WOYWW - 117

Outside the church of San Juan de Rabanera in Soria

Hi folks, I have been AWOL for some weeks now, a case of life getting in the way of crafting, or even that a different type of crafting got in the way.  The long awaited wedding in Spain finally took place this month, as you can see from the photos.  I think there was as much planning and preparation involved in the trip as there would have been for a stay of several weeks.  In fact, we travelled out on the Wednesday, had Thursday, Friday (the wedding day) and Saturday there before travelling back on the Sunday.   

Plaza Mayor in Soria - our hotel

We flew from Liverpool (very friendly and efficient) to Madrid (huge and confusing) to arrive in 37 degree steamy heat, where we finally caught our supra coach to Soria - extra space and waitress service, but even more important, very efficient air conditioning.  The family met us at the coach station and delivered us to our hotel, before hauling us out again into the square for drinks and tapas.  From the moment we arrived, we were made to feel so welcome and everything was done for us that could be done.

We all agreed that we have never had such beautiful food, fresh and tasty.  The family took us (eight Brits) for a meal on our second night, just across from our hotel to a restaurant (Meson Castellano, if you ever get to Soria), where the tapas was to die for.  I could have lived on that for the rest of the week, local hams, tiny squid, salad and tuna in a dressing, and several others. 

The castle of Berlanga de Duero - the reception

The wedding itself was so relaxed, with a local choir providing beautiful music, a capella, totally in keeping with the great age of the church.  I loved the confetti bombs afterwards - huge party poppers which shot out rose petals and sparkly bits that shone in the sunlight - so very pretty.  The it was on to the coach to head further up into the mountains to the castle at Berlanga de Duero for the reception.  The canapes outside in the courtyard were absolutely delicious, seven different kinds which just kept coming.  Again, I would have been happy to have lived on those for the rest of the day.  The main meal was in a "permanent" marquee, before moving outside again for the evening do, with yet more food.

San Juan de Rabanera in Soria

The last day started a little late while we recovered from the festivities of the wedding day, and finished with yet another huge meal at night.  Some of our party were taken off by the family to do some sightseeing in the surrounding countryside at even higher altitude, while Geoff and I relaxed around the square.

The journey back was great apart from one real blot on the landscape, which was the toilets at Madrid Airport.  On the outward journey, they were fine, but the return journey was another tale altogether.  We could not find one cubicle that we were even vaguely happy with - bins overflowing with used toilet paper, used needles and syringes, and the floors ......  YUK!!!  Something had definitely gone wrong with their cleaning regime.  We could not wait to get on the plane.

England's Green and Pleasant Land - probably the Cheshire Plain

Final approach to Liverpool

Easyjet were excellent and we could not fault them, and they got us through Customs and Immigration in record time.

Since we got back, I have been tied to the video camera and the computer, sorting out all our photos (from all our party) and putting the videos together, some on BluRay (for the more modern amongst us) and DVD's for the others.  So that and creating the case covers is just about all the crafting I have done recently.

I had forgotten it was Wednesday today, so this contribution has been thrown together rather rapidly, so I hope it all works properly.  I will try to get round as many of you as I can.  I have already had a quick nose at Shaz Silverwolf's post, but the rest will have to wait until our visitors go this afternoon.

I am sure you have already found most of the other posts at Julia's home 

http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/
if not, do wander over there and enjoy what you find.