DAY THIRTEEN AND FOURTEEN: TALAVERA, SPAIN

We landed in Madrid and then drove an hour and a half to Talavera. Lucky for us, this van is pimped out with two twin beds, wifi and lots of space.

Our hotel in Talavera. A modern boutique with free breakfast and AMAZINGLY STRONG Spanish coffee.

We arrived in Talavera during siesta. This was my first time experiencing siesta and it is REAL. The whole town shuts down...no food, no stores, no nada. It is literally a ghost town. Siesta here is from 3pm-8pm. This totally sucks for us, starving tourists. All that is open is Burger King...with one employee. We were encouraged to eat dinner at 9pm but we couldn't wait. After "lunch" we walked around a bit and came across conquitos. Nuff said.

After that, Kris and I watched a movie in the room and passed out. It was our turn for a siesta. ;-)

DAY FOURTEEN

After breakfast, Kris and I walked around for a long time. We checked out the town square and shops.

Afterwards we had" tapas" at our hotel cafe. Three courses for 8 euros. Cheaper than Burger King and so much better!

Tomatoes and sardines on bread.

House salad con jamon.

This was like a seafood salsa. Mussels, Shrimps, Crab...mmmm.

Fish and salad.

 Pork chop a la plancha.

And then they gave Kris a watermelon and Kris tweeted about it. I'm sure it was harmless but we ARE in the land of "coquitos"(see above).

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We then walked to the outdoor stage. The show starts after Siesta around 11pm. It was really amazing to see the whole town come out to enjoy the post siesta concert.

Talavera is known for it's tile trade. They ship tile all over the world.

This church is right across from the stage. The tour manager pointed out that storks (yes, storks! the baby carriers!) perch on all of the points. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a stork in real life...until now!

These are the amigos I met during sound check. They cracked me up. They were so eager to try out their English and I was so eager to learn more about Talavera. Perfect. And they were sooooo funny. We talked about Lebron James, Catfish (the TV show), Eminem and WWII. Yup. That's the extent of their American knowledge. Oh! And now we're friends on Facebook. I got to see them after siesta at the concert.

Tomorrow I head back to the states. This trip has been a dream. Memories for a lifetime.