A sporting nation, La Parra revisited, Eladio’s birthday and playing with fire.

The four of us in the patio of the hotel in La Parra, from left to right: Eladio, me, Maricarmen and Roberto
Hi again
In this new post congratulations go to Spain for once again demonstrating it’s a real sporting nation. In just one week, it was top in tennis, cycling and basketball. The Spanish team beat the Israeli’s in the semi finals of the Davis Cup and will now meet the Czech Republic in the finals in December. And they did it without Spain’s number one, Rafa Nadal who, although injured, is still number two in the world seedings.
The Spanish Davis cup team, happy after getting through to the finals.
In the same week, the Spaniard, Alejandro Valverde, once again showed Spain’s fighting spirit by winning one of the toughest races on the circuit, the Tour of Spain. This means too that the 3 big races, the Tours of Italy, France and Spain have been a hat trick for Spain this year. Cycling is a sport close to my heart and it’s great to see how the sport is making a comeback after the unfortunate doping issues of the recent past.
Alejandro Valverde, this year's winner of the Tour of Spain.
The amazing week was completed by the Spanish national team winning the European Basketball championship. They beat the Greeks in the semi finals and thrashed the Serbs, the best nation at the sport in Europe, in the finals.

All I can say is well done Spain and I hope Madrid gets elected for the 2016 Olympic Games. It certainly deserves it. Madrid’s opponents are Chicago, Paris, Rio and Tokyo and the decision will be made next week in Copenhagen. Keep your fingers crossed, mine are.

And, now on to the next subject of this post’s heading. Last weekend we went with our travelling friends, Roberto and Maricarmen, to stay at the Hotel Hospedería La Parra in a small village of the same name. La Parra is a small whitewashed village in the province of Badajoz in Extremadura, We had been there before last Easter and loved the place.

Maricarmen outside the Hotel in La Parra, very austere but at the same time very alluring and peaceful. I love the decor of wood, white paint and stone.
As I wrote in the entry then “it is an old convent, turned hotel which was built in the 17th century. It is a refreshing white washed building with an orange tree patio in the centre of the cloisters. It supposedly maintains the spirit of a convent in that it is a haven of peace and a place to get away from it all” They stick to that claim and purposefully do not offer television or an internet connection. I didn’t mind as I had my Yoigo internet usb stick and there was no time for the tv. I’m not sure Roberto and Maricarmen were impressed as they are more town mice than we are.

We had a grand time, except for 3 unfortunate incidents. The morning after we arrived we found that some local hooligans had scratched the bonnet of our car and made a “drawing” of a face on it. This hotel definitely needs its own private car park as we had read in Trip Advisor that one guest’s car was stolen in the vicinity.
The "drawing" the hooligans from La Parra scratched on our car bonnet, one of the black points of our weekend.
The second was a fine of 60 euros for parking in the wrong spot in the nearby town of Zafra and the third was the strange disappearance of the little silver horse medallion that Eladio had bought for me in India at Christmas.

I had prepared a special programme where our time was dedicated to resting (that oh so lovely other Spanish sport called “the siesta”), reading, eating great meals at the hotel’s restaurant, walking (sorry Maricarmen for dragging you on a 2.5h walk in that rather dry and colourless countryside!), visiting interesting nearby villages and of course buying ham; the local speciality.
On the long walk in La Parra.
As you can see in the selection of photos I’ve posted on Facebook, we visited Zafra where we also had lunch at the Parador, Salvatierra de los Barros where we bought some lovely local pottery, as well as the pretty town of Jérez de los Caballeros. And on our way back we also visited Oropesa in the province of Toledo where we had tea at the Parador too.
Eladio enjoying his dish of oxtail at the Parador in Zafra.
The girls, meanwhile, enjoyed having the house to themselves and invited lots of friends round as they usually do when we are away. They also went to the Majadahonda fiestas, something they look forward to every year.

This week has been marked by Eladio’s birthday, Wednesday 23rd September. Can I dare write that he was 65? I can hardly believe it as for me he looks as young and as handsome as ever. He’s my George Clooney, my Sean Connery in that he never seems to age, yet I’m sure he’s a far better husband. Those of you who know him will agree with me, I know. We have now known each other since the summer of 1980, nearly 30 years. He was 35 and I was a girl aged 23 and I have never looked back.

This birthday, as with all our birthdays, was celebrated together as a family and Oli came specially to spend the morning with us. Of course there was a home-made cake (joint effort between Suzy and I), cards and nice presents.
Eladio with his girls on his birthday on Wednesday.
Here you can see the set of photos of the “cake moment” on Facebook. Notice how Norah tried to get a look in, hahaha.

I have now reached the third part of this post: “playing with fire”. Of course I refer to the book I am reading, “The girl who played with fire” which is the second in the trilogy called Millennium by Stieg Larsson. I couldn’t put the first one down, “The girl with the dragon tattoo” and now I am nearly finishing the second one. I have ordered the third, “The girl who kicked the hornet’s nest” but it won’t be for sale in English until the beginning of October. I wonder what I am going to do without my dosage of Lisbeth Salander for 3 weeks. She has me totally hooked. But then of course you know as you’re probably one of the millions who are hooked on the Stieg Larsson books like me. Seriously, the second novel is probably even better than the first; just “jaw dropping” as the front cover promises. I have about 40 pages to go to the end and am rationing the pleasure as I don’t want to finish reading it. I’m amazed at myself as the detective genre was never my favourite but this is different. I know my dear Mother who was a great Agatha Christie and John le Carré fan would have loved Lisbeth Salander too.
I am thoroughly enjoying the second episode of the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson and wished he had never deceased.
I’m now at the end of this entry and am wondering whether to include the fact that I have a sebaceous cyst on my back. Well I have but I’m not worried. Right now I am doing all the tests necessary for its removal which I hope will be soon.

A much nicer thing to tell you is that tonight we will be going out to dinner with our friends Ludy and Pedro. Pedro is Pedro Delgado, the famous Spanish cyclist but then of course you probably know that. We will be going to Quënco, the restaurant we celebrated our wedding at 26 years ago. We have only been back once and that was in the summer with our dear friends Gerardo and Irene as you may have read here.

And that’s it for the moment folks. I leave you as I finish writing here by the swimming pool in the cooler sun of the end of September with Norah at my feet.

Till next time
Masha

A quiet week in September

Me, all ready to go to work one day this week.
Hi again

It’s time I got back to updating my blog at the weekend. So here I am this cooler Sunday afternoon on the 13th September sitting at the table by the pool. I am joined by my Father who is, naturally, reading, as is Eladio. Norah goes from of one us to the other hoping we will pay her some attention but we are all too absorbed. Suzy has just taken a break in her studies to come and have an apple and as I finish this sentence, she has gone. Tomorrow is her last exam for this year. If she passes the two she will have taken in September it means she will only have one subject left to pass. The exam for that will be in February, quite a way off.

After her exams, as you may have read from my entry this week, she will be going to India with Oli and Rocío, a school friend of Suzy’s. It’s all very exciting. Rocío has started a blog on their adventure, “3 girls in India” which I will be following avidly. So far the plans are to go on the 12th October and see Delhi, Agra, Varanasi, then go and stay with Oli’s friend Sumit, her Erasmus friend, in the Punjab and after that possibly visit some of the towns in Rajasthan like Johpur, Jaipur and Udaipur.

We are sitting just where the new outdoor 3 piece suite will be and which we madly bought in the sales last week at El Corte Inglés. Hopefully it will come on Tuesday. The summer is nearly over we know but it still gives us a kick to have finally found something. You can see it here; not the best in the world but perhaps the best priced for what it is.
The new furniture for the swimming pool porch
Eladio is reading his third book in English. Being an academic he was never a great reader of novels, but he has decided reading in English will help his knowledge of the language. I carefully choose the books for him and none are novels, they are all biographies or similar. The first one was the riveting Klara’s War, the story of a young Jewish girl who survived the holocaust in Poland. Last week he finished The Bookseller of Kabul and now he is reading Eva’s story, another Holocaust survival story. He has a notebook next to him to write down new words and I am, more often than not, his living dictionary.

I am impatiently waiting for the next 2 books in the Millennium trilogy but meanwhile went to see the film, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo yesterday with Eladio. My expectations were low as usually films of books you read are disappointing. Not so this time. The film was excellent and the main character, Lizbeth Salander, played by the Swedo Spanish actress, Noomi Rapace was perfect for the role.
Lisbeth Salander played by Noomi Rapace, great characterisation.
So what else is there to report this week? It has seemed very quiet and thankfully the heat has remitted. We have even had a spot of rain. So, yes what else? I’m back to work at full speed and this week moved into a new office in Yoigo. My previous one was coming down so’s to build more open space for one of the departments. Nothing very remarkable except that two women from work, Angeles and Carmen moved every single item for me and also decorated it with great care. I had imagined entering an office with loads of boxes, but no, they had done all the work for me. I was flabbergasted and extremely grateful.

I was also in and out of the office this week as my pc had to be updated. Basically they were encrypting , removing Windows Vista and installing Windows XP. Nothing very extraordinary but it has taken quite a few days to get everything up and working as before. Thanks Alberto but had I known the pain, I would never have entrusted my pc to you!

Talking about PCs, all the employees in Yoigo have been given one from an excess stock at point of sale and I picked mine up this week. I was going to buy Eladio one for his upcoming birthday (yes he will be 65 on 23rd October and still looking like a boy) but now he has this one. You should see our kitchen table, it has 3 portable pcs on it, mine, Suzy’s and Eladio’s now.

This week I had lunch with María, our Terminal Director (the person in charge of purchasing the phones we sell). I don’t have many friends at work as I don’t go in often enough to build up many personal relationships, but María and I make a point of having lunch on a regular basis. We went to Aspen again in La Moraleja. They do a great home-made hamburger which we had with spinach.

So I didn’t tell you I started a diet again did I? Well, I hardly dare as it’s nothing new in my life. I started on Friday 4th September as I finally dared to weigh myself. Of course the figure is a state secret but it is shameful. Since I started at Yoigo (3 years on 1st October) I must have put on 10 kgs and I wasn’t exactly slim at the time. This time I hope the diet really works out. So far I am happy to say that I have lost 2kg. Cross your fingers please for it to continue that way.

The diet doesn’t stop me going out for meals or making nice ones at home; I’m just careful that’s all. So on Friday we went out to dinner with Roberto and Maricarmen to De Brasa y puchero in Boadilla. Next week we will be going with them to stay at the lovely ex convent hotel, La Hospedería La Parra, in Extremadura. We stayed there with my Father at Easter and adored the place. We are much looking forward to enjoying the installations, going for walks and buying another great ham.
The patio at La Parra

Oli came on Saturday for lunch, so the five of us were together for the first time in a while. She has news in that they have renewed her contract at work (www.rtve.es) but she has also been given a new job. Up till now she has been a news writer for the news section of the website which was a great but rather stressful job because of the constant deadlines. Now they want her to work in the programmes’ section of the site which will be a new world but I think a challenge too. I wish her all the luck in the world. Well, of course, I do, I’m her Mother.

And that’s about if for this week except to say happy birthday to my dearest and oldest friend Amanda. I know, as we have been chatting on Facebook, that she’s having a great day. Cheers my friend, any news of your moving to Spain???

But I can’t end without at least mentioning that this week was the anniversary of the 11th September attacks. It will never go unremembered, at least not in my lifetime. I remember exactly what I was doing the moment I found out what was happening and got to a TV set. Who could forget?
Who could forget this?
On that sombre note, I leave you till next week.

Cheers till then
Masha

A holiday in Extramadura, world politics – the Queen meets the Obamas, royal protocol is broken, Obama meets Zapatero and an earthquake in Italy.

A sign of a change in the times maybe? Michelle Obama puts her arm round the Queen at Buckingham Palace last weekend. It's not done to touch the Queen and is a complete break in protocol. However, the Queen, perhaps softening as she gets older, returned the gesture and here is the photo to commemorate that unique moment.

Hi again,

This post was supposed to be all about our holiday in Extremadura last week but world politics must have their part as it’s not every day the Queen (of England) receives the leaders of the G20 in Buckingham Palace. Nor is it every day that she (the royal she!) breaks with protocol to have a private meeting with Barack and Michelle Obama.

The Queen and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, receive Michelle and Barack Obama in Buckingham Palace on the occasion of the G20 summit in London.
As you will have read, they got on so well that later Michelle broke with protocol once again and charmed her Majesty by putting an arm around her. Her Majesty promptly responded with the same gesture; a gesture never before seen in all her reign. As usual Prince Philip put his foot in it when he jokingly asked Obama how he could tell who was who in the G20.

The G20 was not only about tea at Buckingham Palace. The subjects at stake are of such importance to the world, immerse in the biggest financial crisis since the Wall Street Crack in 1929, that it attracted many disgruntled people whose protests were aimed mostly at the banking world. In fact they brought the city to a halt with their riots and banking personnel were even warned not to wear ties to work so as to avoid being targeted by the ferocious protestors.

Riots in London at the G20 summit.
As we were travelling through Extremadura, that off the beaten track region of Spain where the best ham comes from, the world’s most important politicians were meeting in London to find a common solution to the financial crisis. They then met in Strasbourg to commemorate the 60th anniversary of NATO and yesterday in Prague for the US EU summit.

The Nato 60th anniversary meeting
Obama was cheered everywhere he went and his presence and charisma left the likes of Sarkozy looking very normal next to him; the difference in their heights not being of help to the latter. The same could not be said of Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni, the two first ladies of the US and of Europe, I would say. They met as equals in glamour and fame and in stature unlike their powerful husbands.

The Summit in Prague this weekend was of special significance for Spain as it was here that Obama met Spain’s President, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, thus putting an end to 5 years of distance between the two countries.

Zapatero finally got to meet Obama. He never met George Bush though!
And today, Monday, as I am beginning this post, I must sadly record the eruption of a devastating earthquake in L’Aquila in central Italy, some 90km from Rome. The toll so far of this 6.3 scale quake has been 179 dead, 34 missing, 1,500 injured, 10.000 buildings destroyed and thousands homeless. Italy is in a state of shock and the tragedy is enormous.

The earthquake in Italy

But this blog is about my life and thankfully we have suffered no earthquakes nor are we affected greatly by the credit crunch. Instead we have been in the quiet and peaceful region of Extremadura in the mid western area of Spain that borders with Portugal. Extremadura which takes its name from the river Duero (or Douro in Portuguese), is a region or “comunidad” of two provinces, Cáceres and Badajoz. Funnily enough the regional capital is the smaller town of Mérida in the province of Cáceres. Mérida was, however, in Roman times, the Iberian capital and there are many signs of its Roman past, some of them quite intact.

This was one area of Spain we were not very familiar with and as we had some spare Parador points we decided to use them on this trip a week before Easter so as to avoid the traffic and general congestion. Our first port of call was Cáceres where we stayed at the slightly run down Parador in the old city. As soon as we had checked in we made our way to the famous Atrio restaurant, the only 2 star Michelin guide restaurant in the area. It was as good as I had expected but the portions somewhat mean and very expensive. It’s amazing to think it cost three times more than Arzak in San Sebastián for example.

We visited the historic centre of Cáceres in the afternoon and it was like walking into another era, a medieval era of course. It’s all stone and palaces and churches and beautiful squares, specially the Plaza de España, a somewhat unique rectangular shaped square – probably not a correct mathematical description but that’s what it is.

Cáceres, the medieval town.
You could see preparations for Spain’s still and ever important Easter celebrations or Semana Santa as it is called here. In fact we were to see them throughout our trip.

Wooden crosses to be used in the Easter processions of the Holy Week or Semana Santa which is still so important in Spain despite increased laicism. It's the tradition that seems to count.
From Cáceres we made our way to Guadalupe. Had we done our geography correctly we should actually have started in Guadalupe and then worked our way south as we ended up driving more kilometres than necessary. To get to Guadalupe we drove past Trujillo which was a must to visit. Trujillo, equally steeped in history and similar in architecture to Cáceres, is the home of some of Spain’s most famous “conquistadores” or discoverers of América, such as the Pizarro brothers who discovered Peru or Orellano who discovered the Amazon. The city or town is breathtaking in its beautiful buildings and castles. Here we visited the Plaza de España, another splendid medieval square, Pizarro’s house and the tenth century castle with great views of the city. Here too we purchased some lovely local pottery.

Trujillo, the cradle of the Spanish "conquistadores"
The drive from Trujillo through country roads to Guadalupe took us past some very different scenery, from solar panel “farms” and orange trees to evergreen oak fields dotted with merino sheep or white horses and black pigs, to mountainous roads and gorges; all of which led us to the enchanting enclave of Guadalupe, a Unesco Heritage site, better known as the Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe

The Monastery in the background and the Parador in the foreground. Truly one of the best located paradors in Spain.
The monastery has its origins in the 12th or 13th century, when a shepherd called Gil Cordero, discovered a statue of Mary by the Guadalupe River which had been apparently hidden by local inhabitants from Moorish invaders in 714. It is on this site that the church and monastery were built. The place is quite unique and very beautiful and has become something of a pilgrim destination for many Catholics from Spain of course, but also abroad. I think there is a story of Mary appearing to Gil Cordero and a possible miracle. Even today you can read that the statue’s eyes move or close and open. We saw it close up, showed to us by one of the 10 Franciscan monks left. I kissed it, as did the other visitors, more out of respect than anything else and I certainly did not see any eye movement.

We stayed at the much nicer Parador with its charming orange and lemon tree patio and got upgraded to room number 1 which was actually a suite. As we opened our balcony doors there was the monastery right in front of us. We also visited the tiny little town with its upper and lower streets. As we climbed the very steep streets to the top of the village we happened upon Daniel, a local villager who actually invited us into his house which he claimed had the best view of the Monastery in all of Guadalupe. Well here is the result, so you can judge for yourselves.

The monastery as seen from Daniel Merino's house high at the top of the village of Guadalupe. I promised to send him the photos and I will.
From Guadalupe we made our way to Mérida, some 130km away and checked into the lovely old Parador which in the past had been both a convent and hospital. Having got a taste for the suites, we upgraded again but paid the difference and got given room 122 with one big lounge and an even bigger bedroom. It was so good I could have moved in!

Here we visited many of the Roman landmarks such as the Trajan arch, the splendid and intact Roman bridge as well as the famous amphitheatre and theatre.

The superb Roman bridge that crosses the River Guadiana in Mérida. Perhaps the best of all the photos.
I fell in love with the Plaza de España once again. This one had many buildings of the typical colonial style architecture, the sort the Spanish “conquistadores” exported to many cities in Latin America, such as Hernán Cortés from Medellín. In other cities, such as Badajoz, you would see the colonial style next to the Arab style, fitting perfectly together.

The Plaza de España in Mérida.
From Mérida we visited Badajoz which is just 5km from the Portuguese border. Here we visited the Moorish Citadel (or Alcazaba – the biggest of its kind still standing in Spain) and drove through the famous Puerta de Palmas archway into the old town. Badajoz is not a thriving tourist destination, is rather sleepy and in great need of a lot of renovation if it is ever to become so.

The famous Puerta de Palmas of Badajoz, the gate or archway into the old town.
It does, however, boast the excellent restaurant, Aldebarán, highly recommended by my trustworthy travel book companions, the Michelin and Campsa guides. It is of a similar standard to Atrio in Cáceres but a third of the price.

The final leg of our tour was to be in La Parra, a small village in the province of Badajoz. We were to stay at the Hospedería Convento de la Parra which had been recommended to me by a Facebook acquaintance and which had rave reviews in Trip Advisor, my other great source of information when preparing our trips.

The hotel Hospedería Convento La Parra from the outside.
The old convent, turned hotel, is a 17th century white washed building with an orange tree patio in the centre of the cloisters. It supposedly maintains the spirit of a convent in that it is a haven of peace and place to get away from it all. They stick to that claim and purposefully do not offer television or internet connection. As I cannot live without the latter and was not a burnt out case as such, of course I brought my own connection. Thanks Yoigo!

Eladio in the orange tree patio in the centre of the cloister at the Hospedería.
The rooms and style are true too to that original spirit. Thus the décor is basically white washed and stone walls, flagstone floors and white is the colour used for all drapery and bedclothes. The only note of colour in the whole place comes from the green plants and oranges from the trees in the patios. Whilst everything is supposed to be quite sparten, the same cannot be said of the food which is top quality whilst retaining village recipes. I found the whole place truly beautiful and could quite happily have moved in there too.

Again we indulged in a suite, room number 23 and enjoyed our fire place. Eladio found it a bit dark but I loved it.

From La Parra we could have visited a host of pretty places such as Olivenza, Jérez de los Caballeros, Feria or nearby Zafra but instead decided to enjoy the installations and do what the hotel recommended, read, rest and enjoy the countryside with beautiful walks. We did all of these things and also discovered that the village of La Parra itself without boasting any great tourist interest was one of the loveliest white washed villages we had ever seen. I would have appointed it the best kept village in Spain.

A 90 year old villager from La Parra, José, making friends with my Father aged nearly 90 too. We all had a good laugh at the encounter.

We loved it so much that I wrote in the guest book that we would return again and again and again. If any of you are need of a rest or want to get away from it all, this is the place.

Our two days at La Parra were very soon up and Saturday was the day for our return. We packed leisurely to make our way back to Madrid but not before purchasing two wonderful jamón ibéricos (Spanish cured ham). Supposedly Extremadura is the area of Spain where the best ham comes from. Well we certainly saw lots of pigs (dark coloured ones) along on our walks in La Parra as this video proves here.

We came home on Saturday to find the girls had had a great time too, entertaining their friends. But soon we will be parted again as on Thursday they will be off to Santa Pola and we will be going to Montrondo to join Eladio’s family for Easter.

And that’s my post on Extremadura. It was a great trip as you can see here from my photo album in Facebook, but there are more to come this year. I always love having things, generally trips, to look forward to and the next big one will be to Yorkshire in July.

But that’s it for now.

Cheers
Masha