Thanks, Don

I have a serious fondness for all that Donald Miller writes.  Many of his words seem to speak loudly to me, as well as to many of my generation who are looking for creative ways to love and live life in a Godly way.  I've read all of his books, I think, and last fall, Brian & I were privileged to see him speak live at our church in Des Moines, The Gateway Church (we miss you guys!).  He also writes on a blog, which I've been frequently reading as part of my morning routine.  Earlier this week, he posted a review of Andrew Peterson's new album, Counting Stars.  First, I highly recommend that you go and read the review - it's short and sweet and you can get a great feeling for the vibe of the artist.  There is also a video he posted in the review, but just in case you don't follow the link, I'm going to put it here for you to check out...

This weekend, we spent some time out of the city, exploring Segovia and a small town nearby.  As we sat on a rock by a river, we talked about some things that had been difficult for me lately.  Brian was a tremendous support to me as I spoke about the weaknesses I had felt, and his encouragement and presence was one of comfort to me.  We are learning to rely on one another in new ways here, and I'm grateful that living in Spain is teaching us more of who we are in Christ, and who we are for one another.  I've been blessed to realize the depth of Brian & my experience here, watching him stand by me as things are tough and joyful here has been amazing.  It's only been 2.5 years of marriage, and the taste of beauty I've seen from God through our relationship is something I can't wait to be a part of as our time together grows & enriches.

As I watched this video this morning, tears of gratefulness came to my eyes, as I thought about how I am thankful that we made the decision to choose one another, and how we have very evidently seen God bless our lives and our relationship.  We're still figuring things out together, but knowing that our cord of three will not be broken is something that I take tremendous hope from.

(a huge thank you to my amazing friend, Harmony Eccles, for creating this beautiful piece for us)

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.  Ecclesiastes 4.9-12

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A weekend day trip to Segovia

This past Saturday, we decided we needed to get out of town.  I think, more specifically, I (kate) needed to get out of the concrete and into something a little more rural for a change of pace.  We started the day in Segovia, a historic city about an hour north of the city.  We toured around there for most of the day.

When we arrived, our first stop was breakfast.  Coffee, quiche, and chocolate croissants are the perfect way to start a day, in my opinion.  From there, we headed over to the Roman Aqueduct, the piece of history the town is most famous for.

The entire structure is built with granite stones, and no mortar.  I think I read that it weighs something like 18,000 tons?  It was built in the first century by the Romans, and is the most important remaining landmark of their occupation of the Iberian Peninsula.

What is that flying in this picture??

The size and grandeur of the aqueduct is stunning, and it's incredible to think that this was built almost 2,000 years ago.  It is no longer in use, but was until the end of the 19th century, which is also amazing!

  

 From the Aqueduct, we went on to see the Cathedral, a romanesque hunk of a building.

Inside, my favorite part was the cloisters - with a little garden in the middle, this was the most light-filled and airy part of the building.

After we left the cathedral we headed to one of the towns many famous restaurants for lunch.  We started with a typical soup from the region - yes, those are gigantic beans!  The soup was simple and delicious, with chorizo and a flavorful broth.  You'd think on a hot summer day we wouldn't want something like this, but it was still amazing!

For the second course, we had to order the town specialty - Cocinillo!  Which is, for you carnivores, baby roasted pig.  It is absolutely delicious, you just can't think about that you're eating poor Wilbur.  Do you see the curly tail?

We finished up with an amazing local dessert, which I don't remember the name of... with some ice cream and a pretty custard.  We also easily polished off a bottle of wine!

After a very long lunch (we tried to avoid some of the heat of the day), we headed to the town's other most famous site, the Alcazar.  It is an old palace/jail/armory that burned and was reconstructed in the early 20th century.  

They say that Disneyland in California was based partially on this building... but I have my doubts.

Inside, there is a lot of Moorish (muslim) influence in the design of the rooms.  Check out that ceiling!  All the patterns, including the doors and doorways are stunning, and are influenced by the moors.

Can you see all of the Monarchs around the ceiling?  I bet there were at least 80 of these friezes around the room, showing each of the rulers of ....  Spain maybe?  I didn't read the information too well... and I don't remember :)

After Segovia, we drove to a nearby French-inspired castle, and walked around it a bit.  We plan to go back and tour the full thing sometime soon.  There was a small lake nearby, so we walked around that a bit, and spent a lot of time sitting on a rock, just talking about things and life here.

Brian had looked into outdoor movies, so we made sure to get back to town to watch Avatar in Spanish.  I'm glad that we saw it twice in the states before we left, or I would have been really lost!  It was nice to go to an outdoor movie - it was almost as nice as heading to the Newton Drive-In back home.  We miss that place.  Who thought we'd miss a drive-in in small town Iowa when we have castles surrounding us?

But, all in all, it was a great day to get away and rejuvenate a bit from life in the city!

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Tarifa & {a little} Gibraltar

The day after we went to Ronda, Brian and I decided that since the beach near our hotel was not that nice, we were going to try for a better beach and head to Tarifa, the southernmost part of Spain & for that matter,  Europe.  It was about an hour drive from where we were staying in Estepona, and on the way, we passed Gibraltar.  What an interesting place - huge rock, jutting out into the sea, and still a British territory.  Everyone speaks English, the currency is Great Britian Pounds, and they even have the red telephone booths all over the peninsula.  Spain is pretty ticked that they don't have the land, and there's a constant infighting and little annoyances that each country creates for the other in order to bother the other's residents.  But, every so often, Gibraltar gives it's people the option to vote if they want to belong to Spain and not Britian, but historically the vote has been 99% want to stay with the Brits.  We decided not to actually go to Gibralter - being surrounded by the Brits at our hotel was enough for us.  But, we saw it from afar.

After seeing Gibrlater, quite quickly, as we were speeding down the highway, we headed to Tarifa.  It's a tiny little beach town, windswept and laid back.  There is a cool little old town, but most of the city is there for the windsurfers, beach bums, and people going back and forth to Morocco.  You can see Morrocco incredibly well, as the straight of Gibraltar only separates the two continents by 7.7 nautical miles.

Brian had really hoped to do some windsurfing, but it was hard to find a place that was open to rent them - we were still pretty early for surfing season.  Still, we were able to walk out on a pier and onto the beach and see some awesome kiteboarders & windsurfers.  My pictures don't do them justice.  Some of the kiteborders could jump about 10 feet in the air as they sailed off waves!

After walking down near the point and the water for a while, we decided to spend the day on the beach, ahem, european style.  It was incredibly windy, so we took refuge behind some dunes (which also provided a measure of privacy)  It was nice to just hang out by the water and do very little for a while.  A very relaxing day!

The next morning we had to get up early to head to Cordoba, one of the three major cities in the southern part of Spain that was once occupied by the Moors.  Look forward to pictures of the Mezquita soon!

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I like...

...Google's new image search.  I found out about it on CNN's website today in this article, and had to check it out for myself.  Many of you know that I'm completely visually stimulated (for example, I am 100% more likely to buy clothing at a store if I see it on a mannequin), and so being able to search and see images better is a big improvement!  Go check it out yourself... you can see what was on my mind today if you look at my search :)

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Ronda

It's been HOT lately in Madrid.  We've been watching a lot of World Cup games, I've been having frequent  Spanish lessons, and we've been doing our best to avoid doing anything in the heat of the day, much like the rest of the country.  Lucky for me, I have a few amazing friends who have offered to have me over to hang out at their pools in the afternoon sometimes, and I've been diligently working on my tan :)

I just looked at the calendar to help get you (and me) into the right mindset for when we visited this town, and I honestly can't believe it was May 22nd when we were there.  Brian had a 3 day weekend, so we decided to head down to the southern coast for a few days to hang out at the beach and explore a bit.

It took us about 7 hours to drive to our hotel, so that night we laid low in our super awesome suite, sitting on the balcony & sipping some wine.  I really hit it off with the lady behind the desk, and she upgraded us to a "ocean view suite."  I looked at the normal rates for this room (550 Euros) and we only paid a fraction of that price.  Here's a couple photos of our weekend retreat location:

(By the way, I there was no view of the ocean - maybe like 1/2 a mile away we saw a glimmer, but we weren't going to complain!)

Those of you who know us, know that we're not really sit on the beach all day long kind of people.  We like to be at least a little bit active before we feel like we've deserved our rewards of good food and drink.  So, Saturday morning, we went driving into the mountains to visit Ronda, a small hill town.  The first bullring ever built was in Ronda, and we went on an excellent self guided tour.

The bullring in it's entirety, all the way around.

The large holding pen where the bulls hang out before their big performance.  Can you find Brian?

After the bulls hang out in the large holding space, and get all good and grumpy for being in the hot hot sun with a bunch of ugly, sweaty, nasty smelling other bulls, they're led down this series of shafts to the main arena.

Underneath the seats, they had a museum to the bullfighters & bulls - costumes, paintings, photographs, and here, you see a very cool drawing/sculpture of a bullfight occurring, with posters from previous year's bullfighting festivals in the background.  I picked up a couple of posters I hope to frame later...

Thank goodness no rushing bulls were coming my way...

Spectators can buy seats in the sun or in the shade - these in the shade would be much more expensive!

Sweet detailing on the columns.  Extra points:  What style of columns are these?

Another main entry gate into the ring.

My guy contemplating a future in bullfighting in case that John Deere thing doesn't work out for him...

We have yet to see an actual bullfight - in Madrid, they all happen in May, around the San Isidro holiday, which I posted about before this.  Hopefully we'll get to experience this piece of Spanish culture before we need to return to the US.

The city of Ronda also has some stunning views.  Do you see the people out on the viewing platform?

There is this huge bridge connecting the two sides of town - it used to be used as a prison, and people would be thrown from that center door as their punishment for crimes committed.

I don't think I'd want to be thrown from up here.

Ronda is known as one of the White Hill Towns, you can see how all of the houses show why the city has that name!  It's deep in the south, so it gets HOT here, and they have to do whatever they can to stay cool!

One last look at the lovely Ronda... And then we went to lunch & then the beach :)

What post would be complete without a little food...from our beachside restaurant?

Clockwise from top left: What we affectionately call Bienmesabe (it tastes good to me) A marinated, fried white fish that is probably one of our very favorite dishes in Spain; clams; Rosada fish; Kate attempting to eat the tiny clams.

Here's the crazy thing about the southern coast - it has been invaded by Brits.  Seriously.  Our hotel was absolutely chock full of British people.  There was an authentic british pub next to our hotel that we ate at one night.  To redeem ourselves and get back our Spanish flair, we spent the next day in Tarifa, the southernmost point in Spain, and even in Europe for that matter.  More photos on that in the next post.  I have to keep you coming back for more, right?

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OK Go

We love this band.  We love their videos even more.  I think Brian has watched this video at least a dozen times, and he's watching it again right now, so I feel like that makes it post-worthy.  Stienstras, you should recognize this - I know Doug built a Rube Goldberg machine once!

"A Rube Goldberg machine is a deliberately over-engineered machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction. The expression is named after American cartoonist and inventor Rube Goldberg."


If you think this is as cool as we thought, you can even go to the band's website and check out an interactive floor plan here.  Super cool.

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San Isidro & Gran Via's 100th Birthday

In the beginning of May, Madrid was overtaken with celebrations for it's patron saint, San Isidro.  I already posted a few pictures from the kickoff of this celebration here, and I just wanted to add a few more pics from the week.

There were large stages set up around the city, and at one of them, we saw dancers from each region performing in their typical style & costume.  Pretty awesome.  I was too far away from the stage to get any sort of cool video, or pics for that matter, but I sneakily snapped some of people as they walked in front of us.  Here's a taste:

We headed downtown to see what the other festivities were, and we couldn't help but stop at one of our absolutely favorite new bars for a quick tapa & beer.  This place, I think, was one of the first operating bars in Madrid, and they have this a-mazing fried cod there.  If you don't like fish, you'll like this.  If you like fish, you'll love this place.  Pretty much any weekend that we're downtown, we manage to find ourselves at a little table outside this bar.

There are these doughnuts that everyone eats for the holiday, and I think we started a new tradition with Tep - whenever we would pass a bakery with the doughnuts we'd each pick up one and eat it.  It was like a pub crawl with delicious little doughnuts.  For all you CF people, I don't think they hold a candle to JR Doughnuts, but I definitely felt better after eating 1/2 dozen of these as apposed to those Sturgis Falls delicacies.  (San Isidro doughnuts aren't fried, but baked)

Lucky for us, this year, Gran Via turned 100 years old.  If I was Jay, I would start on some sort of long treatise as to how in the world it could be possible that a road would turn 100 years old, but, since I'm not him, I'll just leave you with a couple of pics from the celebration :)

Imagine Times Square.  Imagine it covered in blue carpet.  That was one thing the city did to celebrate the birthday.  We all got to walk on it later (um, gross), but yet, very cool.

There were several stages set up along the length of the street, and people absolutely everywhere.  I don't know if I've ever seen so many people in one place.  Imagine, up to that white building in the background is not even half the length of the street covered in blue carpet and people.

What birthday would be complete without a birthday cake?  It was plastic, and about 2 stories tall though...

And, of course, fireworks!  We met up with some friends for dinner at a Galacian Bar, and luckily, we made it back to the main drag for the big finale.  It will have to serve as our replacement for the 4th of July this year!  It was such a great day, and I'm glad we were here to celebrate it!

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