My sister, Jesi, worked the first half of the day and my dad went with Kevin, my brother in law to run errands. My mom and I spent the early part of the day exploring on foot. The village we are staying in is mostly residential. The only businesses are a resturant and a Mazda dealership. All the houses are stucko with tiled ceilings and have gorgeous gardens. I even saw a palm tree. Some houses have writing or pictures of animals painted on the side. Others had beatiful old large wooden garage doors with curved tops. We also walked to the next village over which was a little bigger and we spent a few minutes in the local park. The humidity here is exactly like Florida so it's hot even in the shelter of the decidous trees over hanging parts of the road, which was slightly wider than the bike path I use in MT. When two cars meet the both have to brake and skirt around each other. Usually the smell changes when you pass a restaruant, but here we alternately smelled farms, a moldy marsh like smell, and something that maybe just because of the humidity reminded me of tea. It was easy to find our way back because the day before we went on a similar walk on which my mom exclaimed "Didn't you have a stone cat just like that!" while we where standing right out side Jesi's house, which was funny at the time and made the rest of us even more aware of the cat's tell tale presence.
Soon after our walk, everyone else returned and Jesi took us to a nearby castle. Most of the castle was ruined, but now it houses a resturant and is commonly used for festivals. While we were there, there was a group of children with helmets and shields participating in a scavenger hunt and "jousting". The ruins reminded me very much of the Redwall books I read as a child. We climbed the highest tower and saw beautiful views of the country side.
Kevin, who skipped the castle to save his leg, was able to rejoin us for dinner at the Villege's only restaraunt.
The chef, who Kevin and Jesi are freinds with, earned many awards in Spain before returning to his home town and runs the place as a hobby. Kevin spilled water all over the table right before the chef came out to greet him. "You are going swimming? Its like this everytime."A few minutes later the waiter came out who, when the spill was blamed on Jesi, knocked Kevin on the head with a stack of menus. When the waiter tried to set the napkins Kevin picked his up from the wet spot and paced it on his leg, later the waiter when around again and set Kevin's silverwear carefuly on his leg. It was the funniest thing I've seen in my entire life. Best waiter ever.
The food was amazing and for desert Jesi split an eldrberry sundae with me. I was definately in Redwall.