We got into Granada at night and we were quite surprised to find that it was a beautiful small town with narrow cobbled stoned streets. Obviously driving in Granada was an experience. Because I was very nauseous from the drive (for some reason, I react this way to smells of a new car - 3rd time now, maybe next time I'll request for an old car), poor Wei-Han had to drive and navigate us to Granada, to a parking station and to our hotel on foot. He did a phenomenal job because it took all of my strength to carry my bag, walk and not throw up. We finally found our quaint hotel which was really an old Spanish-Morrocan 3 storey terrace house with 9 rooms. I collapsed into bed and stayed that way til morning while Wei-Han got some kebabs for dinner. He described the streets as lively and interesting, nothing that he had ever seen before. Many stalls which sold touristy things were laid out like an Arabic shop - filled with vibrant colours, and they had Arabic music playing in the background. Most of the architecture was quite Morrocan and they were beautiful to look at.

The next day, we awoke at 6:30am to walk up to the main tourist site - the Alhambra by 7am. We figured that this would get us close to the front of the queue as the ticket office opened at 8am. We were devastated to see that there were close to a thousand people ahead of us! It was the May day weekend and it seemed like everyone in Europe decided to visit the Alhambra that day! Still we queued. We bumped into Phil and Rebecca who arrived much later, but we invited them to join us anyway - we were glad for some distraction during what would become the longest queue we had ever taken part of. We had to leave Granada by 4pm in order to return our car by the latest 7pm in Seville (250km from Granada) and be seated for our flamenco show starting at 8pm. So we fervently hoped for tickets which would admit us as early as possible. We finally got our tickets at 1pm for a 2pm slot. We were ecstatic!

And it was well worth the queue. The Alhambra was beautiful. It seemed that everywhere our eyes went, the buildings, the gardens and the views were beautifully preserved - we were quite awed by it all. Unfortunately, due to time constraints we had to skip the Nasrid Palace as that didn't admit us in til 6pm and we had to leave by 4pm. We rushed back to Seville, dumped the rental car and cabbed our way to Seville's old quarters to check in and dump our bags. We then watched a flamenco show which was a real treat - a couple of the musicians and women flamenco dancers were excellent.

The following day, we visited the usual tourists sites such as the cathedral, the Alcazar (which was the most enjoyable palace I have ever visited, I'm sure mostly due to the fact that it is still being used by the royalty at times) and the streets of the old quarter. All through our Spain trip, we avoided visiting any museums as we had little interest in art, especially after having seen the Vatican city, the Louvre and the British Museum.

Later, we found out that there was a special bullfight on May day, which was that day itself. Naively, we got excited and bought tickets. We sat halfway up the bullfight stadium and the place was about 3/4 full. Every 2nd person was smoking which was incredibly annoying and we noticed that many women were dressed very nicely and there were some children present also. Not long after the bullfight started, I wanted to leave. It was the most barbaric thing I have ever witnessed - I know I haven't seen much compared to others who have been through war and so on, so I know I'm a softie, but I'm sure God did not create a bull to be tortured like this. Healthy strong bulls were being stabbed in the back repeatedly (apparently also drugged before hand) and made to run through silly red or pink pieces of cloth til he lost too much blood to care and decided to sit down, at which point everyone started to cheer and clap. This would take about 1/2 hr. Then the bull was stabbed one more time to kill it and the horses would appear to drag it out. We could not understand why this was a sport when the bull was doomed to lose and die anyway (if a man was somehow hurt, I'm sure they would have quickly shot the bull anyway). After awhile, I couldn't watch anymore and had to leave.

It rained heavily the next day which was ok as we were flying to Barcelona that day and we had seen all we had wanted to see. Although we still did trudge through rain to have a look at Casa de Pilatos - apparently a replica of Pontius Pilate's home in Jerusalem. Since I'm not sure if I'll ever make it to Israel, I was quite adamant about seeing this site even with all the rain!

We spent the rest of the day in Barcelona shopping and we flew out the next day - back to Singapore. We were really missing the kids by then and were more than ready to come home.

Meanwhile Matthew and Mia were enjoying Wei-Han's parents and they were all having a great time - though mum and dad were a little sleep deprived and quite worn out from caring for their grandchildren! They took off to KL for a short break before returning for a couple more days before returning to Sydney. Matthew was upset for days after they left, he really missed them.

As for me, I just started work at a practice nearby. I am only working 2 mornings a week which is great. It has been great to start using the part of my brain which hasn't really been used much for the last 4 years and great to using my skills again. The kids have adjusted well to me being at work. And that's all for the month of May!

Wei-Han and I spent 9 days in Barcelona, Granada and Seville without the kids. Admittedly, a couple of weeks before the trip, I was anxious and thought I was crazy to be leaving my kids for so long and being so far away from them. However, as the days drew closer, I was quite ready to go. Wei-Han's parents flew over to help Tina, our helper to care for the kids.

The flight there was 14 hours with a brief transit at Milan and flying economy for that long and overnight could not go quicker. Once we touched down at Barcelona, we were impressed with how efficient, clean and modern everything was. The subways were fantastic too, making it so easy for tourist to travel from the airport to town for just a few dollars. We struck up conversation with an Australian couple Phil and Rebecca, who were sitting in front of us on the plane. We decided to follow them on the train to town and we parted at our stops closest to our accomodation with an agreement to meet up for dinner. Wei-Han and I checked into a basic, but comfortable and quiet hotel in a nice neighbourhood further north of town. After settling down, we walked around the streets, got some food from a supermarket for breakfast, had lunch and visited the famous La Sagrada Familiae, designed by Gaudi. Although it has the gospels all over it, it is not called a church, rather, a temple. I'm not exactly sure whether it's because no one worships in it or it just looks nothing like a church. From the outside, I thought it looked like an enormous grey melting wax cathedral. Wei-Han described it as messy. But the insides were quite a contrast. It was quite beautiful and unique and very interesting in the way it was thought out and designed. For example, the pillars inside the building are made of different strength materials. The pillar at the center of the building was of the strongest granite which represented Jesus. Around this pillar were 12 other pillars built from a slightly weaker granite, of course representing the 12 apostles, and the surrounding pillars thereafter were of the weakest stone there, representing the rest of us.

The Spanish have dinner at 9-10pm, which made for a long day - so of course, we also did what the Spanish do, have a siesta, much needed after the overnight flight in economy. We had paella, tapas and of course the ever sweet and addictive sangria for dinner with Rebecca and Phil which was fun.
The next day, we took a trip out to Monserrat, a monastery up in the mountains. A train and a cable car ride. We listened to a boys choir in the beautiful cathedral. Many a times I have often questioned the logic in man building a large expensive and beautiful church or cathedral so common in the past, while many suffer and perish around them from poverty. And for the first time, while I was sitting in this cathedral listening to the pure voices singing to God, surrounded in wonderful art and architecture, I sense that perhaps some of these buildings were built to glorify God Himself and all of this beauty was a way to express praise to God. And it reminded me of how much bigger, more wonderful and complex God really is.

The following day with joined a Gourmet food walking tour which took us around the city to understand more of Spanish cuisine and its origins. We saw the fresh food market, small shops that specialised in cured meats, pattiserie, chocolates, nuts, nougat, coffee and hot chocolate. We gained a fuller appreciation of the diversity of food here and we were treated to some pate and wine when we finished.

We also visited Montjuic and the Pablo Espanyol. Montjuic was a large park like area up on the hills and it had many gardens, some museums and eateries. One of its attractions were Pablo Espanyol which is a recreated old Spanish village. I'm sure it's probably considered tacky by many travellers who enjoy the 'real thing', but we enjoyed it. I looked into the many little shops in there and saw a variety of the traditional Spanish buildings typical of different eras.

While we were in Barcelona, we decided to arrange to visit Granada. We did some last minute bookings, and the following day, we flew to Seville and drove a rental car to Granada.