Dear friends:

As every year it it still a great pleasure to live the very famous “Feria de abril” or as we call it the CULTURAL EXPLOSION off all Andalucían cultural treasures, cultivated over many years within one week of intensive day and night (…) living

With all the years and better knowing Spanish and especially also the Andalucian specifications of the Spanish language we have got more into the text of the very famous “Sevillanas”, a specific kind of local folk songs combined with a very sensual and jolly dance that really a lot of people from all generations still practice. So, for everybody who understands a little bit of Spanish – enjoy this little extract of wonderful Spanish paying respect to the beauty of Sevilla in its best way:

“Yo te digo que Sevilla es la gloria de los cielos,

y nuestra Semana Santa la mejor del mundo entero

yo te digo que Sevilla es la gloria de los cielos.

Nuestra feria sevilla de arte, rango y salero

yo te digo que Sevilla es la gloria de los cielos.

y esa Plaza de la Alfalfa donde nació el espartero

yo te digo que Sevilla es la gloria de los cielos.

Una tarde en la Maestranza si quiere Curro Romero

yo te digo que Sevilla es la gloria de los cielos.

Y si alguien me contesta,

y me dice que es mentira,

que le pregunten al Gran Poder, el por que vive en Sevilla.

Just wonderful this text, isn’t it?

Well, check out some pics of Feria-Living!

Take care wherever you are, Yours Nadine & Marc

Well, finally after four years of being heavily busy with our ‘Familiy expansion’ we made it now to Lisbon. Our idea was always that for a pure city trip we would like to have at least not our last son, Fionn, at least being one year old which usually should give a little bit more of flexibility. And here we are – after celebrating his first birthday right off to great Lisbon, a unique mixture of Bohemian lifestyle, modern influences but still feeling the old maritime tradition of the capital of Portugal, facing the rough Atlantic Ocean with is chilling breezes and storms! Besides all of that we think that it still has this authentic touch as not being restarted perfectly in every corner.

Friends, take care, wherever you are right now!

Yours, Nadine & Marc

As 28th of February is a public holiday in Andalucía we used this opportunity for another long weekend for discovering more Portugal and not just enjoying our ‘usual’ weekend spot, Rocha Brava. Therefore we took the so called Ruta de Plata (Silver way) towards the north of Spain and via Badajoz entered into Portugal with final destination: Lisboa! But in the meantime we enjoyed a relaxed family lunch in small, for us totally unknown village, Elvaz with an interesting medieval touch. By the way – check especially out the last picture: the biggest aqueduct that we have seen until now!

And from there on we hit the road again for a two hours drive towards Lisbon! Check out the upcoming blog entry to learn about some great spots in this interesting bohemian city. Maybe some inspiration for a trip on your own

Take care, friends, wherever you are.

Nadine & Marc

Wow – it took us now one month to update again our blog – sorry, dear friends for our absence but we have been quite busy on all frontiers from job, writing projects, a little bit of family traveling (…great weekend at the end of January in the Algarve) and of course taking care of our family pack. And as we talk of January and February these are the months of great popularity for flues, fever and friends But all doing well so far!

The winter months in Andalucía use to be accompanied by a very special detail: the lemon, orange an clementine trees are full of fruits and give this strong yellow and orange colour to Seville, which again makes it as unique as it is.

Well, this year for the first time after having planted in our little garden some of these trees, we have been able to harvest now or own, home-grown clementines and lemons – quite a special moment for some Swiss guys in Andalucía!

Friends, take  care, wherever you are right now!

Nadine & Marc

‘Familiy project – building ‘Frosty, the Snowman’

Christmas market in Zurich main station

Wonderful family excursion to ‘Sterneberg’

Dear friends, we hope that you all had a good and happy kick-off of 2012!

Yours, Nadine & Marc

Just recently by ‘coincidence’ in a park deck in Sevilla Nadine and I discovered a flyer of a ‘Belen viviente’ or translated to English ‘Bethlehem live’ which was celebrated last weekend in Alcalá del Río, close to Sevilla. Well, not knowing a lot what this could mean we went with the family pack and En and Paco to check out this place – well, how astonishing this event – with hundreds of details the whole Christmas story was put live in the old town of this village with aprox. 200 volunteers of the Hermandad de Alcala….wow another breathtaking event putting us in in a perfect Christmas mood for the weekend!

Well, dear friends, another intense but enriching year going to its end – We wish you all a Merry Christmas with familiy and friends, let yourself inspire during these day of the Christmas magic

Take care, whereever we are. Our thoughts will be especially with friends like Malou, who had to leave Sevilla in a hurry due to a death in her family and our great friends Bex, Pablo and Kids who are settling up newly in UK. Good luck in these days and we think of you.

Nadine & Marc

We hope that you are not getting to stressed with all the Christmas preparation and events that usually accompany us during this time of year. Of course for us means that heavy movements in the kitchen preparing wonderful treats for Santa Claus day,which we celebrated on the 6th of December in Seville and and a lot of baking of Christmas cookies for this great time of year – and of course listening the Christmas Hits…sorry dear friends I can not avoid putting here the one and only 80s Christmas video, but first, check out the pics!

and finally the one and only Christmas video

By the way: did you know that the original lyrics were: ‘Last Easter’ instead of Last Christmas? It seems to be true but then a clever producer asked to change it linking it to the most important shopping period of year…clever producer

Friends, take care wherever you are.

Nadine & Marc

At the beginning of November we went for a long weekend to our 3rd home place, Rocha Brava in the Algarve to meet with our good Swiss friend, Jeannette. It was quite impressing to see how the scenery has changed in late autumn especially looking at the sea with showed its strengths, famous for its autumn storms of the Atlantic Ocean. Well, we had quite good look with the weather, so we enjoyed some great days in this great scenery, but especially also due the great talks and moments that we shared with our Jeannette.

Check out how the sea than impress with its strengths hitting the cliffs of Rocha Brava!

Friends, soon Christmas time coming up! Don’t let yourself get into the Christmas shopping stress, enjoy some good relaxed Christmas moments with preparing sweets and decorating the house or just relaxed Christmas dinners with friends!

Take care, wherever you are right now!

Nadine & Marc

In these weeks the traditional and important harvesting season of the world famous Seville oranges is starting; friends abroad – buy Spanish oranges and clementines It seems to be a good season as the agricultural experts are saying for this year!

Well, we did our share of working today on an orange farm. It was a wonderful get to gether of colleagues: Harvesting oranges, having lunch outside with a wonderful Paella combined with some good red wine And then to work off the calories again harvesting clementines.

Check out the pics:

As we always like to discover new places all around Southern Europe we recently again enjoyed also the pleasure of going back to a trusted but just unique place around the Alvarve coast, Rocha Brava close to Carveoiro. There we find these lonely but truly wonderful beaches that we like so much. Closely the the beaches we managed to find also a familiy style hotel resort, with nice gardens and embedded in full nature. Check out some of the pics.

As you can see – our sportive kids enjoyed it quite a while

Friends, take care wherever you are right now!

Nadine & Marc