An Evening at the Alcázar in Cordoba

Thank goodness the only evening we planned to have a late night, little Kaci decided she would allow herself to have a siesta.  She slept for a good two hours and was as bright as a button as we drove into Cordoba about 8pm, normally her bed time!  We had an excellent meal in the Jewish Quarters near the Mezquita then made our way to the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos (Spanish for "Castle of the Christian Monarchs")  for the 10pm show.  The castle is pretty interesting, personally I don't think it's the prettiest around though.  It was the music sound and light show we had planned to see.  Alan and I have seen it before and enjoyed immensely.  We knew my daughter Frankie would enjoy it, and hoped it would keep Kaci interested.  It's difficult to know if a 3 year old will be kept entertained!   

The good news was that it certainly did!  The first part is a bit of a history lesson, however with a projector screening it makes it more fun than just being lectured to. 

From there we walked through the little courtyard gardens down to the beautiful fountains and fabulous gardens.  The fountains dance to the music, and the colours are pretty spectacular.  Kaci being a dancer, like her mummy and nanny of course, loves to dance at any opportunity and she had a little dance alongside the fountains..... she even gained a small audience at one point.  Sadly I could get the camera on video quick enough to video her dancing.

My beautiful girls

Me with my gorgeous girls

She was an absolute star that night!  Let's hope we can do it again, sometime soon!

A little snippet of one of the fountains

My little dancer, but she needed some prompting this time!

The Zooooo!

Imagine during a spell of temperatures in the mid to high 30's, that for some strange reason it dropped for one day to around the mid twenties.  A tad strange for August, and we were extremely grateful!  What a perfect day to go to the zoo.  Kaci at 3 1/2 loves the zoo, and Cordoba being small,  and usually fairly quiet means she can run around, and also not get too bored.   Alan and I pay regular visits to Cordoba zoo and there are always new babies something's being born, and we have seen the facilities improve during the time we have been visiting.  Which is always good to see.  The weather being cooler meant great opportunies to see the animals out and about, as they also enjoyed a cooler day.  Enjoy the photos!

Flavia the elephant, in the background!

He's behind you!

I just love this photo!

A lolly before home time!

Frankie and Kaci and the baby bump, come on Holiday!

Well I must start with a grovelling apology.  It's been a hectic few weeks since my last blog post.  I was all ready to tidy this one up and post it, and the beeping thing had vanished.  I have no ideas where it is.  It was typed, photos in place, but the grr@y% 7 8*£&""!....ing thing has gone.  So there was a slight delay, whilst I rewound my sun drenched brain back a few weeks, to when my gorgeous daughter and scrummy granddaughter Kaci were here on their little holiday.

They arrived on time, and thanks to skype and me not being a stranger, little Kaci ran into my arms for a big cuddle.  At 20 weeks pregnant Frankie had a suprisingly big bump, although it was indeed all bump, lucky girl!  The hormones were well and truly hovering near the surface as Frankie burst into tears as she hugged me. Naturally I joined in, it would have been rude not to!

Now I'm sure Kaci's mummy and daddy won't mind me saying, but she is a real Jekyll and Hyde character. The most adorable sweet little girl one minute, floating around showing off her ballet dancing and singing one minute, and then something clicks and she turns into a right little monkey.  Like all proud grandparents I of course claim to have the most beautiful and clever grandgirlies in the world, however I do think this is possibly part of the frustration with Kaci.  We therefore decided to plan our days, and fill them with plenty to keep her occupied.  

Sometimes it worked perfectly, especially with a trip to the zoo, and the fabulous Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos in Cordoba, so more on that in later posts.  Frankie and Kaci really enjoyed spending time in the swimming pool, although possibly the most fun Kaci had was helping us with the animals.  The highlight of her holiday, I do believe was collecting the chickens eggs every night.  Needless to say, scrambled eggs were her breakfast every morning, along with some beautiful Spanish fruit, that she would eat until it almost came out of her ears.  

At the beginning of the holiday Kaci was understandably a little nervous of Blue

Awww and especially Big Arf

Doing her night time chores

                                     

Tomorrows breakfast.  One for mummy too!

Fun in the pool

"Granddad Alan" was one of her best friends

At the Nearby Lake

Flowers for Nanny Lorna!

As the week continued Kaci got so much braver with all the animals.  Especially Blue and Arthur.  What a really lovely time we spent together.  Especially with my Frankie.  Real quality time.  I love and miss them very much!