After spending two and a half days in Barcelona, we boarded a train (the "Bullet" which drove 200 miles/hour) to Madrid, Spain. It was a very pleasant ride-- smooth, fast and very comfortable. I was fairly glued to a book but glanced out the window every now and again to view the hills, trees, small towns and a few farms along the way.
Our main reason for going to Spain at all was to visit Chris's sister Sharon and her family (Duane, David, Amelia and Samantha) who moved to Madrid last August. So our tour of the country ended with a four day stay with them. The kids were off from school so we got to experience their summer break (which looked a lot like mine when I was a kid: playing with the siblings, reading, and chore lists). Sharon and Duane have a really great apartment, it's really spacious, enough bedrooms for them all, somewhat in the center of the city, close to the metro (underground public transportation) and their school. Please remember that my use of the term "spacious" is coming from the urban environment of which I also live in the US... every square foot counts!
On our first day in Madrid, Chris and I toured the city center and used our Rick Steves Audio Tour. He guided us passed the square, government buildings, famous statues, a park and shopping district. We made a pit stop at the Chocolateria because it pretty famous and Chris had heard about their fresh churros. But here, you dip your fresh churros in a cup of hot chocolate . . . thick, pudding-like hot chocolate. It was amazing and definitely a high light of the tour.
I want more.
The second day, we stole the nieces and nephew away from their parents (not really, we asked permission) and took them to the amusement park. We got there shortly after it opened and rode nearly all the larger rides before the lines got too long. It was hot and the water rides were a favorite, even for me. The best part though, was having the kids hang out with us and do something a little special with them. We all had fun together. Also, its a lot easier hanging out with older kids at places like that than littles . . . just saying I'm looking forward to that more now.
On Thursday, Chris woke up not feeling well. I suppose if he had to be sick for just one day, I'm glad it was that one and not the next day which was a travel day. He rested and Amelia took me on a walk to visit "Platform Zero" the metro museum. If I had brushed up on my Spanish before the trip, I would could have comprehended a lot more of the information but just seeing the metro in its original state was pretty cool. The white tile covering the tunnel was shiny, the floor to ceiling tile advertisements were especially interesting to me as was the embellishments used for boarders and accents. In the early 1920s, the metro was sharp looking. They really went all out! (One fact I thought was pretty amazing was that the advertisements were made of tile, not just painted over the present tiles... so when a company went out of business, they had to rip the tiles out and replace them with a new advertisement which was more than 8 feet tall! That would have been a job!) The metro system in Madrid (and Barcelona) was pretty amazing. It leaves something to be desired from our SF public transportation.
Thankfully Chris felt better in the late afternoon and we could join Sharon and Duane for dinner out in their neighborhood. Of course, we attempted to eat early (7:30) but found that no one starts serving food until after 8 p.m.! We wandered around a bit, went back home for 30 minutes and then tried again! We ended up at one of Duane's favorite places and he knows the owners well already. They were so kind and although I really couldn't understand the language I could tell that a relationship had formed which was really cool to see. Dinner was pretty amazing; we ordered several plates to share -- salad, breaded eggplant, steak and potatoes, breaded cod, chorizo cooked in cider, and dessert. Yum!
We left Friday morning for the airport. It was sad to realize our trip had come to an end. We had really enjoyed (almost) every moment! Sharon took us to the train station where we just barely made the train we needed! Once we got to the airport we ended up waiting in line for the ticket counter for over an hour . . . slowest moving line ever . . . seriously, there were only 12 people in front of us! Then ran to security, then ran to the shuttle that took us to our terminal then ran to our gate where I was pulled aside for more security screening and then ran to the end of the line to board the plane. Next time we will allow more than 2 hours to fly out of Spain!! The good news is that we were given Priority Seating so we had more space, better food, and better headphones to enjoy our flight. It was pretty cool.
After spending two and a half days in Barcelona, we boarded a train (the "Bullet" which drove 200 miles/hour) to Madrid, Spain. It was a very pleasant ride-- smooth, fast and very comfortable. I was fairly glued to a book but glanced out the window every now and again to view the hills, trees, small towns and a few farms along the way.
Our main reason for going to Spain at all was to visit Chris's sister Sharon and her family (Duane, David, Amelia and Samantha) who moved to Madrid last August. So our tour of the country ended with a four day stay with them. The kids were off from school so we got to experience their summer break (which looked a lot like mine when I was a kid: playing with the siblings, reading, and chore lists). Sharon and Duane have a really great apartment, it's really spacious, enough bedrooms for them all, somewhat in the center of the city, close to the metro (underground public transportation) and their school. Please remember that my use of the term "spacious" is coming from the urban environment of which I also live in the US... every square foot counts!
On our first day in Madrid, Chris and I toured the city center and used our Rick Steves Audio Tour. He guided us passed the square, government buildings, famous statues, a park and shopping district. We made a pit stop at the Chocolateria because it pretty famous and Chris had heard about their fresh churros. But here, you dip your fresh churros in a cup of hot chocolate . . . thick, pudding-like hot chocolate. It was amazing and definitely a high light of the tour.
I want more.
The second day, we stole the nieces and nephew away from their parents (not really, we asked permission) and took them to the amusement park. We got there shortly after it opened and rode nearly all the larger rides before the lines got too long. It was hot and the water rides were a favorite, even for me. The best part though, was having the kids hang out with us and do something a little special with them. We all had fun together. Also, its a lot easier hanging out with older kids at places like that than littles . . . just saying I'm looking forward to that more now.
On Thursday, Chris woke up not feeling well. I suppose if he had to be sick for just one day, I'm glad it was that one and not the next day which was a travel day. He rested and Amelia took me on a walk to visit "Platform Zero" the metro museum. If I had brushed up on my Spanish before the trip, I would could have comprehended a lot more of the information but just seeing the metro in its original state was pretty cool. The white tile covering the tunnel was shiny, the floor to ceiling tile advertisements were especially interesting to me as was the embellishments used for boarders and accents. In the early 1920s, the metro was sharp looking. They really went all out! (One fact I thought was pretty amazing was that the advertisements were made of tile, not just painted over the present tiles... so when a company went out of business, they had to rip the tiles out and replace them with a new advertisement which was more than 8 feet tall! That would have been a job!) The metro system in Madrid (and Barcelona) was pretty amazing. It leaves something to be desired from our SF public transportation.
Thankfully Chris felt better in the late afternoon and we could join Sharon and Duane for dinner out in their neighborhood. Of course, we attempted to eat early (7:30) but found that no one starts serving food until after 8 p.m.! We wandered around a bit, went back home for 30 minutes and then tried again! We ended up at one of Duane's favorite places and he knows the owners well already. They were so kind and although I really couldn't understand the language I could tell that a relationship had formed which was really cool to see. Dinner was pretty amazing; we ordered several plates to share -- salad, breaded eggplant, steak and potatoes, breaded cod, chorizo cooked in cider, and dessert. Yum!
We left Friday morning for the airport. It was sad to realize our trip had come to an end. We had really enjoyed (almost) every moment! Sharon took us to the train station where we just barely made the train we needed! Once we got to the airport we ended up waiting in line for the ticket counter for over an hour . . . slowest moving line ever . . . seriously, there were only 12 people in front of us! Then ran to security, then ran to the shuttle that took us to our terminal then ran to our gate where I was pulled aside for more security screening and then ran to the end of the line to board the plane. Next time we will allow more than 2 hours to fly out of Spain!! The good news is that we were given Priority Seating so we had more space, better food, and better headphones to enjoy our flight. It was pretty cool.
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