Los Abuelos Come for a Visit

My apologies for not blogging for weeks. My (Amy's) parents came for a visit for 3 weeks and we had some adventures in Madrid, Toledo and Barcelona, among the regular craziness. Below are some pics of our Madrid/Toledo trip.

Enjoying El Retiro in Madrid

Kerline and Jolie in another part of El Retiro


It's not everyday you see the King and Queen of Spain drive by...and we saw them twice!

View of the medieval town of Toledo, south of Madrid. Toledo, like much of Spain, has a layered history of Muslim, Jewish and Christian influence.

Had to take breaks at playgrounds to keep Eva going. What a view from the swingset!


My cute parents...a wonderful example of how to stay happily married for 37 years. They still giggle together. =)


Back in Madrid, a view toward the main cathedral and Palacio Real (Royal Palace). Nevermind the crab to my right, though you can see in Eva's face that she once again triumphed in irritating her sister. Kerline is much more resilient. ;-)

In Spain, even the most commonly used buildings can be spectacular...if I remember correctly this is part of the main post office.

Madrid is a very busy, but very beautiful city. There was hustle and bustle on the streets all day and all night. And I don't just mean the 'working girls' outside our hotel. Though, they were hanging around nearby 24/7, except Sunday morning...did they go to church??? I hope so. Oddly, it's not like we were in a bad part of town. There is just this one street where this activity happens in the center of the city and we happened to be on the corner of it. It was more sad than dangerous. And we had to always exit the hotel and turn left rather than right to avoid the whole street altogether.

One morning we woke to a fairly empty main street below our window. It had been constantly busy since we arrived. We were preparing to leave at the time, so when we got outside all the cars had been pulled over and there were police blockades around other intersections. Then we heard a rumble of motorcycles and police cars coming in an entourage and realized the king and queen were coming. Later that day we walked to the Royal Palace and the tour was closed because of an official event and the royal guard was keeping everyone back from that side of the plaza. VIPs kept driving in for what we found out was a banquet in honor of the national holiday they were celebrating, the Day of Spanish-ness.

We did lots of walking each day, trying to pack in as much as possible into just over 3 days. Traveling with kids is a new challenge. Trying to keep them engaged and enthusiastic is no easy task, especially when you are looking at old building after old building (in their eyes). We tried to sprinkle in treats like churros and chocolate. No regular hot chocolate mind you, but rather Spanish hot chocolate which is almost hot chocolate syrup that you dip freshly deep fried churros into. Deliciously rich! Imagine Eva on that sugar rush!!!

Toledo was almost surreal in that it is such an old town with layers of Muslim, Jewish and Christian history and architecture. Viewing centuries-old cathedrals, synagogues, monasteries, a castle, and exploring winding alleys that are really streets were the main activities of the day.

Tourists were rampant in Toledo even in October. We had a hard time getting into a restaurant for comida and ended up at a really good Chinese place. Not exactly what I had in mind for my parents' 3rd day in SPAIN, but nonetheless it was good and probably one of the better values in the whole town. I can't imagine, though, what the town must be like in the thick of summer travel...oy! In all, a very enjoyable day, complete with two stops at playgrounds to re-enthuse the kids...is that a word?

Continuing our kid-friendly travels (read: no museums - have you traveled with Eva lately?), back in Madrid we did things like ride on the cable car over the Casa de Campo park, a huge in-city park, similar in idea and size to Portland's Forest Park. It's not really a park, but more like a wilderness reserve in the city. Fab. We saw an Egyptian Temple that was disassembled in Egypt and moved to Madrid 30-some years ago. We dipped into the Rastro Market for a bit, which is a huge street market that is jammed with people on Sunday mornings. We didn't feel like fighting the crowd so we only stayed for a while. We ate regularly...in order to preempt the mutiny. Well, we were walking everywhere looking at all sorts of wonders, wouldn't you rebel if you were 6?

Next post...Barcelona!