I think most shocking to many of us were the mistruths we’re fed from the commercial tea industry about what is caffinated and what isn’t.  I highly recommend you visit their blog and online store, and their brick and mortar store in Northampton MA if you’re in the area.

A great evening of interesting people having fascinating conversations!

When hubby and I were recently in Savannah, we went on a Foodie Tour – more about that another day, and one of the places we stopped was Perk - coffee roasters!  We ate some fine food samples on this tour; but this was a highlight for me.  I don’t even drink coffee!  But, I did taste the sample that was offered – and what was completely fascinating to me was the tour of the one room roasting production and the explanation by the owner of how it’s done.  (And, by the way, for a non-coffee drinker, the sample was fabulous!  If I had this stuff around the corner, I might actually have to have a cup every day!).  The tour itself rushed the guy a bit, but the 20 minutes was so worth it!  Explore the website,maybe even order some to try – you won’t regret it — and if you are in Savannah, stop by!

Once finished at the SCAD, it began to pour cats and dogs.  Off we trudged a few blocks to find that the next museum we were going to visit was closed!  And, then a trudge through the pouring rain to find out that the next museum where we were told the other day a new exhibit would open this week in truth the exhibit was to open next week!

Okay, off to find some food and try to dry off — here’s where you eat when you are soaking wet and have no wish to run any further for a meal (pretty good sandwiches but NO hot tea or coffee for sale – WHAT?!)   Name of Restaurant:  Larry’s Subs  (New York Deli Style says the window out front with bathrooms named Kong and Fay)

Then back to a museum where a flyer had said there would be a workshop on Augmented Reality — guess what?  No surprise — it wasn’t at that location and needed a car to get to — so we weren’t going to be doing that either.   So, the heck with the whole thing — finally the rain slows down and we are able to walk several blocks home without getting too much wetter.   (Deal of the day found in a shop still open a few blocks from our apartment:  a $155. sweater on sale for $38)

Today proved that our last minute packing was not good — we brought along a small umbrella that was hiding a broken spoke; and we didn’t even pack our very good packable raincoats.

This is Forsyth Park Fountain in the pouring rain (a few blocks from our place.)

Annie’s Mac and Cheese for dinner.  At least these are the days that vacation apartment renting is for: no empty hotel room to go back to; but a sweet house with kitchen and the ability to make a nice hot cup of tea!  This picture was taken yesterday before the rain hit!

By the way, the cake is absolutely delicious.  When I get a link to it or have its recipe, I’ll share  (it’s someone’s gramma’s recipe from the Depression Era I believe.)

“Today is Thanksgiving Day, so take a few minutes to reflect upon all the things for which you are thankful.

How’s your health? Not so good? Well, thank God you’ve lived this long. A lot of people haven’t. You’re hurting? Thousands — maybe millions — are hurting even more. (Have you ever visited a veterans hospital? Or a rehabilitation clinic for crippled children?)

If you awakened this morning and were able to hear the birds sing, use your vocal cords to utter human sounds, walk to the breakfast table on two good legs, and read the newspaper with two good eyes, praise the Lord! A lot of people couldn’t.

How’s your pocketbook? Thin? Well, most of the world is a lot poorer. No pensions. No welfare. No food stamps. No Social Security. In fact, one-third of the people in the world will go to bed hungry tonight.

Are you lonely? The way to have a friend is to be one. If nobody calls you, pick up the phone and call someone.

Are you concerned about your country’s future? Hooray! Our system has been saved by such concern. Your country may not be a rose garden, but neither is it a patch of weeds.

Freedom rings! Look and listen. You can still worship at the church of your choice, cast a secret ballot, and even criticize your government without fearing a knock on the head or a knock on the door at midnight. And if you want to live under a different system, you are free to go. There are no walls or fences — nothing to keep you here.

As a final thought, I’ll repeat my Thanksgiving prayer; perhaps you will want to use it at your table today:O heavenly Father:

We thank thee for food and remember the hungry.

We thank thee for health and remember the sick.

We thank thee for friends and remember the friendless.

We thank thee for freedom and remember the enslaved.

May these remembrances stir us to service

That thy gifts to us may be used for others. Amen.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and may God bless you and yours. — LOVE, ABBY”

We went into one station and had to catch a taxi to another to catch another train to Winchester. (Yesterday we returned to London). We met this couple in Salamanca in school and really hit it off. They are delightful folks and gave us a few days of wonderful hospitality!

The first day they took us to tour Winchester College -

a very old what we would call high school: over 625 years! For you fans of a certain wizard book — does the dining room remind you of anything?

We then went to tour WInchester Cathedral (yes, the one of the old 60′s song!).

This is a scuplture by Gormley in the cript of the cathedral — really one of the most stunning sights we’ve seen this trip. This photo does not do it justice at all.

We had tapas at a new local restaurant. Here we are!

They took us to a town nearby to enjoy an open air sculpture garden as well. We spent the next day touring the Cathedral again, seeing a few things that were closed the next.

Yesterday, they had arranged to come into London and join us and another couple of friends of theirs for an evening at the theatre. We went to see “Como Aqua para Chocolate” in Spanish! Nice way to begin to wind down our trip, huh?!! It was a small theatre in a tunnel under either a bridge or the subway, I wasn’t sure. It seated about 100 on benches. It was a great play!

For a couple of days, we’ll tool about London and before you know it be on our way home on the Queen Mary II – really hard to grasp actually!

We have just arrived in Paris from a week cruising on the river Rhone and Soane.

This is the boat when we arrived in Arles.

It was a small boat holding only about 125 people with, best we can figure it, about 25 crew. Although the company promised an “Internet Corner” and access, it really wasn’t that true! The connection was often down (we were told it was due to the satellite – hubby, knowledgeable about such things to say the least – said it was how the system was set up), and went it was up, it was (as Gramma used to say) slower than molasses! So needless to say we got nothing done online, and used what time we could get connection to get a hotel in Paris. Neither of us could use our own laptops. And we won’t talk about the charge for using it….

But we had a wonderful week. Each evening, after dinner, was a little entertainment, sometimes while we cruised, sometimes while docked. A few nights was, in all honesty, a terrible lounge piano singer! One night, however, we were surprised with a local band to the lower Provence area: the center musician is a member of the Gypsy Kings! WOnderful!! And hubbie had a dance with their dancer!

We saw several medieval villages along the river, or even inland, as the tour had options of taking a bus for a couple of hours in the afternoon to see other villages. The boat itself was lovely: quiet, restful, food was okay, the other travelers fascinating. The boat is run by a German company, and so the food was more German in nature than French, but it was very good, and we enjoyed the fact that the servings were a nice size – not huge! This is important in cruising as there’s a lot of food!

Here’s some of the towns we experienced: Nice, Arles, Avignon, Carmargue region, Lyon, Macon, Marseille, Tournon, Vienne, Beaune, Viviers, and Oingt! These are only a few of the villages we stopped at, we saw many more from the boat.Really quite amazing….

I hardly know where to begin to share. We took almost 700 pictures (thank goodness for digital format). We tasted wines, saw flamingos, and beautiful white horses, walked in ancient castles, cathedrals, and breathed the beautiful air filled with the scent of lavender.

…dancing under the bridge (remember the song?) of Avignon.

This is a picture of the town of Viviers from castle remains on the top of the hill. We heard an organ recital in the medieval cathedral surrounded by tapestries from the 13th century.

We went through many locks and under bridges. One of the locks was the second largest in Europe! The skydeck where the bridge and lounging chairs are located were designed to be very flat for going under the bridges. For one particularly difficult bridge we were sent downstairs – the clearance was 2 centimeters! Here’s a photo of the clearance for one we were allowed to be up top for – but we had to remain sitted! That is a underside of a bridge!

One village was more beautiful than another! Here’s a sample for you….

it was a delightful week. I’ll trip to post a few more over the next few days. We are in Paris for four days and hope to have good connection.

Well, the two of us decided to take a little walk last night after classes until the tapas bars are open (You cannot eat anywhere until 8 pm here). A classmate had told us he had found a bar with Guiness on tap. We were up for a beer with some substance (beer- cervaza is very cheap and very pale here). We found the place, and had a great conversation with the pub-owner — Paddy of Paddy’s Pub. A true Irishman who had bicycled and lived in many parts of the world. His interest is world and US economy and we had a great discussion, not to mention a true pint of Guiness!

Then off to find our favorite row of restaurants and tapas bars for a bit for dinner. On the way we came across a beautiful church (not hard in any Spanish town we are discovering!) with its floats and stuff ready for the Semana Santa celebrations next week. The floats are truly astonishing. We hope to get to a couple of the processions next week, and I’ll post photos.

So off to our dinner. We decided to eat in a place that had quite large tapas servings so we could just order a couple of them. We decided to try to do the whole thing in Spanish even though this place had menus in English.

We ordered (or at least we thought we did)! a glass of wine for Rich and a bottle of mineral water for me. The bottle of water came with a glass with ice, lemon and what I thought was a little bit of melted ice in it. Any guesses, yet?

During the meal, I began to feel more and more light-headed and thought “jeesh, that’s a huge buzz for a beer!”. Well the bill comes, and one of the lines is Smirnoff! We try to discuss it with the waiter, he discusses it with the bar, and we figure it out! I don’t ever drink vodka, so I was clueless that in fact what I thought was water was a shot of vodka! No wonder I was tipsy!!

So we had a slow walk home! Rich had to be on guard for us both as I was in no state to see any foolishness going on about me!

So beware using your new-found language skills! (But I slept well!)

Thursday was a state holiday – something about Santa Lucia – and a good many of the locals were going off to spend a 4-day weekend somewhere else in Spain. It looked from the line as if many were off to Cordoba actually. In the train station, as well as many retail stores, you take a number and politely wait, and wait and wait. When it is your turn, you may have all the time you need – there is little sense of the rush of life that Americans live by. So we waited an hour to spend 5 minutes with the attendant for our reservation.

We are gaining more nouns, and as I’ve mentioned before, many of those who wait on us have a few English words, and politeness and smiles go a long way here! And others are very helpful – someone tried to go to the window ahead of us without a number, and a few of those around us yelled at the man and off he went. Those who had yelled shared a smile☺

We used the bikes again to take a lovely long ride to the Plaza Espana – a structure and park built in 1929 for a large Spanish exposition. There’s a garden as well; and since it was a national holiday, the local families were out in huge numbers strolling and picnicking and biking as well. The colors in the pictures you see are all porcelain ceramic work – just amazing.

I also wanted to mention that we visited the Cathedral – which they say is the third largest in the Christian world – and it is HUGE! We enjoyed the 300-foot climb up the Giralda tower. It is now the church’s bell tower; but the bottom 2/3rd’s is the original Muslim tower from 1100s. The climb is up internal stone ramps – built that way so that a horse and rider could gallop up and down them to call worshipers to prayer.

This morning we used large plastic bags and the baskets on those handy bikes we’ve been using to get around to take our laundry to a service. This is after we have spent a few days reading tour books, online suggestions and looking over maps to find one. We see a lot of laundry drying on balconies and windows; so we think that apartments and houses here must all have washing machines. We finally found a place with one – yes one! – washer and dryer. But it was “occupada” so we had to leave the bags for the proprietor to do. It was an hysterical no English/no Spanish conversation with much pen and paper drawing numbers and fingers showing times to pick up! Hopefully we understood each other and this afternoon we will return to find our laundry at least clean – I do think she was willing to do it last minute because I agreed to no ironing (at least I think I did)!

We packed enough for about 12 days; and I’ve had to wash a few things in the sink; but it’s time to get most of it washed thoroughly!

Last night we splurged on an inside sit-down traditional Spanish dinner in a place recommended by the hotel. Although the first waiter had no English and went scurrying about looking for a menu in English for us (we were willing to use the Spanish only one); after we ordered, a new waiter appeared and he was from the UK. We had a delightful meal with his explaining each dish. He suggested desserts for us and gave us an after dinner cherry liqueur drink on the house. Just lovely!

Of course, after that, we were so pleased with ourselves that we got lost on the walk back to our hotel! The streets here are so winding, and even when you find yourself on what appears to be a straight road; you still don’t end up where you think you might! So it was nearly midnight when we found our way back. But we didn’t feel unsafe. There were a few people out; and we just changed our pace and we’re pretty good at walking steadily and looking as if we know exactly where we’re going.

A note here for those interested in fashion!: Spanish people, at least so far here in Seville are very snappy dressers. There are jeans, but we’ve not seen them worn with old t-shirts and sneakers. They are generally the dark ones, and worn with lovely shirts/blouses and gorgeous shoes! The variety of stunning shoes here is amazing! No one, at least on the weekday, wears hats. We have seen them in shops, so we guess that they do wear them for church.

And, for SerahRose: the children are dressed to the nines at all times! We have seen the cutest children of all ages always so beautifully dressed. The stores for children’s clothes are delightful to browse. And, unlike America, where even the youngest children have “miniature” adult looking style clothes on, infants and small children are all dressed in what we would consider traditional infant wear. And we have seen many many families where the little girls are dressed alike (of different ages).

It is the tradition here to have a stroll – paseo – after work and before dinner; and you see folks beautifully dressed. It’s the best time to sit at a tapas bar and watch the people.

And, here for those interested in flamenco attire (I know, Issac, it’s not flamingo!), you will find more colors than you could possibly imagine. Some are, by our standards, outright gaudy, but somehow lovely! Here’s a pic or two of the dresses in the storefronts. The fascinating part to us has been that the people walking about all are dressed in very subdued colors. You really don’t see even young people with bright colors on; but their holiday clothes are clearly where the colors are!

We are enjoying our week in Seville. We are looking forward to the next three weeks where we hope to have some time of rhythm with school and perhaps meeting others.

For most of my adult life, and most importantly when raising two children, grocery shopping is usually done every two weeks. I’m systematic about it: thinking about what’s in fridge and freezer already, the season, sales in the stores, and what the family is interested in eating at the moment. I make a menu for those two weeks, leaving days for catching up with leftovers, planning meals that will leave leftovers for lunch, and being flexible with the menu knowing that certain ingredients may need to change at the store. I go to the store, buy exactly what is on the list (unless a family member comes along, and then I end up with a few interesting additions!).

In the last month, we have been focusing our eating on what is in our large basement and kitchen freezers. We actually knew last fall that this trip was likely so I had to choose not to buy in quanity from the farmers’ markets and make tomato sauce, apple sauce, freeze vegies, etc. But we still had lots of stuff put up – stews, soups, lasagna and such.

And, to complicate it more, I almost always make half more than I need for dinner and freeze part of the leftovers for lunches.

Well, that was a longwinded way of saying how challenging grocery shopping really was yesterday. Buying only a few fresh things was doable; but not buying bargains was really frustrating! And, I spent more money than I would usually spend as well. I know my prices enough to look for larger containers of cereal and crackers for example. Well, I don’t really want that food to sit for 4 months, so I had to buy the lesser size at the greater price.

I think besides the fresh stuff such as lettuce and apples, I’ve done my last large shopping until June. I think for a few days before we leave, meals will be the dream of every four year old: half a bag of chips (and who cares if they are stale), leftover pizza from the freezer, and no vegies!