Merry Christmas!

Spain

Spain: Dec. 2-13, 2010

We had a blast!

But we also had one of the biggest disappointments of our married life too.

We had planned on spending the first 5 days of our trip in and around Milan, Italy. Our friends Aid and Beck, from England, were flying to meet us. We had it all set up. Rental car, hotels, flights, the works...45 minutes before we were scheduled to depart Madrid, the air traffic controllers in Spain (all of them, at every airport) went on STRIKE!

Needless to say many tears were shed and we were crushed. No Italy this time around.

Enjoy the pictures from our trip!

Thanks El Presidente y Hermana Clegg!!! We really had the most fun just seeing you two and being together!

And Thanks, Thanks, Thanks Grandma Annie Beach for watching our little ones and doing such a great job (minus 1 t.v.!!!). Grace still tells me every day that she really misses you!

Day 1: Madrid

This still cracks me up...this is the line for the lotto. Lines like this were EVERYWHERE. In every city and in every lotto shop. Too funny.

Day 2: Seville
Christopher Columbus' Tomb

The food wasn't the greatest...nice huh?!? Garrett did eat it too! He was brave on the trip and tried a lot of crazy things...like ox tail. I didn't get a picture of that though.

Day 3: Doing mission firesides, etc. Just in and around the mission as we headed home to Fuengirola, Spain.
Day 4: Mijas
There are bull fighting rings in every town, be it large or small. And they usually have a bullfight every sunday. They sell the tickets based on being in the sun or the shade. The bull ring in Mijas was the smallest one we saw and we saw many, but it still sat 1000 people.




There are white hill towns everywhere. They were so cute and unique to spain. They were my favorite!

Day 5: Fuegirola and Nerja "The Balcony of Europe"

The Mediterranean Sea was gorgeous!


Here we are standing on "The Balcony of Europe."

Day 6: Gibraltar & Marbella
We went to the top of the Rock...and had the dirties chain smoking tour guide EVER, named Jackie. He knew a lot but smoked even more!!!

Gibraltar is owned by England. You can use the Euro or the English pound, but they have their own gibraltan pound as well. Totally worthless though everywhere but in Gibraltar.

There are TONS of apes on top of the rock. Now they are native but were brought there.

On top of the rock you can see Africa in the distance. Morocco to be exact!

There are 35 miles of tunnels that were dug out of the rock. And cannons placed inside to fortify the strait of gibraltar against attack. It was really cool!
We had a great meal of fish and chips!


We headed to the resort town of Marbella that evening to do some shopping and see what it was like. Southern Spain is gorgeous!


Day 7: Granada & The Alhambra

So much history! It was an experience for sure!









Day 8: Ronda and Antequera
Where bullfighting is said to have begin...in Ronda. This ring can seat 5000 people. But they only hold their bullfighting 1 week a year. It was be really fun to see a bullfight.






Here wer are at the castle in Antequera.
The view from on top.





Day 9: Malaga
Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain, but left when he was 19 and never came back. They have a smallish collection in a museum there and we thought it was be fun. Then we did some shopping and caught a train to back to Madrid to start our long 2 day journey home.

We spent the last day in NYC and did some shopping and saw Harry Potter. Then we were home in our beds monday night. We missed the kids and it was great to be home! It's strange but sometimes you never even feel like we were gone!