Day 21: Halloween

Today was another school day. Jasper spent the morning playing garbage truck and boat crane, wearing his special "garbage man" hat.

 We tried bringing a picnic lunch to the school so the kids would eat before napping.

 There's a nice patio set up in the front of the school where we can eat and play peek a boo with Ellis.

 After lunch we went for a drink at the beach with our classmate Joseph. He is from Germany and is the only other person in my class and Pat's class.

 The kids slept well on the walk home, so we kept wandering for a couple hours while they slept.

Back at the apartment, we tried to celebrate Halloween a bit by carving a pumpkin.

 Ellis tried to eat it, and Jasper was too squeamish to touch the pumpkin guts.

No one trick or treats here, but we have our pumpkin displayed in our (4th floor) window, just in case.

Day 20: Back to school

Today Pat and I started Spanish lessons. Pat stays home with the kids while I have class from 10-11:30, then brings them over to the school so I can look after them while he has class from 12-1:30.

I took the kids to the park, then they fell asleep on the walk home so naps and lunch were all thrown off today. I picked up groceries on the way home, so carrying 2 kids + groceries up 4 flights of stairs was my CrossFit workout for the day.

We took a walk to the north east side of Cadiz in the afternoon to see the ferry terminal and port. Jasper was pretty excited about the giant cranes that lift sea cans onto ships. I have a feeling those cranes will make an appearance in one of his games soon.

 We made a mid afternoon cafe stop for coffee/ milk/ beer. People love to say hi to the kids and ask us questions about them. It's a good chance to practice some Spanish. I learned the word rubio (blonde) in class today and then realized that old ladies always say that and guapo (handsome) to Jasper when we're out.

 This evening was the start of tosantos, a festival unique to Cadiz, related to All Saints day on Nov 1. All saints day (Todos los Santos) is a National Holiday in Spain. It is a day to honour deceased relatives by visiting graves and laying flowers.

 I'm not sure how this part of tosantos relates to honouring the dead, but tonight at the market, each of the stalls made dioramas out of their wares (fruit, fish, meat etc.) to depict satirical versions of current events.

 Most seemed to be related to the separatist turmoil in Catalonia, and most of the humor was lost on us. Jasper sure thought the birds made of fruit and circus for shrimps were cool. 

It was hard to get pictures of the stalls (there are better ones on Instagram).This one features sword fish heads.with wigs and signs that say something like "long live Spain, long live the king, long live the daddy", and the other ones have various profanities (that we discovered on google translate!). Definitely a unique festival experience!

Day 19: Beach day

We woke up a bit confused this morning because we didn't realize that daylight savings had here ended last night. Some of our devices updated the time automatically and some did not. The kids did not adjust their wake up time and were up before 7.

 With the change, the sun now rises at 7:45 am and sets at 6:30 pm. We killed time before the sun came up and the day warmed up by playing forklift, making up stories and doing some sticker crafts. 

 We did a dry run of our walk to Spanish school,which took us outside of the old town of Cadiz. Playa Santa Maria del Mar is less than 5 minutes from the school.

 It will be a great place to hang out with the kids while the other parent is in class. There's a great playground up above the beach and the beach is gradual and calm.

 Jasper's getting pretty brave to try out new playground equipment.

 Ellis is looking sturdier and sturdier on her feet every day. Still no steps, but she'll stand on her own, bend down to pick up something and stand back up.

 She's also really into waving right now. If I wear her front-facing in the carrier, she waves to everyone we walk by.

 She still likes to eat sand, as you can see by her face above. At least there weren't any little rocks for her to choke on at this beach.

 The kids fell asleep on the walk home from the beach, so we stopped at a cafe for some helados. 

Mañana, we start our Spanish classes! 

Day 18: Cadiz exploring

It was a beautiful sunny day in Cadiz today. We spent the day wandering around to get our bearings in the city and find the best playgrounds.

 The city is 3000 years old, so the streets are all very narrow. Most of the apartment blocks are 4 stories high, so it's shady in the streets and hard to navigate using landmarks. Our apartment is only 500 m from the water, but you wouldn't know it by walking down our street.

 Our first stop this morning was Genoves park on the coast. It had some interesting trees and cool playgrounds, but Jasper fell asleep on the way.

 We walked back home along the sea. It was a very calm day today. There is supposedly good surfing here, but definitely not today.

 We wandered through the market on the way home. There are two aisles of just fish and shellfish- even a shark! We will have to get more confident with Spanish to be able to buy food at the market.

 We had the kids up on the rooftop terrace for a play this afternoon. It's a beautiful spot with views of the city and out to the sea. It's a bit scary having the kids up there since the walls are not very high and it is 4 stories down to the street and courtyard. Ellis is in a climbing phase. She nearly jumped out of her high chair at dinner time.

 We took Jasper back to the playground at Genoves park before dinner. It even has a waterfall with a tunnel behind it. I think we'll be spending lots of time there.

 This evening we heard some strange music coming from outside. It sounded like a marching band. We couldn't quite see it from our window. Later, Pat went to investigate and found that it was a marching band marching through the streets with a whole bunch of people walking along with them. Not sure exactly what was going on, but maybe it's like Kincardine's Saturday night parades?

Day 17: Welcome to Cadiz

We have arrived at our "new house" in Cadiz! We will be here for the next four weeks. This morning started with a long train journey on the high speed Alvia train. The picture below shows the train's speed (240km/hour!), my tiredness and my relief that Ellis is finally asleep.

 Train rides are easier than plane rides since the kids can move around more, but 4 hours cooped up in one place is still challenging for a 2 year old and almost 1 year old. Lots of snacks and trips to the cafeteria car took place. Ellis made friends with our neighbours, as usual.

Overall the trip was quite successful, but I'm still happy to be more settled for the next month. We ended up walking nearly 3 km with all of our bags, so it was a tiring day.

 We had a bit of trouble connecting with our Airbnb host, since I don't have a Spanish cell phone and wifi was not as easy to find here as I'd hoped. I ended up just turning on roaming for $10 and it worked out fine.

Our apartment seems to be great for us. The owner has an 8 year old daughter and there are lots of toys around for the kids. We had to sort through and pull out the dangerous and/or breakable ones. Ellis broke a play teapot within 5 minutes of arriving.

 The apartment is on the top floor of a 4 story building, so we will be climbing lots of stairs for the next month! We also have access to the rooftop terrace that has views of the city and out to the sea. I'll take some outdoor photos tomorrow.

 We're hoping to get the kids back into somewhat of a routine after the last 17 days of travel and change. Hopefully Jasper will get back on track on the potty and Ellis' sleep will improve (wishful thinking!).

We found a playground and grocery store within 400m of the house- that was the extent of our exploring today. Tomorrow we plan to explore the city some more and head to the beach!

Day 16: Madrid

Today was our rest day in Madrid, between our flight from Madeira and our train to Cadiz tomorrow.

 We spent the morning at our apartment playing and doing laundry. As you can see by the background, we manage to make a huge mess the instant we arrive at any place.

 We didn't do much touring today, but did walk over to the El Retiro park in the late morning. Both kids fell asleep on the way. They are a little behind on sleep after last night's late arrival and the 1 hour time difference.

 Once they woke up, we went to a playground where Jasper and Ellis made some new friends from Belgium. The little Belgian girl was about 3 and was just loved Ellis. She kept trying to pick Ellis up and carry her around and liked to pet her fuzzy head.

 Pat and Jasper enjoyed watching the carp in the pond at El Retiro.

 We went out for a late lunch at a vegetarian restaurant near the park. It's much easier to order in Spanish when you can't accidentally order meat!

Pat took the kids for a walk to a toy store to get more stickers and we had a quick pizza dinner at the apartment. Now to get everything organized for our morning train ride to Cadiz. Then we don't have to move houses again for 28 days!!

Day 15: Travel day

This morning we packed up all our stuff and said goodbye to Grannie, Grandad, Great Grannie and Great Grandpa. We had lots of help while we got everything organized.

 Jasper played "garbage truck" and "banana farmer" for hours this morning with his grandparents. Below he is wearing his special banana farmer hat with his farmer flashlight.

 The kids did really well on both our flights- we had a connection through Lisbon on our way to Madrid.

 Compared to an overnight transatlantic flight, these were a breeze.

 When we arrived in Madrid, we had to take an airport shuttle bus to the train station and then a train into the city. Jasper got his fill of transportation fun today! 

We had a bit of trouble finding our AirBnb, but finally found it around 10pm. It's a 4th floor walk up, so there was a lot to carry up all those stairs! The kids took a bit of coaxing to bed in a new place, but eventually they went down. It's good to have their own travel beds wherever we go for at least a bit of familiarity. Tomorrow we rest up for our big train ride to Cadiz.