Soplao

Carmen, Jamie and I went canoeing yesterday down the River Deva with Cora, Pascal and Frank. Beautiful weather, and the river was perfect as well, much higher water levels than in late August and September, so we didn't get stuck on the bottom as much (or maybe that had something to do with my 14 kg less weight...)

This morning we visited the new caves that have just opened here - Soplao. These feature the biggest collection of 'eccentric stalactites' in the world - stalactites that don't simply hang downwards vertically but shoot off in every direction. These are jaw-droppingly spectacular - the photos below give just a taste of what they're like in the flesh. Some of the formations also looked like waving flags or curtains, where drips had run along a sloping ceiling for thousands of years, slowly building up a horizontal line of mineral deposit.

As you can see from the photos, a lot of them look more like icicles or melting snow than mineral formations.

The tour was a bit short, only about 45 minutes, but they mentioned that a more adventurous tour lasting 3 hours and requiring helmets and wellies to be worn would be starting in October.

Graduation

These pictures are from Jamie's 'graduation' ceremony from infants to primary school.

Graduation song 

Jamie, Danny & Frank in the pool 2 

Jamie, Danny & Frank in the paddling pool 

Girlwatching

Carolina and Sofia came round for an afternoon in the paddling pool, and Danny got an eyeful through his binoculars. They start young these days, you know.

Girlwatching 

Jamie enjoying herself 

Pony and horses.

We took the kids to the local stables to ride the horses, and they got a pony ready for Daniel. We confidently predicted that he wouldn't get up on it, and he did take some persuading, but once he saw Frank on his horse he was up for it and stayed on for the full 40 minutes.

Love my pony 

Look Dan 

Stroking the pony 

Pony and horses 

Frank and Cora 

Fair

The kids had a great time at the small fair that was here at the Fiestas de Carmen. The ghost train was the favourite, although Danny has been having nightmares about it since!

We bought tickets for a tombola and Frank won a caged bird of some description, but they managed to trade it for a plant, which they gave to Jamie (and which she is now taking care of).

Jamie and Danny on the roundabout 

Cora trying to resist churros 

Jamie on the trampoline 

Jamie and Frank on the roundabout 

Pascal at the fair 

Ghost train 2 

Ghost train 1 

Race

We went with Cora and Pascal to a fete in a nearby village, expecting there to be the usual bouncy castles and suchlike for kids, but instead they'd arranged games and races. Jamie and Danny took part in this race to fill a wine bottle with water. Poor Danny was already knackered at the end of a long day, and it was very funny watching him run back and forth to fill a plastic cup from a bucket then bring it back to fill the wine bottle. He started out full of enthusiasm, but got slower and slower until on the tenth trip he was walking along at a slow stroll.

We had to keep shouting at him to look where he was going as he kept looking at us with a huge grin on his face and nearly bumping into other kids running in the other direction.

The amount of water that actually reached the wine bottle was highly amusing too!

race 1 

race 2 

race 3 

Anja

Anja (my mother-in-law) moved in to stay with us the day Cora and Pascal (my brother and sister in law) arrived on holiday to stay in her flat. Unfortunately that evening, while mum and daughters were out for a walk, Anja somehow twisted her ankle, and in doing so broke a bone in her ankle. She stayed in our flat for a couple of weeks but the 5 flights of stairs were too much for her so she's gone back to her flat, where it's a full house. At the moment she's arranging a flight back to Holland through her insurance.

Anja in her first cast 

Got telly

I recently bought a second-hand Sky Digibox on eBay for £28 and a Freeview card for £32, plus postage. The dish (1 m) was installed this morning and now we've got BBC 1, 2, 3 and 4, ITV 1, 2 and 3, Channel 4, Five, CBBC and CBeebies. Sorted!

I went to the doctors for a check-up on my knee - it seemed to go
downhill again after I stopped taking the anti-inflammatories. The doc
is now sending me for a scan or something, and I'm still off sports,
which is really a shame. I've started walking more and plan to do more
swimming.

Jamie getting a manicure