On Ham.. from Home

We are home now and are getting used to living in the same house, establishing a routine, and NOT being on the Mediterranean. The husband and wife part is fun to learn... how to NOT wake up to some idyllic movie scene just off your balcony is a more difficult lesson. Even so, we are getting settled and used to life back home.

So now, I desperately need to catch up on postings and fill in the gaps in the blog that I now realize were HUGE. Time was flying over there!!

We quickly learned just how big of a deal the ham is in Spain. The picture above was taken at the Museo de Jamon in Madrid (not a real museum, but it could be for all the different types of ham that were represented there). They filled every nook and cranny in that place and all over the walls with ham! You could buy it there like a typical deli, or you could try it at the little tapas bar that ran down the center. In case you still aren't convinced of the omnipresence of ham in Spain, take a look at the flavor of these chips we first saw in the Parque de Retiro. Ham flavored Ruffles! The bag was complete with a picture of the legs you see everywhere from which they cut the ham slices directly. When we later visited a grocery store, we saw the wooden leg mounts with bolts where you could secure a leg and cut ham in the comfort of your own home. I would say it's not for the squeamish, but if you taste the ham, you suddenly stop caring about all the pig parts hanging from the ceiling. We ate it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and sometimes in between.

Later in the trip, concerned about our cholesterol and the complications of having a heart attack overseas, we opted for seafood soup and aubergines (eggplant). I was on a perpetual hunt for bananas (which, by the way, taste different there, leading me to wonder what is going on with our food) to try to clear the salt out of our systems.

I'll end here because I sound old.
More coming!

Falling in love in/with Nerja...

Look, LOOK at these pictures of where we are now and tell me you wouldn´t want to stay forever, too!I am behind on pictures, but I had to start with the ones from Nerja instead of catching up. Ramón and I both like this little city the best out of everywhere we have been. It is absolutely breathtaking. We were a little worn out from our adventures in Marbella and Morocco, so since arriving yesterday here, we have been relaxing.

Our first stop after checking into to the wonderful little hotel was.... Ayo!! We ate paella until we

couldn´t anymore, stumbled onto the beach, and rested until we felt like

climbing the hill back into town. Even looking at

the pictures today I am still laughing.

We´ll keep working on adding pictures, but we need to get out of this internet cafe for now before they stop asking nicely.

Love to everyone back home!!

Pictures are back!

I have been meaning to remark about the impressive status of Ramon´s beard, but it helps to have pictures to back it up.

When we started:

Annnnnd today(!):

He said he was ¨never¨going to shave it, but I think it is gone tomorrow. It will be nice to kiss my husband without getting tickled!

A Whole Other Continent!

Still in a picture posting drought, but I´ll fix it when we get home if nothing else... BUT...

Yesterday we went to Morocco! And we came back! Alive! Aggravated, but alive!
If I had to describe Tangiers, I would say that it is corrupt from top to bottom. I have never seen anything like it. At any step short of taking a breath, there is someone there to scam you. Someone is probably working on a way to charge you for breathing too, so stay tuned for that. It was interesting, though. We saw a snake charmer, went to a place that sells spices and one that sells rugs, plus all of the little stalls in the medina (the old part of the city). We went to what was billed as a ¨typical¨ Moroccan restaurant and had a FANTASTIC meal while musicians played. The lunch and our camel ride were probably the best parts of the day... that, and leaving. I kept singing ¨Happiness is Lubbock Texas in my rear view mirror¨and trying to replace Lubbock with variations of Morocco, Tangiers, Crazy Mexicano guy, etc while the ferry pulled out.

I´ll have to spend more time describing Tangiers later, because there is a lot LOT more to tell, but for now.. we are off to drive along the Mediterranean again. Tonight and tomorrow we will finally visit Ayo, the paella man!! We both can´t wait for this one.

Lounging on the Mediterranean

Again, sorry for the lack of pictures. I just wanted to check in and let everyone know that our train trip was fantastic! We have great pictures from yesterday. The drive to Marbella was interesting and was a learning experience, but it got a tad harrowing once we actually reached the city. Nonetheless, we found the hotel, found a place to park the car (a few hours later) and were able to get settled in well. The place where we are staying in Marbella is like a little apartment. It has a tiny little kitchen and a living room. It is very quaint and comfortable.

We spent today sleeping and hanging out at the beach. It is just unfathomable - even as I am standing there- that we could possibly be on the Mediterranean! Crazy! It is as beautiful as I pictured and all the stereotypes are here :)

We had some trouble finding access to a computer (the hotel has free wi-fi, but we dont have a laptop), but we stumbled across a place where we can pay by the hour. Right now we are getting directions so that we don´t have to drive blind into a new city like we did yesterday to/in Marbella. After that we will get cleaned up and join everyone for a late dinner. There are a lot of tourists here and a lot of languages spoken. The town is exactly what I would picture... winding roads just wide enough for Ramon and I to walk side by side, hills and more hills, bouganvilla everywhere, sleepy dogs, and cafes everywhere. It is wonderful.

We´ll try to add pictures tomorrow (really!). They are really something!

Headed for the Coast!

Suuuuper behind on posts! Yesterday was a very full day with our paella class (SO GOOD), finding Ramon de Santillán street, shopping, and navigating the tapas scene, so I have a lot of good pictures. But for now, we are off to the train station to head for the Mediterranean! We plan to take it easy once we reach Marbella, so hopefully we can scare up a computer there and catch up a little.
Love to everyone!
A and R

Doin´ fine.

Just letting everyone know that we are still alive. I missed yesterday´s entry out of pure exhaustion, but I will catch up tonight. We are off to our paella class now. Apparently no one else booked it, so it will be a private lesson for us!

Accidental Late Morning and the Dinner of Three Words

Last night, right before turning in, we found out that our room is equipped with some serious garage-style metal shades that come down automatically between the two (thick!) sets of windows. This came in very handy since we were still getting over our jet lag and since today was a national holiday. People were singing and dancing in the streets all night. Those shades were the perfect touch.

The next thing we knew, the hotel staff was knocking on the door to clean the room. I immediately wondered what in the world crazy country would clean your hotel room at 7AM! Well, after we turned the guy away and opened the shades... yep... 10:30. I guess we needed the sleep, but we lost a lot of our morning.

We had a great breakfast in the hotel and headed south to see if El Rastro, the flea market, might be running due to the holiday. We found that it was and had a happy stroll all over the area, almost to the river, but were forced to move on when the locals started shutting everything down for the afternoon siesta. We used the time to check out some nice landmarks. The church in the picture at the top was built in 1643. Ramon reverently laid on the dedication and slid down it.

We met Joanna Wivell with Insider´s Madrid outside Botín, the oldest restaraunt in the world. She was a wonderful guide and told us things about the place that we could never have known had we simply made a reservation. The basement of the building dated to the 1500s. Strangely, they let us walk right in the oven room with all of the preroasted suckling pigs (they take 2.5 hours!) and make ourselves at home. We had the place to ourselves before it opened at 8PM. The location is so full of history it would take me forever to go through it all here. The one story that stood out to me was how, during the Spanish Civil War, Botín almost was no more. A faction of the left stormed into the restaurant and held the owner with a gun to his head. To them, any store or shop owner must support their enemy, the monarchy, and so they set about to execute the man. His quick thinking wife said, ¨What good is this man to you dead when alive he can feed you?¨ She saved her husband´s life since so many were without food during this time. So, Botín was also saved.

After our tour and history lesson, we were seated at a preferred table in the dining room. It was also Ernest Hemingway´s preferred seat. We had ham, manchego cheese, fried eggplant, a type of thick gazpacho, marinated mushrooms, ham croquettes, scrambled eggs with a local sausage, bread, wine.. and THEN the main course... the roast suckling pig. This was supposed to be a lunch offering!

At this point, my conversation devolved into three words: Oh. My. Goodness.

Yáll... Oh my goodness.

This pork was the best thing I have possibly ever had in my life. We tried to get a video of me cutting the skin so you could hear how loud it was. It was SO crisp! They cook it simply, with a few herbs sprinkled on the whole pig, a cup or so of wine, and throw it in the 300 year old clay ovens. It is just beyond words how good it comes out, though. Ask Ramon. He only heard those 3 after they set down the pig.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Our paella making class is set for Thursday, so tomorrow we will explore more, heading north.

Hope everyone is well back home! We don´t miss it yet :)

Quick Wedding Note...

Nothing to do with the trip, but I figured a lot of yáll would get a kick out of this.

After the wedding, Ramon and I were talking about how everything went and at some point looked at the clock. We were just remarking how it is too bad that the hotel would let their clock be wrong since some guests might depend on it, when we noticed that the TV clock had the same time. And so did his phone. Sooo... it turns out that Ramon´s new watch - the watch he and I had been using during the wedding to figure out when things should happen - was an hour ahead.

So we bailed out of our wedding an hour early and never had a clue. OOPS! :)

Ethploring Ethpaña

Now that we have made our way all over the city and interacted with more people, we are getting used to the Thpanish lisp (or what sounds like one). Ramon is holding his own with ¨Gra-SEE-as,¨ but I am trying to ¨gra-THEE-as¨everyone to death. I have noticed that a lot of people look Ramon up and down like they are trying to figure out where he is from. It is really amusing me.

Funny story along those lines...

We decided to eat dinner in the Plaza Mayor where they have held numerous military displays celebrating victories or displaying strength and where some executions related to the Spanish inquisition were carried out. Don´t worry, it is super romantic now with the open air cafes and good people watching, so it is right in stride with our honeymooning. Anyway, after we had been seated for a while, I heard two men sit down behind us begin to speak English. After a few words (the dead giveaway was when he said ¨MY-nez¨), I had to ask where they were from. Yep, Ville Platte, Louisiana. I told one of them that I couldn´t just sit here in Madrid listening to a coonass accent and not say something to them. They were part of a tour group that is on a similar route to our own. We might cross paths again!

About that ¨MY-nez¨ (cajun for mayonnaise), he was commenting on these! Hot dogs, mayonnaise, and hot sauce on a baguette. Even though our first taste of real Spanish food (the room service from earlier didn´t count) was some boiled weenies, we figure that they are still glamourous since they were eaten in Spain.

We covered a LOT of ground today while just strolling around. We stumbled onto a lot of places I had read about and some I hadn´t. One building was built in 1626. I know there are a lot of older places, but it still strikes me as amazing to see standing walls older than our country. We went into the San Miguel market and saw them cutting ham straight off the cured legs, and also took some great pictures at the Museo de Jamon where the ham literally lines the walls.

This trip is shaping up to be just perfect. We will have plenty to experience, but also lots of time to relax. I can´t think of a better experience for our first few days as husband and wife. We are having a blast!

On the plate for tomorrow is a visit to the oldest restaurant in the world and a trip to the hat store.

Adio-th until Tuethday!

It Begins!!

I didn´t really do much prep work for this trip´s blog as far as notifying yáll that it would exist, giving you the site, etc etc, so you might have to forgive me as I work the kinks out... but here we go!

Speaking of kinks, Ramon´s long legs made it through the flight. We were both asleep within about 30 seconds of taking off from Houston, but somehow didn´t sleep as well on the longer leg of the flight. So once we landed and made our way through the airport (with all the bags accounted for!), we took the metro to the hotel, ordered room service sandwiches and passed out. We are just now up and more functional. The hotel in Madrid has computers we can use, so keeping in touch here shouldn´t be a problem. We will post more later and will include pictures. For now, we just wanted to let everyone know we are safe and HAPPY! We are going to go explore a little now :)

Love,
Los Santillanes en España!

Wednesday: Magots = Wise Men, not Maggots.

Today was museum day!! We hit the ground running.. or.. slightly dragging and with one extra cup of coffee for us both just to keep our legs going. We wandered through a little street market around the corner from our hotel and walked past the Montparnasse cemetery where Jean-Paul Sartre, Samuel Beckett, Porfirio Diaz, and some guy named Maurice LeBlanc (who must have been extra awesome) are buried. We believed some guy that told us an elevator was not working, so took some crazy back route to the Musee Jean Moulin. This was a museum dedicated to the French Resistance and underground. It was tiny and somewhat new (Chirac commissioned it while he was still mayor of Paris), but very impressive. We both learned quite a few things about what the French people went through during the German occupation. To borrow Lisa's words, it was interesting to learn French history NOT in America. :) It made us very thankful to be Americans, but also showed what people are capable of during hard times if they really believe in something. Really amazing.

On a lighter note, we forgot to mention yesterday that we stopped into a pet store on the Champs Elysees and got to sweet talk some puppies! Puppies in Paris!! One of them woke up for us and tried his little heart out to lick us through the window. It meant we were supposed to take him home. But, when sanity kicked in, Aimee just told him about how great his new French home would be and how they would tell him "bonjour" every day. I think we love him.

More meandering through neighborhoods, then we attempted to actually eat at Cafe Les Deux Magots (that we mentioned the other day). The word "attempted" was intentional. It is very clear that the pace here is very laid back, and we have tried to accept this. However, our mistake is in going to cafes when we are hungry. So, we drank water that was so overpriced we are not even going to mention it for fear of the lectures we will get from you, talked to the cutest old Australian guy EVER (He even said he had been here for a fortnight taking a writing course! A fortnight! No, really! He said it!), then bailed out and grabbed some really cheap crepes at a stand across the street. We ate them in the courtyard of the oldest church in Paris that the vikings reportedly sacked four times.

We paid for the water. No worries.

We crossed a new bridge to get to the Louvre and spent quite a while there. The collection is very impressive, but the building itself might steal the show. There is a section at the very bottom that includes an excavated portion of the original palace of Charles V, which was built in the 1300's. We were able to walk through what used to be the dungeon and the moat! More things in America should have dungeons and moats. Just saying.

By the time we left, we were exhausted and our legs had almost locked up completely. However, this did not keep us from crossing the river and getting back to our neighborhood at a dead sprint. We barely stopped to wait for the signal that it is safe to cross the street. We attempted to eat our last dinner at a cafe that we decided earlier in the week was our favorite, but it ended up much like the Deux Magots experience. This time, though, we ducked into another cafe immediately across the street and had a fantastic and very appropriate last Parisian meal.

On that note, we must sign off and bid our Parisienne blog adieu. We should mention that there are millions of stories yet to tell that just couldn't fit in the blog, so you will all be hearing about them in person soon. Thanks for indulging us (this was really a great part of the trip!) and for keeping up with our adventures. This is sad for both of us, but it will be nice on some points to just get home. What a fantastic city! Now, back to Texas, where the cokes have ice and water costs less than a dollar!

God Bless America!

We're coming home!

All our best,

Lisa and Aimee

And one last random picture:

Tuesday: More hilarious Frenchmen, a fortress, and a Basilica

Wow. We are tired. And, we have writer's block. We slept in a little bit today but made it to the lobby in time for breakfast, although all of the pain au chocolat was gone. And the croissants. I guess this is what a rough day in Paris is like. :) Anyway...

After breakfast, we began our fifth day of trekking across yet another route through Paris. We came upon this exquisite little French jewelry shop where furthered our efforts to hit the detaxe limit; good stuff! We wandered down the street to a little store selling chocolate at the window and finally bought some--very worth it.

Aimee's historical landmark note for the day--we think we walked by the place where Miles Davis used to live. Not sure, but we at least walked down the street.

After perusing a few more stores and stopping for lunch at Le Cafe du Pont Neuf, we walked over to the Louvre only to find that it is closed on Tuesdays (for the record, Lisa's guidebook says it was closed on Mondays). We took some pictures and vowed to return on Wednesday morning. The change in plans meant hailing a cab and heading to Le Sacre Coeur.

The Sacre Coeur was impressive, to say the least. It seems to be the place to hang out on Tuesday nights. There were people scattered all about on the steps and a three-piece band (complete with electrified bass and guitar) jammin' out to everything from Pink Floyd to Bob Dylan. Imagine Jim Morrisson with a French accent. Great (though oddly out of place) soundtrack for our visit! From there, we walked up the steps and encountered a French musicien carrying a gig bag who apparently thought he could charm us with what little English he knew--the only word he could manage was cheeeeesebooooourggggeuuurrrr. Yeah. Hot.

The Sacre Coeur really is breathtaking. There is an amazing view of the city in front of it, too. We walked inside and caught the end of a mass (we couldn't take any pictures) and read a few plaques in German and Italian. Of course, we got some great pictures outside before we hailed a cab for a ride back to the hotel. Consequently, we drove by the U.S. Embassy and got all wound up again. Imagine that.

Now, on to crepes. Jambon et fromage! (en anglais: "ahhhm and chiss") Bonsoir!

Mission for Monday: Traipse with Crepes*

Today was supposed to be a big, long day and it was. We probably doubled the amount of walking we have done in any one day so far. We loaded up on coffee at breakfast and walked through our neighborhood, the one to the north, and then across the Concorde Bridge. It is partially built out of stones the Parisians brought over from the destroyed Bastille prison. At the North end of the bridge was the Place de la Concorde where the guillotine was set up and used during the revolution. So much history here! It is great to stand in a place and close your eyes to think of what happened RIGHT THERE so long ago.
Now then, remember how excited Aimee was to go to the American embassy? Well, we did! And we were promptly turned away! Three times! I know what you are thinking (because I would, too). "You were turned away by Marines with big guns." You would be wrong. We were told to leave by Frenchies. In very prissy blue hats.
Goofy Frenchmen: "Dew yew have an appointment to zee zomeone?"
Us (still smiley): "No, but we are Americans!"
Goofy Frenchmen: You cannot come in, zorry. No souvenir! No pictures either!!"
Aimee (not at all smiley): "But, this is OUR SOIL. What if we needed asylum or something????"
Goofy Frenchmen, still wearing dorky blue hats: "no, zorreee, you must cross the street now."

So, we crossed the street completely intending to take a picture anyway, which Lisa set about doing. However, while she was still taking pictures of the park and before she got around to defying our French nemeses, one of them crossed the street himself (in the prissy hat) and motioned for us to come over. Which we did not. When HE got to US, he asked again if we had taken any pictures and made us prove to him that we did not. Although she would have been proud of a rogue picture of the embassy, Lisa was more proud that she made one of "les guards" cross the street. Heh heh.
Which brings us to another point (the one where we were walking off in a huff thinking what we should have said). One of our follow up questions to the FRENCHMEN keeping us from our soil and our fellow Americans SHOULD have been, "Hey, by the way, do you speak any German?" "Non." "Yeah, YOU ARE WELCOME!" Seriously, there is not enough space here to convey how mad we (still) are about that. At the very least, MARINES should have been the ones to tell us to go away. Anyway, Paris....
SO! We went shopping and stuff, and then we went to the Arc de Triomphe and walked the Champs Elysees. We think that perhaps we witnessed a movie premier because we saw a crowd of people crowded around a theater complete with photographers and red carpet. Really, it was a good day, even with nowhere to go for asylum. The story only validates our "freedom fries" jokes. And, it's pretty funny now that we aren't standing there dumbfounded at the situation.

On yet another nerdy note, Aimee was excited when we first got here to find that the clementines at the street markets were wrapped in paper. This is probably not exciting to anyone else, but when Hemingway wrote of his time in Paris, he mentioned that he would buy this exact thing on the streets. These and the roasted nuts you can also find fresh on the streets here would carry him through a day of writing. I told you, nerdy.

Another thought...we are getting reallly good at Franglais. What's that, you ask? Do you know what Spanglish is? Yeah. Except with French. Also, we've begun to master the crazy excuse for a system that these personnes have for numbers. Awesome.

Tomorrow...wait, we're not going to tell you. That would ruin the blog, after all. :)

Bonsoir!




*Mission failed. Although we did traipse, we passed up the crepes in favor of another bargain of a meal on the Champs Elysees. Yes, the Champs Elysees. The picture of the guy making the crepes is from Saturday.

Lazy Sunday...in Paris.

Today, we managed to catch breakfast at the hotel (hooray for pain au chocolat!) and trek all the way across a new route to the Eiffel Tower. Going new routes proved worth it when we stumbled upon the Dome Church, which is the location of Napoleon's tomb (We also saw a lady totally wipe out on the stairs--she was wearing these too-sassy high heeled boots, so we felt bad for her and then thanked God for our tennis shoes). It's impressive how much walking we've done in the last couple of days and today was no different. We were determined to eat at a restaurant with a view of the tower and settled on a cafe northeast of the landmark. We managed to order our now-customary ham and cheese "sandwichs" from a waiter who was true to the Parisienne way of "laid-back" dining (read: he blew us off repeatedly and the entire meal took about two hours :))

We should mention that neither of us brought a watch or a cell phone, of course (I mean, after all, we're on vacation, right??) But we've managed to check the time via Lisa's camera because it notes the (American CST) time each time a picture is taken.

After lunch, we walked across the river to the Eiffel Tower and went up to the top. Awesome but crowded, and let's just say the French have a completely different idea of what constitutes acceptable personal space, and PDA is perfectly fine--in fact, encouraged. Regardless, the ride up the tower was worth the wait and we got some cool pictures of the view.

One last mention before our time at this computer runs out--we saw the tunnel and impromptu memorial for Princess Di today. It is centered around an exact replica of the flame on the Statue of Liberty.

Addendum to yesterday's post...

Yesterday, we forgot to mention a bit about the apparent immigration-related protest we stumbled upon while walking along la rue Odeon before touring Notre Dame. As you can see from the picture, a group of we-don't-really-know-who's were standing with signs and chanting, "Liberte! Pour touts! Egalite! Pour touts! Fraternite! Pour touts!" (Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood! For All!) Check out this picture.

Saturday. Tuesday? No, SATURDAY. In Paris.

Ahhh.. so day two! We slept through breakfast, got used to our "hair dryer" (Aimee is affectionately calling it an "air tube" since the claim that it will dry your hair is a brave one), and covered some serious Parisian ground! We left the hotel and went to the Luxembourg Gardens. It is so fascinating being in a city with so much history! So many people have been there before us and so many will come after. It is just amazing. There were little boys poking at rented toy boats with sticks in the main fountain in front of the Senate building and the requisite "lovers in the park."

On the way, we had a generous offer from some random French men (who felt it necessary to inform us that they were, indeed, French. REALLY?!) to guide us around the city. Apparently the looks on our faces gave the impression that we were far from interested, so they asked if we "needed zome time aylone?" Um, yep. We ditched them and went to the Isle de la Cite and the Notre Dame cathedral. The cathedral was incredibly impressive. There is not an angle that is not breathtaking, inside or out.

Just outside, we had fabulous crepes made right in front of us by a guy that was quite a character. I think the day has revolved around the people we met. This guy, the drunk guy who insulted us, welcomed us to France, then asked for money, and the would-be tour guides. Everything is fun!

On a pretty major but not super well known historical note, we stumbled onto Cafe Les Deux Magots today. We will probably go back to eat there, but for now we just have a bunch of pictures. Wikipedia it. It is great.

Our plan from here is to find a cafe where we can eat outside and have cheap stuff and a carafe of wine. That is the literal plan. In those words.

Aimee in the hotel: "Let's get cheap stuff and carafes of wine."

Lisa two feet away: "D'accord!!! Cheap stuff and wine!"

We made it!!

The plane ride was safe, the shuttle from the airport was NOT (we decided traffic laws are suggestions here), but whatever WE ARE HERE! Our room is "french sized," but cute so I think it will be great for the week. We took some pictures of the view from our window that y'all can see later, but the one here is looking left down the street from our hotel. Everyone has been super friendly and helpful and we are slowly learning the French disdain for rules and timetables. Obviously we found an internet cafe just a few blocks from the hotel, so we should be able to keep in touch. We are going to leave from here to take a cruise down the Seine. Miss you all!!!

Hugs!

Aimee and Lisa

Great minds will sleep where great minds have slept

Lisa and I will officially be staying at the same hotel in Paris where Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell, and other great writers and artists have stayed. I really couldn't care less where celebrities stay, but I am SO excited to see where literary giants like these received their inspiration.

I am such a nerd. Lisa gets serious credit for going along with all of this! :)

Aimee