Polas on the Go

San Sebastian

         
  
              

We came to San Sebastian for about a week to relax, explore this beautiful city, eat some pintxos and figure out where we were going to go next!!! 
 

                              

Barcelona

We ended up going to Barcelona about three times for a few days each in between other destinations.  Our time there was a little bit fragmented but we still got to know the city pretty well.

La Sagrada Familia  is well worth the 40 minute wait and not to be missed!

                  
 
                 

                           

Lots of delicious food...

     

We all loved the Montjuic Fountain light show
  
 
 And the zoo was actually really great, too.
 
                                      
 
We spent a lot of our time strolling Las Ramblas  and seeing the Christmas lights and markets from open air buses and the sideawalks.  
 
                           

   
 
   

On one of the last days we motivated to take the train out of town to see the Dali Museum and were so glad we did.  We could easily have spent a lot more time there...

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Sevilla!

Sevilla is still the vibrant, friendly, beautiful city that I remember from when I was there one semester in college… we spent a week touring the Cathedral, playing in Parque Maria Luisa, going to a soccer game and wandering the streets.  The absolute highlight was connecting with the family I lived with almost twenty years ago!   

                         
 
  
 
 

 

 
 
 

 GOALLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ....   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRBiyHTlxYw

Cooking with a Random Grandma in Frigiliana.... By Gavin

  

  

 
 

  

  
 

  

Mom and dad are going to school because they want to improve on their Spanish. Well, Mom said, "Gavin wants to do a cooking class" and  I guess the teacher heard her because he said "Oh you want to do a cooking class" (in Spanish) "si"  Well, the teacher told Mom that his mother in law would do a cooking class for us.  So, Mom told me "Gavin, do you want to have a cooking class with my teacher’s mother in law?  " uhhhhhh... I said.... Sure.” I thought it was going to be in Nerja but it was actually in a town ten minutes away called Frigiliana.  Mom’s teacher met us at the bus and walked us to their house, where we saw the Grandma.   “Hola” I said nervously and then she gave me a big hug... But I didn't even know her.

We went there two times so far. On the first day, we made tortilla de patatas. It is like an egg thing shaped like the inside of a pan with potatoes inside. It is really good. The next day we went there we tried to make two things. Gazpacho and Paella. We don't know how good they tasted because we just made them and are now riding back on the bus! But they look awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG6bsVeaVMw

The grandma has eight kids those kids had 14 kids! So many kids!  The cooking is fun and when I was done I wanted to keep on doing it!  

   

    
 

Nerja.... By Nate

Nerja has a lot of nice places go. You can go to play sports or go to the beach or climb a hill to get exercise that leads to a beach. We have a nice three story apartment. On the first story there is a shared pool, kitchen and a great room to read books. The outdoor patio that leads out to the pool is great for doing art. On the second floor there is a bedroom for me and Gavin, and my parent’s (and Brock) bedroom and another bathroom. On the third floor there is a clothesline and a little shower outside. There is also a bedroom where I sometimes sleep in when it is too noisy downstairs.

And, about the school: It's really nice.  There is a basketball court, a playground, a running track, a slide and a little house. One day, I brought a special basketball and everyone was excited to see it. On other days, I brought different balls like a soccer ball and an American football.   Recess is a really fun part of the day...just like at home!

The teachers really taught us a lot in Spanish. My fourth grade home teacher/music teacher/computer teacher/PE teacher taught us a lot of games and he really helped me learned Spanish.  It was a small class but a really fun class to be with.

Nerja has an awesome beach called Burriana Beach. The beach has a little row of restaurants that you can go to and I have been to most of them. Some are okay and two are really good. When we 
were at the beach one day, we met a family from Ireland. They showed us this restaurant that had a really big surprise when we got our drinks….

 

There are also fun little parks on the beach. The only other park I know of that is not on the beach is the rec center where you play sports. My favorite sports at the rec center are hockey and soccer. The soccer is really fun and I got an award! During hockey it just so happened they had skates my size and I was almost as good as everyone for my first time. And, for soccer, I wasn’t the best but I kept the team from getting crushed.

 

 
Most days for the last two weeks of school we would have a Spanish class. This teacher, named Sophia, would come to our house. She spoke a little bit of English and she would teach us Spanish. One day we asked her what else she did for a job and she said she said she was an artist. Since we love art so much, we asked if we could do some art while we learn Spanish. The next day she came and brought enough paints to last a year and more. She taught us this thing where you get a color liquid, make a drop and the colors smere and it’s really cool. Before we knew it was an “art talking in Spanish class” and we got to learn two things in one class.

 

 I really like Nerja and everything about the town. The school was really fun, I made a lot of friends and learned a lot of Spanish during the six weeks I was there.

ATypical "Day in the Life" in Nerja

We have been in Nerja for just over two weeks now and decided to stay in this small, beach town on the Costa del Sol for awhile.  The town is about 20,000 people but can be 4 to 5 times that in the summer season. We rented a three bedroom place with a shared pool that is a couple blocks from both the beach and the local school in the "Old Town" where Nate and Gavin are going.  It's  a gorgeous town right on the water with lots of winding streets and cobblestone roads.  You can walk across town in about 20 minutes. 

 
  

     
 
 
A Typical “Day in the life” in Nerja

· 8:00 AM Get up, hunt for uniform shirts and feed the kids

· 9:00 Walk Kids 6 minutes to their little Catholic school (Tablazo). I can hear the collective moans of Liz’s ancestors whenever the boys sing “Jesus Cristo esta Viva en mi Corazon"

  

 
 
 
 
 
 


· 9:20 Exercise - usually a run to the beach

· 10:00- A quick swim in the pool at our place

· 10-11-Liz and Mike do some work-try to figure out this blogging business, plan next legs of trip (Cruise with Weezie to Eastern Meditteranean for Liz’s 40th November 23rd-Wahoo!)

· 11:00 Grab café con leche and pastry-effectively eliminating all benefit of previous hour of activity

· 12:30 Mike, Liz and Brock go to lunch at one of the local Tapas places ("La Cunaos" being one of the favorites).

 

· 2:00 PM-Pick up kids from school

· 2:30 PM-Walk home with kids and pick up fresh fruit or pastries from local stores

· 3:00PM-Liz makes lunch for the kids –pasta or tortilla Espanola (egg/potato omelet), fruit etc.

· 3:30 PM-Kids do homework-mostly Nate. Gavin reads.

· 5:00 PM-Swim in pool or head down to the beach

 

· 5-7 PM-swim in surf, play paddle tennis, collect rocks, play volleyball, body surf

         
         

· 7-7:10 PM-shower off and head home from Playa Burriana…about 10 minutes up a path and around the corner.  

· 8PM-Dinner-either at Beach restaurant or back in town (usually 4 nights out and 3 nights eating at home). Dinners at home followed by walks into town for ice cream. (Are you picking up on the ‘eating’ theme?)

· 9:30PM-Play games-Dominos (slapping dem Bones baby!), Yahtzee etc.

· 10:30 PM-Kids off to bed to read (me love dat iPad, you betcha)

· 11:00 Bed

 

Granada

  

  

 
 
 
   
  

Granada is spectacular. Just gorgeous. The town is lively and the people are strikingly friendly; especially on contrast to alicante.  We were going to take a bus from alicante to Granada and then decided to rent a car for the month instead.  We picked it up at the train staion and drove it back to our apartment on calle rafael torress HOPING all of our stuff would fit. It barely did and we were off to Granada leaving behind "Shelley" from Maria Bonita and our newly found favorite bakery Donta (or something like that) and it's amazing white chocolate croissants and pumpkin surprise.

The ride from Granada was just over three hours and we headed to the mountains. Not much in btw towns. We decided not to take the coast and just to get there faster so we went via Lorca.  We had gotten our hotel on line a night before and chose it basically for the hotel and a little bit of amenitities.  Got a good deal for four nights. Decided to leave one bag in the car to diminish the chaos in the room.  Got there and the room was cozy but clean and pretty nice.  Two twin beds next to each other and the other against the window. Was going to be tight but would be okay.  Decided to hit the pool which turned out to be an ice cube..like literally snow water..or at least for the first few minutes and then it was okay. Especially given how hot it was outside.

My personal favorites og Granada included the tapas hopping on Calle Navas, the streets of Albazin, our dinner off the river, and at a distant lead...TAPAS HOPPING!  What's not to love about a surprise, full size treat with every round ordered.  As Mike said, he was happy to do his part as were the kids.  Gavin quickly joined in the adventure of eating, Nate was an excellent sport given he didn't like many of the things that were served and Brock was happy to try everything, polish off the olives and drive his two inch toy car aound the tables and floors of cafeterias, bars and restaurants.

Mike loved the Alhambra and I enjoyed it, too. Great tour guide who made it interesting, beautiful grounds and detail and a very friendly, international group on the tour including people from Greece, Singapore and Los Altos!  Many complimented all the boys for their terrific behavior and patience and one said we should get a discount for Brock as he swept the Alhambra floors for the last hour (of three) while pushing his car around...this time it was the little orange one.

Nate wasn't so Keene on this town. Maybe it was too big or too hot. Maybe it was the hotel or lack of parks which we didn't find until the last day. Gavin liked it.  Probably a combination of the tapa hopping AND the all the toppings you can fit, yogurt for 2.50 euros!l

Personally, I could see living here one spring,  would want to do it after the snow and before the blazing hot summer. I love the energy, friendliness, strolling non hurried mentality. People are walking and enjoying each other vs staring at their cell phones. They stop to chat. They wait in line and aren't impatient about it. The meet for cafe..constantly.  Multigenerations go out together. Packs of 70 year old women meet for dinner. There is a sense of community and interaction.

4 days in Granada was about right...probably because of the small hotel room.  The pool was fun, despite the initial freeze zone, paco at the bar was a sweetheart and the kids had fun playing with a girl from Morrocco at the pool.   She wanted to play with them so badly that she slowly got into the pool with all her clothes on!

On our last day, we were going to tour around the city again on the open air bus but decided to go to the ciencias museum instead. It was amazing. We spent eight hours there.  Taking our time, see the many great exhibits, having lunch, playing the outdoor chess and puzzles and just not rushing.  Went to the bird show (where the falcon escaped to a neighboring roof) and up the tower for great views, too. I think this place is really impressive... an acad sciences, exploratorium and discovery museum all in one.

The second to last night in Granada, we went online to places like bookings.com and idealista to reserve a place in Nerja, our next destination. Decided we wanted to go back to an apartment and the freedom of our own kitchen. Chose a place in the center of town and crossed our fingers that we would like it.  Packed up our stuff, which is really not that fun to do, and looked under the bed four times until we found Nate's red crock. We then closed the door, took the room key out of the socket (where it keeps the lights on) and headed down the glass elevator one last time.  We  were ready to go, programmed our newly purchased gps and had everything... Or so we thougtht!

 
   
 
  
 
  
  
 

And, of course, you can't go to Granada with out visiting the Alhambra:

 
  
  
 

 
 
 

 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

Alicante

  
Our week in Alicante is probably best described as a "transition" week.  We arrived in this, not well know but large city in Spain that is a couple hours south of Valencia around 8PM after a long travel day.  The kids did great but we were all exhausted. Went to bed and slept until about 2:00 the next day which catapulted us into "Spanish Time" and we were immediately ready to live the life of late nights and siestas.  Nate Gavin and Mike started spanish class (at 11AM!) and Brock and I scoured the streets to find a place to get new cell phones, find the market and get situated. Our teachers   were great, the kids loved the esplanade and the Mundo del Ninos but the city was bigger than we wanted and Nate and Gavin were eager to travel and see more places. We stayed in Alicante for a week, enjoyed the beach, the great teachers and the chance to get settled in an apartment before heading off to Granada.