Griñón, Spain

Blair, Aedan and I are in Griñón today visiting friends that we made during our 2004 Madrid stay. Mari, Félix, Javier, 20, and Cristina, 14, lived in our same apartment building, but they´ve since moved to a ¨chalet¨ (home) outside of Madrid. They invited us out to see their new place and to have lunch.

We just got back from a stroll through the village. It´s precious. Very tranquil, and only a 30-minute drive from Madrid. Félix takes the train (cercania) to Madrid´s center (across from the Real Madrid Soccer Stadium) every day, and it takes him about an hour to commute one way.

We had a cerveza and a sangría in a restaurant´s outdoor patio near the town square. The tapas were unbelievable. I had mejillones (mussels) with Spain´s version of pico de gallo: tomato, onion, green bell pepper, olive oil and vinegar. TO DIE FOR!!! The bacalao (fish) was also extraordinary. Blair had lacón, a smoked ham. Now, we´re back at La Casa de Los Márquez. Mari is making lunch, and Félix is getting the grill ready to bar-b-que outside. Javier has set me up on his computer, and it´s nice not to be charged by the minute to use it!

We have been running around Madrid like crazy, and I will write about all of our adventures once we return home. It´s been a great week, and it will be difficult to say goodbye to Spain. So, we won´t. We´ll just say ¨¡Hasta la próxima!¨or ¨Until the next time!¨