Knight in Shining Armor

The really wonderful thing about living in a country like Spain (aside from the fact that it's a great country) is that people are always looking for an excuse to come visit. Since January I've had seven visits--more than one per month! I love showing friends and family my life here in Spain...I just hope the novelty of my being here doesn't wear off too quickly; playing tour-guide is a favorite past time of mine. ;)

My most recent visitors were my cousins Marcelle and her three-year-old son, Dan. I haven't seen Marcelle for just about three years. The last time was when Danny was just a new baby. It was really great to see them both, and so fun to get to know Danny--what a character!

The house we're buying was previously owned by a British couple who had a little boy just about Danny's age. When they moved out, a lot of the toys stayed behind. After exploring the patio for about a minute, Danny found the one toy we'd neglected to wash in anticipation of his arrival: a foam shield. Of course this was the coolest toy we had so we cleaned it up and found a stick for a sword. Later in the afternoon I took a trip into town and bought a "real" sword and shield set with two swords so for the remainder of the visit we were constantly under attack by the World's Strongest Knight. ;)

Tuesday we ventured to nearby Olvera, Cádiz that has an Arabic castle open to visitors. Our knight went well equipped to fight off any dragons we might find lurking about. Danny could not be separated from his sword and shield throughout the entire visit, even up the world's most narrow spiral staircase to the top of the castle tower! In the interpretive museum there was a horse for kids to sit on and Danny was thrilled to find a real suit of armor, shield and sword in the display case. When he gets bigger he assures me he'll have one just like it. :)

The view from the tower--Olvera.

This was the winding staircase to the top of the tower.

So it was fantastic to run (literally!) around the castle with Danny, and also wonderful to see my cousin after such a long time. Her husband is in the air force and she grew up a with parents in the military so she's spent quite a lot of her life living in Europe (they're currently in the process of moving back to the States from Switzerland). It was fun to compare cultural differences and talk about adopted countries.

Self portrait

All in all, it was a short but very sweet visit.