Granada

The first weekend that Nathan was here we went to Granada in the south of Spain.

This will be a picture overload so I'll try to limit my words...

Capilla Real

I have a slight obsession with Queen Isabel so of course we went to see the Capilla Real where the caskets of Isabel, Fernando (her husband), Juana (her daughter) and Felipe (Juana's husband) are.

Queen Isabel

In addition to my slight obsession with Isabel, I also love the doors in Spain. This door met both obsessions. It might be hard to see but on the left there is an F for Fernando and a Y for Isabel. History note: when Isabel was alive her name was spelled "Ysabel" so in all of the old timey churches, statues, etc. her name is spelled with a Y.

Science Museum 

Definitely the best science museum either of us have been too. 

Nathan had some one-on-one time with Einstein.

They had a very neat Escher exhibit.

They had a body exhibit which included this real heart from a whale (maybe a fin whale?). Aahh. So big.

They had a T-Rex exhibit which included robot dinosaurs that moved.....

.....and dinosaur skeletons.

We went up this tower and got a great view of Granada.

 

 

 

Nathan learned about the proper posture while sitting at a computer...

....while I had fun driving a little kid bike around a pretend road.

La Alhambra

The next day we went to La Alhambra - built by the Moors in Spain.

La Alhambra at night

El Día de los Reyes Magos

In addition to Christmas, in Spain they celebrate El Día de los Reyes Magos. The kings come the night of January 5th and kids wake up to presents on the 6th.

We went to the parade in Madrid on the 5th. It was amazing how many people showed up. We didn't get the best view but were able to see most of the floats. Some people were obviously more aware of the crowds than we were and brought ladders to stand on. 

 They had some pretty amazing floats but since we were so far away and behind an enclosed bus stop (so couldn't use flash) I couldn't really get any good pictures.

My favourite float included two big fish...

...and jellyfish (I love jellyfish!)

The three kings were on the last three floats. 

The parade was pretty impressive - it definitely put the Holidazzle to shame. 

A traditional pastry eaten on El Día de los Reyes Magos is a rosca de reyes.

I saw places selling them with cream or chocolate mousse in the center or plain. We bought one with cream and had a nice breakfast of rosca de reyes y cafe. Mmm. 

Feliz Navidad! Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas y Happy New Year!

Nathan returned to the states today after his marvelous visit to Spain. We had a great time traveling and I'm thankful he was able to be here for Christmas y New Years. 

For Christmas we went our for Chinese food (as is our tradition)....

And put our presents under the make-shift cardboard Christmas tree I made. 

For New Years we went to Puerta del Sol to watch the clock change to midnight with huge crowds of people.

To get into the festive spirit we both bought a sparkly hat to wear. 

 In Spain it's tradition to eat 12 grapes along with the 12 chimes of the clock once it's midnight. We had 12 grapes each and were ready to eat them. I'm not sure how (or if?) Spaniards are able to actually do this but we majourly failed. I think we both got to 4 grapes each before we were laughing so hard that we were drooling grape juice all over ourselves. I blame it on the fact that we could only find grapes with seeds. 

We'll try the grapes again next year. :-)