Our Spanish Adventure

Spain has always been a part of Neal, always, at least since the beginning of "us".  Neal spent 2 years of his life in Spain, and we met just weeks after his return to the USA.   Embedded in the only Neal I have ever known, there has always been the famous Spanish Tortilla, the serenading of Julio Iglesias (while my hand was being used as a microphone) and the speaking perfect Castilian with an unmistakable Spanish lisp.  How in the world could we have waited 14 whole years to visit this mysterious, beautiful, and unique country together? 4 Kids, 6 moves and 9 deployments later, the stars finally aligned and off we went!  Thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law for taking extra special care of our very energetic clan, we were able to go alone...for 10 whole days!!

It was an adventure from Day 1: Early Tuesday morning, May 22nd at 3am, we boarded a C-17 out at Norfolk Naval Air Station.  One of the pilots coincidentally was one of Neal's U-2 friends, which was an added unexpected bonus.  We got to sit with he and his crew in the cockpit for a while, which was spectacular!  We arrived at Rota Air Station in Rota, Spain around 6:30pm (after an 8 hour flight).

We rented a tiny little Chevy Spark the very next morning and drove up to Sevilla, which was a wonderful intro to an old Spanish city.  It was such a blast to just get a map and explore!  We ate, shopped, toured cathedrals, ate more, shopped more...you get the idea.  Pretty much the same drill every place we went, except every town we stopped through was very unique. Toledo was next, (with a short stop in a tiny town, Trujillo, that we explored for a few hours).  Toledo was fabulous, the Hotel was fabulous, with a Ferrari convention going on.  The city was a spectacular sight to see, up on a hill and all lit up at dusk, with one of the most gorgeous Cathedrals in Spain.  We stayed 2 days in Toledo, then made our way up to Burgos for a few hours, which also had a gorgeous Catheral and castle, then onto Bilbao.  We stayed in Portugualete, just outside Bilbao.  Spent 3 nights in Bilbao, then onto San Sebastian (and one of the most beautiful beaches in the world) for an afternoon, and then Pamplona.  Spent a night in Pamplona, ran with the bulls the next morning  (actually we just imagined them running with us as we ran the course a month before the real event will take place).  Our last stop was Segovia, which was recommended to us by my friend Jennifer.  One of our favorite stops, the Alcazar (very Disney-looking castle) and Cathedral there were just breath-taking and different than anything else we had seen, and we are so glad we made it there.  Plus our hotel was right in the Plaza Mayor, and our room had a balcony view of the Cathedral, which was just fantastic!  Although it turned out to be a very brief stop, late the same evening we arrived, we found out we had to book it (7 hours) back to Rota early the next morning to catch a hop on a C-5 back to the states.  And after a fabulous, incredibly amazing tour of Spain, we were on our way home.  We missed our kids and were so glad to see them and to get back to the routine of life, and at the same time our hearts were already missing Spain.  If you ever have a chance to go to Europe, go to Spain! Spain does not get the credit it deserves, and I highly recommend it!
(Next time we we drag along a tripod so we can be in pictures together. I will add iphone pictures of us together when I get a chance)

Sevilla:

Trujillo:

Toledo (more pictures of Toledo to come, most were on the iphone):

  Burgos:

A rare piece of art in the Burgos Cathedral depicting Gethsemane, which is not commonly seen.  Thought it was a very beautiful representation.

I forgot to mention that Neal was able to see his dear friend Anna and her family, who he met on his mission 15 years ago, but has not seen since. It was a wonderful and really neat reunion to witness!  Great family!!

  

We had a beautiful view of the Colgante Bridge just outside our hotel window, right on the river in Portugualete.

San Sebastian

Pamplona

Segovia

 We didn't get this view of the Alcazar until evening, so this was the best my camera would do at night from a distance, with no zoom.

Yum!  It looks disgusting but I will be a witness, this roasted baby pig was absolutely delicious!