Aracena

The road we took to into Spain (following our GPS advice) had to be the twistiest, curviest almost all dirt road that I've ever seen. Woah! We thought we would have to pass through border patrol but there was nothing when we crossed and then we were in Spain! We finally arrived in the small town of Aracena in the Andalusia region of Spain but completely forgot about the one hour time change and arrived much later than anticipated. We had planned to go to the caves, but it was too late so we found a nice cafe by a playground and had lunch (pork of course) and beer while the kids played. It was really nice. The town was cute and it even had a bull ring! The people are incredibly friendly (even though there is not much English spoken here) and it is just gorgeous. After lunch we headed over to hotel - Molino Rio Alajar - in the teeny town of Alajar, Spain. It was more twisty roads and one SUPER narrow driveway before we got to our "rural casa". The hotel is a series of cottages surrounded by the gorgeous Andalusian mountains. We are staying in El Conejo which is two stories with a huge fireplace and kitchen and lovely patio. Monica - the owner - shopped for us and made us a massive dinner (Alentejo chicken, gazpacho, salad - just a ton of food) which was perfect as the shops are quite far away. We sat outside with some snacks they had bought for us and drinks from the honor bar and watched the kids play on the lawn with some German kids next door. They ended up playing for hours - tag and hide and seek - and it was so fun to watch. It started to cool down in the evening so we decided to move inside for dinner. The kids ate and I put them to bed before the adults sat down to eat at our table. Dinner was wonderful, but still lots of coughing from Hannah. Here is hoping to a good nights sleep (finally).Read more