Toledo

Hola!  We took another trip with the students and others a couple weekends ago, this time to Toledo.  This very pretty town has an interesting blend of Arab, Jewish and Christian cultures.  Toledo sits on a hill and is surrounded on three sides by a bend in the Tagus River.

Many of the streets are narrow.  It's very easy to get lost!

Here's Sam telling me a joke.

Work began on this cathedral in 1226 and spanned three centuries:

Owen was much more interested in this green truck parked beside the cathedral:

Toledo is known for marzipan.  There are beautiful window displays all over town.  We had some and it was pretty good.

Here are more pictures around town:

David's Work (and Dinosaur Sidenote)

While we're here in Spain, David is teaching a course called "Sustainability of Built Systems" at Saint Louis University, which is English speaking.  The class is a seminar discussion about society and sustainability (energy, food, water, transportation).

We're here with about twenty students from Lafayette College, where David is a faculty member.  Most of the students are taking Dave's class as well as others.

Here's are pictures of the university:

Here's David's building:

Nice, huh? 

Dave's got three office mates who are all very helpful.  One of them, Francisco, helped us get a pool pass for the boys at a gym near our apartment (which would have been impossible on our own with limited Spanish).

And as a sidenote, we took the boys to the Natural History Museum (because Owen loves dinosaurs).  Here, he's pretending to be a dinosaur.

The boys liked this neat exhibit (paper cards turn into dinosaurs on screen):

Grocery Shopping

If we want fish for dinner, we buy it that day.  There are markets on nearly every street near us, large and small.    

Everyone walks to the store.  Most people push one of these to carry their food home:

We most often go to one of two larger supermercados near where we live.  (These are much smaller than any grocery store in the US.)

Here's what the shopping cart looks like (it has wheels):

Hams are very big in this country.  Everywhere we go, hams hang in windows.  Some are quite expensive.

Seafood is excellent and plentiful. 

Wine, much of it made in Spain, is available at the grocery store.  It's both very good and inexpensive.  There is a sparkling wine called cava that is yummy.

One of Dave's office mates told him that Spain is like the California of the EU.  The fruits and vegetables are very fresh.  Most of it's grown right here.  We sometimes buy citrus with the leaves still on the fruit!

These chocolate crackers have become very popular in our apartment.  We've eaten at least five boxes.  They are SO good.  I can't figure out why exactly, they just are.

Segovia

This past weekend, we took a bus trip with the students to Segovia (about an hour NE of Madrid). It's famous for it's Roman aqueduct and castle (Walt Disney is said to have modeled sleeping beauty's castle after this one). 

The Aqueduct

The castle is full of cannons and armor, much to Owen's liking.

This cathedral was started in 1525 and took over 200 years to complete.

The Segovians are very much into their pigs.  Roast suckling pig is a speciality. 

(Vegetarian friends should avert their eyes.)

Fat back, anyone?

Trains and Museo del Prado

After finishing up the first week of classes on Thursday, David took the boys to the train museum today.  It was a HUGE hit, especially the donuts in the dining car.

While the boys were hanging out, I went to Museo del Prado (Madrid's most famous art museum which hosts over 7,000 paintings, half of which are on display).

I made it about half way through and didn't see the Renoir exhibit (next time).  Highlights for me were paintings by Goya and El Greco.

Afterwards, we all met at a very cool slide at Casa de Campo, which is a huge park that was once the royal hunting grounds. 

Home on the metro with a sleeping Sam.

Out and About

We have been here for one week now and are starting to feel settled.  The students arrived last Sunday and David started his work on Monday. He has three very friendly and helpful office mates. 

Everyone in our house is now sleeping in this time zone and that is very helpful.  Madrid time is different.  People wake and get to work around 9:00.  Then there is a siesta from about 2:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon and everything shuts down (except for the restaurants).  Things come alive again after siesta until the wee hours of the morning.

Here are some sights from very near our place.

A view from our terrace.

Here's a huge restoration/park project along the Manzanres River, which is just a few blocks away from our apartment.  The area is full of heavy equipment and so is very popular with the boys.  It looks like they may finish the project (which has been going on for years) before we leave.

There are playgrounds for the kids everywhere!  This one is around the corner from our apartment.  People are particularly friendly to the boys.

Here's a view of a street near La Latina (close to our apartment).