Sevilla!!!

Seville won our hearts with its culture, history, gastronomy, weather, street life, citizenry ...

Here is Seb's proposed schedule for one of the days:

Never met a caleche horse they didn't want to stroke

never met a play structure that they won't climb

The spectacular cathedral had a great kids audio-guide (any kind is a big hit with ours)

2 sisterly saints that are patrons of the city

la Giralda - minaret turned Catholic bell tower = gorgeous

the quiet orange grove in the midst of the mosque turned cathedral 

the fanciful parasol in the centre of the shopping district

where I found these singing gentlemen

our fabulous flamenco dancers (there has been some serious toe and heel taping by Sebastian ever since)

Sophie pumping out her vessel at the museum of navigation

the lovely and lively Maria Louisa park

where we took a quadricycle for a spin

suavely checking the guide book

Jerez de la Frontera

Despite all these fun shots and the fabulous lunch we had complete with sherry-tasting, we actually went to this lovely town to see the horses - the royal Andalucian equestrian school to be exact 

My children modelling their holiday clothes purchases - which they seemed to wear for the next 10 days!

The rest of Cadiz

The old walls called this ancient mariner

Sophie didn't see the end of the women's gold medal hockey game but the rest of us did!

Soph admired the knit bombed benches

a whole cluster of them

And after 2 days, off we went with out wheelies in tow

via the dunes of course

where the wind smelt of brine

Down south in Cadiz

Made it to Cadiz – known until now only as stop on the Buccaneers board game and turns out, it is the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in Europe.

The beach and bell tower, the museum where you walk on glass floors over the layers of the city’s history and yes, the tapas were fabulous. Too bad that Sophie’s seriously achey belly kept us relatively close to ‘home’.

First we drove south from Malaga airport, past "The Rock" which intrigued Sebastian

but the sand...

ah the beach

we can dig for ages

but it is the sea that call us

having a good old time

  And what a home it is that we had rented on airbnb!

On to Seville via horses in Jerez de la Frontera next.

Iraty of the Pyrenees

Last weekend, we were fortunate to visit a former colleague of mine from Save the Children days. The first time we met in person, I was 8 months pregnant with Sebastian, the next time she was 8 months pregnant with her first child. And now about a decade later, we all get to meet up in her adopted home of the Pyrenees.

I had the feeling my mountain goats would like to meet this lovely family and sure enough, the kids got on very well and we all enjoyed a terrific hike into the hills. The ponies were the incentive but really the hills and crags took our breath away, plus the local brebis cheese (irate) was delicious.

We were also there to chase the snow and have a family ski day but the weather had been too warm. Instead, we had a lovely drive and managed to find enough snow to snowshoe for 15 mins and have a snowball fight. The latter was ended when one snowball ended up in my eye and knocked my glasses off. Let’s say it was ‘lobbed’ by someone closer to 6’ than 5’…

the brebis milk cans

loving her winter sports

Is it a bird?

My youngster and her youngster

He came fully equipped

Stand out beauty

Kid who loves to climb (and boss people from the top)

So lovely to keep in touch over the years

Just me and my sib

Never fails to lift my heart

Sunny yellow tulips are surely a strong statement of Spring.

Veggie delight

Have to say that my low salt, vegetarian French onion soup was a hit (didn't say it was low fat…)

Thrilled to...

Despite the fall last Fall, she still loves to head to the ponies (and ain't she dapper in her helmet)