to some of our favourite Seville landmarks and we also explored some new areas.  We especially enjoyed the experience of purchasing traditional sweets  called Yemas from the nuns at the San Leandro convent through the secret door.  The nuns aren’t allowed to be seen, so civilians leave money in the revolving door and this is exchanged for special homemade sweets (individually wrapped in a fancy box).  They are made of egg yolks and taste extremely sweet – too sweet even for Dave and Nick which is saying alot;)

It was lovely hearing Peter singing and humming most of the time he was with us and it really got me thinking I should start practicing my own singing again.  I’ve had a bit of a hiatus while having children but singing and music were such a big part of my life for so long – it would be great to get back at it! It was so nice to hear Peter’s beautiful baritone voice echoing through our apartment with an array of ditties: arias, Spanish songs, oratorio, pop tunes…you name it.  I found these pictures today – a trip down memory lane of Thursford when Peter and I sang together back in 2004. Who would have thought I’d ever be paid to sing dressed as a sunflower!?

“It’s a Small World”

Abba medley

Peter and I also got to enjoy the Calle Aire Ancient Baths.  My hydrospa tradition at Kingfisher didn’t work out this year after the Christmas show so Dave promised me a spa day in Spain instead (amazing!). He hung out with the three kids for the afternoon while Peter and I lounged in luxurious spa baths and drank champagne.  What a treat! Just what I needed after a few sleepless newborn nights, lots of walking and playing tourist and lots of child management.  Thank you Dave!

Today, Dave and I breathed a sigh of relief as we opened the door to our apartment at the end of our 5th full day as tourists in the centre of Seville.  In unison and with a gentle smile on our faces, we both cried “this is exhausting”!

We then took a brief moment alone to discuss how “exhausting” it is parenting our two busy boys while playing tourists in a foreign country.  Today I was a safety guard, peace keeper, translator, teacher, counsellor, police, mentor, tour guide, first aider, mother and wife.  It was “exhausting”.  It was also amazing of course…

“Boys: we need to have a chat…”

After a couple of punches were thrown between the boys during our cherished ‘quiet’ time late this afternoon, we realized we needed to take some time to chat with the boys about how different our life is here in Seville compared to home.  It was good to talk.  We all needed it.  We talked about how no one is going to school right now.  No one is going to work.  No one is going to the gym.  We have no garden to play in. We have none of our toys here.  We have no friends here and we have no grandparents to play with (we miss you guys!). We are with each other 24 hours a day.  We are experiencing so many wonderful new things together but it is pretty intense and it is pretty tiring (jet lag isn’t helping either I’m sure).

Our days look quite different in Seville.  We start with coffee (of course!) and breakfast in the apartment (usually).

Today however, we tried Churro y chocolate for the first time at a local cafe.  YUM!

We then usually pack sandwiches, baby bottles, diapers, water, snacks, blankets, soothers, rain coats and our wallets all into our tiny travel stroller and we head out into the city. Usually in time for Olivia’s first stroller nap. The apartment location is fantastic and is walking distance to most monuments.  We stroll into the city down several tiny cobbled streets, past some familiar little shops before we arrive at the “mushrooms”.

Bey Blade battle zone

https://en.adrianohotel.com/the-mushrooms-of-seville-metropol-parasol

Resting

The boys have come to LOVE the mushrooms.  I think they actually just like knowing where we are.  Some familiarity.  Some routine.  It also means they get to ‘bey blade’.  I should point out that we have had some serious ‘bey blade battles’ outside many of Seville’s most famous landmarks.  Dave and I usually try to find somewhere for coffee near the mushrooms so that the boys can “battle” and we can enjoy a few minutes of peace.  Something for everyone:)

From here, we carry on down one of the touristy pedestrian shopping streets to Plaza Nuevo where we either walk further to a monument or we hop on the tram.  We have chosen one monument a day.  We spend ample time wandering through, pausing for bey blade battles, for running races, short history or language lessons, a picnic and usually a bottle and diaper change for Olivia.  We end up back at the apartment by about 4pm where we try to enjoy some much needed quiet/alone time.

So far we have seen the Arco de la Macarena, Muralla Almohade, Plaza de toros (closed for an event), Plaza d’Espagne & Maria Luisa Park, the Real Alcazar (setting for Dorn in the Game of Thrones) and the stunning grand Seville Cathedral.  We still have a long list of things to see but we’ve already seen some pretty cool stuff!

I hear myself repeating a variety of the below statements throughout our outings:

1. Don’t push
2. You lead
3. Hands to yourself
4. Don’t step on his heels
5. Get off my feet
6. Hold my hand
7. Hold onto the stroller
8. Don’t grab my sunglasses
9. Watch where you’re going!
10. STOP!
11. This way…
12. Don’t walk backwards
13. Now is not the time to ‘bey blade’
14. No we can’t buy that

After quiet time is when the day becomes a bit different from home.  Instead of winding the kids down with dinner and our bedtime routine, we prepare to head out into the city again. We do a promenade and people watch and then follow this with a drink and a tapas or two.  Sometimes to our wonderful local market (Calle Feria) and sometimes to the Plaza de la Alameda de Hercules.  A small beer is about 1.2 Euro and a red wine is 2 Euro.  A tapas is about 3.5 Euros (tonight’s tapas was braised pork cheeks and tequila soaked onions on some frites).   It also came with olives and bread and we only spent about $11CAD in total – actually felt like a small meal for us all. The boys had a playground to enjoy nearby and Olivia had her 3rd nap of the day (something we’d NEVER allow at home for fear it would prevent sleep at night!).

We were home by about 8pm where we enjoyed a light dinner together and some playtime before stories and bed. (check out Dave’s latest blog if you want to know what story was requested again by the boys tonight…there were many questions!). On our way home, we went past the local market to see if it was going to open again later and sure enough, it was just re-opening. Round two! Alas (and perhaps fortunately), with young children, we will rarely experience this part of the Spanish day.  We hope to try it once or twice though and will no doubt have to deal with the consequences the following day.  (Maybe when the aunties are here? or perhaps Mr Willcock!?).  We had always heard that life really gets going in the evenings in Spain but didn’t really believe it.  It’s true – kids and all.

On that note…it’s bed time for me.  On top of all this ‘exhaustion’, we still have a newborn who wakes up several times a night and I really need to try to catch up on some much needed sleep!

After a gruelling 18 hours of travel, we have arrived!  3 flights, several hours of airport hanging, a tram, a bus and two taxis later…

Juan Antonio greeted us on the street outside our apartment.  He led us up 4 flights of stairs and into our new home.  Marble floors. 10′ ceilings.  A rooftop, geranium filled, sunny terrace overlooking the city of Seville.  A view of the highest cathedral steeple. Windows with inside shutters.  A spiral staircase.  A second floor 14′ dome ceiling framed with rafters and several lookout dome windows.

First impressions: “boys, did you know that you are staying in what used to be a castle?”  Let’s just say the look on Nick’s face said it all:)

We can hear the hustle and bustle of working people going about their daily routines.  We can hear the hoots and hollers from the many cafe bars throughout the day (and the night!).  We are in a very large city and it feels very different from home.

Olivia and I rose early (yawn) on our first official day in Spain and we went out to explore the city while the boys slept in. These are some of my first impressions:

• Parents pushing empty strollers moving quickly through the streets (perhaps heading to work after walking their kids to school/daycare?)
• Everyone bundled up in scarves and down jackets (it was about 10 degrees celsius this morning – winter!)
• Delivery vans blocking the narrow cobbled streets.
• The local market slowly beginning to bustle (fish, smoked, cured and salted meats, cheese and more cheese, olives, churros, fruit, vegetables, fresh bread, tapas, flowers…)
• We were told that the market price was the same, or less, than the grocery stores.
• Every other shop seems to be a cafe bar here.  Coffee in the morning and beer/wine and tapas in the afternoon and evenings.  Ingenious!
• Dog poo on the cobbled sidewalks.
• No grass to be seen but the streets are lined with orange trees.
• Extraordinary architecture – decorative motifs on every rooftop
• Many people still smoke here – especially women
• Playgrounds in the middle of the piazza’s – and several cafe-bar seating areas right next to them for the parents and all their extended families!

Tapas Bar & playground behind

This morning I placed my first market order – Diez fresa (10 of the biggest, juiciest strawberries I’ve ever seen) and cuatro naranja (4 oranges). Dos euro todo (2 euros).  Dos baguetinas – still warm from the oven.

I did not do my Spanish homework before this trip.  I have a good grasp of French and I have some very basic Italian – my Spanish comes out in a combination of all three (French, Italian and English) shall we say FrItaGlish? Frustrating.  I have set myself the task of learning several Spanish phrases and new words every day.

Today Nick learned the word “castillo” – castle.  We all drew and wrote about our first impressions this afternoon.  Nick drew a castle after our visit to the “murallo de la Macarena” (see image below from his journal).

Castillo (we saw the “Muralla almohade de Sevilla” today)

We are all adjusting.  Change, new and the unknown is always a challenge – more challenging for some of us than others.  We are negotiating and we will continue to negotiate.  This was only day one… we have 25 more days here to work it out and to adjust!

Just over four years ago, Dave and I decided to join his employer’s salary deferral program.  We had our sights set on a “family adventure” of some kind.  The day has finally arrived and our adventure begins…

We chose Europe. We have four months.

I work from home and as a family we enjoy a comfortable routine of work, school, activity, a busy social life and the great outdoors.  We enjoy spending time together exploring and experiencing life.  We laugh, we cry, we share, we negotiate and we compromise.  Not every day is easy but we try to never go to bed sad or angry and we wake up to a family breakfast together in the morning.  We find time to chat.  We find time without screens.  Some days are good, and some days we could do better.  We are constantly reminded that we are lucky to be here and lucky to have each other.

So it is with great trepidation and great excitement that we embark on this next journey together.  We have much to see, much to learn, much to experience.

Tomorrow, we will lock up our home and familiar life and we will step onto a plane…followed by many more planes and trains, cars, buses and boats.

Our adventure includes an apartment in the centre of a large Spanish city, an all-inclusive resort in an African country, an apartment by the beach in a small French surfing town, a stone farm house in the French countryside and a road trip through Croatia’s old walled towns.

We say goodbye to family and friends.  We say goodbye to school and work. We will miss everyone.  We will miss our routines. We will miss home.

We take with us two suitcases and four small backpacks.  We each have a journal. And we have each other. We venture into the unknown…

Tomorrow we wake up here in an apartment in the centre of Seville, Spain. For our first month, we will immerse ourselves into Spanish life.  We will try new food, we will attempt to speak a new language, we will meet new people, we will live in a new home and we will explore a new culture… let the adventure begin!