4 out of 5

Last Friday my middle daughter, Kiah, joined us here in Spain. She had stayed behind in England for a few weeks to get her results from her A-level exams. Having received them (fantastic results of course!) and had the requisite party with her friends that night, she boarded the plane the next day to leave the cold and rain behind her and come to where it is sunny and HOT. Now we just need to get my oldest here for the family to be complete. I do not know when this may happen, but hope that in the not too distant future that she also decides to come and give living here a try. I am happy with 4 of the 5 members of our family here, but will most happy when all of us are together again. It is hard on a mama to have her young ones so far away. I imagine it gets easier over time but it is still so new and feels quite strange.

Saturday after Kiah arrived we went to the last day of Feria so that she could experience it. I must admit that I am a bit relieved it is done for this year. It is a lot of fun - but this old lady can only handle so much fun before it takes it toll. The me of my youth would hang her head in shame to hear this, but I am happy to be able to appreciate the calm and quiet as much as the party time.

Sunday was my birthday which we celebrated with a day at the beach, followed by a lovely dinner out and then delicious gluten free cake made to order from a local bakery. We are very lucky that not only do we have a good bakery here in town (apparently good bread bakers are hard to come by in Spain according to others who live here) but that the baker also does gluten free breads and cakes. It was a fantastic birthday and has set the mood for a wonderful year ahead. Big and exciting things on the horizon.

We are still waiting for our things to arrive from England. They are due to arrive in the area by the end of the week. If all goes well we will be ready to have them delivered by early next week. It will be wonderful to have them all, but the most coveted of all the items is our washing machine. We have discovered that there is no such thing as a self service laundry in the area. Having been on the road camping and travelling in a hot car for over a week, and then being here at the finca where it is dry and dusty for another week we were in desperate need of doing laundry. Much to our dismay we soon found that if we did not have our own washing machine our options were limited to paying someone €15 per load (not a good option when you have 5-6 loads!) or do it by hand. Being the frugal folks we are, the latter option won out. 2 days and very sore arms later we had lovely clean(ish) clothes and sheets. Luckily we will not have to repeat this ordeal even when we are still waiting for our machine. In a stroke of total kismet, while out for dinner on my birthday Axel got to chatting with the owner of the restaurant and mentioned that we had been washing our laundry by hand. She generously offered to let us bring it to her and she would do it for us - for free! Of course we want to give her something for her time and effort, but how great is that? Such a lovely and welcomed gift!

That is about it for now. It is hard for me to know what sort of things you are wanting to know about in updates. My health is good, we are slowly getting our bearings here and planning what our first steps towards getting this project going will be. I have been a bit slack on posting primarily because it is just so peaceful here that being on the computer feels odd, but also because in the day to day of life it is difficult to know what those who read will find interesting and what will be mundane. I find joy in walking up and down the drive late at night after the hot sun has gone done and in reading my book in the shade during the hot afternoon. Everything is new and yet familiar at the same time. Let me know what sort of things you are wanting to hear about and I will work to post more.

Pictures!

I finally got the pictures sorted and uploaded today. Most do not have any description or title other than what the camera assigns them, but for sake of time this is how it has to be for now. It took me 4 hours on the computer to do it as it is. I've not been wanting to be on the computer much since we got here. Too much to do, too tired, too hot to have the computer providing extra heat.

All the pictures are in this set on Flickr.

We arrived in Malaga - more precisely Alhaurin el Grande - on Thursday evening and after emptying our car out into our house we went to a nice dinner at one of our favorite restaurants here. I discovered a unexpectedly refreshing and delicious drink of vino tinto (red wine) and Fanta Limon on ice. Sort of a poor man's Sangria. Delicious! Also enjoying that gazpacho is the soup of the region. I am loving it and eating it whenever possible. Which reminds me - I have some in the refrigerator now...

The weather is gorgeous. It has been in the low 30's Celsius, which is the high 80's low 90's Farenheit. Not so bad. Madrid was definitely more hot and much more humid than it is down south. At night there is a nice breeze and things cool down enough that we can sleep without air conditioning. In the morning we are enjoying our coffee outside in the shade looking over the horizon at the Sierra Nevadas. Gorgeous. I don't think I will ever grow tired of it. At night we have been lying out gazing at stars and were treated to the Perseid Meteor shower on our first two nights here. Bliss.

The Feria de Malaga - 10 days of drunken flamenco from what I gather - started on Friday night. We went on Saturday to the day portion (there is two parts - the day part and the night part held in different locations) for a couple hours. It was madness and so much fun! Anja was not to sure about things until she got a nice pretty dress to join in the festivities with all the other lovely Malagueñas. I had some of the drink that is consumed by people in large quantities - Cartojal, which is a super sweet wine that goes straight to your head. It was good, but I do prefer a mojito for festive drinking.

(zoinks - sorry for the super sized photo! I'll fix that later...)

Enjoy the pictures. As I said, there are no descriptions or non-stock titles for most of them. Just enjoy their beauty and if you have a question about any of them post a comment and I will give you the scoop.

Hasta Luego!

Update from Madrid

Hello Everyone! I have reached the point on our trip where I am confused about what day it is. The computer tells me it is Tuesday, which means that our last full day in France was Sunday. We opted to stay an extra day in St. Emilion so that we could go on a hike in the vineyards and taste some wines of the region along the way. I took a leap of faith and decided that I would walk the entire distance of 4km. It is not possible for me to convey adequately in words how incredibly empowering and liberating it felt to do so! Each step was a step towards what I hope to be a continuing progress towards regaining my life and not being so restricted by my illness. Being able to enjoy the things I took for granted before I became so sick is a pleasure like none I have every had. So far there has been minimal repercussion in terms of post exertion pain which is so very encouraging. My eyes are filling with tears of joy as I write this. Pure and ecstatic joy!

We arrived safely in Madrid yesterday evening after a looooong day's drive. I will say that as beautiful the south of France is, once you pass over the Pyrenees and the Basque region, the route we chose through Northern Spain is quite boring. Miles and miles (or should I say kilometers and kilometers?) of nothing. In a car packed to the gills with no air conditioning in the heat and humidity it is a test patience, which I must say we all passed with flying colors.

After 9 long hours (and another episode of Beatrice on crack in central Madrid) we arrived at our destination. We are staying with a friend of Axel's from school in Venezuela at a very nice flat in a beautiful wooded area of Madrid. Were it not for the Four Towers rising in the skyline we would not suspect that we were in the city. It is such a treat and much appreciated to be able to stay here.

I am still behind on sorting and uploading pictures, so my apologies for another picture-less post. When I do get around to it there will be more than enough to make up for it, I promise!

Our plans for today are fairly loose. A trip to the store for some food and maybe do some sight seeing around Madrid. We are all feeling a bit road weary so we may do nothing other than lounge around the flat and go for a dip in the pool. The heat here is a more foreboding heat than it was in the South of France where it was not as humid and cooled off nicely at night. I'm not complaining, mind you! Just an observation. It is a welcome change to be looking for ways to cool down as opposed to warm up.

Until later - all our best!

Day 4 - Poolside and St. Emilion

Off to a very slow start this morning. The past few days of non-stop activity, along with all the work that we did before we left England is catching up with us. Last night we had hoped to dot he night tour of St. Emilion, but we decided to just take it easy instead. As it was we were all so tired that even Anja slept in until after 10:30 which is unheard of. Literally. I cannot remember a time when she has slept that late. Even when you account for the one hour time difference between here and England that is a significant lie in for the child who normally is in a race to awaken with the birds.

Yesterday we spent some time at the pool in the morning and in the afternoon took the shuttle from the campsite into St. Emilion. We had a nice lunch in the plaza and then set out to explore around the city. Such a gorgeous place filled with so many interesting and lovely sights. We had a long and interesting talk with one young winemaker, who describes his niche as “garage” wine making, which is much along the same lines of the micro-brewery movement in the Pacific Northwest. They literally convert garages that belong to flats above into a winery and make very small batches of wine. Some are as small as only a few hundred per season. He also said that many of the producers use organic and biodynamic methods but do not opt for certification. This is twofold in reason. One is because as many of us know, the bureaucracy of certification often is difficult and expensive for small producers and does not always guarantee a superior product. The other is because there is a suspicion of those that label their wine as organic or biodynamic are doing so merely to cash in on a market rather than for the sake of growing by ecologically friendly standards. Of the wines we tried a good ¾ of them use organic and many biodynamic methods but we would not know this if we were not told. Very interesting for us as we look at the options which will face us in developing our farm and how we market it. We did buy one wine that is certified Demeter that is a St. Emilion Grand Cru 2001. I look forward to popping the cork on it and toasting to our new venture in Malaga when we arrive there!

Today we are going on a vineyard walk that the campsite has organized. The weather looks to be a little less intense than yesterday (it has been blissfully hot) so it should be a good day for walking around the area, learning about the vineyards and tasting the wines. I am still walking on my own, which is such a joy. It isn’t without it’s difficulty or challenge, but so far the pain and fatigue that come from it are tolerable. I’m probably tempting the fates by pushing myself like I am, but the enjoyment that I am getting from being able to do things on my own steam is well worth it. No doubt I will be paying for it sooner or later, but it will have been worth it.

I took quite a few pictures yesterday and could easily have taken more. Digital photography is somewhat of a double edged sword when it comes to the quantity of pictures. The lack of commitment to film allows you to take pictures whenever the mood strikes, but then you are left with hundreds of pictures to sort through to glean out the very best. I don’t have enough time on the computer at this moment to sort through and upload them. If there is time tonight I will try and get to it. Otherwise it may be until Tuesday before I am able.

Tomorrow morning we leave to drive to Madrid. Not sure if I will be online or not but if I am I will hopefully have pictures to share and of course will have more to tell of our travels. I hope your summer is going well and you are enjoying whatever it is you are doing. Thank you for taking the time to share in our fun!

Day 3 - Toothache and Mini Golf

The bad news is that Axel's toothache is indeed an infection. It is not in the wisdom teeth he had pulled last month, but in the one wisdom tooth they decided NOT to pull. grrrrrr.... Which has him on antibiotics that he is not able to drink alcohol whilst taking. Really bad timing for being in the region of such wonderful wines. He will have to take my word for what is good and we will buy some for him to have later when he his able. I guess this means that we will have to come back here again so that he can fully enjoy the experience. The sacrifices we must make, right?

Today was a lazy day with us spending most of our time either at the pool or the dentist. We did mangage to get a round of mini golf in before dinner.

The campground is very nice and full of families from France, The Netherlands, England,Germany and Ireland. Anja has already made several friends. She never fails to amaze me how easily she can connect with people. This is more of a trait that she gets from Axel than me, but she even out does him when it comes to ease of being social. The campground is as nice as it seems on the website. Plenty of trees and privacy in the individual sites and clean well kept facilities. I spent some time last evening after dinner just sitting on a bench enjoying all the children laughing, running around, riding bicycles and push scooters. As far as family vacation spots go we could not ask for more.

Not much to show in terms of pictures today. Here are a couple pictures of our campsite. It is pretty bare bones since we are not on an official camping trip. Though our bed is quite luxurious with duvet, double layer of mattress pads and pillows. A girl's got to have her beauty sleep you know, and this girl is straight out of The Princess and the Pea!

Today our plan is to spend the morning at the pool and then go into St. Emilion later in the afternoon to see the sites and get some of the famous macarons. Tonight we are hoping to take a night tour of St. Emilion. We have decided to stay on an extra day to make up for yesterday being somewhat of a lost day due to the timing of the dentist appointment. It is nice to have the luxury of opting to do so.

Day 2 - Le Mans to St. Emilion

Bon Jour!

It is a lovely morning here in Saint Emilion. The sun is out, the air is crisp and the birds are singing. Cup of coffee number two has just been poured and all is right with the world. Almost. Unfortunately Axel has a terrible toothache and his face is swollen on the side. He suspects that there might be a return of an infection where he had his wisdom teeth extracted last month. Hopefully we can get him into a dentist here quickly today and find him some relief. Not exactly the type of activity we had on our agenda, but such is life.

Yesterday was a day of driving. We left Le Mans after stopping to buy some fruit, yogurt, and croissants for breakfast, ice for the cooler, and snacks for the long drive ahead. What a gorgeous drive it was! We chose to drive the smaller non-toll roads on this trip in an effort to save a little money, but the biggest benefit to this option is seeing all the little towns and beautiful fields filled with sunflowers, corn, and of course grapes. Early August and the peak of growing season means tall lush fields with bursts of yellow sunflowers, golden silk of the corn stalks waving in the breeze and vines full of luscious green leaves gathering the sunlight to feed the grapes which will become the delicious wines of the region. It is truly as idyllic as it sounds.

Our lunch stop late yesterday afternoon was in the town of Saintes, which is in the area of Cognac. Again not knowing anything about the place where we chose to stop – we were thrilled with what we discovered. I know very little about the history as all the signs were in French, but even without the details it was most impressive.

The first site to catch our eyes was this arch along the river front. After we had a light lunch of salad and quiche we decided to take a walk along the riverfront. (I would like to mention how thrilled I am that when I say we took a walk that means all of us were walking! No wheelchair or scooter. Heaven I tell you!)

Just beyond the arch we came across an unassuming building.

A few arches near the entrance gave a hint of what waited inside for us.

What we saw inside was unexpected and quite breathtaking. Since I know nothing about the history I will let the pictures do the talking for me.

They had reconstructed a building (temple?) of some sort inside the building.

A perfect short break, just 90 km from our final destination of the day.

Once we arrived at St. Emilion we set up our tent and went into the town for dinner. We ate in the Plaza, seen below from a point above.

In a poetic and perfect nod to the inspiration that led us to take the leap and leave our home in America to pursue our dreams, the perfect bottle of wine awaited us. Biodynamic Demeter certified!

With that I leave you for today. I may or may not get on again this evening to update. While I have been writing this Axel has scheduled an appointment at a nearby dentist for later this afternoon. Until then we will be relaxing at the pool and enjoying the campground. You can have a peak into where we are staying here. Camping in Europe is not the rustic experience that it is back home!

Adios England!

After several manic days of packing, cleaning, and saying our farewells to our many wonderful friends in the little village in England we have called home for the past 5 year, we arose at what felt like the crack of dawn (though in truth was an hour or two afterward) to embark on our journey to Spain where we will be making our new home. Exhaustion prevents me from waxing too poetic about it all, but suffice to say that surreal is an apt description of how I am feeling at this juncture. Our start this morning was a bit late due to some space issues in the car. As is usual when loading up for a road trip there was more stuff than there was space. Some creative maneuvering and a couple of items being pruned at the last minute, along with the forgotten library book that needed depositing saw us leave the house later than we had planned. We arrived at the Dover port to catch our ferry to Calais at the stroke of 8:30am, which was unfortunately the time that said ferry was setting sail. Lucky for us the fabulous folks at P&O Ferries did not charge us extra to be on the next sailing at 10:00am. Anja and Axel started the journey with a couple hands of cards. I opted for passing the time with an adventure game I am immersed in on my laptop, though it ended up being more nodding off than gaming as the early rising and days of heavy work getting ready caught up with me.

Our ferry docked in France shortly after 11:30am local time (winds must have been on our side because that is a fast crossing), set up the SatNav destination and off we went. Eager to be on our way having had a late start, despite being quite peckish, we decided to wait to eat lunch until after we had been on the road for awhile. Approaching 2:00 we remembered, as we saw several businesses closed for lunch, that in much of France (particularly in the more rural areas, but also in the cities) you need to eat between 12-3 or you are hard pressed to find much more than a roadside pitstop until dinner time rolls around much later in the evening. At that point we said that the next town we came upon (taking the smaller, non-toll roads) we would eat our lunch. Not knowing much other than the most rudimentary geography about region, and in our dazed state of mind, we had no idea of what that might entail. I saw a sign that proclaimed 12 hotels and restaurants so we dutifully followed. Up a winding road we went, into a lovely little town, up up up to the 'ville haute' where it became progressively more scenic with each twist and turn of the narrow lanes. Finally we arrive in the heart of Montreuil Sur Mer, which unbeknown to me has quite the colorful history. We had a nice lunch in a cafe' across from a rather impressive little church


where I realized that while I remember far more French than I thought I did, that I really need to review some of the basics. No surprises on our plates - menu du juor of lasagna for Axel and Anja and a fabulous ham and cheese omelette for me. Yum! I was amused by the name of the brasserie - Le Victor Hugo - so I took a snap of it as we were getting in the car.

Little did I realize that the reason for the name is that Montreuil-Sur-Mer is where much of Les Misérables takes place! That also explains the place mats on the table advertising a grand Les Misérables extravaganza taking place currently. Knowing this now I almost wish I could have stuck around to see it.

The rest of the day is a bit of a blur. Our Sat Nav became possessed around Rouen , where new road construction had it thinking that we were driving in fields. It took us a crazy amount of time to figure out where we were on our not at all detailed road atlas while Beatrice, as we affectionately have named our Sat Nav, did her best to get us hopelessly disoriented. Eventually we were back on track and headed to Le Mans where we checked into a motel for the night well after 9:00pm, ate dinner at a nearby restaurant, and came back to the motel to crash. Well, the others have crashed. I am the fool up on the internet blogging about the day and how tired I am.

Tomorrow we are back on the road to Saint Emilion where we will be spending 3 nights camping, relaxing, and most importantly touring vineyards and tasting delicious wines of the region!

Good night for now from all of us. Keep checking back to read of our exploits. I am going to do my best to get at least a small update each day as we travel to Malaga over the next week, assuming that we have internet access wherever we go.