When I uploaded pictures, they uploaded newest to oldest, so.... but here we go! We got into Madrid and the sun was beautifully warm and the sky was more golden. We got our rental car, which was a 9-passenger van. I was a little worried about that because European streets are small. We got from the airport and to our airbnb without problems, but then we spent an hour and a half driving around the tiny Madrid streets looking for a parking spot for a very large van. We finally found a grocery store about a 1/4 mile away from our place that had underground parking. We had to pay quite a bit to park for two nights, but the rest of the trip we usually found pretty cheap/free parking. We walked our luggage to our place, got everyone settled and headed out to get dinner and find a grocery store for water bottles and breakfast foods. We had a delicious dinner at a small street cafe/bar and watched all the people wandering around. We got there just as their Holy week celebrations were starting. The parents gathered with their friends for drinks while the kids played by the fountain in the square. There were not a lot of kids, but there were a few. A lot of stores/restaurants got a little overwhelmed when all 4 of our kids would sit down and start asking questions.
We slept in a little to help with the jet lag and then began our day by taking a taxi to Museo Nacional del Prado. We got there just as they were opening. We got talked into a private tour by a local tour guide. On the one hand, he did give us information that we wouldn't have know.... on the other hand I could tell the kids a lot of what he was telling us and expand on it. Some of the things that I liked that he told us was about the Ladies in Waiting by Velazquez. That was cool to see that one in person. We saw lots of paintings by el greco, Valazquez, Goya, etc... Some of the things that he told us was about the politics behind how some of the paintings ended up in the museum. Between World War I, Napoleon, the Moors and having a civil war some of the paintings have changed ownership several times. This was my one self spoil for the trip. I wanted to visit one of the many art museums available in Europe. My kids are okay with that, but not constantly for 3 weeks. So I picked the one with the most pieces that I'd studied in college and that's the one we visited. Afterwards, we were all so tired. Between walking the museum 4 times and the jet lag, we were done for the day by 2 pm. We decided to walk the couple blocks to Madrid's version of central park and spend the rest of the day wandering around at whatever pace we could. After the park break and a quick dinner, we were ready for the museum of illusions. It was small, but it was very interactive, and the kids were excited. Then we stopped for a treat at the chocolateria. Apparently, churros dipped in hot chocolate are their version of drinking chocolate.
Upside down room
A room that makes everything look the same height.
Playing games by yourself.
Ada says that there's a ladder up there that looks like you can touch it.
The make you dizzy tunnel was everyone's favorite except for Jer and mine. After the kids were in the tunnel, they made an announcement that there was not to be yelling or running in the museum. Whoops, that was probably us. After that, I started watching what the kids were doing around us... culturally the kids were much softer spoken and walked rather than ran. No one sat on the floor or stairs and looked at us funny whenever we pulled out the stool for Jer or I. Cultural differences.
All my "big kids"
I liked this room the best. It really did look like it went on forever. It was actually a pretty small room. I did a panorama picture too. That was a fun one.
This was a cute part of the park. There were 10-15 tables with chess sets on them and a very large chess set. My kids really wanted to play with the big chess set, so we waited our turn. One set of father son finished and walked off. Three little tiny kids ran up and took over before Sam could get all the pieces set up. We said that we would wait, but the kids didn't actually play.... they were riding on the pieces and started throwing them around. The park attendant came out and started yelling at me for letting my kids destroy the pieces. I let him know that we were waiting our turn and that the kids playing were not mine. He didn't apologize, but he did let us start playing and shooed the little kids away. Sam and Seth started a game and Evelyn wanted to be a part, so she said that she was a bishop. Then I played against Seth with Evelyn as my chess piece and Sam as Seth's. I "killed" Sam's pretend piece four times. I have to admit that I kept targeting him because he was so funny every time I killed him. Then I moved into what I thought was check and it turned out to be checkmate. Whoops. Then Jer and Sam played a game. Ada was up next when another group of older kids came over to play. Ada decided to skip her game and let them go.
My favorite part was listening to the 3 grumpy men playing together next to us. They were all ragging on each other for reading the newspaper, taking too long on turns, relaxing in the park, etc... they were so funny.
Then we walked to the Crystal Palace. It was a very pretty building and would be fun for receptions or for growing plants in. Currently they have silver shapes in it like an art installation. Ada had fun taking pictures in the reflections of them.
There were turtles and black swans in the pond. We were just watching when an older gentleman started feeding them lettuce, bread and hot dogs. I didn't know that turtles liked hot dogs. He picked up one turtle and let my kids pet it. I heard a young adult confront the older gentleman and tell him that there's a fine for touching the turtles. The older man said that we're tourists and don't know any better. I didn't tell them that I spoke spanish... I just let the kids think that it was cool that they got to touch the turtle and I said, "Okay guys! Time to go!"
In a lot of the more touristy places were performers for money. This park had a sonic.... Seth took this picture.
These were the coolest trees! I don't know if they are pruned this way or grow this way but it's like a Dr Seuss book.
Museo de Prado
Sculpted skin always blows my mind. These were Roman statues that were buried to protect them from WWI, the Moors and the Spanish Civil War. They were mostly intact afterwards, but the moisture did make some of the statues loose arms/heads/hands.
This is where we ate next to our airbnb. It was pretty good. Sam had veal for the first time. We learned that in Spain, we had to already know what we wanted before the server came over. We would try to order and take too long, so he'd leave. This happened at several restaurants. We learned to know what we wanted before they came over.
The illusion museum was in the musical/theater district. They were running a Never Ending Story musical. I started laughing and the kids had no idea why. But they do have a valcor on top of the building.
