Hi friends and family,Christmas in Caceres; everything appeared closed. Our hotel did not know if even the churches would be open - "Perhaps." And the day was overcast, a definite drop in temperature, to about freezing. I told Don we might have to

Dear friends and family,You know you're a child of the 'sixties (in America and Britain, anyway) when a certain cool retro futurism makes the soundtrack from James Bond play in your head, and you don't mind.If you read our last email, we drove

Dear friends and family,Thanks so much for everyone who wrote Madrid recommendations. We are not as up to date as we would like, so are often writing about places we have just left. It was fun to read and dream about what we

Hi folks,A word about jamon (ham). The Spanish probably make the best in the world. We can't really call it ham because it bears almost no resemblance to American ham. Sorry, Italia, but pata negra or Jamon Iberico de bellota (from black pigs

Hi friends and family,The next day, after one last visit to the mill, where on the way Don had to fight against sliding off the icy roads, we drove into Brussels and managed to return the van to the correct train station. Stayed

Dear friends and family,First, quick and clever Ms. O (I'm spilling the beans, finally, it's Deborah Oropallo) sent a photo of an alternate reality; if we had stayed home with our construction. Note: smaller portion size.And our friend Hung Liu sent her thanks

Hi everyone,First of all, for those of you who were afraid we might have frozen to death or were stuck sleeping in a snow-covered airport, we are still warm-blooded, pliable and breathing fairly freely in Spain. I (Era) did jump off a stone