Castles and Calimari

So our first few days in Spain were interesting ones. We crammed in a lot of history to keep Richard happy! First we headed down to Avíla for the day. although this was a long drive (2 hrs each way) it was totally worth it. Avíla was an old walled town and the walls and old city are still preserved today, including a number of beautiful old buildings including the cathedral and several churches and a bastion.
Finding the place where you could get onto the Walls was quite a challenge and by the time we had walk around finding it, it was 1.15 and very sunny! But the excitement of walking along the walls and climbing up the steep stone steps to the watch towers cancelled out the heat.




CJ and Richard had fun with their sword fighting practice and I enjoyed the amazing views over the town and to the surrounding hills. In the photo above, all the red houses are within the city Walls and the opposite wall can be seen in the distance. This is the width of the city and it is about twice that in length. It really is a massive walled city and quite understandably a UNESCO Heritage City.
We also visited the cathedral and Callum's catholic school education paid off as he was very well behaved and even wanted to light a candle, except that here the church has modernised and instead of a real candle, you 20c will by you a lit flickering LED fake candle.

We bid farewell to Avíla and made our way back to Riaza, with Callum enjoying watching Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on DVD.

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Location:Riaza, Spain

Leaving Home

After weeks of steady preparation the Jacob family were off on their first long trip in our little camper "whitey-von-snuggle", a 1994 Toyota Hiace Japanese import.
We were headed to Spain and France and decided to take the longer slower but more relaxing route of going by ferry from nearby Portsmouth, to Bilbao with Brittany Ferries. The trip takes 2 nights so we left at 22:00 on Sunday arriving amazingly on Tuesday morning.



It had been a crazy few weeks of packing and adjusting and fitting last minute items like insect screening, electric fan and baggage netting. Finally we were ready and with a last check to ensure we hadn't shut one of our cats in somewhere, we headed East to Pompy, stopping at Port Solent enroute for dinner.
We were checked in early and as these always do, it took an age to get on the boat. You have to cross some rippled metal ramps that shook the van silly no matter how slow you drive, but at least we knew we were properly stowed in "ship-shape" fashion.

Whilst on the ship we were lucky enough to have the benefit of some neighbours of ours only a few cabins away, so Callum had his friend Gregory to play with in the afternoon. The children were happily entertained by the ship's party games, quizzes, balloon modelling and the highlight for Callum, meeting Pierre the Bear. There was even a salty swimming pool on the top deck. After a full day of racing around the boat we said goodbye and everyone had a good night's rest before heading off to their separate campsites in the morning.

We were off to an area of Northern Spain called Casitllia y Léon, staying at a fabulous camp site on the edge of a small town called Riaza.

The campsite was large but with plenty of space and had a little shop, restaurant, children's playground and access to the town swimming pool. The shower blocks were very clean and there were even child bath cubicles, which had a mini bath set at adult waist height for washing small children. Interestingly there was only 1 washing machine which was never in use as the Spanish seem to prefer using the special sinks and hand washing their clothes.

That evening we headed into the village square, Callum on his bike (his new skill acquired days before we left) , and manage to get some dinner despite our dreadful lack of competent Spanish. We were initially a bit thrown by the different meal times in Spain. Lunch 2-4pm and dinner is 9-11pm! But we soon adjusted and settled into our first night in our little van, our home for the next three weeks.

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Location:Portsmouth, UK

Vikings beware

We decided to spend part of our weekend out in the campervan ("Whitey the SnugBus") in Dorest.
There is so much to do round Wareham and we had a brilliant day at Bovington Tank Museum, where we spent ages searching for pictures of animals on tanks, playing hide and seek and going for a very bumpy ride in a vehicle. On the Monday we went to Corfe Castle - well the remains of it, as it was destroyed during the civil war, as it was a royalist stronghold and a highly defencible locations.
So here is Callum fighting a viking who took great pity on us, as the timetable said the kids could do some fighting at 1pm, but apparently it was wrong and we were late. So the only thing Callum wanted to do was fight a viking and when I explained that we were too late, his face just fell and the tears started!! He is prone to being a bit dramatic, but I do believe that these were genuine tears of sadness. A very noble viking, kindly went and found a stick and shield and a willing warrior for Callum to fight. As you can see it really made his day, so much so that when we said we would stay to watch a later battle in an hour, he just smiled, and said "can we go home now mama?" and promptly put his thumb in his mouth. Totally satisfied with his achievement.

So a huge thank you to the wonderful re-enactment team at Corfe over the weekend a really great group of people who were really willing to help bring history to life, let Callum hold numerous knives, swords and axes (all blunt I hasten to add) as well as spare two parents from totally letting down their child.

Christmas Wishes

I know it is only 17th today, but believe it or not, our Christmas starts tomorrow evening!

Our annual newsletter "The Jacobian Times" can be read online - the pictures are a bit grainy sorry.

A big hello and merry Christmas to my extended family who are spread right across the globe.

To them and many friends old and new, I am loving keeping up with what is going on in your lives on Facebook. A big congrats to the several of you that have had new babies this year, especially some new dads out there, hope you are getting the hang of all those nappy changes by now.

Have laugh at us all dancing like elves. Who says I don't have a sense of humour!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Say Arrgghhh!!

Well how rubbish a mother did I feel this week when my little chap, now just 4 years old, had to go to the dentist for a filling. He has very weak and thin enamel on his baby teeth, so I will now be being extra vigilant with the tooth brushing, and a new regime of only water between meals has been instigated.

Well the day of the filling arrived and I was trying to play it cool and not be too anxious and talk about it too much, but equally I didn't want him to be unprepared. So we had talked about what the dentist would do. He knew it would involve injections and also that he had to keep very still and not talk. We arrived with plenty of time to spare (this is very rare for me so I must have been fairly anxious!) After a long argument about why he could not go to the toilet in the middle of a dental appointment, he decided that I was right and he did need a wee so we sought out the toilets. Settled once again in the spacious and empty waiting area he cuddled up to me while I read a Thomas book, and I realised that he was not so foolish and unaware, but was a bit anxious and was trying to be brave.

Once in the actual dental appoint however Callum was back to his usual self. Delighted to get a ride in the chair and cheerfully asking the dentist and assistant what their names where! It was Jeff and Amber if anyone is interested! He was very still for the injections (thankfully) and his gum had already been numbed with a topical gel so it did not hurt, but was a bit uncomfortable. Jeff (the dentist - come on keep up) administered the injection really slowly which makes it hurt less, but was trying not to laugh as Callum tried to say every few seconds "have you finished yet"...."now"......"now" .... you get the idea!

While waiting for the "novocaine" to kick in I asked that he could see and hear the drill, which he thought was great, except that he was not allowed to play with it! boys and toys!! Well the rest of the appointment went really well and Callum was perfectly still throughout, even though he was a bit stressed at points and clutched onto his snuggly blankie for comfort. I was so proud of him, as I (and I suspect my friends) had visions of the dentist getting part way through and cJ having a fit and not being able to carry on. But I needn't have worried as with all new things, Callum sees them as an adventure rather than something scary.

At the end he just sat up and asked politely "can I get down now" and then wanted to see his filing in the mirror! I gave him a cuddly pig for being so brave, which he has called "Mr Oinky Pig" and we agreed that brushing our teeth was very important as we didn't want more fillings.

So I have to say a big thanks to the team at The Dental Group in Portswood, Southampton, who have successfully checked Callum's teeth properly and given him a filling without him becoming scared of the dentist!