The Swiss country side was so beautiful. I could barely keep my eyes on the road and Sabina swore we were moving here next! After arid Spain this looked like Heaven.
The houses were straight out of a story book, and the people were just as nice.

French Cuisine Casto Style

France is famous for its beautiful countryside and chateaus. As we drove from France into Switzerland and then back into France we had to stop and enjoy an afternoon in the park. It so happened that we ended up in Evian, France where the water was tasty and the pastries were even better.

Tarragona Tower Extravaganza

Tarraogana has an annual competition that involves teams of all ages working together to form a human towers. We joined the pre competition parade which led us through the crowded streets and into a large town plaza. I can only imagine what the local towns people thought as we marched along the crowded streets with our six children and baby stroller. We either must have looked offical or just really stupid, because noboby said anything to us. We made our way into the city center with such ease. We were able to witness the entire festival from between the three competing groups. We were so close that we feared for our safelty, as the human towers erected and plunged one after another. What a spectical!!! The only problem was once we found this prized location we were trapped. Five thousand plus beer drinking Spanards with eight niave Americans in the center of the action. Leave it to Sabina. She found a way out.

Tarragona

After a few more hours of driving we stopped in Tarragona to have lunch with some of Matt's business associates. Lucky for us Tarragona was in the middle of FIESTAS!!

Giant heads paraded all over, it was really neat.
The drizzle was a bit chilly, but it didn't stop us from having fun. Nor did it stop us from camping on the beach that night. The boys thought it was awesome, Bella and I slept in the van. We were toasty and warm.

Day 1!

Our adventure started out in the north eastern part of Spain. We had traveled only 3 hours before we saw a sign for an old Roman city. Being unable to resist we followed. The actual ruins were closed, but the journey took us down some beautiful back roads, and up a hefty hill. The hike itself was about 1 hour going up. Times like this make me love Spain.

The First Day of School

We passed the first day of school with high marks! Everyone was excited, even though Alessandro doesn't look like it.

Dante was a bit bored he said, because all the other kids were crying the whole time, but he was more excited to be a part of what his older brothers were doing. What will Matt and I do with only 1 child at home??????

Free paella and cerveza for all!!

Here are some shots of the paella being cooked. I think that there was more than 20 pans of paella cooking over open fires. It is amazing to me that they can cook in quantities like this, and have it come out delicious!

Everyone dressed up in the traditional dress, even the little ones participate. Lots of dancing and music, makes all that paella go down really smooth!!

The best part of all this is it takes place 2 blocks from our house, so we can roll back home after we stuff our faces.