Camp Nou - Barca

Toni has tickets to the Barca stadium and he goes every time there is a home game. A couple of weeks ago, he had a spare ticket so i got to go with him! yay! Its such an amazing feeling walking into a stadium full of 120,000 people! The noise and the atmosphere is just incredible. We saw Barca win 3-1 so that was pretty awesome. This pics dont really do it justice..

Fotos de Soria - Favorites

The most spectacular sunset from the balcony on our last day in the country
Driving back towards Barcelona, the hills remind me of the Blue Mountains NSW
A lovely little park we stopped in to have lunch.

The deep red colour of the soil in the fields
On one of our brisk evening walks through the mountains
At the cousins house for a chocolatada, warm drinking chocolate in plastic cups, with bread to dip.
The church in La Hinojosa, where Tonis parents got married.
I lovely old window from a decrepit house in the village.

Rio del Lobos

The spectacular view from 1234 metres. It was very windy up there.
Toni, Ernesto and Pedro pointing to something in the distance.
The sun snuck behind the cloud to give this great effect.
The view in the other direction with 13th century church just visable top left.
Exploring the church

At the bottom of the river or wolves, meandering through the canyon
Looking at the vultures eying us in the canyon.
Toni Pedro and Marta looking like a spanish pop band
The beautiful wild flowers i picked on our walk.
A pretty green lizard come out to warm up in the sun.

Day 4 -12th August Sunday

Saturday night we stayed up late playing cards in the pub and drinking. We were playing Uno, but with new rules and it was pretty funny. So we slept in again today. After lunch I was pretty keen to get out of the house and explore something. So the cousins, Toni, Pedro, Marta and Ernesto and I set off on our exploration of the Rio de lobos, the river of wolves. We drove for about 20 minutes from the Pueblo, towards an area of canyons. This whole area of Spain is really high in the mountains, around 1234 metres above sea level. When we arrived around the amazingly twisting road (would have loved being on a bike) we stopped the car in an area at the entrance to the canyon. The Rio de lobos, is not a river anymore, and has not been for a long time, except in winter when the snow melts and a little rivers winds it way through the canyon. But we were there, in the dry heat walking down the path of the old river between two massive cliffs on either side. As we entered further into the canyon, leaving the car parked way behind, we looked up to see a group of vultures staring down at us from way above. It was a pretty eery feeling, walking along feeling like pray. I imagine if we’d lain down on the spot they would have swooped down to gouge out our eyes. A little further around some twists and turns in the river, we came upon another Fuente. This one was not looked after like the others, and was full with mosquitos trying to suck our blood. So we kept on, and came across a lovely green speckled lizard warming himself in the afternoon sun. We decided not to walk any further and turned to go back, I collected a bunch of beautiful wild flowers on the way back, all purples and pinks and creams.

Food and Family

Day 3 – 11th August Saturday

After not too late a night playing cards, we woke up early to get ready for the funeral. We had to be at the church at 1130am, and a lot of the family stopped by the house on their way there. The church is a 3minute walk from the house, so we all wandered down together and gathered outside the tiny stone church on the hill. All the family started arriving and Toni and his brothers and father and I entered the church to sit and wait. The church kept filling up until there were no more seats and people were standing at the back, in the end the place was packed to say goodbye to Toni’s mum. It was a long service but beautiful, with two little old priests dressed in proper catholic robes. They recited verses from the bible, and we stood then sat then stood as directed. Many people were singing with the priests and it was a very moving event. After the church service, we all walked around the back of the church to the little graveyard on the hill. The small plot was surrounded by a stone wall with a metal gate on one side it was maybe only 20x20 metres. All the people crowded in there, in the hot midday sun, the women fanning themselves and the old men trying to stand in the shade of the wall. The priest came and said a prayer over the plot of Toni’s mum and the ashes were buried and a lady put some flowers. After this, many people came back to the house for a big BBQ lunch, we arranged two or three tables together so we could sit 25 people, including the little priest who is a cousin of Toni’s father. We had lamb cooked on the fire, with only oil and salt, and lots of special sausage called Morcilla made from pigs blood, with onion and rice.. How delicious.. lots of good food and a few glasses of wine. It’s typical for lunch to be followed by fruit, and somebody had brought a huge watermelon, no doubt from somebodys garden, which we served up and shared with everyone. The lunch continued late into the evening, followed by small siesta.