Home at Last.....Safely

Well, folks, we're home. We've not been home for 24 hours, but it was quite easy to shift modes.
When we last blogged, we were winding down our visit to Sevilla. We had a great time there! The capital of tapas did not disappoint!

We arrived in Toledo Sunday afternoon. Toledo is in central Spain and the terrain and food were quite different from what we had experienced. Founded by the Visigoths in the 6th Century, old Toledo is an old, hilly town surrounded by walls. At first, it seemed to be the slowest, not to mention most expensive, city we'd visited so far. I thought for sure we'd be bored. I'm glad I was wrong.

The drive from Sevilla to Toledo was the longest leg of our trip. It was also one of the prettiest. Having made the long drive from Texas to California, this was very similar, but much more picturesque. The canyons and the colors were gorgeous! The scenery definitely made the drive easier.

When we finally settled into our hotel, we set out for a bite to eat. At this point, I was still not 100% better, but I could at least move a little quicker. After scouting a few restaurants, we thought we were destined to spend a fortune on a meal. Compared to the rest of Spain, the restaurants in Toledo are quite a bit more expensive! Finally, we settled at a cheaper, but local restaurant. The food was okay for the time, but after that we made it a point to stay clear of that area of town for eating.

After our siesta, we walked for a couple of hours and were pleased to find a pinchos place. I still wasn't able to bring my A-game but I did sample a couple of Kevin's pinchos. Yum! A couple of hours later we found a reputable place for dinner. It was local and didn't open until nine in the evening. No catering to the tourists!

The next day we visited the Toledo cathedral. It was gorgeous! One wouldn't think that for such a small area that you could find a cathedral of this caliber. It was pretty big. There were many works from Greco, and in fact his home and museum is located in Toledo. Unfortunately, both were closed and we could not visit.

After our visit to the cathedral, we went to the Museum of Medieval Torture Devices. I can deal with the macabre, at least on a campy level, but I was pretty disturbed by what I saw. Water torture has been around since at least the Inquisition, and after reading and seeing how it was practiced then (and replicated now) I can say that it's definitley torture. Don't believe the hype! It's torture. Oh! And don't get me started on that chastity belt either!

For the final leg of our journey we drove to Zaragoza. I'll admit I was intrigued by the fact that my father had visited about 40 + years before and wanted to be able to say that we visited the same place. When I spoke to my father though, he said he didn't remember a thing about the place.

The Water Expo is going on right now. It's advertised all over the city. However, we didn't see any sort of info of events but that was alright since we only had one day. We found a cool wine bar around the corner from our "hotel." I won't go into why I'm putting hotel in quotes because I don't want to waste space, but let's just say we at least had a place to rest our heads. Unfortunately, the pillows sucked.

After our final siesta of our holiday, we made our way to the cathedral. Toledo was hit pretty hard during the Spainsh Civil War, but the cathedral managed to escape. There was some damage but it's been maintained beautifully. We were able to take the elevator to the observation deck for a view of the city. It was extremely windy, but that didn't obstruct our view. If there was one thing we noticed from our trip, it was that some of the grandest cathderals are found in the smaller towns and villages.

We walked around the town and saw the old Roman forum. Most people, myself included, have no idea of how far the Roman empire reached. In more than a few places in Spain, we saw a few of their ruins. They are impressive.

To end our night, we had one last vino tinto de verano (a wine and lemonade cocktail that's surprising good) and had some tapas. Chorizo stewed in cider is a beautiful thing. We finished at the wine bar where this time we sat at the bar and had a good conversations with two of the waitstaff. They were from Colombia and we got on very well with them.

In the morning, we finally sample the churros and chocolate. The hot chocolate is nothing like it is back home. You can practically stand the churros in the hot chocolate. It's like drinking mud, but yummy mud. After our high sugar breakfast, we made our way to the Barcelona airport.
Once again, the drive didn't disappoint. We drove through wine country and it was beautiful. Even the rain that managed to stay during our holiday didn't dampen the scenery, but I have to say that we were relieved once we reached the airport. By this point, we counldn't wait to be back in the UK.

I wish I could the flight back was pleasant but it wasn't. When I wasn't having to endure the child kicking my chair for most of the flight, the entire plane got to hear her child have screaming fits while their parents pretended not to hear. After we landed, we learned that it could've been worse. We heard that a jet burst into flames just off the runway in Madrid. All of a sudden, cranky children didn't seem so bad.

We received an urgent e-mail on Kevin's iPhone from my sister wanting to make sure we were alright. I left a message with her but I made sure to call my mom. Like most moms, my mom is a worrier multiplied by a thousand. I don't say that to make fun of her because I guess I'm the same way, but I've learned to calm down at least a little. She was worried and had pretty much spent her day glued to the news when she and her boss weren't trying to find out if Kevin and I were on the flight. I was happy to talk to her and she was just overcome with relief and happiness. After speaking to her, I couldn't help but wonder about those people whose family members had to come to terms with losing their loved ones in such a tragic way.

In any case, we'll be posting our photos within the next few days to our Flickr site. Give them a look and we hope you like them and have a great rest-of-the-summer!