We've been living in Spain for almost two months! Yay! Here are some unusual things I've found living in Spain, and the first of probably many of these types of posts: 1. No underwear on the clothesline You hang out your clothes to dry if you want to do laundry Spanish-style. Most of the houses we looked at (20+) did not have a dryer because it is very expensive to run utilities here. Most houses still have hookups for a dryer, and being Americans, we naturally opted to get one installed. However, we still sometimes use the line on the roof patio. The thing I've noticed while hanging out my clothes is no underwear on clotheslines. And there are clotheslines everywhere in the city, so you think you'd get a peek of some granny panties hanging out in all their glory, right? Wrong---I'm yet to see them. I recently read that it is illegal to hang out your underwear in some cities in Spain. Not sure about here, but I know for sure that I'm not going to be ...

Trains, Metros, and Taxis; or, A Weekend in Marvelous Madrid

So the corny joke goes like this: what do you call Thanksgiving in Spain? Thursday! But yeah, there is no Thanksgiving in Spain. However, there is a four day weekend, which made it perfect for our first overnight getaway. Our first big trip was, naturally, Madrid. The purpose of the trip was two part: first and foremost, we wanted to visit our son who has been a university student there since January; and second, we wanted to see the capital of our new adopted country. (okay, and third: I wanted to see a painting. More about that later). How to get to Madrid from here: From Rota, take the Rencife train. We drove to Puerto de Santa Maria and left our car for the weekend in the (free!) parking lot. The train is not cheap; it's about 50 euros for each way per person. Sometimes you can get specials (especially if you are willing to drive 1 1/2 hours to Seville) and children under 13 or so can travel for a discounted price. We stopped and changed trains in Seville, but t...

Diary of a Lockdown; or, A New Normal

In only one month, It's gone from "Let's do Paris!" to "I miss walking." a month in numbers, interspersed with bad haiku February 25 no confirmed Coronavirus cases in Spain It's exploded in South Korea; friends there are now teaching classes online. February 28 32 positive cases/2 deaths 6 cases in Andalucía 5 cases in Madrid March 2 114 positive cases/2 deaths 12 cases in Andalucía 29 in Madrid Travel advisories now to Italy. Madrid has seen a spike and has more cases now than our region. We're getting notices now from our son's university in Madrid, which states that there are no cases on campus. People here who have recently traveled to Northern Italy are asked to look out for symptoms. March 6 365 positive cases/ 5 deaths 21 cases in Andalucía 137 cases in Madrid March 9 999 positive cases, 21 deaths 54 in Andalucía 469 in Madrid We are at almost 1000 cases! Two weeks ago, we were at ze...