Visitors to La Mancha

In the last couple weeks we have been lucky enough to play host to some visitors! Our friend Meg stopped by for a couple days on her way back home after living in Copenhagen for a few months. I was in my last full week of work, so unfortunately, I had to miss out on the awesome hike that Will and Meg took during the day. Will took some great pictures though! They started out on the Via Verde, which is a trail in Ciudad Real used mostly by joggers and walkers. They actually walked all the way to the end of the trail, and started trekking through some fields of wildflowers and crops until they reached the nearby town of Poblete (which makes Ciudad Real look like Manhattan), before getting a ride back. It is amazing how after only a few kilometers, are little town turns into countryside. 

Last Wednesday, we took a day trip back to Toledo to meet our great aunt and uncle, Karen and Wendell (Wendell is Will's dad's uncle). They were in Spain for a wedding, and have visited Toledo before, so we had a pretty relaxed day touring the main cathedral and eating a fantastic lunch at the Parador. The view from the Parador terrace across the river gorge to the historic center of Toledo is pretty epic, and really has that "postcard" Spain look. It was awesome to get to spend time with Wendell and Karen and catch up about all the exciting things they're up to - Weddings! Grandkids! Operas! Travel! 

This weekend my friend Tanya from our study abroad days in Chile came to visit. She has been living in Spain for a few years teaching English in the same program, and currently lives in Córdoba (which is about an hour away by high-speed train). She was nice enough to travel to Ciudad Real to see us before we leave.  It was fun to get to catch up with her, and to reminisce about all hilarious hijinks we used to get into in South America. None of our CR friends will be surprised that we took Tanya to Miami Gastro for dinner. They like to poke fun at us for taking all our visitors to the same restaurant, but seriously, it's the best in town and we spent less than $10 each on dinner and two glasses of wine! 

After dinner we took Tanya out to some of the bars, including one of our favorites called "Drag Bar" (which is not a "drag bar" at all in the way we use that phrase at home, it's more of an American dive bar with a loose drag-racing theme) Here we are with the bartender, Raquel:

On Saturday we showed Tanya the sights in Ciudad Real, including the rose garden in Parque Gasset: 

Tanya is back in Córdoba now, so we have no excuse to keep procrastinating on our packing... but that's what blogging is for, right?