A Babymoon with Baby: Tenerife

Lots of people plan and take a "babymoon" when pregnant, especially with their first baby as one last chance to spend some time together as a couple.  Our life for the past two years has been a babymoon, so we didn't feel like we had to go out of our way to do this, but it did get us thinking.  Even though we didn't need to spend time together (we are ALWAYS together), we did think it would be a good idea to do some things that might be more difficult/less enjoyable with a baby.

Mike knew immediately that he wanted to do some serious diving on our babymoon and spending a few days at a pool or beach sounded like paradise to a pregnant me. After lots of research on Mike's part, we set our sights on Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco.  We became extremely ambitious when planning and decided to book our flights for two days after our trip to Portugal, which was not that long after our trip to Spain (rough life, I know). Mike ended up getting mono towards the end of our trip in Portugal and was so sick by the time we came home that we knew there was no way we were going to boarding a flight for our diving and beach vacation two days later.

Luckily, we were able to reschedule our trip for the week following Kelly and Sean's wedding, but that meant that it would no longer be our babymoon.  Instead, we would have a three month old coming along for the ride.  Finn is cute, but he definitely changes the dynamic of our travel.  Sitting by the pool isn't quite as relaxing as it used to be.   He also decided to enter a major sleep regression that had Mike and I questioning our sanity.

While we weren't able to relax as much as we probably would have before Finn came along, we still had a great time.  Mike was still able to go diving and I got to enjoy some adult beverages by the pool, something that I wouldn't have been able to do in January.  We stayed at the Sheraton La Caleta, which may be one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed at.  As much as I make fun of Mike for being a little obsessed with credit card points, it definitely paid off because we didn't pay a dime for our week stay.  So, next time he yells "Use the Chase!" or "We get five times points with the AmEx!" I guess I should refrain from rolling my eyes and just go with it.

The water was a leeeetle too chilly for Finny

One last Olmsted selfie

Lounging by the pool

When you only sleep one hour at a time, you take lots of naps throughout the day.  I did too.

Nomz

Nomz nomz nomz

We loved our time at the Sheraton in Tenerife.  It was relaxing, the staff was friendly and the amenities were glamorous.  It was definitely an expensive and much more luxurious trip than our normal travels, but it was a great way to end our Olmsted travels and rest up for our move from Berlin.

Always review the emergency exit procedures before takeoff.

A Day at the Alhambra

Well, I'm finally sitting down to write the final blogpost about Spain a week and a half later.  Better late than never, right?  

When we were planning our trip to Spain, we knew we wanted to focus on the Muslim history in the country to tie it back to our Turkish Olmsted roots.  One of the main ways of doing this was by visiting the Alhambra in Granada.  Everything we read said to book our tickets a month in advance to ensure we could get a tour space, so we did that like the good tourists we are.  I don't think we needed to do it quite that far in advance since it was the off season, but I am glad we reserved them ahead of time because all we had to do was show up the day of the tour and not worry about lines or tickets or availability. 

Our tour started at 9:30 and was full of Americans (God bless the English speaking tour!) with a great tour guide.  It was originally a small fortress that was taken over by the Moors who turned it into a huge palace before it was turned over to the Christians. Eventually, Ferdinand and Isabella would live there and have visitors such as Washington Irving.

I loved the Alhambra! I thought it was beautiful both on the outside (thanks to the Christians who focus primarily on exterior architecture) and the inside (thanks to the Muslims who's tiles and Arabic script are on the inside).

Views of Granada

Mike and I were saying we could do a whole photo book of cats we've seen out and about while travelling

Our tour guide! She spoke almost perfect English, knew a ton about the Alhambra and was just an overall pleasure to spend a morning with. She was saying that squatters used to live in the Alhambra during transition times.  I guess if you have to squat somewhere, the Alhambra isn't a bad place to do so!

Excuse the crazy hair, but we had a great morning at the Alhambra!

After the tour, it was lunch time and we were EXHAUSTED.  A three hour tour will really knock you off your feet if you're recovering from mono or are pregnant.  We got lunch and went back to our hotel and napped for the entire afternoon.  I woke up feeling like a whole new woman!

It was a good thing we did nap, though, because we really wanted to stay up and watch at least part of the Superbowl.  We found an Irish pub that was showing it, so around midnight, we, along with every American college student studying abroad in Granada, rolled into the pub.  Luckily, the owner saw I was pregnant and brought out a stool for me to sit on. We stayed until halftime and had just as much fun people watching all of the college students as we did watching the game.  Unfortunately, we made the poor decision (well, poor in that we missed a great half of the game/smart in that we got to go to sleep) to go to bed at halftime.  

The next morning, we had to drive back to Malaga to fly back to Berlin, so we took the scenic route along the coast line.  It was beautiful!! It looked so much like the Amalfi Coast and we were catching our breath at every turn.  We stopped in one of the small towns to have lunch and sat outside soaking up the sun for one last time before heading back to wintery Berlin. 

We loved our week in southern Spain.  It was a great mix of warm weather, Muslim culture, and beautiful scenery.  We got a taste of the warm weather this week and we spent the days dreaming we were back along the Spanish coast! Until next time....

Cordoba, Spain

We had been told that Cordoba was worth spending a decent amount of time in, but had also read that it could be a day trip from Seville.  Since we had a week, we decided to spend two nights in Cordoba, which gave us an afternoon when we arrived, as well as a full day the next day. 

Upon arrival, we quickly learned that Cordoba embraces the siesta culture heavily. We were able to get a lunch at a craft beer bar before heading back to our hotel for a little siesta. That evening, we walked around and got dinner, but Mike was pretty exhausted so we called it an early night.

The next day, our number one priority was to see the Mezquita.  Cordoba is a port city and became the capital of the Moorish kingdom.  The Moors built the Mezquita, or "Great Mosque," which became one of the largest mosques in Islam.  When the Christians conquered the Moors, they thought the Mezquita was too beautiful to destroy, so they converted it to a church. We saw a lot of churches converted to mosques in Turkey, but it's rare that we get to see a mosque converted to a church. Pretty cool! 

Not only was the Mezquita beautiful, but it was HUGE!

That altar!

More oranges!

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the old town and embracing the Spanish ambiance (and warm weather!).  We had tapas for lunch, Mike had some Spanish beer and we both got a lot of Vitamin D.

All the meat and cheese!

I love all of the little side streets and alley ways!

We both loved Cordoba! The Old Town had a lot of the same feel as Seville, but the newer parts of the city were more developed and the city as a whole seemed more alive and vibrant, even though it's technically smaller.  I'm glad that we spent a whole day plus an afternoon because it gave us plenty of time to really delve into the ambiance of the city.