Madrid Winter mashup

As we get cosy during our second Madrid winter, we wanted to look back at some of the museums, visitors, and food experiences we saw during our first year in the big city. The Royal Palace you see in the picture above was lit up for Spanish National Day, which is how they celebrate Columbus Day here. Some high-tech projection technology was involved to get the colors right on the actual architecture. The Plaza Mayor also had a strange suspended art installation. Though night began to fall earlier, the sunsets out our 5th-floor window seemed to become even prettier. We

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Oranges at midnight: New Year in our old home

Feeling a little homesick for our first Spanish home, we accepted an invitation to spend New Year’s with friends in Vila-Real in the Valencian Community. The visit included a day trip, some jaunts into Valencia, and lots of oranges. Our first night in Vila-Real coincided with the San Silvestre run, an amateur event featuring a bevy of costumed runners. We were excited to sample some fresh-squeezed orange juice at this event, made in a giant orange and served near Vila-Real’s city hall. We even made a new friend, Andrés, who was kind enough to bring us some sweet new posters

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Christmas in Madrid

We spent our second Spanish Christmas in Madrid, a city that really embraces the holiday spirit. We were excited when we learned a Catalan couple living in Madrid was hosting traditional Catalan holiday dinners. We enjoyed the typical food and drink, but let’s be honest: our favorite part was singing the Caga Tío song. For our part, our stable of caganer were ready. Also in season? Nativity scenes. The kind a caganer might inhabit. They’re kind of a big deal here, in case you didn’t know. We went to an exposition featuring pieces from around the world, as well as a pretty

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Partying until dawn in Aranjuez

One of the best parts of living in Spain is getting to know Spanish people, and last July – shortly after our move – our Madrid family invited us to the wedding of Doer’s host sister, Ruth, and her marido-to-be, Julian (Juli). Host sister, you say? Well, Doer first met Ruth and her family in the year 2000 on his first trip to Spain, a high school Spanish class trip where they hosted this young American boy. And they have stayed in touch ever since. So we hopped on a train to the Aranjuez, a city in the southern part of

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Bonfires on the beach in Nules

As we work on updating our blog this cold, rainy winter evening in Madrid, we longingly remember watching Midsummer bonfires on a Valencian beach last June. Our dear friends from Vila-Real invited us to mark Saint John’s Day in the most Valencian way possible: FIRE!!! The Hogueras de San Juan (Fogueres de Sant Joan in Valencian) are bonfires, frequently set along a beach. The bonfires, which are lit around the time of the summer solstice, were originally meant to keep evil spirits away. People traditionally build the fires with old furniture and other wood. Revelers typically feed themselves in addition to feeding

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Giants, big heads spice up Corpus Christi celebration

We made it back from dropping off Mom in Madrid last June just in time to see the actual Corpus Christi parade through the center of Valencia – or so we thought. As this was a Spanish parade, it didn’t actually start when we thought it would, so we had some time to kill. More about that in our next post. The Plaza de la Virgen was a hive of activity, with all of the important parade figures waiting for the festivities to begin. Soon we got to see those gigantes in action! Imagine our surprise when one of the humans

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