Las excursiones

We have officially been in España for 3 weeks now :)

We have discovered one of the advantages of living in Realejo (our neighborhood in Granada) is that it is very easy to cycle out towards the Sierra Nevada mountain range. It is quite an epic bike ride to cycle all the way to the summit (we have not done so as of yet) as it is almost 40km of mostly going up. We did go to the summit with my friend and his family by car, which is where we took this photo:

Had someone told either of us in highschool that one day we would WANT to cycle to this summit, neither of us would have believed it. And yet, already several times this week we have gone on training rides on the first part of the incline to start working towards this goal. :)

Next, here is a photo of the path up to the Alhambra (Muslim palace/fortress knows as the "jewel of Granada"). Last weekend was the annual Noche en Blanca in Spain (Sleepless Night) where museums and other cultural centers stay open all night with free admission. We didn't wander all night, but we did enjoy the full moon and being part of the lively crowds all exploring cultural centers and buildings.









And finally, our friends Rebekah and Nathan gifted us a Spanish version of Bananagrams before we left, which is sort of like speed scrabble... Game rules: You have to make real words, scrabble-style, and you must use ALL the letters you have. The first to do so wins.


However, we have found that even just one round can be a really long game. With only two people to divide the letters, plus our non-native speaker vocabulary to draw on, it takes a while :)


So, after several hours (I'm not kidding about this being a long game with only two people), we finally had only a few letters left. I had a C and an H. (Poor Nathan had a W, K, and an X, I think). But, as is the game, you can't just squeeze letters in. You have to break and change a bunch of other words until you have the perfect combination.

And then I came up with an idea that isn't Spanish, but at least isn't English (which sort of honors our "no English" rule...)

See if you can find it:











(Note: we also noticed later that "sabiduría" is missing its final 'A', but I am still claiming to have won... ;)

We have more stories to share, of course, as the last few weeks have been very full. But for now I need to go and eat the delectable looking Spanish tortilla Nathan has made for "la comida" today.

Besos y abrazos,
Candyce