Blogs from Huelva, Andalusia, Spain, Europe
April 5th 2011
I hear this phrase all the time and I love it. To me, it basically epitomizes the Spanish culture. Translated into English, it means 'nothing happens", but that's not the meaning of it in Spanish. If you bump into someone and say "I'm so sorry!!!!", a Spaniard will respond with "no pasa nada." If you are late to class and are apologizing profusely, the professor will say "no pasa nada." If you stumble over your words and get embarrassed (side note: embarazada does not mean embarrassed, it means pregnant), or if you don't understand what the other person is saying: "no pasa nada." It basically means, "don't worry about it...you have nothing to be sorry/embarrassed/etc. about...nothing happened." The Spanish have that attitude about most things, which is why I love it. You have nothing to ... read more
March 17th 2011
Thursday 10th February 2010 Up today and moving on to El Rocio a rather bizarre town near the Portugese border. On the way however as we pass back near Seville and make a detour to ‘Italica’ a roman city of some importance being the birth place of Roman emperor Trajan. Most impressive is Italica’s amphitheater which seated 25,000 spectators and was the third largest in the Roman Empire. The well-preserved city of ruins seen today were laid out under Hadrian's patronage and known as Hispania Baetica, cobbled Roman streets are visible, and mosaic floors are still in situ. On arrival at El Rocio we make contact with the Camping and Caravanning Club steward who invites us to join in with the quiz night. Friday 11th February Day today for schoolwork and pre weekend food shopping in ... read more
May 10th 2009
We had a Puente last weekend, which means like a long weekend. Friday was "Dia del Trabajo" aka work day. So it was a National holiday and everyone had the day off. A teacher from Cecilia's school was going to Huelva because her fiance went to school there. So we got a ride with them Thursday evening after school. The ride was about 3 hours and of course it was all windy and crazy, so I wasn't feeling so hot. But we finally got to Punta Umbria, which is like a peninsula in Huelva. They drove us to our hotel, the Pato Amarillo (yellow duck), and then went to their hotel. Ours was decent, we had a very big balcony that looked over the pool/courtyard and out to the ocean. It was a great view. Friday ... read more
April 9th 2009
The plan for the day is to head for Parque Nacional de Donana, a wetlands reserve on the flight path from Africa to europe, and to track down some of the site pertaining to Columbus' voyage to Americas. We decided to take advantage of the expressways, so we headed west toward Jerez, north toward Seville, then west toward Huelva. I had googled the directions to the solar tower which Spain has much publicizied, so we knew it was west of Seville north of the expressway. As we plotted out the day, we (I) suggested we skip the solar tower for after the rest of our destinations and see what time is left...the directions to the tower were quite convoluted and I didn't want to waste our time. As we drove by what should have been the ... read more
December 2nd 2008
December 1st 2008 Three months off work. Seems like a lifetime ago now. November seems to have gone very fast. The warm weather seems to have gone the same way as November too. It surprises me how wintery it has been here the last few weeks. After Villagordo Del Cabriel ( Kiko Park Rural) we moved to Camping Internacional Aranjuez for a stay of what turned out to be a week and a day. Aranjuez sits just south of Madrid and it is the site of one of the royal palaces of the Spanish monarchs. The intention was to explore Aranjuez, Madrid and Toledo whilst there but we only managed the first two but we had a quick visit to look at Chinchon’s picturesque plaza. Aranjuez was a confusing little place to find your way around. ... read more
May 8th 2008
May 2, 2008 This morning Julie and I met Katie to walk to the “pick-up” spot to go to the Monastery that Christopher Columbus stayed at for awhile, to see replicas of Columbus’ ships, and to go to the beach. We first went to the Tres Carabelas, which are the replicas of La Niña, La Pinta, and La Santa María. They were a lot smaller than I thought they would be. We also explored “The Americas” which was an area looking like an island in the Caribbean. After that we went to El Monasterio de La Rábida. This is the monastery Columbus stayed at before he set sail for the New World. We saw a few rooms he planned his trip at and another church! Then we left the boring part of the day and headed ... read more
