Trip to Spain!!

Andy and I recently returned from Spain! We had a great time. We used Andy's sister and brother-in-law as an excuse to go. They are living in Spain while he serves as a mission president. It was fun to see them for a few days and we loved touring around with Amy and Mike. We were so impressed with Spain and the variety of things to do and see! Every day was a great adventure!!

Our tour guide - Andy (with a little help from Rick Steve!!)

And of course our trip would not have been possible without a FABULOUS grandma!!! She deserves the mom of the year award for all she did. The kids had soooooo much fun with her. She was such a good sport to do this for us. Not only was she taking care of the kids for 10 days but had to also keep Ethan's diabetes under control and do the shots and finger pricks!!!!
Enjoy all of the pictures below. I posted a LOT of pictures! It was way too hard to select just a few from our trip. Every place we went was so wonderful!!!

High Speed Train

We traveled by bus, airplane, metro, and train on our trip. I'm so impressed with public transportation in Europe. Here I am in the train station. It was a beautiful train station. Check out the cool tiled walls!!

Amy and Andy getting ready to get on the high speed train from Toledo to Madrid

Toledo

Toledo is a REALLY old city that use to be the capital of Spain. It is a walled-in city. Everything in the city is old and they've done a good job to keep it that way.

Look how narrow the streets are. We had to flatten ourselves up against the buildings when cars would drive by!!

This us to be an orphanage in Toledo.

Here are more of the cute old men you see everywhere. They get all dressed up to go sit in the nearest plaza. We were all fascinated with the cute old people.

In planning our trip we knew the ONE thing Amy really had to do was buy marzapan in toledo. I can't say I am a fan of it but at least she finally got her marzapan!!!

We found Andy and Mike like this a lot.....studying their maps and rick steve books! While they were doing that Amy and I managed to find our way into some stores to look at pottery, buy treats, or just look at the cute old people.

Segovia/La Granja

The Alcazar castle in Segovia. This was one of my favorite things we saw. The surrounding countryside was also picture perfect.

Andy and Mike outside of the castle

View from inside the castle

The beautiful countryside

Cathedral in Segovia

Isn't this so pretty?

This is the coolest Roman Aqueduct in Segovia. It was a massive 9 mile aqueduct

We had fun walking along the side of the aqueduct. Look how beautiful the houses are. The detail on the walls of the home are pretty.
We took a quick side trip to La Granja. They call it the "Little Versailles" It was a pretty palace.


Here are the grounds from there.

Madrid

We flew from Barcelona to Madrid and after checking into our hotel we went to the Royal Palace which is still in use today. It was HUGE!

I love these gardens

One of the funniest things of the entire trip happened in this moment. Some women who couldn't speak English or Spanish approached us wanting us to pay them if they'd give us back rubs. Well I am never one to turn down a back rub. However, we kept telling them "No!" But then the lady said she'd just quickly show me how it'd feel and she lowered the price. I was totally stuck. How could I possibly say no. It felt good after a LONG day of walking. Not only did we get awesome back and head rubs but then they ripped off our shoes and socks and rubbed our nasty sweaty feet. Amy and I were laughing sooooo hard. It was definitely a moment you had to be there for but I will never forget it! (I think it was entertaining for our husbands! They just sat back taking pictures of us and shooing off others trying to give them back rubs!)

We LOVED the old people in Spain. They were all over the place and always dressed up really nice like this man. They dress up fancy just to go feed the pigeons or take a walk through the park. So cute!

Look at the cool buildings in the background. Everywhere you go in Barcelona and Madrid the buildings look like this. They are old but BEAUTIFUL!!! We were very impressed with how clean and well kept everything was. I love all of the colorful buildings too.

Check out the size of this fish!!
Bull Fight
I was really excited when we got tickets to a bull fight. I thought it was guy running round trying not to get killed by a bull. I thought it was more like a rodeo. Well, obviously I didn't know what a bull fight was really all about......
They spear the bull who knows how many times and put on a show throughout the evening. Ultimately the bull falls to it's death. They did this to 6 bulls the night we went. It felt a bit barbaric although I will say it was fascinating to see this part of their culture. I would never choose to see another fight again though.
And the ice cream happened just about everyday. It is soooooo good and we walked soooooo many miles everyday that we probably should have had 2 ice creams a day!!! Ha!

More of Barcelona

We had a GREAT time in the bocaria in Las Ramblas. This is a huge market that sells tons of fruit, fish, meat, candy, nuts..... The display of everything is amazing. We LOVED it!!!

Sick!!! Yes, you are seeing that right.....the hooves are still attached!!!!

Dinner anyone?!?!? We saw LOTS of interesting things here!

Here we are at Park Guell. It was the coolest place. We spent a long time walking through it and looking at the fascinating things made by Gaudi. I am extremely fascinated with him.

We are sitting on a really cool bench. the back has the coolest tiles. I LOVED it.

This is what the back of the bench looks like

This is still in Park Guell. Does this remind you of the smurf homes?