By popular demand: Lindsay in Concert!

Olé!!

 And here are some things we've seen during the past 24 hours:

Sophie and Stone and I sometimes go on evening walks around the block after dinner

And they try to climb in the house like SpiderMan (and Woman)

The school Bethlehem exhibit is getting close to completion! I love the little garden with carrots and cauliflower

Today when I picked them up from school I took them to "Casa de los Pilatos" - a house of a wealthy 15th-Century aristocrat who went to Israel and loved Pilate's palace and wanted to build himself one of equal splendor and similar style, so he had original Roman and Italian Renaissance sculptures delivered from Italy, mixed with Islamic and Spanish styles. 

His courtyard

The girls listening to dismally boring audio guides. I mean, pull-you-hair-out boring. Who writes those things??? A good teacher can make any subject exciting; that audio guide took a subject that had a million interesting details and stories begging to be told... and made it monotonous and dry as a stale Saltine. Such a shame! I may re-think my plans in Literacy, Women's Issues and clean water for Africa, and dedicate my life to a Museum Audio Guide Revolution. 

This was Lindsay's favorite part. She loves Minerva (Athena).

Take a good look at that painting. I told the girls I was ordering a print for our new family room and they just loved that. I told them it will help us make new friends in our new neighborhood - everyone wants interesting friends, right?
(That's a bearded lady. A real person in Italy in the 1500's, and that's her suckling baby, and her husband, whose name was Felippi Vesippi. Some people just can't catch a break!)

The arms and heads are the first thing to go

We loved this garden, though it was freezing!!!

Lucy noticed a hidden door - these were sometimes used as quick escapes to secret hideouts in times of danger

Every single square inch decorated so ornately - this  means Spain to me

Churches we see on our way home

Almost every street name is religious - this is Saint Mary the White (meaning pure). I am trying to find a store to sell me tiles like that - I love them.

This shows how narrow the streets are

I LOVE Flamenco dresses

Our favorite pizza place across from the Cathedral

Tomorrow we go to Cordoba!! We have read the children's book The Most Magnificent Mosque over and over and are so excited to see the majestic mosque that was beloved by Muslim, Christian and Jew alike and spared by the conquering Catholics. There is also a synagogue still standing - I have been excited to see this city since we arrived in Spain.