Time keeps on slipping

                             

Well the holidays are finally behind us and what a holiday season it was. There was no Thanksgiving but there was Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Years and Three Kings Day (and don't forget the everything is closed on Sundays in Spain) it felt like we were in celebration mode for 3 weeks straight.

Madrid

Everyone needs a craper in their nativity scene

New Years Eve 12 grapes 

A piece of Rosca de Reyes (Three Kings Cake)

Our time in Spain was wonderful, after we left the Costa del Sol we stopped in Madrid for a few days. It was an interesting city where we were slightly overwhelmed with the holiday shopping crowds and the lack of English.  We encountered our first travel hiccup that cost us an additional $300 and 8 hours (and a bad hair cut) but no complaints as this trip could have gone wrong so many times.

We spent our holidays in Barcelona house sitting for an awesome family with a fun dog named Poppy. We had a great time house/pet sitting, shared a few dinners together, attended the Three Kings parade and they even allowed us stay on a few more days once they returned home. Tatum immediately took to their youngest daughter and has not stopped talking about her or Poppy since we left. Every dog we see, black or white looks like Poppy, she is neither.
                                                   

Poppy and I

Making Christmas cookies

Barcelona was a very fun city! Those of you without a child will probably not appreciate this as much but they have wonderful wide and flat sidewalks which make pushing a stroller for miles a joy. Barcelona is one of those cities where you just need to get lost, turn left or right and just wander the streets exploring the little shops, eating tapas and being in awe of the amazing architecture. We did the typical sites like the Sagrada Familia and the Park Guell but we did not pay the entry fee for either one due to having a toddler and a stroller, we don't feel like we missed out on anything. We strolled along the beach and had amazing weather in January, so much there were nude sun bathers or maybe just ocean swimmers no matter what they were nude and it was January. Spain was not my food inspiration city and I think it was the language barrier, looking back I should have come more prepared. I never found any particular dishes that spoke to me, paella is a given as is Jamon and of course the manchega cheese. I did however enjoy the abundance of oranges,, figs and dates. I will be coming home with my bag full of saffron and vanilla beans too.
                                             

Selfie stick success

Sagrada Familia

Hanging in the park

Playing in Sitges

A stroll on the beach in January

The first part of January we headed to Italy with a brief stop over in Nice, France. I knew because of pictures that the Mediterranean coast was beautiful but the Cote' d Azur was spectacular. We took the train from Barcelona to Nice so we passed through a lot of little towns but once we left Marseille, France and we were just blown away by the beauty. If you can, you must travel by train and see from the inside out.
We had a great time in Nice walking the Promenade des Anglais, shopping at the Cours Saleya farmers market (fresh lavender, beautiful winter vegetables and fruit abound) and wandering the streets of old town. We stumbled upon a little place for lunch that sounded interesting and fit our budget (we typically made and brought our own sandwiches), it was a Tunisian cafe so we ordered a brik,wonderful thin pastry filled with a whole egg, tuna, parsley and harrisa and then fried. This caught my culinary interest and will be tried back in the states.

                                                 

Nice, France

Brik and a hot mint tea

Fishing at sunset

Afer a few days in Nice we traveled on by train to San Remo, Italy a quaint little costal town not to far from the French border. Little did I know when we booked it,  but San Remo has a significant history dating back to the Medieval Times, a famous song festival held at the Ariston Theater (think American Idol but a lot lot older) and a world famous casino. We have really enjoyed walking up the hillside stairs twisting and turning to be pleasantly surprised by magnificent and old architecture. We have logged a lot of miles walking the coast line and each time we see something new. We have found a cute cafe that over looks the Mediterranean where we order a cappuccino, grab a table and sit in awe of the beauty and our life.
                                                                 

Postcard worthy 

San Remo Steps

Beautiful

Historic 

Italian Song Festival 

San Remo Casino 

Dried and salted cod - Baccala

From dried and salted to this 

Life is good

                                                                     

Sand between my toes

An English Fall

Newcastle Science Museum

It's been a while since my last entry, and things have slowed down a bit this last month. The weather has turned and daily we check to see if we will be encountering a grey and rainy day. We can't complain too much as we have been pretty lucky overall, but it has forced us to stay indoors some days which isn't always a bad thing.

We are now in a village called Garforth which is basically a suburb of Leeds in the Yorkshire area of the UK. Garforth is a quiet village full of charity shops, a butcher, a few bakeries, and pubs (of course). To help with some of the down time I was able to find an opportunity to volunteer with the Neighborhood Elderly Team (NET) which provides social activities for the elderly as well as in-home visits, phone calls, etc. It is a wonderful program that I wish we had back in the states, sometimes just a few hours spent with friends can change a persons outlook especially for the elderly. I volunteered twice a week for 4 hours, serving coffee, chatting, helping with trivia (although I knew hardly any answers as they were all British related), it really served me more than it probably did them and I had a blast.

A yard in Garforth. All done with plant pots

Something about fall and baking

There is so much more to England than just London and since we were here for three months we decided to see some sites that most Americans don't do while on vacation. Transportation here is pretty expensive so we decided to buy a Rail Rover which allowed us to travel 4 days within 8 days; lucky for us the never checked so we traveled for 6. We have now visited both the east and west coast (Blackpool and Scarborough), spent a day wandering in York with our friend Ralph who I think bought something in every shop he passed. Wandered upon some of the most charming villages I have ever seen such as Newcastle, Hebden Bridge and Harrogate, and had it not been fall they may have looked like any other town. The orange, yellow and brown colored leaves were the perfect backdrop for the architecture that spanned hundreds of years, truly breathtaking and a must for all. We did all of this sans a car using only local transportation such as trains and buses.

York river front

York Minster

One of many stained glass windows

The fall colors 

Ralph and his infamous photo pose

York once was a walled city

Laura and Ralph on the train

Along with finding a volunteer opportunity I also had the chance to work with a life coach. The timing was perfect. I am on a 9 month adventure with the desire to be more present in my life, to do what truly makes me happy, so no excuses about time or energy as I have a lot!!! It is a work in progress and every day I am reminded of the gift I have given to myself and to be grateful for what I have. The bonus is spending every day with Laura and our 2 year old daughter for 9 months, watching her explore and discover,  grow and develop. It has been amazing and some days a little challenging I won't lie.

The Newcastle millennium tilting bridge

Newcastle city center

Avoided this :)

The Newcastle castle

Newcastle

Newcastle has as many bridges as Portland

We leave Garforth on the 28th and head to Bristol which is west of London. We will be close to Bath, Cardiff and places like Stonehenge and according to Laura we will get to see the most recent Banksy piece.  We will be able to enter the Schengen area again on November 13 and will start out in Malaga Spain and hopefully some warm sunny weather.

Scarborough

Playing in the sand

Harrogate

Fall beauty 

It's not about the gift it's about the gratitude

An amazing backdrop

Harrogate park

Downtown Harrogate

My life!