Spain- Part II (Madrid, Avila, Tapia)

As promised, part II of holiday snaps from Spain. They're a little mixed up but we know you don't care.. Seems like a very long time ago now...

1st up Madrid and Avila (walled city outside Madrid)

-With Fi at Madrid's Plaza Mayor

-Wine and awesome sizzling prawns at the traditional 'La casa del Abuelo' Bar in Madrid .. mmm Excellent! :) and.. it's been around since 1906! so so yum. a must if you're in Madrid. http://www.lacasadelabuelo.es/index.htm
- Dinner with Madrid friend Angela

-Creepy door handle in Avila...

-It's her house ... (Santa Teresa de Avila)
-Big door for Ivan, little door for Elena... an interesting idea for our next home? maybe even with our own custom made tile painting on the wall ..'Esta es nuestra casa' ?? and creepy door handle??

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- Avila: walking around the walls... quite terrific!

- Locals chatting outside the wall (very cliche, I know)

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Up next - Beautiful Tapia on the north west coast of Spain...
5 relaxing brilliant winter days (3 sunny) at Elena's parents' holiday house.

-Port of Tapia by day, by dusk, by night (nice work little camera!)
-The Local Beach

- At the family 'home', in our element (our home away from home away from home)

- Nearby village of Viavelez... just so pretty

oh no!!! where did Elena go.?

-NYE in Tapia...
It seems to be some sort of very sad local tradition to finish up NYE night at the really bad disco... with complimentary party accessories included in the exhorbitant entry fee.

but then again.... the place wasn't exactly buzzing.... perhaps just a very sad family tradition?

Who knows? But... it is the only photos we have...

- Ivan and new found buddy Nano (Elena's cousin's fiancee)

NB: Elena taking photos at 5am, so officially still awake! a new record?

nb: sometimes the formatting is a nightmare..

Christmas, family, Spain

As most of you probably know, we have spent the last couple of weeks in Spain catching up with Elena’s extended family.

1st -a few nights in Madrid with Elena's sister Fi (still waiting on some photos, so will post these up later..)... then up to Oviedo in the north of Spain for 5 days including Christmas... then another 5 days in Elena's family home in Tapia on the north coast... all in all 2 glorious weeks.

But for now, here are some photos of our stay in Oviedo.

For your reference- This is where Oviedo and Tapia are :

View Larger Map

Some Snaps:

View from our guesthouse (curtesy of Elena's v. generous cousin Cris),

Lunch is served at abuela's house : The classic dish of fried egg, served on rice with chorizo stuffing (picadillo)...mmmmmm

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In Oviedo with Family...
After lunch photo (with Blanqui, Pepa, Alfonso, Abuela & Alfonso)

Christmas day lunch (with little Lucas, Alex, Isa, Blanqui, Cris, Paloma, Pablo (some missing from photo)

Christmas eve dinner (with Paty, Emili0 & Nacho (some missing from photo)
A foggy late night walk to the guesthouse

With Alfonso
With paty, Nacho and little Luna

Off exploring nearby
Off to see the Asturian bear and go for a walk with Elena's cousin Jesus. The bear normally lives in a big wildlife reserve, not normally behind a fence... so it's not really as sad as it looks here.. :)

Tune in soon for more photos from our stay in Tapia, New years, some snow!!! and Madrid.

Wintery visitor :Fi

It was 3pm on a happy warm sunny day in Melbourne as Elena's sister Fi, shown at left, arrived at Tullamarine airport, for her flight to Dublin. About 10 hours later, at 1:30am, she finally flew out - argghhh. Oh well, c'est la vie... arriving in Dublin 1 whole day late, we made the most of it and had a great time relaxing and catching up.
We wandered through the city, and bought Elena the warmest fattest coat ever made. When the rain and cold turned from tolerable to ridiculous we ducked into O'Reilly's pub (opp. Trinity College) to warm up over a hot lunch and cider. As we thawed out we grew optimistic and planned a walk around Merrion gardens and Georgian Dublin, which we promptly dismissed after facing the rain and freezing temperatures oncemore.


A strange smell started to follow us around, 'eau de wet dog', and after looking around to locate the source we realised that the faux fur trim on Elena's coat was indeed not faux at all... but dog hair!......
Back at home we played scrabble, watched DVDs and drank hot chocolate, banishing the new coat to the hallway to block out the all consuming dog hair aroma.
On Saturday, leaving the coat at home, we set out for a little country drive through the Wicklow Gap.
L-R The only deer we saw, Pollaphuca Reservoir.
Through the Wicklow Gap: St Kevin's Way, Fi at freezing lookout, Us at freezing lookout, not so random rock.
Fi and Ivan at Glendalough.












We hid in the Roundwood Inn for hours, drinking cider and consuming irish-german fusion food by the log fire. Returning home, we watched the classic 'So I married an axe murderer', which amazingly Ivan had never ever seen....








In a few days we'll meet up with Fi in Madrid and we'll chat and eat again, only this time over a glass of sherry, some jamon, peppers, croquetas, calamari, tortilla, chorizo, patatas bravas, and... mmm







The infamous coat has successfully gone back home to (deleted- Eds), and all is well in the world again

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There’s nothing like a good… (slight anticipatory wincing may be detected) cloister. You can have your pipal tree for finding knowledge or an olive grove for Socratic paradox. However, if you live in a climate with, well, weather: (http://www.met.ie/climate/rainfall.asp), you need some sort of cover. So if you’re going to have cover, let us make it look good, have an aspect to some inside grassy stuff, or garth, around which one can contemplate one’s navel. This particular cloister is at the Jerpoint Abbey just down the N9 from Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny. If you decide that you rather like the odd cloister, have a gander at these http://www.hayquesufrir.com/products.php?cat=48.



NB: An additional attraction of the Abbey is its proximity to the Ethos Bistro in Thomastown. Excellent food!