Salad Monkey and Spanish wine

Europe is a very diverse and interesting place as we've learned.  And what better way to cap off a hectic Autumn than to relax in Spain while admiring beautiful landscapes, old graceful architecture and lovely people with some of the best wine in the world!

Now, some people are probably thinking, "What in the world is the Province of the Salad Monkey and, what does that have to do with Spain?"  It's easy.  "Salad Monkey" is our silly way of saying Salamanca! (it brought many giggles from the girls and to be fair, from Sam!) And that is where we went: the Salamanca Province in Central Spain.  (Salamanca also happens to be Megan's Alma Mater!)

We flew into Valladolid, a couple hours north of Madrid, and set off towards our house in the Sierra de Francia.  We took the scenic route and started out in the River Duoro valley, one of the most prolific wine producing areas of Spain, as evidenced by all the wineries along the road.  Our first stop was a little village in the Duoro region, Penafiel, which was overlooked by a medeival castle.  We didn't have a reason to stop other than it was a crossroad on our journey and they had a market going.  While looking for the market, we stopped in at a Convent that makes very nice (and pricey) wine. 

Can I just say, that should you ever find yourself near an olive tree -don't pluck one off and take a big bite.  There are no words to describe how bitter an uncured/unbrined olive can be.

Things got sweeter when we found a beautiful (and ripe) pomegranate tree.  Deliciously sweet and oh-so messy snack to enjoy.

We were laughed at by the locals in the market because: "who comes to Spain and can't speak Spanish???". Which was all said in Spanish, mind you.  But, with Sam's melange of Central American, Floridian and Catalonian words, we managed to buy provisions: cured ham, dried figs and apples.  We then headed off towards Segovia.  Segovia is a stunningly beautiful town.  It has a Roman Aqueduct, a fairy tale castle and tremendous medieval streets. It was definitely one of the more impressive places we've visited in Europe.

The girls were a bit confused with the idea of babies drinking from a wolf so, they had a quick course in the founding of Rome by Romulus.  It didn't help though... still disturbing, right?

After taking in the sights, we headed off towards the Sierra de Francia mountains and our Spanish Villa!  We drove through what looked a bit like Kansas before getting into some nicer landscapes.  The Sierra de Francia are South West of Salamanca, to the North of Extremadura and on the border with Portugal.  They were named after the French settlers which were brought in to populate the area long ago after the expulsion of the Moors ("the card says MOOPS!").  It was really a beautiful area, especially as we climbed out of the plains and through the Campo Charro; home to bulls and Iberian pigs.

We stayed in a fantastic old house in a tiny village, Villanueva del Conde.  It was right in las montanas and run by a fantastic family, who spoke French, Spanish and very little English.  In fact, we may have been the first English visitors to the area as we were regularly greeted with "Bonjour".  It was really neat.  The house and village were absolutely gorgeous.

There were a couple tabernas (tavern), a tienda (village shop) with dubious business hours, narrow lanes and a play ground.

 

 
The neighbors were fantastic.  And Los Hombres were super tough...

The surrounding mountains, orchards, vines and villages were equally stunning.  The mountainsides had been terrace farmed for centuries with vines, olives and cherries.



And the views... Wow.  Absolutely amazing.

We drove into Salamanca on the sunniest day and really admired the grace and charm of the town.  We had a fantastic lunch in the Plaza Mayor and watched people for a while.

It was such a nice city, the sandstone was absolutely perfect and glowing in the sunlight.  A wonderful day.

We headed back to Villanueva del Conde that afternoon and Sam went off to find some local wine.  The Bodega was just down the road in the next village so, he didn't think to take a camera.  After all, what could possibly happen on a 2km drive to Garcibuey, the next village???  I'll let Sam tell you this story of his...

Well, the bodega was closed, so I walked through town, admiring the spray painted hammer & sickles on everything and then drove to the next nearest large village: Sequeros.  Sequeros was quite a bit larger so, I had to walk through the medieval streets (wandering mostly) and ended up outside of the town where two old ladies asked me what I was looking for and renamed me: 'Chico'.  I explained that I was looking for a tienda to buy some wine.  They laughed and sent me back into the village with a string of directions, of which all I could get out it was to go back into town.  Wandering through town again, I met 2 more old ladies who took me to another house, where another old lady took me to the edge of town near an old slaughterhouse and orchards.  She then started yelling: "Juaaaan! Juaniiiiito!" at the top of her lungs.  All the while she kept showing me these big glass jars which were full of some type of meat chunks (it was just as strange as it sounds).  After a few minutes of shouting, a guy emerges from the fields about 100 meters away and starts walking towards us.  In my fantastic, mispronounced Spanish (and while watching the old woman dish out the  meat chunks to some stray cats), I explained that I wanted to buy some wine and was looking for the tienda.  The old lady left me to Juan who directed us back into town.  I don't think I really feared for my life, as the Spanish folks were a good foot shorter than I am.  Then Juanito took me to a rundown rowhouse and into the basement...  Turns out, Juanito was a budding winemaker and all the old ladies sent me to him and not the tienda...  So, he showed me the laboratory (which was now stainless steel as that didn't infect the wine as much as the wood used to...) to make wine, moonshine, limoncello and, smoked hams.  All in this rundown, dirt-floored basement.  He then broke out some wine, limoncello and moonshine and he and I sat in this dirt floor basement and had a blast!  I finally made it home to Kelly and the girls about 2 hours later with a couple of homemade bottles of Spanish Red wine and heck of a story!  But augh -no pictures!!!
(And now, everytime Sam buys wine, he walks in a store and yells "Juaniiiito!!!".  Much to everyone's chagrin...)

The next day was a bit rainy so, we hung out and explored some of the local villages.  The locals were some of the most friendly folks we have ever met.  Absolutely nice and beautiful people.  We even met a couple from Catalonia!  They had moved here to run a souvenir shop of all things.  Which seemed a bit odd as we were the only tourists in town at that time.  But, we had a good time talking with them and then headed back to relax in our villa.

 

We woke to heavy rain the next morning but, that was ok.  The region had been in a drought for a while so, it was welcomed.  We were also leaving that day so, we drove out through the Sierras for the airport.  On the way, we were treated to an up-close and personal view of some of the most rare wildlife in the area: Golden Eagles!  Actually, we nearly hit them with our car as they flew out of a tree next to the road...

We had a good flight to England and a loooonnnng train ride home.  We were back to Darley at nearly 2200.  A long day.  But, no worries, it was now Christmas time in England!

But, we have a very fond place in our hearts for Spain and its people.

Molly in the spotlight

Molly and I really do enjoy our time together while Sandy is at school. She loves to scooter through the village at top speed, is starting to read like her big sister (it scares me how much she picks up) and is still willing to lie still for a 9 1/2 minute 'nap' with me once a week (if I'm lucky). Did you know that Molly will be turning FOUR in two weeks?? She's such a little goofy, giggly girl -full of cuddles and love (...and we can't leave out that she's an awful lot like her Da: a bit stubborn and full of strong opinions) ha!!

One afternoon, Molly and I played with the camera rolling.
'Peppa Pig' is one of the fun little British cartoons we get to watch Saturday mornings and here is her interpretation of Peppa:




Here is one other little nursery rhyme that she loves -sorry for the camera work (and my need for a pedicure) but the accent makes it worth watching!

"This Little Piggy"


So, after listening to her accent for the last 2 years, we wonder what in the world will she sound like after she lives in the states for a while? All we've ever known is for Molly to speak like a local Yorkshire-girl... any chance she'll just keep it forever??

We can hope!

Don't Blink!

What a month!  We expected October to be a busy time with company, halloween and the possibility of hearing about a move!  And we did hear: Ohio in the middle of May.  Next May... 8 months away!  Talk about heads spinning...  It took us until mid November to really wrap ourselves around the idea that we would be leaving the UK, boooooo.  Last call sucks! 

It was a shock!  We expected to hear from the Air Force but, to be honest, we thought the numbers would either leave us here or put us in Alabama in August.  What a shock when Sam came home and told us that we were heading to the Miami Valley...  and not the valley near Miami, Florida and Key Largo...  but Southern Ohio, Dayton to be exact.  He was selected to attend the Air Force Institute of Technology for a Masters Degree in Air and Space Systems Engineering.  It's a one year program which runs from June 2010 to June 2011.  Beyond that, we really don't know what, or where, we will be!

But, back to Autumn 2009.  At least we think we had an Autumn 2009...

We had the pleasure of Gran B visiting us for a few days in October.  The girls loved seeing her and we had a great time.  It was a busy time: The Darley Primary School Harvest play and Halloween Dance were huge successes!

Sandy won a prize for the best costume: she was an Ice Princess!   Way to go!

The cows in the back pasture broke the fence and invaded our garden!

Sam got out to the Lake District for a 20 mile jaunt along a Roman Road.  This was the road called High Street.  It's still there, 2000 years later!

We even made it up to one of our favorite places, Loch Fyne Scotland for a few days.  Unfortunately, Scotland decided to bless us with some classic Scottish weather: buckets of rain, howling wind and bone-chilling cold.  It was a bit rough, but still a fantastic time!

Sam did make it up a couple of the more remote peaks in the area but, it wasn't the nicest of ascents.  Especially with the Scottish Trolls under bridges!

After a couple days of gayle force winds, rain and spinning heads, we decided to head south for England and get ready for Gran B to cross back to the States and our trip to Galway, Ireland!

Galway is on the West Coast of Ireland, near the Connemara national park and just south of Donegal and Northern Ireland.  We booked the trip back in August without really thinking we would be wrapping our heads around a move but, managed to get enough clean clothes in a backpack to make a run at it.

We were a bit taken back at the Manchester airport when we saw our plane: a 2 prop special.  The flight was nice and quick but, a bit loud.  We made it to Galway and weren't quite sure where we were.  Did we manage to board the wrong flight and land in Central America???  After flying the cheap airlines in Europe, we were used to disembarking on the tarmac and running through the rain to get in the terminal.  But, this was the first time for Kelly that the terminal, baggage claim, immigration, rental cars and coffee shop were all in the same tiny hangar.  Sam swears he saw the same in Belize back in the late 80's...

We managed to bribe (literally) the Polish guy managing the rental car desk into giving us a bigger car with child seats and hit the road.  Calling these roads was a bit of a stretch.  West Ireland must have the WORST roads in all of the EU.

But, the house we booked was in Oughterard.  About 50KM north of Galway city.  The house was absolutely fantastic!  Lots of room, heat and a HUGE flat screen to watch Battlestar Galactica.... which we did every night!

Some of the sights we took in were Connemara national park (which could have been one of the remotest, loneliest places we've been), Kylemore Abbey, Sligo (the childhood home of William Butler Yeats) and Northern Ireland.

Connemara was one of the remotest, loneliest places we've passed through.  Not much was happening there.  Small, winding roads.  Open heathlands, mist shrouded hills, dark mysterious loughs.  It was very Tolkienesque, all that was missing was Gollum...

Kylemore Abbey was on the edge of Connemara.  It was a bit odd.  A restored Victorian Girls school and Abbey, mostly paid for by Americans.  Which turned out to be a strange phenomenon.

The Victorian Gardens at Kylemore were nice.  Especially for Sandy, who was studying Victorian England in school.

We had no idea but, this part of Ireland seemed to swarming with Americans.  It was really weird.  Especially when we went to Sligo.  Our waiter was even an American.  Or, maybe we were just getting really accustomed to the Irish accents... But the town was fairly nice.  Especially around the river front.

One thing worth mentioning about the trip to Sligo were the roads.  Again, quite possibly the WORST roads in all of the UK.  We drove about 250KM (150miles) and it took nearly 8 hours!!!! And that was on the main North South artery in all of Western Ireland!!!

Enough about the roads.  Sligo wasn't just on the list for being the childhood home of William Butler Yeats, Kelly's grandfather's family was from County Donegal, just north of there.  So, we drove through the County Donegal but, alas, there were no Bonners with signs looking for long, lost foreign relatives...but the scenery was spectacular!

Another reason for the long drive was to cross the "border" into Northern Ireland.  Which we did at the river between Blacklion, Ireland and Belcoo, Northern Ireland.  We weren't really sure what to expect.  Would there be a "border", immigration checks, police checks, British Army???  Nope.  To be honest, the only difference we noticed were the street signs.



Ireland uses continental European signs and Northern Ireland uses British signs.  That was about it.  So, we headed to the Peace park on the border and let the girls play with the Irish kids and the swans for a while before making the drive back to Galway.

The next couple of days were really rough weather.  Very bad storms with strong winds.  Which gave us some good time to read horror fiction stories, think about Ohio and panic.  We then bought some wine and planned trips to Spain and Portugal for November and January.

Our flight home was extremely "fun".  As we were making our southerly approach through the storm clouds at high speed and low altitude, Kelly and all the other passengers on the leeward side of the plane were making really high pitched, nervous sounds and breaking into a cold sweat, and developing a healthy phobia of plane landings, while Sandy and Molly laughed and giggled about the roller coaster ride.  Seriously, the plane wing was probably only a couple of inches from touching dirt before a hard shift to port and a bouncy touch down. 

It seemed that the weather was keying off our spinning heads and was very unsettled.  Let's find the car and get back to Yorkshire!

We settled down from our Irish vacation to celebrate Guy Fawkes week, or as Sam likes to call it, 'Burn the Dude Day'.  The bonfires and fireworks were a bit smaller than last year but, we had a good time anyway.

We had now settled down and accepted the move to Ohio so, we could enjoy a wonderful vacation to Central Spain to get over the tumultuous Fall so far! That was after Sam came back from a 2 week TDY to the states...  there was a not too happy family back in England... But he did manage to use his free time to find a fantastic house in the Salamanca provence!

And, we had a visit from Poppa!  And his Iphone, with which the girls are naturals at using...

After the busy, busy and fleeting Autumn, we needed a vacation.  Thank goodness for cheap European flights...Vamos a Espana!