Easter Break: Sevilla

Ben and I started our Easter break in Sevilla, Spain along with my friend Tina that came to visit us from California for a week. Sevilla, Spain is most known for their religious processions during Easter. Processions go on all of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. The processions can take up to more than 14 hours. There are many different processions each day. Each procession is done by a different brotherhood of a church in Sevilla. The way the processions work is that the brotherhood starts at their own church and walk to the main central Cathedral in the old part of the city.

After they arrive at the Cathedral, they walk around the outside of it and continue walking in the procession until they reach their church again. The processions can take any amount of time. It depends on how big the brotherhood is and how far away the church is away from the Cathedral. The biggest processions of all go on during the late hours of the night on Holy Thursday until midday the next day. Some of these processions had more than 2,500 people in it!

Ben, Tina and I decided to stay up the entire night with the millions of other people in the tiny streets of the old part the city. It is an incredible experience to be in Sevilla during Easter Break. Words cannot describe how much I enjoyed the time in Sevilla for Easter. People all have mini chairs or stand all day and night watching the slow processions go by them. There are many people lined up along the streets with just enough space to let the brotherhood walk through it. It is a very emotional and jubilant time for many. Here are some photos below of the night processions that went on during Holy Thursday and Good Friday.

First, is a photo with many candles and the Virgin Mary. These are very common in the processions. About 25 - 35 men of a brotherhood are below carrying this very heavy float throughout the streets of Sevilla. All of the men below cannot see where they are going. They are led by somebody else outside of the float. They take many breaks during the procession due to how heavy it is! The floats are used to reenact the events of Easter of each of the corresponding days.

Men walk through the streets carrying very large candles for hours in the processions. They always have their faces covered and are all in matching different colored outfits for each of the different brotherhoods. A lot of the men would even go barefoot to feel the pain that Christ had felt.

Here is a photo depicting Christ on 'Judgment Day'. This float was part of the biggest processions of all called ' La Macarena'. In Spain, 'La Macarena' is another name to refer to the Virgin Mary.
Below is a photo of men carrying crosses. Each of those crosses are very heavy and they usually walk barefoot as well! On these crosses below you can read 'Pasion' which is the same in English for 'Passion'.
During Easter break we also had time to visit many of the monuments that Sevilla has to offer. Ben and I toured the Bull Fighting ring in Sevilla. Sevilla is very known for their bullfighting. The Sunday we were in Sevilla was the opening day of the bullfighting season.

Below is the main Cathedral in Sevilla that all the processions would walk to. The Cathedral in Sevilla is the largest in Spain and also the third largest Gothic style Cathedral in the world. It was very beautiful inside. Inside the Cathedral is a tomb with the suspected remains of Christopher Colombus.

I am in the gardens at the Alcazar in Sevilla. They were very beautiful.

Tina and I are hanging out by a park. It was great having her come and visit us and getting to share the experience of Sevilla during Easter with her!

These are the customary outfits of the brotherhoods that they wear during the processions. They can range in many different colors depending on the day during Easter and the brotherhood.

After five days in Sevilla for all of the Easter celebrations Ben and I traveled on to Gibraltar to go to the top of the rock and see the monkeys of Gibraltar.

Happy Mother's Day!!

As it is Mother's Day in the United States today, I want to wish my mom a Happy Mother's Day from way over here in Spain and also to all of the other mothers that read my blog. It is very interesting to learn the Spanish culture this year. Some of their holidays are not celebrated on the same day as they are in the United States. The Spanish people celebrated Mother's Day on May 4th, one week earlier than in the USA. Mom, Grandma Bernie, Grandma Joyce and everybody else reading this, I hope you have a very special Mother's Day this year! I am thinking of all of you. =)

London, England

On March 8 - 11 Ben and I traveled to London, England for a long weekend. We were very excited as we got to stay with Katie Dolan, from Grafton, that has been living there for about 5 years now so we had a personal tour guide for the first day to get the feel for the city. We were let loose to tour the large city by ourselves the next couple days. We saw many different famous sights of the city. Below are some photos from the trip.

One of the famous guards in London.

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

View of the city

A busker grabbing a boy after he gave him some money.

Tower Bridge

Very windy on top of St. Paul's Cathedral

Front of St. Paul's Cathedral (it was very big!)

The most famous British saying...

Already April!

I can't believe how time has flown here. It is already April. I can't believe that the month of March is already done with. I have been traveling so much lately that I feel I need to update you all on what I have been up to lately. I don't even know where to start. Well, let's see...last time I wrote an update I was just going to Pamplona, Spain and then to go skiing at a ski resort called Formigal. The city of Pamplona is known for the 'Running of the Bulls'. It is a city that is about 70 kilometers away from Logrono. The day that we went to Pamplona was absolutely beautiful! We had packed bocadillos (sandwiches made on amazing Spanish bread) with us to be able to eat outside and relax in the middle of the day. We chose to sit and enjoy our lunch in one of the main plazas of the city as shown in the photo below.

Here are a few more photos that I took in Pamplona, Spain.

This is the countdown to this year's 'Running of the Bulls'. It happens during the first week of July.

Here I am standing in front of the building where the 'Running of the Bulls' starts from. There are massive crowds of people in this plaza partying and celebrating during that week.

Here I am standing on the street where the 'Running of the Bulls' takes place. Boy it is a small street!


The day after we went to Pamplona we woke up at about 4:00 AM to head off with a bus load of people from Logrono to go skiing at Formigal. Formigal is a ski resort about 20 kilometers away from the border of France. It took us 4 1/2 hours by bus to travel there. It was a beautiful bus ride. We got to watch the sunrise in the mountains throughout the drive.

Here I am wearing a mismatch outfit for skiing since I didn't have any winter wear except my winter jacket here in Spain . I had a great pair of gray sweatpants that I borrowed from Ben over a pair of jeans. I also forgot my sunglasses that day so our great group leader borrowed me a pair of his!




It was a long but fun one day of skiing at Formigal. I was happy to see snow for at least one day this winter.

Planning, Planning, Planning

Hello All! It has been way too long since I have last updated you about my adventures in Spain. I have been kept very busy lately. Ben and I have been on many recent travels and also planning for many future ones as well. Right now, I am in the long process of labeling all my photos so that I can put them up on the internet and then you will all know what and where they were taken. Little did I know when I started the process that it was going to take this long of time! I sometimes forget how with a digital camera you can take over 500 photos in a day and then trying to label everything gets very difficult. I hope to have some photos up for you soon! Within the next week.

Okay, I will tell you about a few of the past travels that Ben and I went on in the last month. Starting off month of February we traveled to Madrid to meet my good friend Amanda that came to visit us. We had such a great time being able to show her around Madrid and Logrono. She was here on February 1 - 8. During the time that she was here, Carnival was going on in Madrid so it was great being able to go and watch many parades and see people all dressed up in different costumes.



On February 9 - 11, Ben and I went to Lisbon, Portugal. The city was amazing! It was a very quick trip but we were able to see many sailboats on the sea, a gorgeous sunset over the water, and a tour of both the old and new parts of the city. It was a great place to visit. The temperatures couldn't have been nicer. It was about 70 degrees and perfectly sunny. Ben and I were able to eat meals outside. It felt just like summer.

On February 16 and 17 we took a short train trip to another city in northern Spain, Burgos. We walked and toured the city. Burgos is known for its large Cathedral. We ended up having a 10th floor hotel room that looked at the Cathedral! It was very beautiful to see during the day and lit up at night. We also visited a national monastery. The monastery had some kings and queens for Spain buried there.


Tomorrow, Saturday we are taking an early 7:00 AM bus ride to nearby Pamplona for a day trip. Pamplona is very famous for the 'Running of the Bulls' that happens during the Festival of San Fermin in July. We unfortunately will not be here in July for the event so we are going to go tomorrow to see what the city is like.

On Sunday we are also getting up very early. We have decided to go skiing in the Pyrenees mountains. We will be leaving Logrono at 5:00 AM to make a full day of skiing at a resort called Formigal that is about 4 hours away. I think it will be fun! The only bad thing is, is there might not be much snow. It has already started feeling like spring time here. The trees are all budding and blooming and we already have flowers in the parks! I have been checking the weather for the ski resort and it is showing high 50s and a chance of rain! I really hope the rain will move until Monday and be a beautiful day for us to go skiing.

Well, that is what we have been up to lately. We are also very excited to have many upcoming adventures. We are going to London the week of March 8 - 11. We also have our Easter break coming up from March 19 - 30 where we will tour the cities of Sevilla, Gibraltar, Granada and Cordoba. All four different cities in 10 days! After our break is over we are excited to have Ben's family coming to stay here for the start of April and Ben's sister coming here for the last week of April. We will be traveling to Barcelona at this time. Finally, we have just bought tickets to Paris! I have always dreamed of going to Paris so I am happy to finally know I will get to see the city in person.

Along with all the trip planning, we are also kept busy here with preparing for our school classes and tutor jobs on the side. I hope all of you are doing good at home. I will make a new blog to let you know when all my photos are up online. Have a great weekend everybody!

Update 2: Family in Logrono for Christmas!

On December 23rd, the seven of us made it to Logrono in the afternoon to all go to the grocery store together to buy what we would need for the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals in Spain. My family thought it was crazy how the the people pulled around little mini carts in the grocery store. Ben and I have become accustomed to them so it was funny to see how new people laughed as we had done right away. The mini grocery carts remind me of a wash bucket that you use to clean your floors but on wheels and having holes in them. They are very small so you always have to pull a couple around in order to fit all your groceries.

For Christmas Eve, Ben and I decided to venture once again in making the turkey, mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, green peppers, a fabulous salad and vegetables meal like we had once before for Thanksgiving Day here in Spain and sort of failed at it then. This time though, the meal was a success! Like on Thanksgiving Day our power went out again but this time we were prepared and everything was finished all together. Ben and I treated my family to traditional Christmas treats. In Spain they have many different Christmas goodies that are excellent at Christmas time. My family liked them so much that they all packed a few away to bring back to share with people in the US. I also was able to show my family the greatest candy that I have ever had and they all fell in love with it too. I have never liked candy so much as I do here in Spain. There are candy stores everywhere in my city and they seem to always be busy all of the time with children and even adults. We took my family out for the traditional churros and chocolate for breakfast on Christmas Eve morning. They were great!

My mom, dad and I went to midnight mass on Christmas Eve at the beautiful cathedral near our apartment and we also went again on Christmas Day with everybody. It was interesting both times because it was all in Spanish! Everybody could kind of understand at least the traditional Christmas tunes they played during the masses.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent relaxing with the family catching up in our apartment. It was a great time being able to have all 7 people together staying in our apartment. It was a tight squeeze but we all managed great and it was really nice to be able to spend all the time together. We also spent the days here wandering and exploring the city.

Here are some photos of the places in Logrono we visited.

Here is "a" for Abby!

Here is my mom, Rob and I at the RiojaForum. The RiojaForum is a concert hall and also used as a building for where the Congress of La Rioja meets.

Cities in Spain are known for the traditional 'tapas' or appetizers. It was exciting going out for tapas with my family during the Christmas time. Most Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights families in Spain go out to many different bars and eat small appetizer foods together with a glass of wine or beer. It is a fun time to wander the streets and visit with people. Here we are above in one of Ben and my favorite bars in Logrono to visit for tapas. It was especially exciting during the Christmas time since there were many small local bands playing Christmas tunes marching through the streets and stopping to play outside for the crowd. It really made it feel like Christmas even though there wasn't any snow or cold weather! During Christmas they also had two different little outside markets to buy handmade goods from people that came here from all over the world. We all bought a few gifts from there to remember the markets.

After Christmas Day my family took two more day trips to the cities of Bilbao and Zaragoza. They are both cities within 2 hours away from Logrono by bus. I will update you later on the excursions of both those cities. Goodbye for now!

New Update: My Family Comes to Spain!!

It has been quite a long time since I have updated my blog. Time is flying by fast here! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I can't believe it is already the 20th of January! We are very lucky here as even though it is still 'winter' it was a great 60 degrees outside today! Spanish winters are very nice.

Okay, I will now take you all the way back to December 15th to update you for what has been going on in Spain this past month. On Monday, December 15th Rob arrived in Spain for a month long adventure staying with Ben and I. He arrived at 12:00 AM on a bus from Madrid wearing only shorts, a t-shirt, and sandals! We (and also the other people on his bus) thought he was nuts. Nobody else knew he was coming here from a place that was very hot and didn't have anything else with him to wear that was warm. It was only 25 degrees outside that night. We even had to walk back to our apartment that is about 1.5 miles away from the bus station.

Ben and I took school off on Thursday, December 20 and Friday, December 21 to go with Rob to meet the rest of the family in Madrid. Here we are below 'Welcoming the Larson Family to Spain' in the airport as they walked through the exit where all the people wait for those that are getting off the airplanes. We were very excited to see my family walk through that door!
After many hugs we took all seven of us on the Madrid Metro System...each of us carrying two large suitcases. Wow, how tourists can stand out in Madrid with so many suitcases! We lugged all of our suitcases on 3 different metro lines to finally arrive in our apartment that we stayed in for 3 days near the Puerta del Sol. It was a great apartment in an excellent area of Madrid. We had a fabulous time walking around Madrid seeing the sights of the Christmas season.

On December 22nd we took a day trip south of Madrid to the city of Toledo. It is about an hour and a half away from Madrid and one of the oldest cities in Spain. Here are some photos from Toledo. Below is a photo of us so excited to be in Toledo, Spain together!

The city has very small apartments and roads. I can't believe that people drive in them!
While we were there we met a guy named Antonio and he showed us the way to his 'little artisan shop' where people were making traditional jewelry made of gold thread onto a black backing. We were lucky to be able to watch them work on the jewelry. They were all beautiful that everybody walked out of the artisan shop having something in their hand.

Here I am standing by the famous Don Quijote..."The Man of La Mancha".

Toledo has castle walls around the old part of the city. Here is part of the beautiful castle wall at night.
After a full day of walking in Toledo we headed back to Madrid on the "Ave"(Bird) high speed train for the last night in our rented apartment. Everyone in my family was a good trooper in Madrid and Toledo having done so much walking, visiting many art museums (such as the Reina Sofia and Prado) and famous sites around both of the cities with Ben and I leading the way.

The next morning we woke up to go on a 4 1/2 hour bus ride to Logrono to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in our apartment. Come back tomorrow as I will update you then about the family Christmas in Logrono, Spain.