Big Cheese

Hi Kids,

Have you ever been to a cheese museum?  This building is over a hundred years old and it used to be a house where shepherds lived. They kept their sheep out in the hills and would watch them every day. And they milked them, just like people milk cows. And they made cheese from the milk.   

These are Merino sheep -- the kind that make the milk that my new favorite cheese is made from.  The tree is an olive tree.  Did you know olives grow on trees?  I thought they came out of jars!

This is what the kitchen looked like when the shepherds lived here. The big pot is the stove -- they would build a fire under it. This doesn't look like our kitchens today, does it? The lady at the museum let me sit in the child's chair. The mother would have sat in the other chair and stirred the pot.

After we visited the cheese museum house, we went to a modern factory where they make the cheese today.

Everybody had to wear hairnets and aprons and shoe covers and gloves so everything would stay very clean. They didn't have any my size, so I had to wait outside while Miss Elaine went in. When she came back, there was a nice surprise.

We got to sample several kinds of cheeses that they make here.  Yum!

This is Ricardo Vivas. He is holding a torta del Casar (cah-SAHR) -- that kind of means "cake from Casar" -- because it is round and flat like a cake. But it's not cake -- it's cheese. The outside is called the rind -- you don't eat that part -- but when you slice the top off.......

Inside is wonderful, creamy cheese! It's the consistency of pudding but it's not sweet. It's cheesy -- a little salty, a little stinky--in a good way-- and it's wonderful. It is only made in a tiny area in Spain and only eight family businesses make this cheese so it's very hard to get in the United States. I hope Miss Elaine will take me back to Spain some day so I can have some more torta del Casar!

We had lots of good food on this trip but I liked this cheese -- and all the desserts -- best!
Love,
Fuzzy

Fuzzy Goes to Madrid

Hola, Kids,

I hope you got my postcards -- so you know I am in Spain.  Miss Elaine and I are at a restaurant called Platea. That's a strange name for a restaurant because it means a certain kind of seating in a theater. But this restaurant used to be a movie theater so that's why.  The restaurant has several levels. We were eating in an area where people order small plates of food called tapas -- they share with one another and usually get several plates so they can try different things.

Lots of people like to shop when they travel.  We went to a big department store and I found a friend. Her name is Carolina. In the toy department there were many of the same toys we have here in Los Estados Unidos (that's Spanish for The United States) -- even Elsa and Spiderman toys.

Our favorite thing to do is sightseeing. We loved the beautiful buildings with their pretty colors and little balconies. Many of them had red tiled roofs.  There were lots of trees in downtown Madrid and a number of beautiful parks.

One of the parks was called the Plaza de Espana (Square of Spain) -- it was right across the street from our hotel.  There is a huge monument there to Spain's most famous author, Miguel de Cervantes. His most famous book is called "Don Quixote."  This is a statue of Don Quixote (on the horse) and his friend Sancho Panza (on a donkey). Some day you may want to read this book.

Miss Elaine and I got to see the Royal Palace (the one on the post card I sent you). We bought the card and the stamps nearby.  We didn't have time to see inside the palace.  It is very big -- there are more than 3,000 rooms.  I would like to go back to Madrid some day and see it.  There are lots of things to see in Madrid and we were only there for two days!

This was my very favorite thing in Madrid!  We met a very nice policeman and he let me sit on his horse. The police in Madrid have regular police cars and motorcycles but I like it that they still have horses, too.

Madrid was very beautiful and people were very friendly. As we say in Spanish, "Me gusta Espana!'  That means "I like Spain!"  Any way you say it, Spain is a wonderful country!

Amor,
Fuzzy