Oh the rain... !!!!

I remember hearing when I was little that if you washed your car, then it would make it rain. I must admit that the superstition stuck and even as an adult I dared not wash my bike the day before a bike race. However, I am starting to wonder if I should wash my bike now. After a week of endless rain and flooding, I looked at the forecast today hoping to see the end of this miserable weather. What I found instead is another week of rain. Even the kids were talking about how they don't ever get to go outside during break at school with all the rain. Alyssa optimistically told Nathan this morning on our way to school that next week they would be playing out again. I don't have the heart to tell her what I have read today.

Gilbralter...

The Rock of Gibralter towers over the coast of Spain that touches it on each side. We drove there from our rental apartment in Calahonda, Spain in a steady rain. The low hanging clouds allowed little site seeing, but it did not stop the towering rock from darking the sky a bit more.

Gibralter is a British Territory and once we got past the border control, we felt like we had returned to England. Everything was in English and we had quite a selection of pubs and other English department stores to choose from.

Because Gibralter is very small, everything is smashed into a very small area. As you leave the border control, you drive right over a giant runway. With all the tight security restrictions in the States, I was quite surprised to find myself driving on a runway!!

We squeezed our rental car around tight corners, navigating slowly up the Rock of Gibralter. Many corners were so tight, there was several shades of paint from the side of cars decorating the buildings. The roads wasted little time taking us up and we were soon looking down on the Strait of Gibralter. It was easy to understand why this was such a strategic military location during World War II. At its narrowist point, there is only 8 miles that separates Africa from Europe. As we looked down at the water, you could easily see Africa off in the distance.

We drove up as far as the roads would allow and then we got out and started walking. As we we turned the first bend in the road, we met our first monkey sitting on a wall at the road's edge. It just sat there looking at us giving us no indication whether or not it cared about our existance. It was strange meeting up with a monkey outside of the zoo. It just did not seem natural, but we found many more monkeys during our walk that day. There were all shapes and sizes. Some looked like they were going to grab us around the legs if we got too close, others looked like they wanted to play. We were advised by a lot of signs that the monkeys did bite, so we tried to keep our distance.

We did make it to the top, but the clouds hid any views from us.

Jamón ibérico...

We always make sure to get a little Iberian Ham when we are in Spain. We learned about it on our first trip last year. It has a very distinctive flavor and can be very expensive. We tried a little portion this time that cost 60 euruos a kilo. The thing that amazes me is that there is so much of it to buy. Everywhere we go, you can find a corner of a store filled like our picture here. There seems to be an endless supply of it in Spain, yet they cans still sell it for high prices. I suppose the cost is supported by what needs to be done to produce it. I won't even attempt to explain Iberian ham, but I will supply you with the Wikipedia definition. This is much better than my limited knowledge of it and as I researched it I learned a little more about it too.

According to Wikipeida.com...

Jamón ibérico is a type of jamón, a cured ham produced only in Spain. It is at least 75% Black Iberian Pig, also called the cerdo negro or black pig, the only breed of pig that naturally seeks and eats mainly acorns: according to Spain's Denominación de Origen rules on food products jamón ibérico may be made from cross-bred pigs as long as they are at least 75% ibérico.
The Black Iberian Pig lives primarily in the south and southwest parts of Spain, including the provinces of Salamanca, Ciudad Real, Cáceres, Badajoz, Seville, Córdoba and Huelva. Immediately after weaning the piglets are fattened on barley and maize for several weeks. The pigs are then allowed to roam in pasture and oak groves to feed naturally on grass, herbs, acorns, and roots, until the slaughtering time approaches. At that point the diet may be strictly limited to acorns for the best quality jamón ibérico, or may be a mix of acorns and commercial feed for lesser qualities.

The hams are labeled according to the pigs' diet, with an acorn diet being most desirable:

The finest jamón ibérico is called jamón ibérico de bellota (acorn). This ham is from free-range pigs that roam oak forests (called la dehesa) along the southern border between Spain and Portugal, and eat only acorns during this last period. It is also known as Jamón Iberico de Montanera.[citation needed] The exercise and the diet has a significant impact on the flavor of the meat; the ham is cured for 36 months

The next grade of jamón ibérico is called jamón ibérico de recebo. This ham is from pigs that are pastured and fed a combination of acorns and grain.

The third type of jamón ibérico is called jamón ibérico de pienso, or simply, jamón ibérico. This ham is from pigs that are fed only grain. The ham is cured for 24 months.

Trip to Ronda, Spain...

Our first outing in the south of Spain was a drive to Ronda. We turned north from the beaches of Marbella and started our ascent to one of the most breathtaking towns I have ever seen. The road to Ronda was a very winding two lane road plagued by slow moving dump trucks and fast moving cars passing the trucks on the inside of every turn up the mountain. The road had random stretches of guardrails and short stonewalls, but nearly every one had a missing section or was seriously damaged. Neither this nor the steady rain seemed to put any concern into the minds of the passing drivers. The fact that we were traveling up a steeply graded road did not seem to slow anyone but us. Perhaps it was chorus of whimpers from his three passengers that made Dale slow to a crawling speed. I would have taken pity on the fact that Dale had to crawl along the mountain roads, obviously wanting to go faster, if I had not been so nervous myself!

We arrived to a village perched on the side of a cliff. The view was amazing. From the edge of the village you look down on crumbling walls, dirt roads, olive groves and abandoned stone ruins that made you imagine times past. We wandered the streets in the steady rain taking stock of the beautiful doors that decorated every building and home. There were no doors put on buildings simply for use. They all were strong, heavy beautifully made doors beautifully carved and nearly all carefully tended. The doors are one of my favorite things to look at in Spain.

Ronda is well known for the impressive bull ring built at the edge of town. Within the complex is a small museum and horse training center. We saw people working with horses, the bull ring and all the gates and ropes used on the day of a bullfight. To see a bullfight must be a statement to society as well because the cheapest tickets to be had were 50 euros per person. We had to settle for sitting in an empty bullring, but even that was fun.

Early flight to Spain...

When you are sitting in front of a computer making travel reservations, anything seems possible. As I made our flight reservations for our trip to Spain, I looked at the cost grid and decided that I was willing to get up really early in order to save some pounds in airfare. However, as I struggled out of bed at 3:30 am this morning, I declared that there actually is great value in the time you spend sleeping and have thus declared that I will never again try to catch a 6:25 am flight.

The good side to this story is that we arrived in Spain at 10:30 am despite it being one hour later in time zones and we had an entire day to unpack, explore and enjoy a nice dinner. The bed was quite comfortable when I finally crawled in at the end of today.

Thanksgiving...

I now have a much better appreciation for all the Thanksgiving meals that I have enjoyed at other peoples houses. After years of being spoiled by the wonderful cooking of all my fabulous relatives and friends, I decided it was time that I held a proper Thanksgiving feast for other people. This idea led me to host a Thanksgiving dinner for some neighborhood friends this past week. I must say that it is a little more difficult to celebrate Thanksgiving here since we still have work, school and after school activities on Thanksgiving Day and the day after.

The run up to our Thanksgiving dinner was a test of our organizational skills. If I did not have my dear friend Michele Bote to help me every step of the way, I am pretty sure I would not have been able to pull it off. In fact, if you read her blog, Michele's cycling blog noted under "My favorite Blogs", you will find her own account of her Thanksgiving week here. We did our best to pack in as many site-seeing trips as possible in between our cooking sessions. However, time was against us since I had to pick up the kids from school at 3:00pm each day.

Despite the fact that we were spreading ourselves thin trying to see the sites, fit in bike spinning classes, and eat meals other than the big one we were trying to prepare, Michele and I managed to present a lovely feast to our guests from England. They were all gracious and enthusiastic about our tradition and made the day even more special.

For our dinner we smoked a 20 lb. turkey on a Weber along with as many traditional dishes as we could create. This included sweet potatoes, stuffing, oyster dressing, green beans with bacon, cranberry relish, a big salad and mashed potatoes with gravy. We had pumpkin pies and apple pies for dessert after which we all had to roll ourselves out of our chairs.

The hardest part of our wonderful feast was the next day when everyone had to get up and go to work and school. Because it was a workday, our Thanksgiving meal did not commence until 6:00pm. After a late evening on Thursday, all I wanted to do was curl up under a blanket and do nothing on Friday. However, when I showed up at the school grounds Friday morning to drop the kids off, I was greeted with wide smiles from all my guests who expressed their great hope that I would host Thanksgiving again next year.

The rising and setting of the sun...

Our clocks turned back from BST (British Summer Time) on Sunday, October 28. The main reasons given for the use of summer time are the saving in power given by the longer hours of daylight in the evenings and the increased useful daylight leisure time available to those who work. This differs from the US where (starting in 2007) the time change does not take effect until 2 AM. on the first Sunday in November. This is a change from past years due to the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Now the US time changes are different that the rest of the world. When the US time changed prior the the UK back in March 2007, I remember hearing a great deal of concern, voiced particularly by the financial markets, that the time difference will create problems.


The reason the US opted for a longer period of daylight savings was stated by the authors of the
Energy Policy Act of 2005. The amendment to shorten the winter, lengthen the summer and save energy by extending daylight saving time by at least four weeks, was, proponents claimed, going to save "the equivalent of" 10,000 barrels of oil per day. It remains to be seen how much energy will actually by saved, but hopefully the US will actually "save" that much oil, not simply put it to use in some other mode.

I have not quite adjusted to our time change here. The sun rose at 7:05 AM this morning and will set at 4:20 PM. I have been scrambling to get dinner on the table, thinking that it is later than it is with the darkness closing in on us so quickly at night. By November 30, the sun will rise at 7:42 AM and set at 3:56 PM and by December 22 (the shortest day of the year), we will only enjoy a mere 7 hours 50 minutes of daylight when the sun rises at 8:04 AM and sets at 3:54 PM. At the rate I am going now, by December we will be eating dinner at 4:30 PM and be in bed by 7:00 PM! I am sure I will adapt, but I don't think I will ever quite get adjusted to quickened pace of the setting sun here in the UK.