Elena and Ruby tried to make up for lost time over the past year and spent every waking AND sleeping moment together. Elena even convinced Ruby to come for the last day of school.
Barbara wasn't as convinced as the gates slammed shut - keeping the kids in and the parents out. We did walk to the doors in the front of the school, just in case Ruby needed to escape. She stayed all day (which, at the end of the school year, is just a 1/2 day). Willow hung out with the adults and tried out some of her Spanish at the local café, bread store, and restaurant.
All of us went to the end of the year (water) party at the kid's school. It was held in the evening after the last day of school. The kids were wild. Barbara must have looked pretty wild too because a little hambone of a boy attacked her with a squirt gun.
Like we do with all our visitors, we showed them around the old and new of Valencia. We walked (and walked and walked) through the old city until Willow and Ruby's feet wore down to stubs.
We also showed them the Turia ... Valencia's beautiful river park. The kids (and adults) climbed Gulliver and slid down the slides. We showed them the skating hole that we nicknamed the "Babysitter" because young children can't get out by themselves. Note: Willow was able to get out.
We smelled the roses on the way to the City of Arts and Sciences and had a picnic.
I am not sure how Matthew got this impression but he considers Barbara and Steve to be quite a sophisticated couple who drink only the finest of wines. Before they arrived, Matthew solicited Amy's help in buying some "fine" wine. When we were having a picnic in the Umbracle (arboreum), Matthew pulled out the fine wine and REAL wine glasses ... so Barbara and Steve could picnic in style (as they are so accustomed to).
Then, while Barbara and I tended to the wide and disparate needs of all of the children, Matthew and Steve stayed at the Queen Sophia Palace of the Arts (the "Helmet") to enjoy the opera/circus/theatrical performance based on Richard Wagner's Siegfried. Look closely, those little dots on the left are performers hanging from cables. Actually, the performance started at "prime time" in Spain, which is long past Barbara's bedtime.
Of course, we wouldn't miss the beach in June. Fortunately, Bronson warned Barbara when NOT to look (at topless bathers). I decided to keep my top on so as not to embarrass our guests.
Before leaving Steve wanted to eat at a local restaurant to get a true cultural experience. It WAS an experience ... though we are not sure it was a Spanish cultural experience.
The four of us -- Barbara and Steve (an English couple living in the US) and Matthew and I (a US couple living in Spain) -- ordered tapas from a German waiter at a Brazilian pizza restaurant. Our waiter served us AND entertained us. He had a lot of opinions and no inhibitions.
He began by telling us that he was from Germany, which, he said, is a peculiar country especially regarding the war. (Don't mention the war.) We asked for recommendations from the menu. He pointed out a few items that he recommended from the menu and then loudly exclaimed (so his supervisor and colleagues could hear), "EVERYTHING ON THE MENU IS RECOMMENDED." Later, he asked if we would like the house special (liquor), adding that he would never bust his liver by drinking the stuff. We bust our guts laughing. We ordered 2 waters, received 1, watched another fly out of his broken hand onto the ground, and paid for 4. It was worth it.
We're not sure we can wait another whole year to see them again.
As a slideshow:
1 comment:
That boy sure was one ham bone!
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