Ruins, Romans, and the Rock

In our (super trendy, Instagram photo-filled) weekend recap post, we mentioned that we opted for a couple day trips instead of a vacation over the Memorial Day holiday. On Sunday we drove norte of Sevilla to Mérida, a town in Extremadura that used to be occupied by the Romans. By "used to be" we mean circa 2000 years ago, which seems pretty impressive to us. Graham is fairly certain this was his first time seeing Roman ruins, since there's a serious lack of them on the other side of the Atlantic. The whole town of Mérida is full of Roman ruins - an amphitheater (what we consider a "coliseum", where the gladiators fought), theater, circus (for chariot races), aqueducts, bridge, forum, temple of Diana, and many other buildings and houses. 

Fin de semana snaps

We hope you all had a fantastic fin de semana! Here's what our weekend looked like, according to Meghann's iPhone and Instagram:

Feliz weekend!

It's the unofficial start of summer, so pour yourself a tinto de verano and catch up on your Hola Matrimony!

-Our luna de miel ended in Paris, where we saw some of the sights and ate a ton of food (including plenty of cheeeese).

-We checked out feria in Jerez and Rota. Meghann loves the traditional dresses and Graham is partial to the rebujitos.

-Met up with amigos in Dublin to conduct official field studies of whether Guinness really tastes better in Ireland.

-The Marylanders hit Spain! First stop, Granada for the Alhambra, tapas, and to celebrate the end of Graham's youth Graham's 30th birthday.

We hope you enjoy your weekend! But don't forget to take uno momento to remember the reason for the holiday.

Graham's deployment homecoming in 2009. A wonderful day that not every military family gets to have.

Just something to keep in mind while you are playing outside, making some cocktails, throwing something fresh and tasty on the grill, hanging out with amigos, relaxing with a book, reading your favorite blog, or hitting the playa. Or if you are lucky - doing all of the above! What are your plans for the weekend?

Marylanders go to Granada

From Dublin, we plus the Maryland three flew into Malaga and then drove up to Granada. We told our friends that if you're in Spain, you have to see the Alhambra. And Granada is a great Spanish city - lots of character, charm, and tapas that come with every drink. They were sold. By the time we got in on our first night, there was only tiempo to go out for a few beverages, since we knew we had a big day following. 

The next dia (Graham's 30th birthday!) we got up, grabbed some pastries, picked up our tickets, and walked up the hill to the Alhambra. It was even lovelier than when the two of us were there in the fall.

3 dias in Dublin

Two weekends ago we went to Dublin to meet up with good amigos (Kristen, Chris, and Tom, who you might recognize from our trip to the States) from Maryland! Meghann wanted to make it a birthday surprise for Graham, but it's really difficult to surprise someone who needs to get leave paperwork approved, so it was just a super-awesome non-surprise pre-birthday present. We spent 3 days in Dublin, checking out the best it has to offer: Dublin Castle, Trinity College, the Book of Kells, Church of Christ, the River Liffey. Oh, and pubs, pubs, the Guinness Brewery, more pubs, Temple Bar, the Jameson Distillery, and let's not forget about the pubs. 

Feria season snaps

Feria season, when towns in España celebrate with week-long fairs, came to our area in between our honeymoon and our trip to Dublin (more on that soon!). All of that travel, combined with some unusually cold and rainy weather, meant that we weren't able to go as much as we had planned. The noche before we left for Dublin, the weather cleared and we were able to go to the Rota Feria de Primavera (spring). We stayed until almost 3 in the morning, but many of the casetas, which are fair tents with food, drinks, and music, were still going strong. 

Last of our luna de miel: Paris

When we were planning our honeymoon to heaven Mauritius (that we blogged about here and here), we noticed the flights that made the most sense to take went through Paris. That was a happy discovery because we both love Paris (Graham has been once before and Meghann twice, but we had never gone together) and it was on our list of "must visit while living in Spain". And because it is a city known for it's food, vino, and romance, it made even more sense to include it in our honeymoon. So we decided to stay for a few dias on our way back to Spain from Mauritius.

The morning that we left Spain, we drove to Sevilla, then hopped on a short flight to Paris that landed at Orly. The only problem was that our flight to Mauritius left from Charles de Gaulle...12 hours later. The thought of being in Paris for a day, but being stuck in an airport bummed us out. Luckily, the hotel that we had booked in Paris was happy to watch our bags, even though we weren't checking in with them until a week later. 

The Eiffel Tower is within walking distance of the hotel, so that's where we headed first - and because it just seems right to start any trip to Paris by seeing its most iconic monument.