As you learned in our last post, we’d just finished a puzzle. But we didn’t have any more on Seahike!

Tragedy! What to do? Google “toy stores near me,” of course! And who’d thunk, there is a Toys (backwards R) Us within walking distance (4.8 km). Google Maps took me on a rather strange route. I quickly ended up on a dusty dirt road. . . with a chain link fence blocking the path.

But wait! Some determined soul had cut a hole in the fence just big enough to get through if you crouched down and weren’t super-sized. My first thought was that I should turn around and go another way. But then I told myself, “Cindy, someone took the time to vandalize this fence and it would not be fair to them if you didn’t take advantage of their handiwork.” So I did.

Here are a few pictures of the route.

After the dirt road, then the dirt path ended, I walked along a street with no sidewalk for a time until I reached a small shopping mall. Behold: Toys (backwards R) Us and Spanish puzzle heaven! I bought two.

We visited the Spanish Civil War Museum a couple of days later. The museum is situated in a tunnel built on the slope of Concepción hill. This tunnel was one of the many air-raid shelters constructed in the city during the civil war, as a response to the bombings from the rebel side. Built in 2001, the museum gives an insight into the daily lives of the people who lived through this period, and how they survived.

Continue reading →