La Alberca

La Alberca

We looked out the window and saw this sweet sight. The Madrid Spain Missionaries all called in for a mission conference.  They took advantage of the entire mission being present for a photo op on Temple Square.  We love these missionaries.

Our favorite young missionary in Madrid, Hermana McKenna Finch.  We picked up our visas at the same time in Provo and became life long friends.  I'm hoping one of my very smart and good looking grandsons will snatch this one up.

On Monday Greg and I took a fantastic drive.  I saw this castle off the freeway.

This is a little hunting lodge built by one of the kings.  It is now a private home for some aristocrat.

The traffic got a little thick out in the country.

The wild flowers were beautiful, but we were on the tail end of the season.
The mountain was covered in fern.

Stone fences are all over Spain.  It reminds me of England.

We ran across the cute little village of Montemayor.

It seems every village has a castle,

And a church big enough to hold every member of the community, and all the surrounding area.  

El Castillo de San Vicente

Iglesia Parroquial de Montemayor

I love the way they graft their trees together.

Then we got to my new favorite town, La Alberca.

This little jewel definitely reminded me of Herefordshire, England with a Spanish flavor.

We had lunch here, and for Spanish food, it wasn't too bad.  The ambiance was the bomb!

I bought the most amazing wooden hand carved bell here.

Greg and his pig.

The Hawkins

No one loves ugly sculptures like the Spaniards.

She was loving her freedom.  You can see her utters flapping in the wind.

It was such a beautiful part of Spain.  The flowers were so pretty.
We were really wishing we had seen them a month ago.

Another castle in another little village.  The whole country is littered with castles.

Neat old bridges everywhere.

Every little burb also has a bullring.

Back in Madrid.

The National Cathedral

A shining apartment building.  It really sticks out among the
 typical red brick.  You need sunglasses just to walk by.
We had a perfect day!

Gran Canaria, Again

Gran Canaria, Again

Two weeks ago we spent the weekend on Gran Canaria Canary Islands with the Hawkins and the Deschamps. 

OK, I've gone a little overboard here, but I just couldn't get over how
 colorful this beach was.  It was a sea of umbrellas, and a magnificent sight.

 As far as the eye can see. 

 There was another part of the beach that was rocky with very little sand.  No one was on that side, except us.  It was the very best sea glass beach, probably in the world.  We could not pick it up fast enough.  Sylvia and Charllotte are Olympians of sea glass hunting.  Charlotte went home with 27 pounds of beautiful glass!  Sylvia's weight was probably similar.  I got somewhere between 5 to 10 pounds.  I didn't even know what sea glass was before I got to Spain.  Now they have me addicted.  Charlotte says you can usually find about 3-5 pieces in an hour on a good beach.  We were able to pick it up by the handfuls on this beach.  Between us all we carried off about 60 pounds of glass, and did not by any means clear the beach.  I didn't get a picture because my hands were full.

Neptune

Las Palmas is a very pretty city.  The rest of the island is pretty much a desert.

 Cute little church.  One of many in town.

This is Christopher Columbus's house.  I didn't realize that he had lived in Las Palmas.

Still part of his house.

Still ...

his house.  Pretty impressive.  Very old.

 Christopher Columbus is Cristobal Colon.

Another tiny chapel.

Flower baskets line the streets.

These beautiful purple trees were everywhere.

We had such a great time in Gran Canaria.  We had been there last

 January, but what a difference a few months make!