Madrid
We went to Spain! We had an incredible opportunity to visit España again (this time with Clara) and travel with my family. We decided to go for it! Clara did amazingly well. We left on a Thursday evening and arrived in Madrid Friday night. We checked into our little apartment in the city and found a place to eat. The two pictures below are from our first dinner in Madrid at Mano a Mano. Paella, yum! Clara slept only a few hours in total on the way over and was ready to go to bed that night. Jeff and I were right there too with maybe 2 hours of sleep between us. Our apartment was on the ground floor and open to the courtyard but had little natural light. We went to bed around midnight, and Jeff and I woke up at 3:30 the next day. At that point, we woke Clara. What? Guess we all needed some sleep.
After waking up Saturday afternoon, we headed to the Reina Sofia museum. Luckily, Spain time is much later and the museum was open until 9. A highlight was seeing Picasso’s Guernica, a city in Northern Spain in the heart of the Basque Country that was bombed in the 1930’s. The bombing was actually carried out by Hitler in cahoots with the Nationalist leader at the time, Franco, during the Spanish Civil War. We later went through the town of Guernica during our tour of the Basque Country. Clara slept through most of our museum tour but her favorite part was by far this hallway with sculptures of heads. She squealed at them as if they were real and was hoping they would talk back to her.
Sunday was our 6th wedding anniversary and my first official Mother’s Day. What a way to celebrate in Spain! We grabbed breakfast at a cute cafe just down the street from our apartment and headed to the infamous Bernabéu. In case you aren’t familiar, this is the home of Real Madrid, Jeff’s favorite soccer team. Unfortunately, they were playing out of town while we were in Madrid. The second best thing was a tour of the stadium.
This was a big moment for Jeff…
View from the President’s balcony
We were even able to see the players’ dressing rooms, tunnel, and sit in the benches.
After all of the touring, we relaxed in a square in the heart of Madrid, Plaza Mayor. We drank café con leche and mojitos and people watched. Clara learned to just eat on the go wherever we happened to be.
So this thing was hilarious and creepy at the same time… It’s a street performer dressed as maybe a llama? The mouth is wooden and made a click noise as it opened and closed, and he had a bell between his antlers. Needless to say, he attracted any children nearby. We watched as kids braved getting close enough to toss a coin in the jar in front of him which caused him to break out in a dance. Clara was pretty entertained.
The rest of the family arrived in Madrid late that night, and we enjoyed dinner together at an Indian restaurant. It was so fun to see everyone! Clara made friends wherever we went, and the waiters at this place were no exception. As we left, they gave us a local bottle of wine and a bottle of pineapple juice for Clara. I’m telling you, she has fans already!
