The Lladro factory

We had crepes for breakfast! Yummy! María had meats and cheeses to put in the center, along with Nutella (Deep Thinkers favorite food!). Spanish breakfast is served with warm milk to which we all added chocolate! The Linguist has always said that he didn't like regular hot chocolate made with hot water. I never understood what was wrong with it until living in Europe where what we would call hot chocolate is served with milk all the time. It's so much more creamy and rich I don't like the kind with hot water anymore either. Their hot chocolate takes decadence to a whole other level -- it's a cross between melted chocolate and pudding and is much more suited to dipping than to drinking. I don't think I've managed to finish a cup yet!

We spent the morning touring the Lladró Factory, which was fascinating. It was started by the Lladró brothers who built a kiln in their backyard and started pouring porcelain there. Eventually their business expanded and they are currently one of the premier porcelain makers in the world. Their statues are breathtaking and positively intricate. First the statues are carved from traditional materials, then molds are created using the statue for a model. The liquid porcelain is poured into the mold and left to dry for a specified period of time. Since something as small as an arm on a figurine may be composted of 3-4 different molds, it's a pretty lengthy process. After the molds have dried, the porcelein is removed from the mold and the different pieces are pasted together using liquid porcelain.

Artists paint each piece and then the pieces are fired in the kiln. The detail was impressive -- not just with the painting, but also with the detail work. We watched as a woman molded miniature flowers using little bits of porcelain. Each petal on their flowers is made individually!  

This masterpiece, La reina del Nilo (the queen of the Nile)
costs 150,000 Euros and takes 3 months to make.

You can make out the flowers on the middle of the boat.
Each petal is maybe 1/4" long by a bit less skinny.

The royal queen herself...