Guadix

On our way home we stopped in a pueblo named Guadix. There are hundreds of homes built in caves in this town. Some of them are literally caves. No doors or windows just holes. There are others with nice front facades. I even saw a cave kept for the animals. We explores some of the abandoned ones. We also stopped at a ceramic shop off of the side of the road and I bought some regional ceramics. Can't wait to serve spanish food to my friends in them when we get home.

The Alhambra

Monday morning was very cold. (I think our blood has thinned since living here) We had a 9 am entrance into the Nasrid Palace and they are very strict with your entrance time. You can spend the rest of the time wandering and walking about your leisure. The Alhambra was built over many centuries but the Palace was built in the 1300's. It was beautiful. The courtyards, the delicate carvings, and the fountains everywhere. The pictures really don't do it justice. We spent the entire morning walking around Alhambra. We then walked around the city center in Granada looking at the cathedral where Ferdinand and Isabel are buried. Right around the cathedral there are a bunch of gypsy women who are holding out rosemary to give to you. They tell you that they want to give you a gift and then when you take it they demand money. It was a good thing I had read about it before we went. We heard a couple of them getting into huge arguments with others. There are a lot of spice shops set up in the streets around the cathedral. I had a good time stocking up on some of the spices I use.

Sunday in Granada

It was a good thing that we left for church early because the church was not in the spot that the churches website said it was. We did find it in plenty of time and went to sacrament meeting. Afterwards we drove to the neighborhood of the Albaycin. This was the moorish neighborhood on a slope directly across from the Alhambra. It is a great neighborhood. We had a lot of fun wandering in the narrow streets turning every direction going uphill or downhill. Most of the homes and buildings in this neighborhood are white and the streets are all cobblestone. It has wonderful views of the Alhambra. We spent the early afternoon wandering and eating really bad spanish picture food (only because the restaurant that I wanted was closed). We had to be back at our pueblo by four because we were going on an olive tour. The younger kids didn't want to go so it was Brent, Mckenzie, and I. We were picked up and drove just to the village north of us and learned about olive trees. We tried one off of the tree, I wouldn't recommend that. Olives are very bitter. We learned how they extracted the oil in the old days and went to an olive mill from the 15th century. After the tour they gave us an olive oil testing. We sampled 5 different types of olive oils. We learned a lot and bought 2 of the different oils that we tested.

Me Encanta Granada

We had a long weekend with no school Monday and Tuesday so we decided to head out and see some of Spain. We left Saturday morning and took the six hour drive to Granada. We stayed about 15 miles south of Granada in a very small village. The house we rented was very cute and very spanish. After we settled into our house we headed back to Granada to check out the evening happenings. We ended up getting stuck in a traffic jam for an hour and a half. Not fun! After finally getting out of the jam we decided to find a place to eat out of the city center. We stopped at an outdoor mall and ate some really good italian food. After day one I wasn't so sure I liked Granada!

I have a few pics of the house we rented and the village.

Primary Program

It's my favorite time of year. The sacrament meeting primary program. I had a feeling it would be especially entertaining here in Spain and I was not disappointed. The kids here have no piano to sing to or practice with so I knew that would be challenging for them. Brent played the piano for them during the program. The funniest moment was when they sang "Follow the Prophet". They had a child get up and sing a solo for each of the verses and then everybody sang each chorus. The kids were hilarious. There was one kid who was yelling the verse, others couldn't sing with the piano. They didn't know how to listen to the tune or keep time with the piano. Brent tried to keep up but it was impossible. There was one kid who was singing so fast it wasn't even singing. The whole audience couldn't contain themselves.