Weiss Family our adventures beyond southern california

Spain was highly associated with one thing - meeting up with the Brittinghams, our good friends from home. The Brittingham family is a perfect pairing for the Weiss family. Elijah and Poppy are in the same 3rd grade class. Natasha and Tommy are both in kindergarten. Mary Anne and Ella are close friends and Joel has spent a lot of time with Scott, who is the current president of the Crane School Board of Directors. After a week of staying in castles, we drove our cool black diesel BMW into big Madrid, in search of the Brittingham's apartment. When we arrived the whole Brittingham clan was waiting for us in front of their apartment. The Weiss kids could barely contain their happiness! Madrid is a classy city and it reminded me of London. Friendly people, interesting architecture, and spotless. We walked, took cabs, zipped on the Metro, trying to squeeze in as much as possible. I think the highlight for the kids was just being with Poppy and Tommy. Joel and Scott got to go to a soccer game - Real Madrid powered over Seville. Scott and Ella had arranged for two nights of sitters, allowing the adults to go out for some fancy late-night dinners, one to celebrate Ella's birthday. After a few days we jumped on the high speed train and raced to the Seville in the south. What a beautiful city. It was hot hot and it reminded all of us of Santa Barbara. We staying at an beautiful hotel, the Alfonzo XIII, right in the heart of the city. Despite the allure of the Seville attrations, we clocked in a lot of time just drinking sangria at the hotel pool. The week with the Brittinghams flew by too quickly and before we knew it, they had to return to Madrid to fly home to Santa Barbara and we flew off (via Ryan-Air) to Italy. Even though we were in Spain for over a month, I was sad to leave and we have a long list of places we would like to re-visit!  --Joel