Viva Espana!

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Sunday afternoon we landed in the Central Time Zone, having just been in Central European Time not that long before. We had just traveled for about 14 hours, but arrived only 8 hours after we started. It's a funny world that we live in.

10 days prior, we had traveled approximately 14 hours, arriving 21 hours after we started. Guess what else? I've already been through daylight savings. And in another week I'll experience it again. What the heck? Why is daylight savings different in Europe than in the United States? I recently heard that daylight savings was changed. Who gets to decide that? Who do they consult? But I digress.

We just returned from a fantastic trip to Spain! If this is as far as you read, the main takeaway is that, if you like to travel, southern Spain (Andalusia, or Andalucia) should be on your shortlist of places to visit!

For me, it's tied with Morocco as my favorite place to have traveled. The combination of culture and geography are just wonderful! This is the first of a short series to document our experience. My goal is for us as a family to be able to look back and for a moment be transported back to Spain. Hopefully you can come too!

I remember the first trip Autumn and I took together to Germany in 2005, gelato was always on the menu! In this case, we're in what has been called the prettiest town in Andalusia, a small whitewashed village built into the hillside overlooking the Mediterranean Sea called Frigiliana. This is about 15 minutes from where we were staying, a pleasant drive to break up the afternoon and see the surrounding countryside. I'll circle back later with more about our lodging.

Frigiliana is beautiful, but steep! The narrow streets were so fun to explore, so different than anywhere I've lived! That's probably part of the charm for me.

One of the places to visit is La Fuente Vieja, a somewhat underwhelming fountain in the hill above town. It's not grand, but the fact that it has been flowing for 500 years is certainly impressive!

Frigiliana is really about just being there, the attraction is the town itself and not any one site. It's small, so an afternoon is plenty to take it in and enjoy just one small part of Spain and its history. 

We were still adjusting to the time change and the cultural shift in mealtimes, so we ended up having dinner in the plaza overlooking the canyons and sea. The kids entertained themselves at a local park and also with what would become their go to when waiting for dinner: rock, paper, scissors, pinch. You can imagine how that plays out! Surprisingly these sessions ended every time with very rosy cheeks and smiles!

Our dinner venue!

One of my favorite pictures of the kids from this trip!

That's it for now, next up is our first few days in Spain (of which Frigiliana was a part). Until then, here's a peek at that experience:


 

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