Your Moment of Zen

Sorry to steal that from Jon Stewart, but here is some random weirdness from our Spain trip. We were in Toledo on the night before Three Kings Day/Epiphany and got caught in a three kings parade. It took a really long time for the three kings to arrive, but we stayed the whole time. We survived chain smokers, loud music, people throwing penny candy (and other people acting like maniacs because of the free candy), fire trucks with sirens, and even camels. Note the ubiquitous product placement too. And no, we didn't stick around to see if we could tell the three kings what we wanted for the holiday. I guess we were supposed to put our shoes out for them to leave us some toys?

Our Honeymoon

For our honeymoon, we spent 18 days in Spain, Morocco, and Scotland. In Spain, we went to Toledo, Granada, Cordoba, Sevilla, and Santiago de Compostela, and spent a little bit of time in Madrid and Tarifa. We stayed in Fes and Rabat in Morocco, and in Scotland, we visited Edinburgh and Glasgow.

This picture is from the bullfighting ring in Sevilla. They only have bullfights in the summer and at Easter time. The box at the upper right is where the royal family gets to sit, though we were told the queen is against bullfighting.

The weather was very uncooperative. We only had a few days of sun. We experienced rain, fog, snow (in southern Spain!), sleet, and even a hailstorm.

We saw a lot of museums, palaces, and old churches on our trip. We literally walked around the old city of Toledo and tried hiking Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, but didn't get very far, since my shoes kept trying to slip off. We also did some pretty random things, like going to a bowling alley in Madrid. Don won -- surprise, surprise. He creams me at bowling on the Wii too (the only thing I can do really well is hula hoop).


In Scotland, I spent most of my time in conference sessions, while Don got to go explore on his own. He walked up a lighthouse in Glasgow and toured underground in Edinburgh. He also got to experience the British health care system because of some dental problems. We definitely want to go back to Scotland and see more of the countryside. We also didn't get to spend enough time in Morocco. We hope we will get the chance to travel again soon!