Madrid, Spain

Again, sorry for all the pictures.  This is kind of a family journal for us, so I have a hard time deciding what to put in and keep out.  Considering I took over 400 pictures, that I only ended up including this many is pretty good...right?  

We stayed at this real neat 3 bedroom apartment in Madrid.  Honestly the family that runs it were wonderful, and bent over backwards to help us out.  It was within walking distance to the Metro, which was even better!  I think one of the things the kids liked the most was the door...mine was the washer it had in the kitchen...which we used multiple times!

 Any door with a door knob in the center, we call a Hobbit door.  The girls were excited we were finally staying somewhere with a Hobbit door.

It was a really nice place to relax and hang out.  We went to the museum Sofia, to see the Picassos.  All my pictures are on Matt's phone, so none to display.  I laughed though, because the whole time going through the museum we would come to a Picasso, and I would tell the kids " here is one".  Hannah would be adamant that it wasn't a REAL Picasso.  Finally I asked her why, and she had been looking for a specific painting the whole time, thinking Picasso only painted one.  It was cute, too bad that painting wasn't in Spain.

 Churros Con Chocolate is a favorite breakfast in Madrid.  

There are cafe's everywhere that serve them, so Naturally we needed to partake as well!

 I think it was one of the best breakfast's we have ever had!

 I love alley way book vendors.

 Leave it to Jack to find a soccer shop!

 Anya standing in the very center point of Spain.

 All the street signs have names and a picture.

The picture was so that in medieval times the illiterate could tell which street was which too...

 The oldest door still standing (and in use) in Spain.

Anyone home?

 Madrid's Royal Cathedral.

the patron saint is Saint Ivin

 It was so colorful inside.

St. Ivin's coffin.  He was a humble man and died, but decades later they exhumed his coffin for some reason or other, and when opened they found that the body had not decayed at all.  It was declared a miracle and he was sainted.  The body is still on display today in one of the museum's in Toledo.

 The Royal Palace

 It must have been a coffe break...all the guards were standing around chatting and laughing.  No uniform (definitely not Britain) so Matt had to settle for his picture to be taken with a group.

 So, this was the saddest part of the day for me.  I have a friend I have known since High school who lives in Madrid.  We had been emailing back and forth trying to set up a place to meet, because she worked.  I emailed her the night before and said, let's meet at the Bank de Espanya metro stop...then we can walk up to the Retiro Park.  So we got there at the time, waited and waited.  Finally I walked down to find a wi fi spot to see if my phone would work...and when I did, I noticed that my email had never gone through!  So Sad!  Technology totally failed me, that and not having outer-country phone service. So we had to leave, shortly after and drive back to Barcelona to return the car, and she lived a ways a way...we were never able to meet up.  We made the best of it, hung out on this nice bench outside the Metro entrance for about an hour...rested and had a nice snack.

 We even got some cool pictures.

 I love this fountain...to bad it is in the center of a rotunda and I couldn't get closer!

 The arch way into the city...it is also right by the Retiro park

 This monument was to Phillip ll I believe.  It was a very picturesque place to eat some ice cream.

 I loved the shape of the churches in Spain.

We snapped a picture of this beauty right before we hopped back on the metro to go back to the car and drive to Barcelona.

We had a blast in Madrid...good food, nice atmosphere.  It is a great city to just walk around and soak up.

Next Stop...Segovia, Spain

This was my most favorite of the cities we visited in Spain.  It is a small, fortified city, with a huge Roman and Moorish influence.  A very interesting mix!  There are three things to see in this town, the roman aquaduct, the Cathedral and Segovia's castle.

 Entering Segovia...

 you see the aquaduct.  This is one of the longest aqueducts Rome built.  Most of it is still standing, and it is all joined rock...no mortar was used.  It impresses me that it is still standing!  It lies on the northern most edge of the old town, or fortified walled part of town.  On the other side is where real life begins, people live, go to work, and school...but on this side, the side we are on, things quiet down and magic begins!

 We found a delicious dessert shop facing the aquaduct...we decided to stop for a treat.

 I loved all the detail on the buildings, that date back to the moorish occupation.  Every building had it's own design stamped into the stucco of the walls.

 The Cathedral was impressive too...but despite all the opulence outside, it is very simple inside.

 Segovia's Castle or Castille

This is what you see as you walk up to enter the castle.  There is a remnant of a mote, and you cross a draw bridge to enter the courtyard.  This is not the "impressive" side of the castle...on the other side the castle drops off, as it is built on the edge of a cliff.

 Anya loved all the different kinds of armor

 I loved all the spanish tile work...part of the moorish influence.  Each room had a different ceiling and different tiles around the base of the room.

 The boys loved the Horses...yee haw, they would yell....as it echoed through the rest of the castle!

 We climbed the tower and got this beautiful shot of the cathedral and city.   We were told it was 500 stairs to the top...the kids were a bit daunted at first.  When we got to the top, the kids were like, that wasn't 500 stairs, it was too easy.  I guess the 1300 stairs we climbed in Montenegro makes anything look easy!

 Leaving the walled city of Segovia.

It was so quaint, I loved it there!

 Here is our little "people mover" the call it, we rented in Barcelona to get up to the Madrid area.

Yes, we all fit...barely!

 As we left town, we drove along the back side of the castle...so I could get a picture of the back side.  This is the angle that is on the front of the calendar I used last year!

 I thought this angle was impressive as well...

Then we drove past the aquaduct one last time, and I took a farewell shot of that as well!

It was a fun, relaxing day!  The town walk was enjoyable, the food was excellent, and the people were very friendly!

Matt is really enjoying using all his Spanish skills again!

Spring Break in Spain! (warning, lots of pictures)

Day 1 of Spring Break: Barcelona

We actually flew into Barcelona the night before, but that evening wasn't very exciting.  Just train rides, metro rides, finding dinner and walking to our hotel.

The real fun started the next day as we toured Barcelona like we were on fire!  Looking back through the pictures, I can't believe how much we got done in 1 day.  I was pretty impressed with us!  We really had no agenda for Spain, we kind of just wanted to walk around and soak it in.  If we saw something, or read something we wanted to see...then we would head off to try to find it.  The first part of the day was our Antonio Gaudi part...This guy was a very imaginative architect!

 La Sagrada Familia Basilica

This is probably Gaudi's most famous works.  Even though he wasn't the first Architect  he came on after the structure had started being built, and he wasn't the last...because, even now... a century later, it is still unfinished.  8 of the 12 spires are complete...so you can still hear stone masons chipping away at stone as the work on the unfinished spires.

 The girls liked it.  There is a lot, visually, going on, on this building.  You could probably stare at it for hours and still find something new to see!

 The girls love flea markets and tourist stands!

 Matt found an Argentine Materia! 

He was so happy! They also served the best empanada's ever...it was a very delicious lunch!

 So far, Barcelona has been full of color.

 Another Gaudi structure.

This is an apartment building he designed.

 This Gaudi building was designed to look like a dragon.  Kind of an ode to St.George I suppose.  The roof is the dragon scales, and the balconies are the skulls of the dragon's victims   This was on the "block of discordance", basically a bunch of architects trying to out do each other with their designs...and there were some pretty funky ones too, but also some pretty ones...

 A pretty one...

A funky one...

 

We then took a cable car up to Barcelona's

Castille de Montjuic

It was a fortress we had seen on the hill top as we flew in over Barcelona the night before.

 Beautiful views!

For our evening we decided to do a walking tour of old town Barcelona.

It started in this Plaza...where a massive pillow fight was going on.

Not sure what the significance was, but there were feather's and pillow fluff everywhere.

 As I was trying to take a picture of this alley way with Matt....

 This lovely gentleman photo bombed my picture.  He laughed and laughed when I snapped the picture anyway.  It was a fun moment.

 I love the spanish tile on the fountain...this used to be the main water source for horses as you headed out of town.

 Part of the old Roman wall that surrounded Roman Barcelona...then called Barcino.

The arch and the oversized stones are Roman...the rest was build around it.

 Cathedral of Barcelona

 Outside the Cathedral this gentleman was playing some Spanish Steel Guitar...it was wonderful.

 For dinner we wanted to try some local cuisine. 

We were served an assortment of Tapas (like appetizers...but in Spain they make a meal out of them), to include clams, squid and some items I didn't recognize!

 We also had some delicious Paella...a spanish rice dish.  This quickly became my favorite dish in Spain!

It was a memorable first day of our Spring Break...I think what made it most memorable is Hannah...our pickiest eater, tried clam and squid.  And she lived to tell about it!