Ronda2 – Friday - the Museums

We visited 3 museums on our 2nd day.  One too many as you’ll see.  All 3 we more or less stumbled into in the old town (on our side of the bridge).  The first turned out to be quite interesting with all sorts of historical artifacts.  Sewing machines, Typewriters, Pistols. Really, it was interesting.  Especially the pistols.  You could definitely see how these early pistols were hit and miss as to whether they’d blow up in your face or successfully fire.  In the basement were objects of the Spanish Inquisition.  Theo was misbehaving so we threw him in this cage… 

I wasn’t thinking about it too much, but a lot of it was quite gruesome.  With manequins depicting the victims.  The descriptions, in English, were often quite graphic as well.  Ask about the skull crusher, supposedly still in use for interrogations?   Maeve was fine until she’d asked what the thing was that she’d posed for a photo in, like one of those photo stands where you stick your head in the hole and become the beautiful princess.  It dawned on me at the time that maybe I should check that the blade was completely secure before I let her do it, but it didn’t dawn on me that maybe I shouldn’t let the 4 year old do it at all.  And I certainly shouldn’t have explained it’s full function to her.  Not my brightest moment as a dad.  After that she started getting upset and I scooped her up and took her onto the next room assuming it had to be better than these torture devices.  It turned out to be witchcraft and Grimm’s fairie tale’s type beasts and was equally startling as the Spanish Inquisition room.  OK, time to leave the basement.  Hopefully all will be forgotten by Siesta and bedtime!!  Tomorrow will be a better dad day, I hope.

We then visited the wine museum, which gave us and the kids a good low down on the process of wine making.  I was fascinated to hear there are approx 8,000 varieties of grape vines, but only approx 50 varieties that make the best wine. 

We may have benefitted from the language barrier as there were 4 spiggets available for the wine tasting for the adults at the end of the museum.  Kate had heard 2 white and 2 red.  OK, we’ll try each one and compare.  After finishing my 3rd Kate noticed a poorly translated sign apparently attempting to explain that we should only have one glass. Oops. Oh well, I could taste it was certainly not their best. 

The final museum of the morning was the hunter’s museum.  We were hoping for local fauna and maybe some early history of the hunting tribes of the area.  But we got stuffed big game after stuffed big game.  Maybe OK to see a few moose or buck hanging on a wall in a shack up north, but all of them abutting each other one after another was a bit nauseating.   They also had photos of many of the hunters posing with their kill.  At the exit I noticed advertisements for big game hunting in Africa, so I believe it was more of an advertisement than a museum.  Still, it was impressive to see all the horned animals and the stunning variety of their twisting horns.  Seemingly always twisting symmetrically.  Janie also took a little tumble on the slippery marble stairs as she attempted to let a couple pass.  Yet another reason we should’ve skipped that museum.  We were getting hungry so we found a grocery that took visa and bought some fruit and nuts.  Theo later said that we didn’t need to buy the oranges we’d bought, as we could’ve simply picked them.  We found a park to eat at and across the road were orange trees.  Zeke approached a cleaning lady standing there and asked permission, ‘Permisso Pone una naranja’.  She said yes, but attempted to warn us.  ‘fuerte’.  Kate said sour.  We tried anyway just for the experience.  Yes, sour.  Edible, but not pleasant.  It was beginning to get too warm, so we headed back for Siesta.

In the afternoon, we awoke and took the quick 4 minute walk to the bull fighting ring and the bull fighting tour.  The kind man selling tickets told the kids to slide under the gate as Kate and I purchased the audio tour.  Kate listened as it told us the history of bull fighting.  Then lead us through the picadero arena where the horse men trained.  We learned that each bull fight had eight bulls, 3 of which were extras, and the most experienced bull fighters got to choose their bull first.  Later we found there were actually 9 rooms for 9 bulls, so not certain what the extra room was for.  The ring was definitely still in use as the kids noticed several gore marks on the walls.  Theo pretended goring the walls with his horn.,

The kids were all nervous as we stood outside the closed doors that held the bulls, they said they were nervous the bulls might be back there.  We then followed the path of the bull into the ring.  It was very interesting to learn the format of the fight.  And fun to pretend to be the bull.  We all had a chance to be both the bull and the matador.  Either Theo was a natural or Jane’s a natural at taking photos, but I think his matador was the best of all, and I make a passable bull.

Turns out we spent a little too much time having fun as bulls and matadors and needed to rush our museum experience a bit.

It was definitely a tour worth taking.

We finished the night finding some tapas and headed for home.

Ronda1 – Thursday - travel day

We needed to wake early to make the 10 minute walk down to the train station with our luggage.  So far Kate’s light packing has worked out great.  We (she) launders nightly and things dry by the next morning.  It especially works great when we need to trek to the train station.

The morning trek was fairly simple, especially since we knew exactly where we were heading having passed Attoche train station every day we were out and about in Madrid.  We planned extra time at the station to get a little food and buy a SIM card for our phone (thanks Alexa!).  The SIM card took much more time to navigate than we expected since we needed the non-English speaking store sales boy to explain where the heck to insert the SIM card into our blackberry.  But other than that, it seemed to work as advertised. 

The train station was clean and efficient.  With only more slightly lax security than an airport, but otherwise very similar.  All luggage was scanned, but no waiting bays like in an airport.  Rather just a “plaform” where folks lined up, then were released down one of several escalators to their awaiting train.  Our train had not yet been assigned a platform on the ‘departures’ board.  So I took the opportunity to go find the kids some quick easy food.  In the seven minutes it took me to get food we found our train had boarded??  Zeke came running to me.  Kate was a little miffed that I wasn’t running back to the platform, but casually strolling.  Luckily I’d bought her a coke-free, so I was forgiven (I think). 

The train was clean and could have been any airplane except for the doors on either end of our compartment that stewardesses came in and out of as they went from car to car.  The kids and Kate enjoyed the High School Musical lead male in some sort of Freaky-Friday rip off,  all in Spanish of course.  The kids have been watching Spanish Disney whenever they were back at the hotel.  And enjoying it.  I suspect those malleable brains are just soaking it up without even knowing it.  While the movie on the train played, I enjoyed watching the landscape outside.  Madrid is a HUGE city, so it took quite awhile to actually clear the burbs.  The Spanish landside compares very closely to what we saw in Arizona.  very arid, very dry.  Nearly desert.  In fact, we haven’t packed any sort of rain gear whatsoever and so far no threat of any even overcast weather.  I did see a cloud one day!  We arrived in Ronda in the heat of the day at about 12:30.  Zeke, getting more confident with his Spanish, asked for a map at the train station.  The men at the window were smiling and appreciating his good effort.  He got our map!  I had googled our path to our hotel, but hadn’t accounted for the horribly narrow side-walks.  It was truly one-way side walks.  And with luggage in tow, there were several times I simply needed to pull aside to let opposite pedestrian traffic pass.  Lots of “Lo Siento”, my now favorite spanish phrase.  Not having acquired the words yet for excuse me, may I pass, I simply had to wait out slow traffic when I would’ve preferred to have passed them.  Parmissio??  We tried to work the shaded side of the streets, but so was everyone else, which made for more congestion on the narrow walks.  I’m certain the locals are a little sick of sharing their narrow walks with we foreigners, especially those with wide luggage.  But if they are, they are polite at not showing it.  Since it was along the way, we stopped by the bus station hoping to get our several bus connections later in the trip.  But ran straight into the middle of Siesta!.  What was I thinking.  Further on we stopped by the tourist office, but I found them far less helpful than their website, which was quite impressive.

We passed by a Western Union and Kate made a good call to change some more Euro.  Later she said it was her first run in with an ADHD Spaniard, speaking so fast that even she couldn’t make out any words.  Even though she repeatedly asked him to please slow down.

It was great to see the bridge as we broke out of a shaded alleyway into the heat of a piazza just past the Bullfighting stadium, as we knew our hotel was just on the opposite side of the Puenta Nueva (new bridge).  And by new, they mean 1750’s!!!  A breathtaking view from the bridge that we couldn’t help but stop for.  Kate checked us in and we took our first official Siesta. 

We woke later after the heat had broken and went out to explore the town a bit.  The city (ciudad) itself is built on an elevated cliff and abuts right up to the edge especially on the western side.  Many areas along that ledge are public and great for viewing.  Our stay in Ronda was 4 days, and I could’ve spent each of those days easily just enjoying the view…

  Our guide book gave us a few ideas for good inexpensive restaurants and we chose one of those by the bullfighting ring, which was only a scant 4 minute walk away.

On the walk after supp, Kate noticed on a poster that a band was slated to play in the public square not far from where we were at 10:30.  10:30 is extremely late to take the kids to a concert.  but not in Spain, land of the Siesta.  Our normal bedtime has been at least 11 or midnight.  The band turned out to be a half band half comedy act.  Through their antics we learned they were a band of misfits from the insane asylum.  Each with their own special insanity.  The music was good and the kids enjoyed their antics.

 

Maeve even made YET ANOTHER friend… This little girl had sat down in front of us, and as soon as Maeve noticed her she’d squirmed out of my lap and plopped down right next to her.  They enjoyed the end of the concert together.

Madrid4 – Wednesday – NOT Toledo

Our first major alteration of plans.  Toledo was supposed to be our destination today.  Train trip out of half an hour.  Then bus around Toleda historic district, supposedly all walkable, then back.  But the kids were getting worn out, and Zeke had spied something he wanted to do on the bus tour.  ‘Experience the future' was the claim, and we had no clue what it was.  Guessing it was a Science Museum.  After much asking, including walking back to the far side of the Prado to the bus tour’s Lost and Found,

we were satisfied that it must be the Telefonica bulding.  An actual store.  Given that it was more or less on the way to the Palace, we rolled forward.  Past the piazza that we were getting quite familiar with, Neptune’s fountain where we got Theo’s Bazuba soccer horn.  Then we followed maps in more or less the right direction, Kate asking a time or two for ‘Telefonica’.  One annoying thing about walking the old district.  The streets are narrow and the traffic so thick that they must practially limit the number of crosswalks, so we found ourselves going further up or further down the street where we’d rather have gone straight across.  Even the locals seemed to majorly obey the crosswalks.  We were now definitely in the downtown district.  People dressed to impress and a few ladies dressed certainly to be looked at.  But most dressed simply smartly.  We noticed too, very few overweight Spanish.  Most fit and trim. Must be all that walking!  We found our way to Telefonica and sheepishly made our way in, knowing full well now that it was a business that was in the business to sell electronics, and we weren’t buying.  Cell phones, flat screens, 3D TVs, laptops, playstations.  You name it.  I stumbled into a lady who spoke english and asked if I wanted to play a game on their large six foot tall touch screen flat panel.   It was a Western themed shoot the bad guy game, so I called Theo over knowing it was right up his venue.  He killed a few bad guys, and all the kids tried the same.  And the lady introduced us to another lady that ended up leading us, as a personal tour guide, through the store.  And helping the kids through 7 different kiosks where they needed to solve puzzles, and finally get their prize.  I’m still not certain if we imposed on the ladies, or if that was their actual job?? They were all excited to get their prize, a small cloth backpack with a T-shirt inside.  On the way out, we walked by a room where a college age man was in a big gerbil ball that was held in place.  He was wearing a full headgear covering his eyes and a computer screen was next to the gerbil ball displaying his virtual world to others who were watching along with him.  The language barrier didn’t allow me to figure out what exactly was going on, but we learned that we were not to go in there and that we weren’t to take pictures.  I suspect they were putting finishing touches on a Virtual reality prototype that allowed you to walk/run through virtual worlds.  When the man looked up, the screen image went skyward.  It looked fantastic and I can’t wait to see it hit the real market. Sorry no photos for you.

We made it back out and decided it was time to eat.  Spain’s big meal is in the middle of the day.  With our small fruit breakfast and all the walking, we decided it would be a good day to sit for a big Spanish meal.  Kate had read up on places to eat in our guide book and also had read of areas to stay out of.  Evidently we were skirting those areas as we saw a few questionable folk parading around some of the central squares.  Our restaurant was just down a little back road.  Quite well disguised.  Upon entry I thought this is way too fancy and expensive for us, with well-set tables and way too many staff standing at the ready.

It turned out to be very pleasant with the waiter guiding us to 5 meals instead of 6 because the serving portions were so large.  And he was right.  We were all full even into the evening.  All was very good, with one exception in my mind.  the salmon Zeke had ordered was not.  Way overcooked and mushy.  Overall a great experience however.

Then off to find the palace of the King and Queen of Spain.  Yes, Spain still has these.  On the way we hit the true tourist district with all the trinket shops and we found Zeke a David Villa jersey that he’d wanted to buy with his money.  Within sight of the palace we bumped into a street performer singing with his guitar.  He treated us to a couple of songs, the last being ‘Is she really going out with him’.  Not a fantastic voice, but very distinctive and very good.  Perhaps it was just the comfort of hearing American music in English, but I would’ve pulled up a chair and listened for another hour or so.  But alas, we had to move on.  The big draw at the palace, at least for our boys, was the Armory.  A large two floor collection of armor for humans and horses and even one dog!!! There was armor for kids (evidently toy armor for the very rich) and shields and ancient guns and huge long lances.  No photos were allowed inside, so I can offer only this photo of us in the courtyard. 

Janie has a few words to say about the palace…

There were about twenty rooms that we were able to look at the palace we looked at a lot of them and I thought they were over the top. They were almost to decorative, there were a lot of paintings in the rooms, the frames were very interesting. I also thought the clocks were very interesting. There was so much around it that you could barely even see the clock itself.

Kate read that the King and Queen choose now to live in town at some regal condo and only come out to the palace for formal affairs.  One interesting tidbit that I was able to remember…  Napolean Bonaparte occupied the palace for awhile.  His brother Juan (or something like that) ordered the original silverware be melted down to finance the war.  We saw the “modern” 17th century silverware.  I liked the armory best and definitely wanted to get back to the bookshop to buy something on it. 

On our rush out of the palace, Maeve asked whether it was time to see the King.  We all laughed.  Kate told the guard en Espanol, what our cute 4 year old had said, and the guard laughed as well.  He said blah blah blah Duerme.  Sleeping.  (Thanks Sean for explaining that word to me).  And I laughed again. We needed a quick stop at the Farmacia (the pharmacy).  And quick it was, as they were only open for 5 more minutes.  Still that was enough.  Just enough time to see the uncountable names of spices and herbs and others all neatly shelved and labeled in ancient (and probably near priceless) containers.  Also saw the oven room with the glass ware that they boiled their concoctions in. We rushed onto the bookstore, only to hear abierto.  Closed.  DRATT!!

Right next to the palace was the crypt of one of the Apostles or possibly Christopher Columbus.  We weren’t sure.  Though I think I would’ve read about Columbus before hand… And even one of the 12 apostles should’ve shown up in my research… So not really sure who was buried here.  Maybe a minor saint.  Still the draw for me was the Cathedral.  Undoubtedly a few royal weddings had occurred here.  I dropped a few Euro in the offertory box at the entrance and we were in.

The kids were reminded that this was a church and church behavior was expected. 

It wasn’t as ornate as I’d expected.  Immense with marble everywhere.  And a large organ (see picture) and huge golden altar.  I saw the opportunity to light a candle for my mother, and was surprised to see that the candles were electric!  Oh well, it still counts right?  1` Euro… d’oh.  Dropped my last Euro in the offertory at the entrance.  Luckily, on the way out I found a cheaper 20 cent Euro electric candle to light.  Hopefully that still helps her ;-).

We plotted a course for home.  Much shorter than the route here as we had a near direct road running straight toward the Attoche train station.  On the way we found a nice public plaza to sit at.  I found the buzz of conversation around us in a language I could easily tune out, to be a very pleasant backdrop to the fun adventure we’d had.

The square was mostly for the locals, with a few of us tourists sprinkled in.  Kids, including one naked baby, were playing in the fountain behind us as we drank and ate a bit.  The kids decided to get in on the action.  We parents made them promise to stay dry, and Theo in particular promised to hop over the water and not get wet.  OK, I said.  If you get wet, absolutely no piggy back ride home. 

I definitely enjoyed walking home without Theo on my back!  Unfortunately Kate put Maeve on my shoulders because she was barefoot and my master plan was foiled yet again.  I thought, can’t she put her shoes back on?  At the same time, I simply enjoyed having her babble and sing above me on the walk home.

Theo ended up entertaining himself nearly the whole way home playing ‘soccer’ with an aluminum can. It didn’t seem to be bothering others too greatly, and in fact a few people played along, so we let it go.  With Theo you have to pick your battles, I know there’s parents out there who understand what I mean. 

He arrived back at the hotel happy.  Only a couple of pedestrians seemed to be annoyed by his antics.

Madrid3 – Tuesday – El Prado!

The day Kate’s been most anticipating.  The Prado art museum.  Again, well within walking distance.  And again, a much later start than we’d hoped.  But we made do.  We had a few tasks to check off before we left.  Change some Euro, Buy some fruit, and perhaps most importantly purchase some forgotten toothbrushes.  Zeke and I headed out to a bank I’d noticed on my run.  They took their security very seriously.  The only way into the bank were these glass doors that temporarily sealed you in a little box sort of like an airport sniffer.  It was an odd experience and we only figured out how to operate them after watching one of the locals pass through.  I also made my greatest Spanish language learning so far…. After Zeke was standing directly next to the teller counter and I noticed a look from the teller that told me perhaps he was doing something wrong, I looked down to see a red line on the floor with the words “Por Favor, Espere Aqui Su Turno”.  Experience immediately told me what it was and I said Zeke, back here behind the line.  Then I had him translate for me.  Please, Wait here for your turn.  Turns out we’d forgotten our passport so needed to head back to the hotel.  The lady said ‘lo siento’ as I left and I wondered what the heck she’d said, when I recalled a conversation I’d had with Zeke just the day prior where I’d asked him how to say I’m sorry.  BINGO.  Lo Siento.  So back to the hotel.  At this point Jane was also up and about, so we grabbed my passport and headed back out to try our luck again. Zeke pointed out that maybe we should use the other teller as she was younger and likely knew more English. But I wanted to challenge ourselves (him) so we took on the same teller.  I knew immediately that we’d impacted her routine, as she had to head back to the manager to ask him something when we slid our travellers checks through the window.  I could see her frustration mounting as she pulled out what was apparently a typed up instruction sheet tucked neatly away in a file cabinet behind her and apparently not often used.  After a few minutes frustration on the computer attempting to enter my passport information, she asked me a question.  My blank face was certainly no comfort to her.  But the younger lady pitched in… What is your address here?  Are you staying at the Hotel Agumar.  Si Si Agumar.  The older teller returned to her typing, but things didn’t get better.  Turns out the American Express system was down (or at least that’s what she told us), so we ended up sliding some more US$ through the window and cashing more US$ than I’d hoped to.  Hopefully the travellers’ checks will be as easy to use down the road.  Task 1 accomplished.  To celebrate Jane grabbed us each a mint at the teller window.  And we headed for some fruit.

I was headed for the big Supermercado that we’d noticed earlier, when Zeke spotted a fruit/veggie store that looked perfect.  Lots of fruits I recognized, Manzana (apple), Naranja (orange), Uvas (grapes), Platana (plantains – sort of like bananas), and a few other oddities.  I started squeezing the fruit for ripeness, when a lady rushed up to me with a plastic glove and a bag.  Lo Siento.  I get it, put the glove on before squeezing the fruit.  We stocked up and headed for our last stop.  Toothbrushes.

Janie spied the green neon cross that seems to mark every Pharmacy.  And we guessed they’d have toothbrushes.  I wondered how you say toothbrush in Spanish, or at least how to mime it out.  But luckily, they were sitting right up front and we needed only point at them.  Zeke used a little Spanish on the man at the window, and he asked Zeke “Habla Espanol”.  He replied “Si, Un Poquito”.  The man smiled.

We returned with our bounty, and quickly fueled up (the Naranja were terrific), then on to our walk to the Prado.  A quick little detour to pickup Maeve’s hat that I’d left on the bus tour, which by sheer luck had it in their lost and found at the far end of the Prado!  And some jostling to find the proper entrance to turn our web-purchased tix into real tickets, and some misunderstanding over our carry in bag and a stroller offered to us, which surprisingly Zeke seemed to understand.  But finally we were in the Prado.We hit the prerequisite bathroom stop, while Kate got her audio tour.  Unfortunately the kids audio tour was only in Spanish.  The Prado doesn’t allow photos, so no photos on this blog.  But famous painting after painting after painting after sculpture after paining.  Way too many to remember them all.  The one that stood out for me was a portrait of a queen or duchess or some other royalty which literally seemed lifelike from a distance.  As if she could walk out of the painting.  I imagined how pleased the duchess must have been after spending the money on a fine artist (don’t know who) to do her portrait, and how please she must have been having it hanging in her home and showing it off to her company.  Upon walking closer and examining at arms length the facade broke down and you could see the individual brush strokes and technique.  But amazing to see how the artist commanded the medium to represent such a life-like portrait at a distance.  Even her dress seemed to shimmer at each point were you’d expect the light to reflect.

Jane had a tough night’s sleep and made some poor choices, but she got things back on track and we finished the day in good standing.  At one point, she told me she needed to use the bathroom and I knew she knew where it was so I sent her off.  After taking our fill of the bronze and marble statues, we started wondering what was taking Jane so long.  I had Kate go check it out.  Kate came out of the bathroom smiling.  Apparently the door had jammed and Janie had locked herself in the bathroom and was starting to get frustrated.  Again, she recovered gracefully and I ran up to her with a big hug over-exaggerating my joy in finding her safe and sound.  We joked that this could have been the sequel to Night at the Museum… Night at the Prado.  Theo, Maeve and I headed back early.  Zeke decided to stay. 

Here’s a few of his thoughts on the Prado… After Dad and the other kids left, mom showed me one of Boscos famous works. It was a picture of the Garden of Eden, Earth and Hell in three panels.  I especially liked how it was mostly imagination and how there was no blood in hell (like the gore in many of the other paintings).  After that I saw a room that I really wanted to go to.  Sala ciento uno.  In it were very extravagant bronze and glass cups and salt cellars that they used in the 1600s.  My favorite was called the mermaid, a salt cellar that was held up from the base by a mermaid.  The mermaid was made of gold and had many beautiful jewels on it.  In the room next to it, there was some wonderful pieces of art done with glass.  They were like painted pictures made of colored glass.  The people who made them had to cut small pieces of glass and put them back together to create the paining.  Earlier I’d noticed a special room on the map.  This exhibit held about 10 tapestries, depicting the love of Herse and Mercury.  And the envy of Aglourus, Herse’ sister that turned her to stone.  They were large banners meant for large halls in castles, that were made with real-gold thread.  The people were lift-sized and a different part of the story was covered in each tapestry.

After the kids and I left the Prado, Theo and Maeve spent quite some time chasing pigeons.  Theo quite prides himself as a bird chaser and has a long history of it on many other vacations.  Here’s a shot of them and their new friend chasing pigeons…

Madrid2 – Monday – Campeones del Munda

As I mentioned, we got off to a much later start than planned.  I woke at 7 and unfortunately had not planned ahead.  No running shoes, no computer, no spanish phrase book.  All these were locked in our 2nd room, and I had grabbed the wrong 2nd key. No Euro.  And no option of leaving the room with the boys sleeping.  So I figured I could watch the TV for an hour and let someone wake up.  After watching replays of the soccer match and coverage of the excitement in the streets of Madrid and elsewhere in Spanish, I flicked through the 3 english stations.  All new stations on a half hour loop.  One of them was called Russia Today, with a definite non-western agenda.  One of the news stories was about the atrocities of a Union Carbide plant in India in the mid-80’s, and people their still looking for restitution from Union Carbide (now bought up by some other american conglomerate) and the double standard of Obama asking for restitution for the BP spill.  Anyway… LOTS of interesting undercurrents with that story.  Regardless, after the 2nd loop through the new stations, I was beginning to wonder if anyone would ever wake up.  The first to awake was Zeke at about 11.  The others awoke at noon.  YIKES.  Oh well, must go with the flow.  Definitely didn’t want to wake them as they would’ve been bears the rest of the day.  As it was Theo was a handful just getting started for the day.  He definitely just wanted to crawl back into bed.  The agenda for the day was an open-air double-decker bus tour of the city.  Certainly not at the top of the kids list.  But with all the riding, completely tolerable and maybe even fun.  The heat of the mid-day was mitigated by the breeze we picked up in the open-air bus.

The tour had 2 routes that met in the middle of the city.  During our first route, I remember being concerned about whether we got scammed.  A couple of long breaks by the driver/guide, apparently smoking breaks, and a mostly mundane modern building tour with a few center piazzas with older sculpture.  We did go by the bournebeau (sp?) stadium where Real Madrid plays and their major business districts.  I found it interesting that they had no major “downtown” like a Chicago with major skyscrapers all piled together.  Only a few scattered 30 story buildings here and there.  The 2nd tour, thank goodness, was much more interesting.  Into the heart of the old-city.  Beautiful ornate buildings that made you wonder how old they really could be. 

After having been here a few days, I feel I’ve got a handle on the heat.  Going into the trip, one of my biggest worries.  Even on the plane we heard that the high for the day was going to be 104 fahrenheit.  SERIOUSLY.  Certainly a major reason for the city shutting down at mid-day, aka ciesta.  But as it turns out, it is mostly manageable.  VERY VERY VERY dry heat.  So dry that I wonder how they get anything green to grow around here.  They have large apparently gum trees planted along all the pedestrian areas that are certainly prized by the citizens and city as they offer great mid-day shade.  And even waiting for traffic lights, I found myself quickly learning to wait in the shade, even if it meant you were 20 paces from the intersection.  Our hotel is right next to the major park in Madrid, .  The entire circumference being a good challenge for my less than conditioned body.  Perhaps 2.5 miles?  On my first day’s run I was pleasantly surprised to see deep woods.  OK, deep by Madrid standards.  By that I mean deep enough that you could feel the temperature change and the humidity change upon entering.  Sort of like biking along the Madison beltline in the heat of summer and then getting to the stretch next to the Arboretum.  I thought, can the trees really make that much difference in this arid Arizona-like climate?  I got my answer the 2nd day when the sprinklers went off nearly soaking me.  Ahaaa… If you want it green in Madrid.  must irrigate like a golf course.  Interestingly enough, and I heard this on the open air bus tour, the city crest is a bear and berries.  The tour guide (OK, taped audio) said it harkened back to the day when the entire area was mostly woods and bears and berries.  hard to imagine.

 

We planned to cut our bus tour a little short, we’d heard that the team would be flying back from South Africa to Madrid and they’d drive through town in an open air bus.  The very same open air bus we were taking the city “hop-on/hop-off” tour with that day.  We’d heard 6 pm.  And as we rode the bus around it’s loop, we could see the crowd already forming.  Which reassured me that we’d have a chance of finding the route.  Hard to express the excitement in the city.  RED and YELLOW everywhere.  Each famous fountain in each piazza was draped with a Spanish flag.  Flags hanging out of apartment windows.  All the newspapers said it.  Campeones del Munda.  Champions of the world!!!  As it turns out, we setup shop a LITTLE early.  The crowd continued to grow.  What had become our personal space in the median of the street under a waste-high bush that offered a little shade, had become a crowd on either side.  The majority of them Spanish but a few foreigners like us including some German college kids next to us (no, I didn’t attempt any of my rusty German on them).  Zeke got a kick out of the “crazy” Spanish girls by us who were singing many Spanish songs, many of them he could understand the words to.  But then they pulled out some Queen.  Well, at least one phrase from Queen.  ‘We are the Champions” and a lot of da da da to fill space where they didn’t know the words.  It’s still remarkable how much English they had.

We played an hour or so of ‘I spy’.  The only rule being that the person you were describing could not be wearing red.  In the crowd, that limited the crows to maybe 5% of the people.  After that game got old, we decided to stretch our legs a bit and give up our sitting space.  Besides, with the crowd, noone would be sitting by the time the team came through.  We got about half a block up the route when, sure enough, we heard the familiar refrain “I’ve got to potty” from our youngest, quickly echoed by “me too” from our 2nd youngest.  Knowing there would be no access to public facilities, and knowing they were young enough to get away with it, we headed for a side street.  I began wondering where the crowd was finding relief.  After all, we had the advantage of being nearly dehydrated as we still had no euros and were out of water much earlier in the day, set aside a bottle that Kate had attempted to buy in US$, but had been refused, when a man behind her offered to buy her one.  And another bottle that we bought with a Euro Kate had found.  We found out in the side-street, where an impromptu line had formed on either side of the entry of an undergound parking ramp.  The kids and I crossed the street and found trees further down, semi-protected by parked cars.  When nature calls, what can you do?

As we headed back to the street we could hear the excitement building, and sure enough within a matter of minutes a couple surges of cop cars came through attempting to set a line in the crowd where the bus would pass.  Kate had Maeve and I had Theo on my shoulders.  Zeke had found a good spot up front but Jane was struggling for a view, when an older lady noticed and pulled her into the front-row.  Later she pulled her back and acted as a parent when the policia passed by attempting to set the line.  The big moment… the team passing by.  You can see the goalee Casillas at the back of the bus with coach directly in front of him.  And, if you watched the game, Casillas had to come up with some tough saves just to have a chance of winning. 

Much of the crowd followed the bus after it passed.  We’d seen what we’d come to see so we headed off upstream hoping to find our open air bus route again and catch it home after catching some quick food.  We found a place that accepted Visa and had our first order of “tapas” in Spain.  Not sure how authentic these tapas were as they reminded me more of bar-food.  We had Chorizo covered w/ Cheese, Potato salad, potato omelette, and a few others that were perhaps more authentic.  More importantly we all put some liquids in us.  Zeke went up to the Spanish speaking bartender and ordered more agua.  After a little coaxing and coaching, Theo did the same, “en Espanol”, of course.  Returning proudly with his reward…

My liquids were some nice cold Cervesas.  Nothing better when you’re hot and parched.  After some ice cream deserts and the seemingly obligatory Chupa-Chups (Spanish branded suckers) we headed for the bus stop.

Only to learn that we’d likely missed the last bus, which likely stopped at 11 pm.  One thing I’ll mention here… When you’re dealing with a foreign language, everything has a probability of being correct.  Even if you think you (and by ‘you’ I mean Kate as I speak no Spanish) got the message across, you may be surprised by the outcome.  Numerous times she thought she ordered one thing only to get a slight variant on what she ordered or in other cases a complete surprise.  Similarly with bus routes,  you sort of get where they run and the fine-print saying routes end at midnight, but the reality is the route ending earlier than midnight perhaps to get back to home-base by midnight.

The good news, the parade had run downtown.  And we’d actually gotten quite familiar with downtown during the bus rides and our previous night’s adventure, so it was a relatively easy walk home (with a few piggy back rides thrown in for the youngest of legs).

Madrid1 Sunday– metro

Arrived at the airport.  Kids all slept or at least napped on the flight.  Realized I’ve been up for 48 hours.  Oops.  Customs at Madrid was trivial.  I suspect US customs won't be as easy.  But at least it will be in our language.  We changed $60 for Euro.  Kids were excited to see Euros.  Followed the signs to the metro.  Kate navigated the info stand and the kids “helped” her purchase our metro tix.

The metro was an experience unto itself.  We travelled, I’m guessing, 20 miles in 30 minutes for a couple of bucks each.  The trick was making the transfers and figuring out which side of the track to be on, and hence which direction.  Once we figured out the patterns, it wasn’t too bad.  Oddly, it seemed they gave you several options when transferring.  Go this way OR this way.  Which lead to great confusion in our group.  A lady passing by tried to help us, but Kate’s spanish was still gelling together.  She’s found the trick though… If you need directions or help look for an older couple walking in the streets.  They are SO KIND, and either naturally speak more slowly or know to speak more slowly.  We are in debt to several kind couples and people already in Madrid. 

Back to the subway… Once, on transfer we kept going up and up and up and missed a branch in the road and ended up going up an escalator where the down escalator was closed.  OUCH!!! Painful mistake.  We still had all our luggage (actually only 1 large bag and a couple of carry ons) but that was painful enough to not miss our turn again.  Again kindness on the metro 2x.  One man telling us (in spanish of course) to carry our backpack on our front when we get to line1.  Evidently much more vagrants on that line.  And another older man giving up his seat for Kate and Maeve.  Overall our impression of Spanish people and culture has been terrific.  Kind, expressive, tolerant.  The other cool thing about the metro was that you could look down ALL the cars at once.  No sliding doors between cars.  And it was really neat to watch the center standing poles all align on a straightaway, then as you felt yourself going around a curve you could look down the car and watch all the poles curve right or left like you were in the belly of a big snake.  Unbelievable how deep some of the tunnels must get.  Felt like we were on the escalators up for quite awhile on one transfer.  At least 3 LONG flights (I’d tell you how many stairs, but it’s hard to count stairs on an escalator!).  Reached our departure and I, for one, was ready to see the light of day.  Pierced the surface into Spain

and headed North (or what seemed like North on the map anyway) to our hotel.  Again kindness, when a man sitting on a bench gave us directions… Later as we were studying the busy road and wondering how we would cross it, he came running up from his bench and pointed us in the opposite direction… Left not right.  In Spanish, of course.  Reached our hotel a little early and had to wait for our room.  All of us hoping to just lay down and relax or sleep… because that night we needed to head out and see the festivities in the nations capital as they watched their team battle the Netherlands in the World Cup Finals.  A place Spain has never been in let alone won!  It was great to see the immenseness of such an event first-hand in Madrid.  I was also happy that Z could see how much larger soccer is than football.  For those who have not experienced European league soccer, it makes American football look like short-track speed-skating during the winter olympics, which I hear is HUGE in some countries, e.g. Japan.  But soccer is huge in nearly every country.  Especially europe and south america.  Really everywhere (but the US).

It’s hard to show in picture the immenseness of the crowd.  But they’d shut down the major streets in the center of the city, and had setup a large screen (think stadium rock-band screen).  Actually, I found out later they had several screens laid out down the street spaced several blocks apart one after another.  Really wasn’t able to count how many they had.  Couldn’t see them all.  It just seemed to stretch on forever. 

I can give you this image of some of the satellite vans for the TV crews that was there covering the event. 

This was the edge of the crowd and the kids (nor the parents w/ the kids) wanted to dive deeper.   So we took a quick photo op

and headed back towards our hotel.  People were still streaming in heading for the celebration.  Note Zeke’s cool Spain jersey that we’d picked up at a store.  He wanted Casillas but was satisfied with Villa.  We were out of Euro after that and a few other purchases and with it being Sunday, had nowhere to change for more.  Later we offered US$ for some keychains and one of those bebuze??? horns for Theo (and paid a premium at that… But we were simply grateful that he took US$).  The vendor attempted to convince us that for a child like Theo these imitation horns (that to my now fully trained bebuze ear, make a higher pitched and even more annoying noise than the standard horn… IF YOU CAN BELIEVE THAT!!!) would be easier for him.  But we stuck with our traditional convictions and he gave it a blow.  First attempt, he had it.  We all gave it a try… All were able to get some sound.  Though Maeve’s could hardly be called loud.  Here’s Kate giving it a blow…

On the way home, we popped in wherever there was a TV.  And wherever there was a TV, the places were packed with folks out enjoying the game together. 

We got back to the hotel at half with the game still tied.  And watched at the hotel.  Surprisingly still tied at end of regular.  And in the final minutes of overtime a score.  We were far from the city center at that point, but we could hear the noise erupt on the streets outside.  What jubilance for Spain.  After the kids celebrated, we forced them to bed.  And despite protests, they slept.  And as it turns out… slept and slept and slept.  We started the next day much later than planned!!!

Still stateside...

Well, we’re still stateside.  Hopped the bus from Madison to Chicago (thanks Rev),

overnight at a no-frills all-expenses hotel by O’Hare.  And now we’re off with our international flight from Washington, D.C..  So far so good.  The kids haven’t been perfect, but have been better than expected.  Right now they’re playing cards on the airport floor.

Who needs electronics??   Seriously.  WE DO!!  Charging them up right now for the big 7 hour flight.  Maeve was all chatty (and loud at that) on the short flight from Chicago here.  Luckily my seat assignment was far from that loud little loud girl, and she fell asleep for a part of the trip.  I’m hoping she’s all chatted out for this flight as I suspect the seating assignments will be altered for this flight and not in my favor!! 

Looking forward to watching the soccer match tomorrow.  Watched a little bit of the 3rd place match at the Washington airport.  Go Germany! Up 2 to 1 last I heard.  We’ll be loading shortly, so I’m shutting down now.  Everyone’s cheering for Spain tomorrow, right!!

The international flight turned out to be a BREEZE!!  They have these sleek personal entertainment systems on the back of every seat.  They had movies… Jane and I watched Percy and the lightning thief.  (found out later that Theo did too… A little gruesome for him with Medusa’s head getting severed and carried around.  A small parenting FAIL there.  Ahhhh… he’ll survive).  Kate was watching some sentimental girl-flick…  Some handsome (inside and out) guy meets beautiful (inside and out) girl and find what they need to live happily ever after tra la la.  Maeve found cartoons.  Zeke played some video games.  They also had music (listened to a little Jackson Browne and sampled all sorts of other artists that I’d heard of and not heard of) and a few videos too.  Made the trip EASY.  Only downside… Zeke sort of latched into the entertainment and forgot to get some sleep in.  Me too, I guess.  Though I really didn’t feel I needed sleep.  Maeve did end up crashing… I’m obliged to put in this sleeping shot of her just to up the cuteness factor of this blog..

Zeke was preoccupied with not missing the sunrise and was checking every 2 minutes.  He was rewarded (the shot does no justice to the beauty)