We spent our Thanksgiving break in Madrid. We flew in late Wednesday night and found our way to Air BNB which was an excellent location. It was walking distance to the Catedral de la Almudena and Grand Palace. We found a little grocery store around the corner and bought some dinner and breakfast and then had a good sleep.
Ryan wrote this of our first day on fb:
We walked about ten miles today, the kids were champs. Elizabeth drafted an agenda for us and we were going to take it easy but then we just loved going from one sight to the next. We saw a beautiful cathedral, the Royal Palace, the Central Market with all the fun foods Wendy recommended, a fun chocolate and churros shop, their central park with and Crystal Palace in it. After that we went to a botanical garden and then to the Prado Art Museum. Spain is great.
Catedral de la Almudena
Probably my favorite cathedral EVER. It was so bright and colorful.
Grand Palace
I wasn't aware that there is current royalty in Spain and they live in this Palace.
Mercado San Miguel
We stopped here for lunch and got tapas like food. YUMMY.
Chocolateria San Gines
for Churros and dense hot cocoa
Bear and Strawberry Statue
Here we are in the Retiro Park.
We had a nice pause where the kids played in the park and then went to the Palacio de Cristal.
Botanical gardens
Museo Nacional del Prado
Wowsers! What an unforgettable thanksgiving. I would love to tell you about our day.
Our AirBNB is great and in a really central location. We walked to the Palacio Real. It is like their Versailles. But first stopped at the most beautiful cathedral I have ever been in. It is called cathedral De la Almudena. It had such bright stain glass and paintings that looked very Spanish and some more modern. Breathtaking. Then to the palace. We told them we were from Germany and we got in for free!!! I think there is something if you are with the EU but they didn’t ask for ID. I was so grateful because it saved us like 28 euro. It was cool to see all of the rooms but I don’t know much about Spanish royalty and their history. The kids got bored quickly. Next we went to an indoor market that was pretty high class and got some lunch. Yummy Spanish food like paella, empanadas and a motzerella arugula little sandwich. Then we went to the Chocolatia restaurant that serves Thick hot cocoa and churros. Yum! Then to the plaza Mayor. They were setting up for a Christmas market. They had lots of those people that dress up like cartoon characters so you will give them money, kind of annoying. We went to a statue Of a bear eating strawberries- kind of random but I guess it is unique and specific to Madrid. I saw on my phone that there was a Playground nearby and the kids were hitting a wall so we walked there. Well, it wasn’t a Playground at all but a huge department store. The kids love riding the escalator so we let them ride it up 7 flights and lucky them the top floor was toys. We looked around a bit and then rode the escalators all the way down. We decided to go to their Central Park or Parque de el Retiro for a park. We took the metro and the kids loved the park. Someone was playing a saxophone nearby that was awesome. We then walked to a Cristal Palacio in the center of the park. It used to be a greenhouse but now is like an art museum. It had very modern art exhibit of words written on the ground with water...kind of strange. Everyone had to put on little booties before entering. But it was really pretty with all of the fall leaves and colors and a nearby lake with two BLACK swans! It was about 4 o’clock and realized we were about 15 minutes from the Prado museum which is their major art museum...but when we got there we realized if we waited to go in until 6pm we could get in free! So we went in search of dinner. We fed the kids McDonald’s and I got a Spanish Omlette (egg,tortilla and potato mix). Then we went to the botanical garden and then to the art museum. We got there right before 6 and there was a huge line to get in for free. I was worried it would take forever but we got in pretty quickly. They let us borrow two strollers to push Luke and Tessa around and that really helped. I was amazed at how interested Sam was in each painting and who it was and what it was about. Later when we asked what his favorite park of the day was, he said, “the art museum and all the paintings.” Tessa liked the museum too because of the painting of when Jesus died and the one of the two headed babies (cherubs that were very close). Lukey liked the park. The art museum was mostly Spanish artists from 1500’s-1700’s. Lots of Goya. One crazy painting was Saturn the god eating his baby boy and the another of a king that raped his sister-in-law and so his wife killed his son and had the king eat him. The painting was after the King ate the baby and the wife was showing him the kid’s head and telling him that he just ate him. Who comes up with that kind of stuff????
We looked to see how long it was to get home. 30 minutes to take metro and transfer to bus or 30 minutes to walk. So we walked. Poor kids were beat! Over 20,000 steps for the day which is about 10 miles but for their little legs it was probably twice that.
We are letting them veg out on Spanish cartoons right now.
We thought of you and Pop Pop all day and were sending birthday wishes and happy thanksgiving vibes. Hope you got them!
I will write more tomorrow.
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