Wednesday was a national holiday: Hispanic Day. We rode the subway to the bus station and got on the bus for our trip to Cervera, where Yulia's friend, Olya has lived for the past 9 years or so with her husband Francesc and two children: Adriel and Élia. We enjoyed the drive from Barcelona through the suburbs, exurbs, and finally into the countryside. The mountain drive reminded me a lot of the San Bernadino mountains in California, and it was a nice ride.
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| Riding on the bus to Cervera |
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| On the way to Cervera |
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| View out of the bus window |
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| Wheat fields |
Their family met us at the bus station in Cervera and we spent about 90 minutes touring the town. Cervera is a town of about 10000 in the middle of Catalonia. It is an old city and we really enjoyed walking through the narrow streets, looking at the ancient walls, and going down the street that was named after a witch who was burned during the inquisition (Callero de les Bruixes). We also went downtown where there was a festival at the school, which was the original university that was established after the war of Spanish Succession. The day was a little rainy, but we were assured that the rain never really stays in Cervera because the wind is blowing all the time. And we didn't get any real downpours.
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| At the main plaza |
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| Girls are getting acquainted with the Ortegas |
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| The former University of Cervera which is now high school |
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| The university's (high school) courtyard. It would be cool to go to school there! |
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| With Olya's family, university's courtyard. |
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| Main plaza. All of those buckets are filled with different kinds of olives. |
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| The streets of Cervera. |
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| Witches' Street |
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| Entrance to the Witches' Street |
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| Carrero de les Bruixes (Witches' Street) |
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| They put you right in the mood for Halloween! |
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| Mayor offices building |
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| The flags of EU and Catalonia, no Spanish flag in sight :) |
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| I think these doors are the tallest doors in Cervera. They belong to the church. |
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| Our two families. |
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| The fort wall around Cervera |
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| When we travel we rarely get a picture of all of us together, so we jumped at the opportunity. |
After walking through the town we went to their house and spent the afternoon eating, visiting, and catching up. It had been 12 years since we had seen each other (Summer 2004 when Yulia and I went to Krasnoyarsk after I got back from Iraq), so we had plenty to talk about. Olya made Paella and Fideua that were very delicious. She colored the Paella black with squid ink and it had a nice color and flavor.
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| Cooking yummy lunch! |
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| Feast of paella and fideua |
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| Last time we saw Olya was 12 years ago. Lina fell in love with Olya's baby, Elya and with their huge cat who was hiding at the moment the picture was taken. |
About 5:30 we went back out and walked a bit more and the kids ran around the square playing until it was time to get to the bus station. The trip home was dark, but much quicker because our apartment was on the outside part of town, so we got off at the first stop in Barcelona and had to only go one metro stop to our apartment.
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| Our girls playing with Adriel on the letters. By the end of the day the became best friends. |
We had a really great time seeing our friend Olya, meeting her husband, Francesc and their beautiful children. We were blessed to see a part of Spain that is outside the beaten tourist path. Cervera is so Catalonian, that the Spanish flag wasn't even flying over the city government - just the Catalonian and European flags.
It was a great last full day of our trip to Spain.
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