Cinderella In Spanish

The treasures of old Spain

This was not going to be our typical family vacation, and, to tell you the truth, that frightened me a little. Instead of seeing Cinderella's Castle in Disney World, we were going to see real castles in Spain and Portugal. And instead of making our own schedule and driving our car, we were going to be following a tour guide's schedule as we cruised through Spain on a bus.

I was afraid the kids would start bickering soon after leaving Madrid, but 10 days later, both children were "muy feliz," and so were my wife and I.

But if you're traveling with children on a bus tour, you need to make some preparations.

Our planning began months before by researching family-friendly activities during off-times of the tour. Most of the tour was going to be sightseeing, so we wanted to have some fun activities. In Madrid, we planned on going to a park and taking a cable-car ride over the city. In Lisbon, we wanted some time on the beach. Visiting the Alhambra, a real-life palace, would be a treat for everybody. Plus, we would have churros and chocolate at cafes.

The other aspect of our advance planning was making sure the kids had plenty to do and eat on the bus. We packed boxes of fruit snacks and cereal bars. We brought books, Nintendo DSs, and I loaded up the iPhone and iPod with games and movies.

Then we were ready. We flew out of JFK Airport in New York City at about 5 p.m. Friday and arrived in Madrid at 8 a.m., because of an airline delay. Exhausted from the overnight flight and the six-hour time change, we quickly faced a problem when our luggage did not arrive. The loss of our luggage really hampered our first day. Our plan to take the cable car fell by the wayside, and we instead spent a couple of hours at a department store buying replacement clothing.

Later that day, we had a brief group orientation with our tour guide, Mark. He explained the basics of the tour. Over the next eight days, we would be traveling from Madrid and hitting Toledo, Granada, Seville, Salamanca and Avila, plus Lisbon and Fatima in Portugal, before returning to Madrid.

Our group consisted of 39 passengers, mostly couples, with a few singles and one other large family. People were from Australia, Indonesia, Canada and the United States. The bus was spacious (apparently roomier than most), comfortable and air-conditioned. (With temperatures hitting the 100s, the A/C was a lifesaver.)

A bus tour is a great way to see a lot of a country in a short time, and since we were taking one of the shorter tours offered by Insight Vacations, there was a lot of ground to cover. So you have to put your faith in the company and hope they utilize your time wisely. There were only a couple of days where we spent several hours on the bus. Mostly, we were out and about exploring the cities and sights.

Duchess gives away fortune to marry civil servant

This article titled “Spanish duchess gives away fortune in order to marry civil servant” was written by Stephen Burgen in Barcelona, for The Guardian on Sunday 7th August 2011 15.25 UTC

She is one of the richest women in Spain, owns a dozen castles whose walls are hung with works by Goya, Velázquez and Titian and is a distant relative of King James II, Winston Churchill and Diana, Princess of Wales. Now, however, the 18th Duchess of Alba is giving away her immense personal fortune in order to be free to marry a minor civil servant.

According to Guinness World Records, Maria del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva, born in Madrid’s Palacio de Lira, has more titles than any noble on earth, being a duchess seven times over, a countess 22 times and a marquesa 24. As head of the 539-year-old House of Alba, her privileges include not having to kneel before the pope and the right to ride on horseback into Seville cathedral.

But the children of the duchess, 85, have until now blocked her plans to marry Alfonso Díez, 24 years her junior. The duchess and Díez, a civil servant in the department of social security who also runs a PR business, have been close friends for a number of years.

Her six children who, as she likes to point out, are all divorced, were all borne from her first marriage to Pedro Luis Martínez de Irujo y Artazcoz, son of the Duke of Sotomayor, who died in 1972.

The duchess, who is rumoured to have undergone extensive cosmetic surgery, shocked the nation when in 1978 she remarried, this time to the former Jesuit priest and intellectual, Jesús Aguirre y Ortiz de Zárate. Aguirre, who died in 2001, was illegitimate, something scandalous even in 1970s Spain.

In 2008 it appeared that the proposed marriage to Díez had been called off when the House of Alba issued a statement saying that the relationship “was based on a long friendship and there are no plans to marry”. The statement came after an alleged telephone call from King Juan Carlos discouraging the duchess from marrying Díez.

But whatever the king thinks it now appears the duchess is going ahead with the marriage, and the details have now emerged of how she plans to overcome her children’s opposition: by giving them their inheritance in advance, even though Díez has signed a document renouncing any claim to her wealth. “Alfonso doesn’t want anything. All he wants is me,” she said earlier this year.

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