Cordoba...and the big news

About ten minutes after we left Vejer de la Frontera this morning, the phone rang, with a call from Craig. Unfortunately, the phone was at the bottom of Laurie's purse and by the time she'd dug it out, we'd missed it. So we pulled over a couple minutes later and called back. And, of course, it was the news we'd been awaiting: at 5:05 a.m. yesterday (Monday, 9/20) we became grandparents. Annie "dio a la luz" Clara Beth - 8 lbs, 3 ounces, reddish hair, big feet (already takes after her grandfather). Everybody is healthy and Craig was just bubbling. We are, as you can imagine, quite happy.

Then it was on to Cordoba. Now, driving in Cordoba is, like driving in any old city in Europe, an "adventure" (and I use the word adventure advisedly). We knew our hotel here is in the oldest part of a very old city, and we didn't know exactly how to get to it. In fact, we didn't know at all. So we turned on the GPS, which got us close, then told us to turn down what appeared to be a one-way street (of course, the wrong way for us). We ended up threading our way through the narrow streets and out the other side. But from previous stays here (I think this is our fourth stay in Cordoba) I knew the way back to try again, and, surprisingly, the GPS, agreed with me.

Unfortunately, what neither I nor the GPS knew is that the main road back to where I wanted to go is torn up and closed. So we, er, wandered around a bit. But finally I got to where I wanted to be, found a parking place and went looking for the hotel on foot. After a bit of a search I found it and asked how to drive there. The nice lady at the reception desk volunteered a colleague to go with me and drive the car back. I accepted that offer.

So we're settled in Cordoba. Our room is quite nice (we splurged here a bit-quite a bit), and after a little siesta, we're ready for some tapas. Cordoba has great tapas, so we'll have problems there.

And with the first glass of wine will come a toast to Craig, Annie, and Clara Beth.