Another adventure continues

We arrived safe and sound in Spain and are now embarking on a self taught crash course on speaking Spanish. Fortunately, the president of Cabo Drilling met us in Toronto and stayed with us for a few days which helped orient us to Spain, as well as the Cabo operations for Roger. We laughed at how much we enjoyed a mere 13 hour journey to Madrid and then the 2-1/2 hour high speed train ride to Seville. Travelling in the train’s first class car was wonderful and gave us an opportunity to see the changing countryside while sampling Spanish wines.

We are currently staying in a hotel in Rio Tinto (the town is shown in the above pictures, about 1-1/2 hours NW of Seville) until we find permanent housing. It sits high on a hill (pictures below are taken from our balcony) and gives us a great view of the countryside. I walk into the town each day while Roger is at work -- the trip home has shown just how badly I need to exercise!

Nearby there are farms with goats and sheep and some goats wandered up the hill to the hotel the other day and were fun to watch. A very “matador-ish” looking guest also laughed at their antics from his balcony.

Yesterday we drove to the coast near Portugal – seeing boats and water always makes Roger happy and this was no exception.

We meandered home through winding roads with beautiful villages made up of white buildings with red roofs and always at least one church. It was also neat to see the occasional cart pulled by donkeys – and one donkey that was particularly “well dressed”.

Because we are in a rural area, very little English is spoken but each day we add more words to our vocabulary. It has necessitated some funny hand and noise gestures --- and at times has resulted in some surprise meal choices --- “Did I really order that?”!

So...another adventure has begun. We still look at each other and say, “Can you believe we’re really doing this?”

Stay tuned for updates and in the meantime,
Hasta luego.