As the Days Fly...

Well our days are flying by and we only have about 8 days left. Actually Dean left this morning as he is headed to work in Vimperk, Czech Republic for a few days before heading back to Madison. In any case, this entry will be some of the more recent highlights from this adventure.

On July 5th we headed into Bilbao for the "estropatada," rubber ducky race. This was the 3rd edition and it is to raise money for people who contract unusual diseases. People "purchase" a duck for 5 euros that enters the race.  Each duck has a geolocator so the "owner" knows where it is in the race. 35, 000 ducks were launched off of the Deusto bridge from giant duck painted containers. On the linked site above you can find the news video that tells the story as well.  There were several people in kayaks connected to a series of swim lane ropes that created a canal down which the ducks float to the next bridge. The streets were lined with people watching despite the rainy weather. Marina came in from Mundaka to join us for the race. The photos below will give you some idea.

Estropatada - Kizoa Video Maker

That evening, we went with our friends Raul, Viviana, and Fernanda to check out the nearby abandoned Butrón castle. It is not far from where we are staying and for years we would drive by it and I always wondered about it. It does, on the outside, look like something from a Disney movie that has gotten run down and not well maintained. The location is nice, although isolated, along a river and we happened to catch a group of horseback riders that had also made their way there to check it out.
Here are some photos from our excursion.

 

 Castillo_Butron - Kizoa Video Maker

As  you may know the lifestyle here is much different. Most people live in flats above stores and don't entertain in their homes. Those who have gardens for the most part are in a community plot, as yards aren't typical. That said the area we are living in used to be mostly an undeveloped area. Between where we are living off a main street and the beach, there were wooded/field paths to the beach. Now most of that has been cleared and there are houses and duplexes going up everywhere for those who would like a beach house. It is a great area to be in for beach and surf. We have enjoyed our flat, although the one house across the street is a bit loud. It is one of the original old homes that has a fair amount of fenced in yard. Behind the fence are ducks, chickens, hens, turkeys, dogs, cats, and I'm not sure what else. We hear the dogs at night around midnight and the hens at about 5am. I suspect this is like living on a farm, although we don't have the responsibility of the animals. Despite that, we are in a great location for our needs. Dean and I have been getting our exercise regularly. These photos  are a some pictures I took on my speed walk the other day.





As much as we can we have been reconnecting with our friends

from when we lived her 4 years ago. Eugenia was one of Morgan's friends from school and her sister Alejandra and Maia are also the same age. We took a stroll with them down to the Puerto Deportivo de Algorta for ice cream and a walk on the beach. Since there really isn't room to entertain in people's houses, we have enjoyed the customs of going out for walks, meeting and hanging out with people in parks, plazas, and on terraces. Everyone walks everywhere or takes the metro. All of us are enjoying the fresh air
and opportunity to walk from place to place with friends. Dean and I are hoping to keep that "habit" up at least a bit in the states to take a walk regularly after we eat as it feels healthier. It's also really nice to see older people out walking all the time. Our dependency in the states on cars to get around and only moving for the sake of exercise is a bit less healthy of a lifestyle in our opinion as we see older people with so much mobility here. The day we were on that walk in the Puerto Deportivo we saw a really beautiful sunset.

While we are close to the beach we are also only about a 20-30 min metro ride into Bilbao. We have gone in to the city a handful of times for shopping and the best massage therapist I have ever found. One afternoon following a massage, I was walking down the Gran Via, a main street, and came upon a concert by Coldplace which is a really amazing tribute band to Coldplay. If you heard them without seeing them, you might not know the difference as Soundhound identified Coldplay, not a cover, for every song despite crowd noise. It was really awesome. They played for about 1.5 hours. This was the opening, to get people excited before Bilbao Live, a 3 day concert up in the mountain just above Bibao. Mumford and Sons played there among other well known artists. Unfortunately we didn't have tickets.

Another part of summer here in Spain is that every town has it's "fiestas" which are all centered

around Santos, saints, that they choose to celebrate. That said, these are far from religious events and they typically go all day and late into the night. Since most of our kid's friends are in Algorta area where we used to live, we went to the parties in Neguri. In addition to a variety of theatrical entertainment, portable dj/disco, friends, and a bar, the festival started out with cabezudos which are people dressed up with gigantic heads carrying sacks that they use to chase and wack people with.

 Since the fiestas in Neguri, the girls have regularly returned to the park to meet up with friends and hang out. One of the nice things is that they are able to go alone on the metro. Generally that's how kids socialize. They travel in groups and wonder around parks, stop at nearby stores for snacks and the like. I think the girls will miss that when we return.

Urederra

It's become clear that I'm just not able to keep up with the blog. We have been very busy, often out from morning until very late at night. We didn't completely forget about July 4th though. In fact, we spent it together, just the four of us on a wonderful hike. We drove almost 2 hours to Urederra in Navarra, Spain. It's an area I have never visited before and it's beautiful.

We went to the Nacedero del Urederra which is a national park and it’s part of the bigger Parque Natural de Urbasa-Andía chain in Navarra. The best time to go is in the early spring when there is more water running than what was there at this point but it was still incredibly beautiful.  

We first checked in at the information booth where they were surprised to find out we were from the states. Apparently there are very few folks from the states that have made their way there, although they did say the numbers are growing due to the photos that have made their way to the Internet. It took us about 3-4 hours to hike the whole thing mostly because of stopping to take pictures. I can't explain how beautiful it was but below is a slideshow of the highlights of what we saw along the way.
 

Necedero del Urederra - Kizoa Video Maker

As you can see from the photos it is a series of waterfalls and pools along the hike. The word Urederra in Basque means beautiful water. The blue color of the water was amazing. I have never seen water so clear and blue except in pictures of tropical places I have yet to visit. Despite the long drive the kids said it was worth it because of the incredible beauty. I hope to get a few more of these excursions in before we head back to the states.

Festival and Friends

Well, keeping busy has certainly not been a problem so far. During the first couple of days of our arrival in Sopela/Larrabasterra we settled into our flat. For short term living, we are in great place. It is nice, clean, and well located for all that we need.

We happened to arrive during the Sopelana festivals so we managed to catch some of the events such as the Gildas band, our friend Sara is a drummer and singer, some other musical groups and a Thai Chi exposition in which our friend Lola participated. Unfortunately it didn't occur to me to take pictures or video of either of them. I wish I could go back in time so that I could share it with you. I did however manage to take pictures of some of the other people we saw but don't know...

In the pictures below is a musical group from France called Funky Style Brass and they were super fun. And the second photo was just a street actor eating some fire for a couple of euros.

 

Of course no festival is complete without the weird car parade thing and some giant stilt walking animal things...

When we weren't spending our evenings at the festival, we were with friends, Viviana, Raul and Fernanda, in a really cool park called Akarlanda. They arranged a big lunch BBQ for us and brought along 3 other kids that Morgan went to school with so it was fun to see everyone again. 

  The kids still seem to get along the same and other than being a bit taller, and presumably smarter, not much has changed. Needless to say, it feels really good to be back here. It's hard to believe that 4 years have passed since our 7 month stint and I hope that we don't wait this long the next time.

Mundaka!

Many of you have met Marina as she lived with us the past two summers. She is from a small town called Mundaka, in the Basque region of Spain. Upon leaving Madrid we headed up to spend a few days with her and her family in their hometown. Mundaka is well known for surfing and beautiful beaches so we made the most of that. This first photo is a view from our balcony that looks out towards the beach across the street. It was well located as Marina's family lives across the street on the beach side.

Mundaka is small enough that you can basically walk the whole town in 10 minutes. It has a small grocery store, several bars, a surf shop that has been open for 30 years (owned and operated an Australian who came to Mundaka as a surfer and made it his home), and great views from just about everywhere you go. To the left are some of the sites around town.

During our time we made use of the water. In addition to swimming, we rented kayaks and paddle boards. It was Dean's first time trying out SUP, as balance is not something he is particularly confident with. Our new Australian assistant actually got him to stand which was quite impressive.  Below are some photos of our water adventures.


We also did a bit of sea kayaking. It was harder than we expected with the current and ocean waves but still a good time.

As luck would have it, in addition to a great place for water adventures, it was time for the town celebrations of Mundaka. They had a small carnival set up with rides. The girls took advantage of the bumper cars and the bungee trampoline. Kids and people were out and about everywhere. One evening there was also a "parade" sort of thing. What was interesting is that people would line the streets and as the parade car came by, they would then join in. It wasn't just a parade for watching but rather for everyone to participate in as they wished.

We also had the opportunity to see Marina dance a couple of traditional Basque dances as part of the festivities. As is tradition with most celebrations around here, everything lasts all night. Marina's dance group had a mobile bar that opened at night. The dancers took turns tending bar and Marina had the 3-6 am shift one day and 12-3am shift the next. It was brutal for her with that and also trying to spend time with us.

It was a great visit and nice to get to know her parents and her town a bit better. We look forward to a couple more adventures with Marina before we head back to Wisconsin. 

Churches, Castles & Palaces

We spent our days in the Madrid area visiting mostly castles and palaces. There are a few common day trips from that area so we took them. We hit Segovia, Toledo, and El Escorial/Valle de los Caídos. What these areas had in common were churches, castles and palaces, of which I think we have all seen enough. While they are beautiful and the history is interesting, it all starts to run together a bit.

Segovia - Kizoa Video Maker

Of the most interesting sites I would say the aqueducts in Segovia, the Jewish area/history and artesania of Toledo, and the views from Valle de los Caídos (VC). Toledo is known for it's swords. While we didn't get one to bring home, however we did get a tour of the oldest true artisan shop for sword making. Most now are made industrially and all look the same. In this small shop tucked away in the corner, the swords are made by hand in a very traditional way. The owner, a descendent from the original owner is short a few fingers from his years of sword making but clearly loves what he does and knows the details in a way that most industrial sword makers probably don't. We were also lucky enough to catch a day when we could view the making of traditional style pendents with there golden designs made into a specially smooth hand cut stone.

We walked a ton in all of the places we visited.

Toledo - Kizoa Video Maker

For those of you who are unfamilair, VC is where Franco is buried. I was very tempted to spit on his grave but there was a guard there watching what everyone did and strict silence was to be respected. Also buried there are many who died during the Spanish Civil War. What I didn't realize is what has been characterized as "typically Spain" was also a result of what Franco wanted to show the world so he latched on to the idea of Flamenco dancing from the south and bull fighting and those became the symbols of the country. That's what most people tend to hear about and know. I find this middle area of the country to be extremely different from the northern areas where we tend to spend our time, and frankly, I prefer the north.

Experiencing Madrid

Yep, it's definitely summer here in Madrid. I'm all for siesta when it gets us out of the heat of the day. We started this part of our adventure making our way from Barajas to La Latina on the metro picking up friends Lynne and Kevin along the way. In all my travels to Spain this is the first time in Madrid that there was public transportation available point to point rather than the bus to Plaza de Colon. Last time we were here Maia was an infant and it was mostly a tour of Madrid's parks to keep her happy.

We got ourselves set up in a GREAT flat. I highly recommend it for anyone traveling in a largish group. We are definitely living like kings and queens in the city of Spanish royalty. In fact today we also took a tour of the Palacio Real. Unfortunately no pictures allowed inside so I just have a few from the outside to share.

More scenes from the day

Palacio Real - Kizoa Video Maker

 Just before hitting the palace we walked around the corner from our flat to check out El Rastro, a well known flea market, where we picked up a couple souvenirs for the kids. If you are a flea market kind of person or you just like people watching, you could easily spend hours here. It is a place where you need to watch your wallet and camera in a crowd, but worth it.

Following the market we headed through the Plaza Mayor to get to the palace. It was definitely full of people and lots of vendors out this morning as well. Frankly, on the walk to the palace I was amazed by the number of stores that were open since it is Sunday. Things have really changed in my 30+ years of traveling to Spain. I'm a bit disturbed by the westernization I'm seeing. There are fruit stores where you pick your own fruit, while wearing a glove and many of the stores are open on Sundays including clothing and grocery stores. We almost got run over by a Burger King delivery motorcycle and of course Starbucks has made it here as well. I'm not sure how they survive since it is so easy to get a much better cup of coffee in any bar on the street. I guess it is name recognition for tourists. Very sad... It will be interesting to see if there is as much western influence in the north as we are seeing here.

Dachau

So I suspect I'm not alone when it comes to the images that pop into my head when I hear or see the word Dachau. It is synonymous for me with concentration camp, work camp, death, and the horrors of the Holocaust.  This dreadful place lies a short train ride from Munich and is something that I needed to return to and I wanted my girls to experience.

We stepped off the train in the town of Dachau where we then had to wait for a bus to the camp. It was a drizzly sort of day which I guess was fitting for our visit. Across the street was a café, a post office around the corner, and it appeared the same as any other small town. I just couldn't come to terms with how it would be for anyone to say, "I'm from Dachau." The last time, 18 years ago, when Dean and I visited, I don't remember seeing the town but we arrived by car. I'm not sure if the train-bus option existed then or not.

Anyway, we made our way to the camp. There is a new information center there where we picked up the audio tour which helped guide us through the memorial, the museum, and the buildings. The museum was new as well and was quite well done. If you aren't familiar with Dachau, it's history, and what is there, check out this virtual tour. I did read through that the night before going as I knew the kids wouldn't have made it through me reading everything there was to read in the museum.

Suffice it to say it was an extraordinarily moving experience. While I didn't take a ton of pictures, here is some of what we saw.

First you enter through the gates. They are a replica of the original ones as the orignals were stolen. They have written on them "Arbeit Macht Frei", work makes you free, something that was certainly not true for those who were robbed of their individuality, belongings, and dignity upon passing through those gates.

The rest of my photos I posted in a slide show below. You will see parts of the monument erected as a memorial, the Jewish memorial that was built on the grounds, the stones that were placed inside the memorial in memory,  the crematorium, and an area by the crematorium, that is marked with remembrance of the thousands of unknown who died in this area where ashes were buried and shooting squads senselessly terminated lives.

Kizoa slideshow: Dachau - Slideshow

After our three hours at the camp, we returned to our flat to prepare our suitcases for travel to Madrid the following day. There was a lot to process but I'm glad we saw it.

Whirlwind Tour

Our time in Munich really flew by and clearly 3 days of touring isn't enough to see and do all we were hoping for. On our second day we tried to get an earlier start but jet lag had other plans for us. We finally got moving and out of the flat by mid-morning and headed to the Marienplatz. For those who want the English version of the Marienplatz page...

We did arrive in time for the clock ringing which was interesting but what is more amazing is the number of people that show up for it. I suspect if it ran ever hour instead of only 3 times a day it would be less of a tourist spectacle.

I did find that I have my own street right off the plaza.
From this point we headed down a pedestrian shopping area. We came, we saw, we bought. Unfortunately since we got our day started so late and the girls found a bit of joy in shopping, we missed out on the historic parts of that plaza and the next one down the road that we never made it to.

Our friends contacted us to meet them for a picnic lunch on the grounds of the 1972 Olympic park. If you are interested in a bit of a history lesson on that, it was the first time Germany had hosted the Olympics since the time when Hitler was in power. Tension was high and things didn't turn out so well. Check out this short piece on the Munich Massacre for details.

Today however you wouldn't know that was the case. The grounds are green and lots of people are wondering around. The swimming pool is open for swimmers to enjoy, there is a lake  where they have big balls you can climb into for running/falling on the water, a trampoline park, and some other sightseeing tourist options. We mostly wandered around as the girls weren't interested in any of the other options except swimming but we hadn't brought our suits.

The weather was beautiful for our walk through the park and we followed that up with a trip back to Patricia and Use's house. While Use, Dean and Maia rested, the rest of us headed out to play a little soccer in the park by their flat. As it turns out it's a huge park so when we got tired of kicking balls around, we took a walk to see some beautiful gardens, a lake and a beer garden. Unfortunately it was getting late and we needed to head back.

Here are a few  of our interesting sightings of the day...

If it fits, park it there whichever direction you want...

The next day was a to be a long day as we were headed to Dachau, then needed to pack and a final dinner with our friends.

First Sightings: Munich

We are on another travel adventure. We decided to start this one in Germany. It was an easy direct flight to Munich from Chicago. Upon arrival we were greeted by Nicolle & Patricia, our friends from Spain that have now moved here. If you followed our earlier posts in Spain you will remember them from several of our mini-weekend excursions. It was great to see friendly faces upon our arrival and a sign welcoming us here.

Random Sightings

Their help in figuring out the train/U-bahn/Bus pass was great as there were more options than my jetlagged brain could sort through. In no time it was clear that anything we wanted to do would be completely accessible with their public transit system. This is one of the things we love most about Europe and really miss when we return to Madison. From the airport we made our way to our flat in about 45 minutes. It's cozy and not the cleanest but sufficient for our needs. We won't be spending much time inside other than sleeping.

First stop for me was a shower. The kids flipped on the TV only to find that they seem to have a different word for everything on their favorite shows and their mouths aren't in sync with their voices. That was most annoying for Maia. While the others took naps and showers, I did a bit of wandering to get to know the area we are staying in. It is nicely located and feels very safe.

Once we were settled in Use & Lara, the other half of the family we hadn't seen yet, came to pick us up. We headed to their flat for dinner. It was a lovely evening with them but we were all pretty exhausted by the time we got back to our place.

Swan Family in Palace Garden

After sleeping in, we got Dean's phone set up and found some great berries at a fruit store on the way. At this point it was almost noon since we had slept in a bit. Dean and the girls took in some German pastries and we headed out to the Nymphenburg Palace.

The gardens were impressive, as much or more so than the inside of the Palace. Maia and I especially enjoyed a family of swans. There were several buildings to visit including the stable that had some old carriages and sleighs that really did look like something right out of Disney. Unfortunately my inside pictures didn't fair so well without the flash.

Look Out Tourist!

So far my cultural tidbit was realizing that the bike lanes, which exist throughout the city, are part of the sidewalk rather than the street. Bikers are often like ragging drivers if you accidentally find yourself walking in their lane. That's a lesson you only need to learn once.