Great visit, great company! Part 3 - More Madrid

The final days of Dahveed's visit were spent with him being very understanding that my injured foot needed some rest and going on a trip by himself to Toledo, as well as us spending his last day in Spain in Madrid. (Dahveed's trip to Toledo was plagued by ticket changes, multiple customer service windows, broken shoes, rain, and things he wanted to see being closed. Never the less, he came back from the trip with great things to say about Toledo which I can honestly say I probably couldn't have done myself had I experienced what he did.)

Neither of us had been to El Rastro before, which is Madrid's largest outdoor flea market that happens every Sunday morning and it's HUGE! It is also one of the most known places for pick-pockets in Madrid and Dahveed didn't even complain when I asked him like 50 times if he still had his wallet, iPod, and camera. :)

We found a restaurant to eat lunch at near the La Latina metro and thank you to Mama Zavala for the sponsorship of that lunch, it was a good one!

Later, we tried to go to the Reina Sofia museum but like many things in Spain on Sundays, it was closed. No pasa nada, we ended up relaxing in Retiro park and made it out of there just in time before the rain hit. I'm amazed at how quickly the weather changed here in Spain. One week it was hotter than you know what and two weeks later, it's raining and cold. Overall the visit of Dahveed's to Spain was really good, with many memorable moments, and many patient moments of Dahveed being understanding when I was a little slower than him due to my bum foot. I'm so happy that after talking SO much about how much I love Spain, and HOW wonderful my Spanish family is, he now knows for himself. And I got to experience some of the places in Spain that I hadn't previously been with him!

Great visit, Great company! Part 2 - Villanueva, Oviedo and Luarca

When we got back from our mini road trip, we went to Villanueva so that Dahveed could meet my Spanish parents, Elias and Paquita. It was a great time but I must say that after 3 days of seeing A LOT with Carmen and Edu, I was pretty tired. The intense card game that always happens was a little harder but Dahveed was able to catch on very quickly and did very well! Of course, my Spanish "aunt" More won. :)

On Wednesday we left to the northern part of Spain, first to Oviedo and then to the coastal town of Luarca. Oviedo is a pretty old town in the northern part of Spain and possibly where my Valdez family comes from! It was very cool to be there because another thing that is interesting is that the cathedral there holds the cloth that is thought to have covered Jesus' face in the tomb. It is such a wonderful town and bigger than I thought it would be.

On Thursday we went to Luarca which Dahveed had read great things about in terms of being able to experience the northern coast of Spain. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that Luarca is a small fishing town that has a lot of beauty and is very relaxed. We spent the day there before heading back to Oviedo and I am very happy to be able to have seen the ocean from a part of Spain that I had never been to previously!

Here is a video of a crazy Texan on the beach in Luarca!

Great visit, great company! Part 1 - Paracuellos, Madrid and Road Trip

It has been a little while since I last posted anything and the reason for that is that I've been having a great time with Dahveed doing all kinds of stuff while he was out here visiting. I think right about now he is boarding his plane back to good ol' CO, but I'm happy to report that he now understands my absolute love for Spain. And I know he found a place in his heart for Spain as well!

The visit started with Carmen, Miguel and I waiting at the airport for Dahveed and before he came out of the terminal Miguel was making me laugh by calling "Dahveeeeeeeed!!" to where his mom told him she thought that the whole airport heard him. When he got here, it was my few days taking care of Miguel during the mornings before his regular daycare started up again and I was happy that Dahveed got to see some of what my days have been like with Miguel. Also, he was very generous to bring over plenty of children's books, CDs, and DVDs that he and his mom and his aunt got for Miguelito per my request. Miguel was VERY excited about all the new stuff, needless to say.

One thing that I was also very happy about was that Dahveed got to come with me to my first day back at TKD after the month of August off since the gym closed for vacation. The class was tough but good and I'm really excited to get back into it.

Dahveed and I went to Madrid on Friday and saw many cool things such as the Prado museum, the Palacio Real, Plaza Espana, and Retiro Park. Then the first weekend that he was here, we went on a mini road trip with Carmen and Edu to see Segovia, Avila, Salamanca, and Zamora which are nearby towns. I didn't realize that when we got to Zamora, we were about 60 kilometers from Portugal! Here are some photos:

Some of my favorite moments were seeing an impromt mini concert of this live band near the bottom of the aqueducto in Segovia, running into a very cool Renaissance festival in Avila, trying different tapas in Salamanca, and definitely dinner in an old time bodega that was turned into a restaurant in Zamora. This blog takes FOREVER to upload photos so if you would like to see more, please check out my facebook page.