Saturday evening we headed to the airport for our through the night flight to London. Aside from being delayed a little, it was an uneventful flight which we're always glad for. But because of the delay, and having to go through security again when we got to London (side note, they made us throw out our ice packs we had keeping our snacks cold because they were a little melty, even though we'd just been on a plane for six hours, so that plus no sleep on the plane started us in a bit of a bad mood) put us in a real rush to get to our gate in time for our departure to Madrid. And there were no drinking fountains in that airport and only hot water in bathroom taps so we had to pay a crazy amount for water bottles from the vending machines before dashing to get on our plane. When we landed in Madrid, Greg realized he must have dropped his credit card in the airport in London after getting the water bottles. Plus we couldn't find the office for our car rental company so we were feeling a little stressed. After praying for some guidance, we decided that Greg's card probably dropped under the vending machine, meaning no one would be using it. Since that's our only card without any foreign transaction fees, we decided not to cancel the card so we could still use mine and just watch the account constantly to watch for any suspicious purchases. Thankfully, no one really did use his card so we were fine! Greg finally found our rental car place and I am so grateful he speaks Spanish to make that whole transaction easier. Things started to look up when we went out to the lot and saw that we got to drive a great little Fiat convertible all around Spain!
We loaded up our stuff (the trunk was just big enough for our suitcases and the backseat just big enough for our backpacks and jackets) and headed to Caceres, one of Greg's favourite spots from his mission. The drive was great! We were driving mostly during siesta time so the roads were pretty empty and Greg was just so thrilled to be back in Spain. A dear family, Mauricio, Silvia, Brian, Antonela, Camila and Sofia, from Greg's family let us stay with them so we headed to their apartment. We met a couple from their ward, Angel and Diana, and had a big Spanish Sunday dinner with them all. It was Spanish because we didn't start eating until about 9 PM haha. Before dinner, we went out for a walk where they showed us (me mostly since Greg's been there before) around the old part of Caceres. It was beautiful!
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| Took a peek in one of the old churches |
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| Mauricio, Angel, Greg, Silvia, Antonela, Sofia, Camila, Diana |
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| Me, Greg, Silvia, Antonela, Sofia, Camila, Diana, Angel |
Greg was so in his element catching up with everyone, loving speaking Spanish again, and hearing about how much the ward had grown there. With a little French, the little Spanish I've picked up from Greg reading his scriptures out loud in Spanish in our couple scripture study, and some cognates, I was able to pick out enough to get a general idea of what conversations were about, but I was glad for Greg taking time to translate every now and then for me as well. Brian, Mauricio and Silvia's son, knows a little English and I was so glad he practiced some with me! After a long day (2 days really) and a fabulous pizza dinner, compliments of Silvia and Antonela, we crashed hard and slept great! The next morning we walked into town with Antonela and we went for churros y chocolate for breakfast! I could get used to that! Spanish churros are sort of similar to what we know as churros, but the fried dough is a little lighter, and they aren't rolled in cinnamon and sugar. It's just this amazing dough, fried up and dipped in this thick, dark chocolate sauce that was to die for! The shop we went to is one of the most popular in Caceres and is owned by one of the ward members so Greg got to catch up with him for a minute too.
Antonela took us around more of the town and we went into some churches, climbed to the top of one, and saw a 12th century Muslim house.
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| View from the top of one of the churches |
After exploring, we went back to the apartment, packed, and enjoyed a late lunch with the family. We said our goodbyes and headed to our next stop, Cadiz, way down south. We stopped in Merida to see some Ancient Roman aqueducts. I just love how old so many things are in Europe!
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