Next stop, England!

The Royal Pavillion in Brighton.  This palace is just outside our current apartment in England.  It was built for the Prince Regent later King George IV between 1787 and 1823 it pretty much was a party place.

Before I get completely back logged. Here is an update: We flew to London on Dec. 22nd, drove down to Brighton and are currently set up in our temporary housing. We had a simple Christmas here and flew to Spain on the 26th. We returned to Brighton on the 31st and have been adjusting and exploring. We are in the process of finding our semi-permanant housing. Letty can't start school until we have that address so she will have an extended vacation although she has asked me everyday when she can start school. It's nice to finally be on the correct time, I think it took us over a week to adjust. I thought Sprout (aka baby A; I figured since she is one now, she should graduate from "baby"and T-man has been calling the kids vegetable nicknames lately) would have a hard time with it but she did the best.  Here are our photos to date.

Santa in Spain...lots of nickle and diming going on here.  This one caught us in the busy Plaza Mayor in Madrid, sort of carnival like.

Eating traditional Spanish paellas. Richly flavored rice dishes.

Royal Palace in Madrid

Hand feeding the flamingos at the zoo

"A scout is trustworthly, loyal, helpful and can be found at the Madrid zoo?"  We had to go all the way to Spain to see a Boy scout founder Baden Powell.

Awesome view from the city of Toledo, ancient capital of the Spanish kingdom of Castille.

Playing on the shores of the Mediteranea Sea, we could see Africa in the distance!
                                     

The amazing architecture and detailed work of the La Alhambra.  It is located in Granada and is a palace and fortress built by Moorish rulers in the 13th century and was their last stronghold in Spain.

La Alhambra

On Christmas we took a walk around Brighton.  This is St. Nicolas Church, the oldest building in Brighton. While most of what we see today is from 1400, the original building was built at least 300 years earlier.

Brighton by the shore

Looking for rocks on the beach.  Yes rocks, this is not a sandy beach.

The clocktower (minus the clock) up the road from our place right now

.  The girls really wanted these masks at the gift shop but they were about $22 a piece so we passed.

On the Brighton Pier

The girls loved this little little ride.  I think we let them go about three times.

Enjoying a milkshake from Moo Moo's.  After this and a belgium waffle, we still hadn't had enough sweets, so we got some fresh donunts.  You were right Jamie, they were so awesome.  I think it was one of the best donuts I've had.  I was so busy devouring it I didn't take a picture.