Shepherd's Rest Worldschooling Community in Oria, Spain: An AI Summary of Our Trip

Our full 34-page family journal detailing our trip is too long!  And because shortening it the old school way would take a lot of time, I asked AI to summarize it for me.  I was happy enough with the condensed AI version to share it here, slap in some photos, and call it good.

An AI Summary of our Trip, Part 3: Shepherd's Rest in Oria, Spain.  Go here for Part 1 (Rome) or Part 2 (Madrid).

The family journal details a trip to Shepherd's Rest, a worldschooling community in Oria, Spain, including various activities, meals, logistical challenges, and interactions with locals and other worldschooling families.

• The family drove 5 hours from Madrid to Shepherd's Rest in Oria, Spain.

The 5 hour drive from Madrid to Oria. 
Big car & narrow lanes!

• The town of Oria (population 2,000), with its narrow streets and stunning mountain views, offered a glimpse into traditional rural Spanish life, including shops closing from 2-5pm for siesta, restaurants open for dinner at 8pm, the national obsession with ham, lots of stray cats, steep walks into town, and navigating one-lane roads.  The family appreciated the chance to attend a mass in Spanish at the basilica, and enjoyed exploring Oria's cafes, grocery stores, playgrounds, and castle ruins. 

The town park next to our apartment.  Behind the
playground you can see the town of Oria built into the
side of a mountain.  At the top are the castle ruins of Oria.

View of Shepherd's Rest (bottom 1/3 of the photo),
seen from the Oria castle ruins.

Me and my little brother:-) at the Oria castle ruins.

 

The weekly market in Oria.

Octopus at the cafe in town.  They had maybe
10 types of seafood tapas, and very few other things.

 

• They appreciated the worldschooling community at Shepherd’s Rest,  a well-run, kid-friendly environment with ample common spaces, along with the opportunity to hear stories from other worldschooling families.  Community activities, like group dinners, movies, walks, and WhatsApp chats, helped foster connections with families from Scotland, Ireland, Canada, England, Austria and the Czech Republic.  Highlights at Shepherd's Rest for the kids included a trampoline, caring for chickens and rabbits, and lots of kids to play with.

Playing cops & robbers with the
other kids at Shepherd's Rest.

Harvesting & eating grapes.

Showing a family from England how to make s'mores.

 

The community playroom.

 

Hanging out with the bunnies.  It was our job to
feed the chickens & rabbits each morning.

 

Harvesting and trying to shell almonds.

 

Celebrating Uncle David's birthday!  He
received lots of Twins gear for his birthday.

 

Timothy, Matthew & Joshua shared a large bedroom
in our apartment that was built over 400 years ago!

 

Games with cousins.

 

Games with Grandpa on the rooftop
terrace just outside our apartment.

• Driving in rural Spain was challenging due to narrow and sometimes steep roads, but the family managed without major mishaps.

  

  Narrow streets NOT designed for large cars like ours!
  

 

Maybe 1 foot clearance on each side???!  I was
driving so slow here trying to thread this needed
that I decided to stop and take a photo.

My 1 parking ticket (from Segovia).  Sigh. 
I struggled to figure out how to pay it online,
and even when I asked a local for help they
couldn't make sense of the website either!

• Day trips to Mojacar on the Mediterranean Sea included beach activities, wave jumping, and ice cream, with very few people around due to the cold weather (but it was plenty warm for these Minnesotans!)

Cousins wave jumping in the Mediterranean Sea.

Hours of entertainment.  The locals thought we
were crazy for going to the beach in this weather.

So many ice cream stops on our trip!

 

• An attempt to wakeboard was initially thwarted by mud in the reservoir, but they succeeded on the second and third attempts, renting wetsuits and taking turns wakeboarding.

Ready to wakeboard!  This was
one of the highlights for all of us.

It was chilly out and the wetsuits made
a big difference in us staying warm.

Joshua wakeboarding, pulled
by a remote controlled cable.

The boys trying out kneeboarding.

Matthew about to be pulled by the cable
into the reservoir, to try kneeboarding
for the first time.

 

• A day trip to kayak on Lake Negratin involved a challenging drive, a picnic, and a hike, with one group completing a 2-hour loop.

Kayaking on Lake Negratin

Cousins hiking together,
overlooking Lake Negratin

• Language barriers led to humorous misunderstandings, such as confusing "Apple Pay" with "apple pie," but overall interactions with locals were polite and helpful.

The Parque de Familias was a nice place
to hear and speak Spanish.  One memorable
conversation was with two 6th grade girls who
thought it was cool we were from the US.

 

This restaurant in Oria had no printed menu,
but when the waitress rattled off a long list of
food they served, I did not understand her. 
So I asked the waitress to write out some of the
dishes they served and then I tried to
translate it for the kids.

• Memorable meals included tostadas for breakfast, finding “real” churros, and a fancy restaurant by the Mediterranean Sea with dishes like paella, prawns, and garlic shrimp.

Tostadas and hot chocolate for breakfast in Oria.

 

It was an effort but we finally found a real
churreria (place that specializes in real, fresh churros).

Churros in Spain have no cinnamon sugar on the
outside but they dip them in a thick chocolate sauce.

"C" is for Catherine (and churros).

Our (shared!) paella dish, at a nice
restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

 

Prawns & shrimp.

 

Squeeze your own orange juice at the grocery store!

 

And cut your own bread!  Even the Aldis in Spain let you
cut your own bread with this big machine, and the bread
is made fresh daily.  I guess that's a non-negotiable
for many Europeans.

 

A store that sells only ham (or "jamon iberico"
as the locals would call it).  We tried many types
and never really came to appreciate
it like the locals do.

• In Grenada, the family was impressed by the Alhambra and attended a flamenco show in a cave.

Inside the Alhambra in Grenada.

At the fountain of the lions.

 

The fortress part of the Alhambra
(the "Alcazaba"), overlooking the city of Grenada.

The "Water Stairs" with water flowing down
the sides of the steps that the kids could play with.

 

Walking from a parking lot down a
steep hill to get to the flamenco show.

 

Flamenco show and dinner in a cave in Grenada.

Meeting the flamenco dancers after the show.

• Day trips included an owl sanctuary, Mini Hollywood Oaysis, Playa de Los Cocedores, and a gypsum cave tour.

At "Mini Texas Hollywood"...a Western
themed theme park in the Tabernas Desert
(the only desert in Europe!) and where
many Western movies were filmed.

Here the actors recreated
a scene from a Western movie.

And afterwards you can meet
the actors and pet the horses.

At an owl sanctuary in Benamaurel, Spain.

Holding a blind owl named Lucy.

 

At the Playa de los Cocedores, our favorite
beach.  The caves dug out of the sandstone were
used by "grass cookers" for hundreds of years,
to make baskets, umbrellas and
furniture from esparto grass harvested near here.

 

We stayed until after sunset
when it finally got too cold.

 

• The bilingual church in Albox was a significant experience, offering services in English and Spanish and community meals with diverse foods and a chance for practicing their Spanish.

The two pastors, both fluent in Spanish and
English, would translate everything
between the two languages.

 

At the church potluck after the service,
trying to communicate in a mix of Spanish & English.
  The flags on the wall represent the countries that the church
members are originally from.  Many are immigrants
from South America.

 

A kind couple from church invited us to join
them on a day trip driving around the local
mountains.  We had lunch at this former monastery. 
They have 6 (grown) kids so they were very
sympathetic to a Mom wrangling 4 kids on her own!

• The family helped neighbors harvest olives, learning about local agriculture and Spanish vocabulary.

We briefly helped our neighbors harvest their
olives.  They'd hit the tree with a big stick to
make the olives fall to the ground, then we'd
pick up the olives and put them in a basket.  The
lady talked very fast but was teaching me the words
for "olives" (aceitunas) and "olive oil" (aceite de oliva).

 

• The children were more involved in daily chores and adapted well enough to the travel challenges, despite sibling squabbles.

Timothy chopping firewood.

 

Caring for the animals.

Feeding the chickens.

Keeping our wood burning fireplace going. 
There was no central heat even though the
temps got down to 35 degrees F!  The kids also
had to do dishes (by hand) and various
kitchen chores, but I have no photos of that.

 

• The journey concluded with a drive to Madrid, a visit to the Reina Sofia art museum to see Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, and flights back to Miami and Minneapolis.

"Guernica" by Pablo Picasso.

Sleeping at the Minneapolis/St. Paul
airport, waiting for Dad to pull up the
car and drive us all home.  By this point
we'd been traveling for about 28 hours straight.