Our Madrid Adventure...Part 2

Rick Steves, the travel guide, recommends "the Madrid pub-crawl" for a great dining experience in Madrid. I was out voted 4 to 1 and we ended up eating at an all you can eat place instead. Later, when I asked my kids what their favorite experience in Madrid was, Addy was quick to say ,"The all you can eat pasta!" You can see that she really enjoyed it...

I think Alex had about four pieces of pizza. And did I mention that there were all you can eat potato chips too? Very fancy, and just what the kids wanted.

We then went to the Puerta del Sol and while Cassy and Addy ran into a shop, the boys had a sword fight with their umbrellas. The light was beautiful.

Our hotel and the view from the hotel up one of the streets.

The next day we took a self guided walk from Puerta del Sol to the Royal Palace. We started with the bear statue, a symbol of Madrid, in the Puerta del Sol. There used to be lots of bears in the hunting grounds around Madrid.

Then we went to put our feet at "kilometer zero", the very center of Spain.

One of the best parts of the tour was a stop at La Mallorquina for pastries and ColaCao (a hot chocolate-y drink). I didn't think to take the picture until after we had gobbled up all of our treats.

Next, we were off to Plaza Mayor. It is a large plaza that has quite a bit of history, especially with the Inquisition. Apparently this is the place where many people were killed. They built large sections of bleachers so people could watch. Luckily, the bleachers are gone and the plaza is now a fun, touristy spot to have your picture taken with lots of different characters. I think we saw Puss In Boots, Bob Esponja, and best of all a plump (skin tight suited) spider man with a little spider man doll that had a belly too.

The best part of the day was when I issued a challege to anyone willing to eat a bocadillo de calamares (fried squid ring sandwich)...finish the whole sandwich and get 5 Euros. Cassy took on the challenge and although she was gagging with the final three bites, she was able to eat the whole thing. She tried to up the ante to 6 Euros for the last few bites, but I told her 5 Euros, take it or leave it.

You can see a bit of a gag coming on.

There was a small square with a statue honoring those who had died on this street in 1906. King Alfonso XIII and his new bride were parading down the street following their wedding, when a terrorist threw a bomb tied to a bouquet at the royals. The bomb missed the royals, but killed 23 others.

We skipped the tour of the cathedral and headed straight to the Royal Palace. It was built by Philip V in the 1700's. He is actually Louis XIV's grandson and was born and raised in France so the palace was very French and very fancy. I think the kids liked the souvenir shop best. Addy ended up getting a Spanish cookbook with lots of recipes that have anchovies in them (she loves it and takes it everywhere) and the boys bought swords and had a sword fight, in the wind and rain, on the grounds of the palace. Cassy demanded the equivalent of a souvenir in money, so she got 3,50 euros (to buy lipstick).

After lunch we headed over to the Reina Sofia Museum. This museum features modern art. They have lots of Picasso, Miro, and Dali paintings. We were most excited to see Picasso's famous painting, "Guernica". It depicts the sadness and horror of war. It is a very moving painting and was so much bigger than we had imagined it to be. The museum also features films. We all enjoyed watching a funny silent film and another silent film showing scenes from the Spanish Civil War. After a very busy day we were glad to go to the park for a while and head back to the hotel for some R&R.